18. Riley

Chapter 18

Riley

T here was a very irritating beeping noise to my right. Who the fuck had changed my alarm tone?

I lifted my hand to hit the snooze button, but there was a strange pulling sensation. Something was taped to the back of my hand.

A warm hand encircled my wrist, holding me still. "Easy, Ry. Everything's okay. You're alright."

Danny? Why was he in my bedroom? Had we hooked up again and I'd forgotten? No, that couldn't be the case. He was ignoring me again. I'd tried to get him to come to that screening of The Day After Tomorrow , but he'd been working?—

The memories came flooding back. The motorway. The lorry.

The crash.

My eyes flew open as I gasped. There was a tube in my nose. I tugged at it in panic, only to again have someone stop me.

"Riley, stop panicking. Just breathe. You're okay."

His words seemed to settle in my chest, almost like he was channelling his own calmness into me. I blinked a couple of times, looking in the direction of his voice. "Danny?"

I could just make out his bare chest and dark material covering his legs. "Yeah, it's me, princess. How are you feeling?"

"Umm, confused."

"You were in an accident," he explained, his voice cracking. "A serious one."

I touched my chest. Why was I feeling so choked up? It couldn't have been that bad—I didn't appear to have any serious injuries. I felt a bit achy but otherwise fine. I must've imagined not being able to move in the car. Or maybe it had just been the shock keeping me still. "I feel okay now."

Relief pulsed alongside the sorrow. "Good. That's good."

I squinted at him. It was no good, he stayed blurry. "I can't see."

"Your glasses were destroyed in the accident," Danny said. "Matty's at your place now grabbing your spare set. I would've gone, but I didn't want to leave you."

We weren't at my place? I was going to question Danny further when something more serious occurred to me. "I'm guessing my car's a write-off?"

"Yes," Danny said, his voice strangled. "Leo took some photos for the insurance company for you."

I groaned. Great. How the fuck was I going to pay for another car? Thanks to the age of my Astra, I knew there was little hope of a decent payout. Pushing it away to worry about later, I picked out another detail. "Leo was there?"

"My whole crew was. Our shift was the one called out to the incident."

I imagined how Danny must've felt, racing down the motorway and realising it was my car. That I was the person he'd been called out for. "Fuck. I'm sorry, Danny."

"Why are you sorry?"

"That must've sucked when you realised it was me. Thank god it wasn't too bad. You would've lost your shit."

Danny cleared his throat. "Actually?—"

The door banged open, cutting him off mid-sentence. I squinted again, trying to figure out who it was. His height and the dark smudges on his forearms told me it was Toby. He came closer to the bed, pressing something into my hands. My glasses. That must mean Matty was here somewhere.

I put them on, grateful to be able to see. When I did though, the confusion returned full force.

I was in Danny's bedroom, but not his bed. Instead, I was in a high hospital bed, with silver bars and everything. The beeping wasn't coming from my phone, but a monitor. Wires led from that to my chest. In the back of my hand was a tube attached to a drip.

What the fuck? If I needed all this equipment then why was I here and not in a hospital? I knew Toby was technically a doctor, but surely he had better things to do than run around after me.

"How are you feeling?"

I gave him the same answer I'd given Danny. "Confused."

He nodded, checking the monitor before sliding a blood pressure cuff around my arm. "That's to be expected. You've undergone a massive trauma. How are you feeling physically? Any pain?"

I did a quick catalogue of my body and realised Danny definitely must've been overreacting about how serious it'd been. "Nope. Nothing."

"Perfect." He removed the cuff and pulled back the sheet covering me. I was surprised to see that all I was wearing was a pair of Danny's sleep shorts. Where had my clothes gone? Before I could ask just that, a low growl had both mine and Toby's heads swivelling to look at Danny.

"Sorry," he said gruffly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Carry on."

Why was Danny angry? It was rolling off him so profusely that it almost felt like it was coming from me.

Toby muttered something under his breath before smiling at me. "Can you wiggle your toes?"

I did so, bemused, repeating the action with my fingers when he asked.

"Fabulous." He pulled the sheet back over me before flicking the monitor off. He was efficient as he removed the drip from my hand and the tube from my nose. "You're going to make a full recovery, Riley. I'd like you to rest for the next twenty-four hours, but then you should be able to carry on as normal."

I glanced down at the back of my hand, now free from the cannula. Huh, that was weird. Usually I bruised like a peach after one of those, but my skin was as clear as day. I'd have to get Toby to do all my medical procedures in future. "Thanks. Are you sure I need to rest though? I feel fine."

Toby raised an eyebrow and I shrank back in the bed. I knew he and Blaise had a kinky dynamic, but I didn't know the details. Judging by the authority he put in that simple facial movement, I was going to guess he was a Dom. "Riley, you almost died."

I pushed up on my elbows. "Listen, I know you're a doctor, but there's no way I could've died and woken up barely aching. I've literally felt worse recovering from a hangover."

Danny suddenly stiffened in his seat, all the blood leaving his face. I was about to ask him what was wrong, but Toby continued. "You're fine because Danny saved your life." Danny groaned, covering his face and slumping down in his chair. "You're only here right now because of him."

Understanding trickled through my mind like grains of sand. Every time I tried to grab onto it, it slipped through my fingers. "What? How?"

"Enough." Danny got to his feet, gripping the bed rails until his knuckles whitened. "I'm grateful for everything you've done, Toby, but if you don't leave this room without another word, I'll rip your throat out."

I rolled my eyes as Toby smirked before striding out. "Honestly, do you have to be so dramatic? You're not auditioning for the panto, you know."

Danny didn't acknowledge me. His head was bowed, his chestnut hair falling over his face. "You were dying, Riley."

"But—"

"No." He cut me off sharply, his bright blue eyes stormy as they met mine. "You were dying . Another few minutes, and you would've been gone."

The sand fell heavier now, but still I couldn't catch it. "And this happened today?"

He nodded. "About two hours ago."

"Then…how am I still here?"

Danny's throat clicked as he swallowed. "I didn't have a choice, Ry."

The sand hit my cupped hands. "Oh my god. Tell me you didn't."

"I was losing you." A tear slid down his cheek. "I couldn't lose you. I had to."

My voice rose in disbelief. "You mated me?"

"I didn't have a choice."

I struggled into a sitting position. Danny reached out to help, but I batted his hand away with a glare. "No. I was the one who didn't have a choice. You knew, Danny. You fucking know better than anyone that I don't want a relationship. Now you're telling me I have the supernatural equivalent of a fucking marriage certificate?"

"What did you expect me to do?" Danny's voice was the one rising now. "Let you die?"

"You could've at least have given me the choice!"

Danny scoffed. "My bad. You're right, I should've waited for you to wake up first. Oh, that's right, I couldn't do that because you weren't going to wake up. Your spine was snapped in four different places. Your chest was caved in. Both your legs were broken. You were haemorrhaging internally. On top of that, you'd lost several pints of blood. I had minutes to make that decision. Seconds."

I gaped at him. Danny was leaning over me now, fury rippling through him. The same fury that was echoing in my chest. Not my fury.

Danny's.

I was feeling what he was feeling because we were bonded.

"I don't regret what I did," he growled. "If I had to go back to you bleeding out in that car and do it all over again, I'd make the same choice. I'd choose to have you alive and mad at me, rather than dead and forever out of my reach. I'd choose you, Riley. Every. Fucking. Time. You can hate me for it, but that's the truth."

I could feel the truth of it bleeding through the bond. The bond that now tied me to Danny. "So that's it. We're mates."

He sighed, the fight leaving him. "Yes. It can't be undone."

"I'm just…This is a lot to take in. I don't want to be mad at you. Logically I know you just wanted to save me, but emotionally…"

"You're not quite there." He reached over to squeeze my hand. This time, I didn't shove him away. "Put yourself in my shoes, Ry. If I were human and you were a supe, if you found me dying, what would you do?"

I groaned internally, already knowing I'd lost. I didn't even need to think about it for longer than a breath to know my answer. "You fucker. You know I'd do the exact same thing. I wouldn't even care if you bitched at me, so long as it meant you were alive."

"See? You can't be mad at me."

"I'm going to try," I grumbled, making him laugh. I rubbed at my chest, the surge of happiness making me feel odd. "Okay, that's weird as fuck."

"The bond?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah, it is. I wasn't expecting it to feel so…vivid."

My mind flashed to the cabin where Danny carved his heart open every September. "You've never had a mate before?"

He gave me a strange look. "Of course I haven't. You can't break a mating bond, and if my mate dies, so do I."

I was sure one of the supes had told me that before, but, never planning on being a mate, I hadn't paid much attention. "Guess I'd better be more careful when I'm driving then."

Danny snorted. "Nah. You could drive into a wall at a hundred miles per hour now and walk away without a scratch."

"Wait, how come I still need glasses?"

"Our powers mean that you're healed of any injuries when you mate with a supe. Eyesight, neurodivergent conditions, mental illness, they all remain unchanged. It's not an injury that can be healed, so our powers don't touch it."

"What about cancer? Like, if you have a tumour, your powers wouldn't heal it?"

Danny scratched at his stubble. "Huh, never thought of it like that. I'd have to ask Toby to be sure, but I think with an illness like that, the powers would heal it. You can't die from cancer or other illness when you're mated to a supe, so they must do."

"This is all very confusing."

Danny shrugged. "It's like any science. None of us know all the answers. Some things are the way they are, and that's all there is to it."

I touched my glasses, thinking about Matty. "I take it everyone knows?"

Danny nodded. "Leo's bond alerted Ferry to something being drastically wrong. He was with Toby, who came along with him. It's filtered out from there. Poor Matty's been beside himself."

"Well, thanks to you I'm fine."

Danny chuckled, but there was no humour in it. "Can you imagine what Sebastian would've done to me if I'd let you die? I would've had to leave the continent for a few centuries."

"Wait…" Horror started to dawn over me. "Danny, you've taken a mate."

His gaze dropped to the bed. "Yup."

"Danny, you can't," I whispered, as though lowering my voice would change it. "Your clan. Oh fuck, you'll have to go back to them."

"I know."

"They're going to come hunting for you if you don't."

He shrugged. "Probably."

"What the fuck were you thinking?"

He eyes snapped up to glower at me. "I was thinking about you dying. About waking up tomorrow and not having you in my life."

"But you don't want to go back," I said desperately. "You hate that way of life."

"I'd hate you being dead more."

"This is serious, Daniel," I hissed.

"Really? Here I was thinking it'd be a barrel of laughs."

I grabbed the pillow I'd been lying on and walloped him around the head. "Stop fucking around."

"What do you want me to say, Riley? Yes, I'm going to have to go back to my clan now. No, I don't want to. Because I don't—I like my life here." He rubbed at his head. "We might not need to worry about that though, not if one of them kills me as soon as I return."

I stilled. "What? Why would they want to kill you?"

It was strange, feeling that ‘oh, I fucked up' feeling from someone else.

"Umm…"

"Daniel…" I said warningly. "You know how well things go when you hide shit from me. Start talking. Now."

He grinned at me. "Good to know that nearly dying hasn't dampened your sass."

"I'm not sure actually dying would be enough to do that. I would've given those demons downstairs hell."

"You wouldn't have ended up downstairs."

Something flickered at the edge of my mind. A light. A warmth. Whatever it was, I couldn't quite grasp it. I shook my head. "Guess we'll never know now. Are you going to tell me why they want to kill you, or just keep distracting me?"

Danny huffed. "Let's just say that there are certain factions who'd rather have the power for themselves. If they kill me, they'll become the new alpha and inherit all the strength that comes along with it."

"What?" I squeaked.

"Don't worry, they won't succeed. You might think I'm a soft touch, but I'm actually quite lethal. Promise."

I groaned, covering my face with my hands. "Fucking great. So not only do you now have a mate you didn't want, but you face the choice of either dying or having to return to a life you hate."

Firm hands made me reveal my face. "Riley, I love you, but shut up. I'm not scared about anything the future holds. If you'd died though? I would've been scared then."

"You love me?"

Alarm zipped along the bond, too fast for Danny to smother it. "Of course I do. I've told you that loads of times before."

"Not like that," I said, searching his eyes. "It feels different this time. Is it?"

So many feelings tumbled through my chest, too many for me to decipher, but before Danny could answer, Matty slammed into the room. Danny retreated to the wall, giving him some space.

"Riley! Oh my god. You're okay." Matty ignored the space Danny had made, instead clambering up onto my bed. He threw himself onto my lap and crushed me to him in a fierce hug. "Never do that again. Do you have any idea how scared I was?"

Danny gave me a look as if to say— See? Everyone would've been devastated if I'd let you die.

I stuck my tongue out at him. I was mature like that.

"He can't do it again," Sebastian drawled from my bedside. I jumped—the guy was even sneaker than Danny. "Not unless Danny gets himself killed, of course."

"That's not going to happen." Danny was leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. "Told ya before, LeClerc, I'm impossible to kill."

"I've killed you plenty of times before. That reminds me, you still owe me a car."

A synchronised eye-roll went through the room. The argument over whether or not Danny owed Sebastian a car for ruining it with his blood was one we'd heard many times before.

"You're the one who staked me!"

"With cause." Sebastian sniffed. "Therefore you owe me a car."

Danny pushed off the wall with a snarl, but I held up a hand. "Can we not do this today, please? The last time you two got into it, it was me who had to clean up the blood."

"I would've helped," Matty said with a mild blush. "I just…"

"Faint at the sight of blood. We know," I smiled kindly at Matty, who was still sprawled on my lap. The fact that Sebastian was allowing it told me just how terrified Matty must've been about losing me. "Still think that's weird given you're mated to a vampire."

"Anyway, going back to what we were discussing," Sebastian continued, like he and Danny hadn't been about to come to blows, "you might be able to protect yourself, but Riley can't."

"I can," I protested. "I've had self-defence lessons with all of you."

"Which works fine against humans," Sebastian said flatly. "But a pack of wolf shifters? You don't stand a chance."

Matty gaped at Danny. "Is that a risk? Will they come after Riley like they did with me?"

I didn't need to hear Danny's response. I could feel it. The fear. The despair. The aching sense of not again.

I frowned at him. Had this happened before? I made a mental note to ask him about it later, when we were alone. At least with the bond, he couldn't lie to me. Not easily, anyway.

His face betrayed none of the emotions he was experiencing. "Riley will be safe. Anyone who wants to get to him will need to get through me first. I won't be letting him out of my sight."

Sharp blue eyes met mine as the conviction in his words settled into me. I swallowed hard, fighting back against the rising panic. Danny had condemned himself by saving me. We'd be living with a target on our backs for fuck only knew how long. His entire way of life was going to change now—either by having to fight former members of his clan or going back to lead it. There'd be no more firefighting. No more gaming with our friends. Everything about his life was going to change.

Because of me.

Danny was going to have to give up everything he loved.

And it was all my fault.