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Poison?
Oh, hell no. He hadn’t quite understood why Gawain was being so melodramatic when he’d been shot in the arm. It had been a flesh wound, not a bullet to the heart, for fuck’s sake. At first, he’d assumed Gawain was just trying to find a way to distract Decimus, so he’d played along.
“You poisoned my mate,” he yelled as he stood up from where Decimus had thrown him. The man sucked at tossing Koen around. Oh, some of them had hurt, but that was only when the wall Decimus was aiming at was less than ten feet away. Otherwise, the man threw like Koen’s grandmother, who had never been able to hit the broadside of a barn.
“Your mate?” Decimus laughed, thinking he had been injuring Koen to the point that he was about to collapse. But Koen had grown up with a group of friends, not to mention his two brothers, who all took it as a challenge to outdo the other when it came to stunts.
Before he’d gone to college, Koen had broken one arm eight times, the other, four, his collarbone on his right side twice, the other, three. Between his legs and feet there were thirty two breaks and he’d either bruised or broken his ribs twenty two times. It had gotten so bad, their family doctor warned all the parents, since his friends and brothers hadn’t been any better, if they kept this up, they would end up deformed.
But they were shifters. It took a lot more than breaking something multiple times to cause permanent damage. Out of the eighteen of his friends, only one had suffered any true permanent issues and that was because he’d gotten caught up in a rock slide that had torn off his arm. Even shifters couldn’t heal from that.
So being tossed around a room was nothing for Koen. He wasn’t even hurting. Except for his heart. Hearing his mate really was about to die had it feeling like it had been torn from his chest and shredded at his feet. Now that was something he was going to make Decimus pay for, badly.
His only problem was getting that gun away from the man before he shot Koen and poisoned him, too. That, and he needed to work fast so he could call his friends and find out if there was anything he could do to save Gawain. If he had to, he would tear apart heaven and hell to save his mate.
One more quick glance at Gawain, who had a table half over his body, was all Koen needed to see. Turning back to Decimus, he returned the man’s cold, calculating smile. The fucker had no clue who he was dealing with, not that someone like Decimus would ever believe he could be defeated.
It wasn’t until Koen leapt from where he stood, kicking Decimus in the chest and sending him flying into a nearby wall, sending the whole thing crashing down upon him, that something shifted in his eyes. For now, instead of sadistic pleasure, there was fear. Raw, unadulterated terror, especially when Koen lifted his hands out from behind his back, with no handcuffs. Again, he had his brothers and friends to thank for teaching him how to escape those. Had he understood the true danger they had been in, he never would have kept them on as long as he had.
Decimus opened his mouth, probably to call for his guards to come help, but Koen was already there on top of him. He punched straight into the man’s throat, leaving him gasping for breath that Koen damn well knew he’d never draw.
But before he went to his mate, Koen pulled the gun from the man’s waistband so that he couldn’t try to use it on him. When the two guards standing at the door seemed to realize their boss needed them and lifted their own guns, Koen didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
Their quick deaths from the hole he put in each of their foreheads was far kinder than what Decimus had done to Gawain. He gave Decimus a look. He was currently scratching at his throat in order to find precious air, to be sure he wouldn’t try anything and raced to his mate’s side.
He reached for the phone at his hip and cried out in frustration. Their clothes had been left in the forest, his phone still in his pants pocket.
Yanking the table off Gawain, he knelt down beside his mate. He reached out to cup that beautiful face that he had somehow fallen in love with despite the odds. “Gawain, my love.”
His lashes fluttered. “Koen?” When those amber eyes finally opened, Koen sent up a prayer of thanks for not letting Gawain die.
“Yes, my love. I’m here, but I need a phone so I can help you.” He had no clue if Gawain was alert enough to comprehend what he was asking for, but it was his only chance.
“The guards.” Gawain’s voice was extremely gravelly making it hard to understand him. “Too late.”
That wasn’t what Koen wanted to hear. Nor would he accept it. Rushing over to the guards he searched the first man’s pockets. When he found his phone he started to dial even as he searched the other man’s pockets, just in case he needed another phone.
Even as the first phone rang, he was back at Gawain’s side as fast as his legs would carry him.
“Who is this?” Edrick Rapp, Alpha of Miracle barked into the phone of his mate, Noah, who was the town’s doctor and one of the best doctors Koen had ever met.
“It’s Koen Dirks, Alpha Edrick. I need to speak to Noah. My mate was poisoned and I don’t know...”
He hadn’t finished when he heard Noah’s voice on the line. “Koen, do you know what drug was used?”
How the fuck was he supposed to know that? “No. Hold on.” He shook Gawain again. “Gawain, love, do you know what poison Decimus used?”
“Too many,” he slurred.
“Fuck,” Koen shouted into the phone. “Apparently, Decimus wasn’t a one poison type of guy.”
There was a heavy sigh over the phone. “Look. To be honest, it would be doubtful you’d find the cure in time anyway.”
“I won’t let him die,” Koen yelled. No way was that going to happen. He still had no clue how he’d fallen in love with Gawain, but he had. There was still a lot they needed to get through if they were going to make their mating work, but Koen would do anything. “Please,” he begged.
“Have you mated?” Nole asked.
“We had sex, but no bite,” Koen admitted, a part of him wishing he had even if Gawain had asked him not to.
“Give him your blood.” There wasn’t a lot in the world that shocked Koen, but that had to be a first.
“Excuse me?” he said even as he let a claw extend and sliced it across his wrist.
“To be honest, I don’t know that it will work. But there have been several instances when a mate was at death’s door, drinking the other mate’s blood helped.” There was another sigh, this one sadder than the other. “Truthfully, I don’t know if it can counteract a poison.”
Koen didn’t care. It was the only shot he had and he was going to take it. “Okay, I’ll put you on speaker, so I can put the phone down.” Once he had, he lifted Gawain’s head onto his lap and pressed his wrist over his lips. “Drink, my love.”
“Uhm,” Saber’s voice came over the line. “Is this the same Gawain you were bringing back to fight for his Council position?”
“Yes.” He didn’t bother to clarify. He wasn’t sure there was an explanation. Gawain was his mate. Enough said.
Once he saved Gawain, he would bring him back to Miracle and people could ask all the questions they wanted. But first, he needed to get his blood into Gawain, who wasn’t swallowing. “He’s not drinking my blood,” he cried out desperately.
“That’s okay,” Nole said calmly. “Make a cut in his body and drip it into the wound.”
“Will the gunshot wound work?” That way he wouldn’t have to cause any more trauma to Gawain’s body.
“He was shot?” Nole’s voice had risen a couple of octaves. “When did that happen?”
“It’s how he was poisoned. Apparently, Decimus only gave him a flesh wound with a poison laced bullet so it would take longer for him to die.” Sick son of a bitch. Who did that shit? He glanced back over at Decimus’s now lifeless form, wishing to hell he could have prolonged the man’s suffering for all the pain he’d caused through his lifetime.
“If that’s where he was poisoned, I would definitely use it. It might help to have your blood counteract the poison faster,” Nole said. “But Koen, I can’t emphasize this enough. You need to get a lot of blood into him as quickly as possible. Don’t drain yourself, but make sure you’ve given him at least a pint.”
Ignoring the body of the man who’d caused his mate this hell, Koen placed his wrist over the nearly healed wound. It was still open, but only slightly. When only a drop or two of his blood seeped into the opening while the rest ran down his arm and onto the floor, Koen steeled himself for what he must do.
Using his claw, he reopened the wound. He wasn’t sure which was worse, that he was hurting his mate, or that Gawain hadn’t even cried out in pain. Fearing the worst, he cut another line along his wrist, hoping to increase the flow of blood.
As he watched the stream of red draining into Gawain’s body, Koen lifted his gaze to his mate’s face. Dull amber, nearly the color of mud, just barely peeked out of half-closed lashes, stared back at him.
Unsure what to say, Koen silently prayed that his mate would make it. He knew the chances were slim. The poison had had too much time to work, but damn it, he needed Gawain to live.
He hadn’t even realized tears were streaking down his face, until fingers reached up to wipe them away. He grabbed onto Gawain’s hand, holding it against his cheek. “Please don’t leave me,” he choked out.
Too pale lips curved the tiniest bit, as if every move Gawain made were an effort. “I love you.” Gawain’s voice was so damn soft, Koen wasn’t sure if he heard the words or just read his lips. Not that it mattered, for his heart swelled with love at the knowledge that his mate loved him.
“I love you too, Gawain.” But then those pretty eyes closed and his body went lax.
Fear held Koen in its icy grasp. Not caring what it might do to him, for without Gawain he would welcome death, Koen slashed his claw along his wrist, opening it up as wide as his could. Blood poured down into the wound, some of it splashing onto the stone flooring.
Refusing to let any of it go to waste, he opened Gawain’s wound up more, too. Praying there was still time. Then he placed his hand along Gawain’s throat, pleading with God for there to be a pulse.
His body shook violently when the faintest beat pushed against his fingertips. He wasn’t dead, yet. There was still a chance.
Tired, Koen laid his head down upon his mate’s stomach. Being closer to him gave Koen a measure of peace he so desperately needed. If they were going to die, he wanted to be right there with his mate.
Cold seeped into his veins as more and more blood left his body, but Koen hardly noticed. His eyes fluttered closed as he breathed his mate’s scent deep into his lungs. Pressing his wrist against Gawain’s own wound to ensure his blood went into his mate, Koen let himself drift.
Whether in life or death, he would be with his mate.
