Night of the Wild Stags Read online

  Riley carried the female in his arms, placing her on the gurney provided. Alec felt a strange surge of jealousy over Riley being the one to do so, which made no sense at all. He didn't know the woman, and she smelled kinda bad. So why was he wishing he’d been the one to carry her?

  They were led to a quarantine room where they were met with two more doctors in hazmat suits and all four men were put through a rigorous cleansing and decontamination procedure. Fresh clothes were left out for them in the room they weren't supposed to leave.

  Sighing, Alec wandered over to the window and looked outside. In the distance he could see the woods. Surprisingly, his stag was way more interested in where the female had been taken than in staring at the woods they were all supposed to be running through right now.

  "Well," said Gavin when they were finally all done and sitting in the plastic chairs. "Some start to our vacation this is."

  His twin glared at him. "If two idiots hadn’t—“

  “We’d still be here, dumbass,” Gavin shot back. “You really think Alec and I would have just gone on vacation while you were back here in quarantine?”

  Well that was true enough.

  ******

  Finally having agreed to disagree, Gavin and Dorian sat back in their chairs.

  Which, unfortunately, left Gavin with very little to do. He looked around the room. Riley and Alec were both staring off into space with very similar expressions, although he doubted they were thinking about anything similar. The two brothers were basically polar opposites.

  A little like him and Dorian he supposed, eyeing his twin. Although that was partly because Dorian tended to take everything way too seriously in Gavin's opinion. Sometimes it was needed, but Gavin considered it his job to be Dorian's right-hand man in a number of ways. Supporting him when he was acting as their herd's alpha but also making sure Dorian actually let loose and had some fun now and then. It was something he needed in both human and stag form.

  The door to the quarantine room suddenly opened and they all turned as one. Gavin and Dorian jumping to their feet in concern and confusion when they saw Dr. Tran in her regular clothing without a hazmat suit.

  "You're all clear," she said briskly, her eyes taking in each one of them in turn. Despite her diminutive size, the doctor was never intimidated no matter how large the soldiers towering over her were. Knowing she could turn into a four hundred pound tiger at any given moment probably helped. "She does have the Scourge—"

  "How?" Alec interrupted her, bewildered. Dr. Tran gave him a pointed look.

  "I bet if you're quiet, she'll tell us," Riley muttered, and Gavin saw Dorian's lips twitch. He'd be willing to bet his twin had been about to say the same thing.

  "After we got an IV in her and began to re-hydrate her, she woke up enough to tell us she's a Pudu deer shifter," Dr. Tran explained.

  Her explanation didn't make anything clearer to Gavin. "What's a Pudu deer?"

  "They're the smallest deer in the world," she said. "Think, the size of a lamb when fully grown."

  All of the men made various noises of understanding. So she was both a deer and a small shifter, which explained why the Scourge was affecting her so badly. Killing her, actually. They didn’t need to worry about the Scourge because the doctors had actually recently been able to come up with a vaccine for the larger shifters. So far no one had been able to test it on smaller shifters.

  Gavin frowned. Even though he didn't know her, he didn't like the idea of her dying, especially not after she'd come so far. His stag made a distressed noise, unhappy at the idea as well. Something about her had called to his animal and it had apparently become more attached than he'd realized.

  "Are you going to be able to help her?" Dorian asked, his thoughts obviously working along the same lines. In fact, all of them were earnestly focused on Dr. Tran, waiting for her verdict.

  "We're testing her DNA right now to see if she fits the parameters for our only known cure," Dr. Tran said carefully, making all four males snort. They knew exactly what she was talking about. It was the worst-kept secret at Lakewood.

  "We know the Bunsons," Riley said. "We basically know how it works." The three Bunson brothers had all trained at Lakewood and pretty much everyone knew they were hybrid shifters, originally fully human, who were created in a lab by a mad scientist trying to find ways to prevent smaller shifters from dying out. Unfortunately, his ethics had left a lot to be desired.

  Now Dr. Montgomery was in the basement in a well-guarded cell beneath the hospital of Lakewood, still continuing some of his work. He'd kept so much of it in his head, it was impossible to replicate any of it without him. His work was also how they’d managed to come up with a vaccine, from what Gavin knew.

  The Bunsons were going without justice, but at the same time, their sacrifice was making it possible for lives to be saved. Rumor had it a couple of squirrels had been the most recent beneficiaries of Dr. Montgomery's work, and one of them had actually mated one of the Bunsons. Riley had been fascinated by the tale. Gavin hadn't cared so much other than knowing who the enemy was. Dr. Montgomery worked for an entity called The Company and they'd attacked Lakewood as well as a shifter stronghold, trying to recover both the doctor and their escaped test subjects.

  As far as Gavin understood it, if she didn't have some kind of larger shifter in her ancestry, she was pretty much fucked. Dr. Montgomery's cure wasn't actually a cure, he changed a person's DNA, creating a hybrid of the original shifter with a larger shifter, using their recessive genes. The problem was that a lot of smaller shifter communities had been very insular, rarely mating outside of their species, which meant even Dr. Montgomery's 'cure' wouldn't always work.

  "Thank you all for bringing her in," Dr. Tran said. "You're free to go, the quarantine isn't necessary."

  And with that, she left the room.

  They all looked at each other.

  As eager as Gavin had been to go and just sleep for a while, he wasn't sure that was what he wanted to do now. His buck definitely didn't. The animal was pacing back and forth in his head, restless, but not for the outdoors... it wanted to check on the doe. So did Gavin. Just to see how she was. It only seemed polite.

  Dorian cleared his throat, ready to lead the way as usual. "I'd like to check on the woman on our way out, if that's okay with the rest of you."

  "Yup."

  "Fine by me."

  "Lead the way," Gavin said, adding his agreement behind Alec and Riley's.

  Seemed like they were all on the same page. The excited clatter of metaphorical hooves in his head confirmed it.

  Chapter 2

  When Kiara woke up she felt normal. Tired, achy, but normal.

  Which was unexpected. She’d thought she’d wake up feeling different. Abnormal even. After all, she'd signed off on having her actual DNA changed in order to save her life.

  At least she didn't feel sick anymore either. No more shivering, no more creeping cold on a warm day, no more nausea that twisted her insides and made her want to vomit. She was definitely okay with feeling back to normal, she was just surprised by it.

  She prodded her doe in her head. The shy animal gave her a metaphorical nuzzle back, much more awake and aware than she had been in days, but still giving off a sleepy vibe. Which was understandable. Kiara was still feeling pretty sleepy too.

  So what had woken her?

  Opening her eyes, she was rather startled to see she wasn't alone in the hospital room—there were four men she'd never seen before all lined up, fast asleep in chairs along the wall opposite her bed. Four very large, very handsome men. Her doe perked up a little bit as she took in the sight of their dark heads and similar, equally attractive, features.

  Movement out of the corner of her eye had her turning her head to see who was there. A blonde woman in green scrubs was fiddling with something in a drawer. It must have been her coming in, or maybe opening the drawer, which had woken Kiara.

  She looked over and met Kiara's gaze, her ow
n blue eyes widening with delight to see Kiara awake. Putting her finger to her lips to indicate Kiara should be quiet, the nurse glanced over at the line of men, before coming closer to Kiara. Her blue eyes danced with amusement as she took in Kiara's confusion.

  "How are you feeling?" the nurse whispered, glancing at the monitors connected to Kiara's body, reading her pulse and other things... Kiara didn't know, she had no medical training.

  "Tired, but okay," she whispered back. She looked over at the line of men. "Who are they?"

  "Your rescuers. They've been here since they brought you in two days ago." The nurse's blue eyes glinted with excitement, confusing Kiara further. Seeing the expression on Kiara's face, the nurse just chuckled, shaking her head. "Not a romantic, huh?"

  She used to be, but maybe not so much anymore. Kiara peered at the men. They were all gorgeous and she was extremely grateful, but she still didn't understand why they were there. They might have rescued her—she remembered a lot of deep, male voices and someone carrying her before she woke up long enough to tell the doctor what was wrong—but she didn't actually know them.

  "I'm going to go get Dr. Tran," the nurse said, patting Kiara's arm. "She'll want to examine you now that you're awake." Slipping out of the room, the nurse closed the door behind her.

  Kiara was still sleepy, but she was determined to remain awake.

  After all, there were four strange men in her room. Big men. Although, the nurse hadn't seemed to find anything unusual about that. And they had rescued her.

  Maybe they weren’t dangerous to her. But she still couldn’t relax enough to completely let her guard down, no matter how safe the nurse obviously felt she was.

  Since she was all alone and none of them were looking at her, she took the opportunity to study them. Her doe was interested too, still just as sleepy as she was, but also curious about the strange males.

  They all looked related. Similar facial features, although one of them had a goatee and another was pretty scruffy around the jawline. The scruffiest one also had the longest hair. The other two were clean shaven, but one of them looked a lot like the one with a goatee while the other looked more like Scruffy.

  To her surprise and horror, she found her body responding to their presence—her skin tingling a little bit, butterflies beginning to flap in her stomach as a blush worked its way up her cheeks the longer she looked at them. Her blush turned even hotter when the diminutive doctor she remembered from before opened the door and stepped quietly inside.

  "You're looking much better," Dr. Tran said approvingly, but quietly, as she neared Kiara's bed, looking her over. She held out her hand and Kiara lifted her own so the doctor could inspect her arm. "No more lesions, good."

  "I don't feel any different," Kiara whispered. "I mean, I feel better and I don't feel sick anymore but... shouldn't my doe feel different?" After all, supposedly her genes had been changed so she was a Pudu deer-jaguar hybrid now. Apparently some distant ancestor had gotten freaky with a jaguar shifter, which Kiara had trouble imagining considering how restrictive and isolationist her community was.

  The doctor hesitated and gave her a rather rueful smile. "Unfortunately I'm not the best person to ask about that, but I do know there will be some people present in the compound this afternoon who will be able to answer your questions about being changed the way you have been."

  Others who had been changed, like her? Kiara was instantly curious.

  "That would be great, thank you," she said, relief suffusing her voice.

  She didn't think she'd whispered any louder than they had been, but sudden movement across the room caught her attention. Scruffy was yawning and stretching, obviously waking up. He was even cuter with his eyes open, as much as Kiara tried not to notice. As soon as he saw her, his hazel eyes lit up.

  "You're awake," he said gleefully. Unlike Kiara and Dr. Tran, he didn't bother to keep his voice down and the other men next to him immediately jerked to life as well.

  Kiara felt something deep inside of her stir—not her doe, but more like a feeling or a sensation... a craving she'd never felt before—as she watched them. Just like Scruffy, they all became even more attractive as their personalities animated their faces. In contrast, Kiara felt about as attractive as a toadstool. Someone had given her a sponge bath so she wasn't as disgusting as she remembered being when she'd first been brought to the hospital, but she wasn't exactly feeling fresh either. She was also suddenly acutely aware of a dire need to brush her teeth.

  "How are you feeling?" Scruffy asked, bounding up to stand beside her bed before the other men had even fully woken. Her eyes widened in slight alarm at his exuberant approach, but Dr. Tran just smiled at him.

  "Um, I'm okay, thank you," Kiara said shyly, nervously plucking at the sheet covering her and feeling increasingly vulnerable as all the men stood and came closer. They were all grinning at her as they surrounded her bed, which just made her feel even more awkward. The only reason she wasn't totally freaking out was Dr. Tran's presence. The doctor didn't seem the slightest bit intimidated by the large men dwarfing her.

  "You look a lot better," Scruffy said, surprising her by taking her hand. "You smell better too."

  As Kiara stifled a giggle, her nerves subsiding a little at his gentle touch and frank words, the man standing on the other side of him slapped the back of his head.

  "Dude! Who taught you how to talk to women?"

  "You," Scruffy said pointedly, not even wincing at the rough slap. He winked at Kiara as the other man gasped in mock outrage. Their silliness was actually calming her more than anything else they could have done.

  "I sure as hell did not." The man leaned forward, giving Kiara an earnest look. "I swear, I did not teach him to talk to women that way."

  "Would the two of you shut up?" Goatee said, managing to sound resigned, disgusted, and very slightly amused all at once. The man standing next to him blinked at her, making her label him in her head as the quiet one. Goatee seemed kind of like a leader and the man next to Scruffy... was definitely a charmer. Scruffy was the silly one, although he was also charming in his silliness. Goatee fixed his dark gaze on Kiara, making her want to squirm under the heavy weight of his attention. He didn't scare her though; if anything his gentle gaze made her feel almost protected. "Hi. We're really glad to see you looking better."

  "If you didn't know, these are the gentlemen who found you and brought you in," Dr. Tran said with an amused smile as she scooted around the bed to give herself more space, before picking up the chart at the foot of it and marking something off with her pen. "I'll leave you all to get acquainted while I go make a call and see if I can't arrange that visit I mentioned. Rest for a bit and when I come back I'd like to examine your animal."

  Giving Kiara a reassuring smile, the doctor left the room. There seemed to be an assumption by both the nurse and the doctor that all four men were safe and Kiara should feel comfortable with them.

  Strangely enough, she did... but that just made her worried as well. Why on earth did she feel so comfortable with four strangers? Even her doe wasn't doing more than sleepily observing them, and her animal was skittish at the best of times. Especially after leaving her community.

  "Hi," she said, tugging her hand away from Scruffy's, because she was starting to feel weird about holding it for so long. "Um, I'm Kiara Arrio."

  As she'd hoped, introducing herself immediately prodded them into giving their own names. Goatee was Dorian Walker, Scruffy was Alec Walker, the charmer was Gavin Walker, and the quiet one finally spoke up to say his name was Riley Walker.

  "And um, you are all related?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say, despite the obvious answer to her question.

  "These two are twins," Alec said, gesturing to Dorian and Gavin. "Riley's my older brother, and we're all cousins." Well, that explained that.

  Chewing the inside of her lip, Kiara tried to think of something else to say.

  "Is there anyone you need us to call?" Do
rian asked, his dark eyes steadily focused on her face, making her feel as though he was examining every minute change in her expression. Out of all of them, he definitely made her feel the most nervous, but at the same time she also had the odd notion of being protected by his presence. "You were all alone when we found you but we weren't sure..."

  He cut off as Kiara shook her head frantically, slight panic welling up inside of her.

  ******

  "No, no one," the pretty female said, her eyes growing wide and upset at the notion.

  "Shh, it's okay," Alec said, taking her hand again. Dorian felt a little spurt of jealousy at how easily Alec just reached out and touched her—and how easily she accepted it. She obviously found him charming, whereas she seemed a little intimidated by Dorian. Which wasn't unusual, most people were and normally it didn't bother him, but right now he wished he was more of a people person like Alec or Gavin.

  "Are you in trouble?" Riley asked, moving closer and sounding concerned. "Can we help?"

  The other three all exchanged surprised glances as Kiara focused on Riley, her hand still in Alec's. In a lot of ways Riley was even less social than Dorian. He'd been so quiet since they'd picked up their little lost waif that hearing him offering to jump in and help now was unexpected. None of them looked like they wanted to disagree though.

  Dorian definitely didn't.

  Something about the pretty doe called to him, and had ever since he'd found her in a crumpled heap on the side of the road. He didn't seem to be alone in that either. None of them had wanted to leave her side while she recovered. In fact, he was pretty sure if he'd tried, his stag wouldn't have let him.

  The feeling of firm agreement drifted up from the back of his mind, making Dorian's lips curve into a smile.

  Kiara looked around at all of them, looking even smaller and more vulnerable than she had a moment ago. Her gaze dropped to her lap. "I'm not in trouble. There's nothing... I'm fine. As soon as I'm better I'll be on my way. You don't need to worry about me."