Bennett - Milly Taiden Page 0,34
in his hands. His face fell when he spotted the needle in Dakota’s hands. He looked down, where Vance was arching off of the floor in pain.
“What did you give him?” he asked.
“He gave me his EpiPen,” she answered, showing him the needle.
Two things happened at all once.
First, Dakota realized that it was actually not an EpiPen, but rather it was the shifter serum. Second, Corey and Stuart made the same realization.
“You mother fucker!” Dakota exploded, feeling anger rise inside of her like a tidal wave. “How dare you?”
Her thoughts were racing.
She could have maybe been able to explain to Nick and Gray why she had had to use the serum on Bennett to save his life. But Vance had flat out faked a severe medical condition to get injected with it himself. How in the fuck was she going to explain that?
The answer was simple. She wouldn’t be able to.
“Of all the insanely evil things to do!” she shouted. “How dare you fake a reaction?”
“He wasn’t faking,” Corey assured her. “I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We roomed together in college. We have a protocol all set up for when I want to eat peanuts. He knew what I was doing. I knew what I was doing.”
The peanut butter.
That was where she had stupidly decided to hide the serum. What had she been thinking? She should have warned them of the serum’s hiding spot.
“When I found the serum in the jar, Vance got overly excited. He reached out for it without thinking…”
“And that was enough to set him off?”
“Yeah,” Stuart answered. “He is extremely allergic. He’s gone to the ER more times than I can count because of it.”
Shit. Dakota didn’t know what was true or not. They didn’t smell like liars in that particular moment, but Vance was locked in the throes of changing. She wouldn’t be able to interrogate his ass until he got better. If he got better.
Bennett had pulled through, but there was no way of knowing if Vance would be so lucky.
“You two monitor him and do what you did for Bennett. He’s all better now so he can share my bedroom with me tonight. Bring Vance to Ben’s room.”
It made sense. It was where all of the docs’ medical equipment was set up. If this meant she had to share her space with Bennett, then so be it. It would be an added bonus to the already shitty week she was having. It was the worst one in recent history, that was for darn sure.
And she had worked on a mushroom farm, harvesting the white fungi from steaming piles of manure.
Dakota knew what a shitty week was.
This one took the cake.
“I cannot deal with this right now. Come get me if there are any changes.”
Dakota turned the security alarm off and stalked to the expansive back yard. She changed into her tigress and flexed her paws. She let her long claws dig into the earth. It worked to calm her a bit, but it wasn’t enough. She had to roam for a bit. She took off like a shot through the thick forest that surrounded the house. Dakota let her animal be in control, letting herself be lost in the green oblivion that was nature. The sounds and smells, the pure rush of running as fast as her legs would carry her, was a balm on her tried patience.
Her animal pushed herself to the very brink of what she could do, exerting both of them as best as she could. It was the only thing that would guarantee that she wouldn’t tear Vance a new asshole for pulling a nasty trick on her.
It was over an hour later when Dakota made her way back to the house. She locked up again, and in her human form, she felt a fresh wave of guilt crash into her. She was the only shifter with experience, and she had left two humans deal with two very new shifters.
That was beyond irresponsible. She had always been called a hot-headed capricious woman. Now she knew that was true.
Even after such a long run, there was only one thing she wanted to do.
Crawl into bed with her mate. Even if he hadn’t declared her as such yet. She needed the comfort of his skin against hers.
On the tips of her toes, Dakota made her way into her bedroom. Bennett was settled onto the bed, sleeping. She peeled off her clothes, keeping her sports bra and panties