hallway of the Blackstone Hospital was Daniel Rogers.
What happened after he found Dutchy on the road was all a blur to him. The sirens growing louder. The EMTs trying to get to Dutchy. It took a couple of officers to pull him off. The sharp sting of a tranq dart. Not that it knocked him out, but it was enough to keep him down until Damon arrived on the scene. Then, the sight of Dutchy being loaded away onto a stretcher sent him and his animal into a frenzy again.
Damon promised that he would drive him to the hospital if he calmed down. And so, here they were.
“You okay, man?” Damon asked as he sat beside him. They were in some kind of waiting room, but even here, the sterile smell of the hospital burned at his nostrils. “Are you ready to talk?”
He swallowed hard. Though he and Damon had built up their friendship in the last months, this was the one thing he couldn’t share with the other man. It seemed too private and personal, plus he didn’t want Damon to push the mate thing, not when he wasn’t ready.
“Krieger?”
“You saved my life,” he began.
Damon chuffed. “I sent you into that market building. Right into a trap. You were buried under there for days. I hardly call that saving your life.”
“It was war. You get faulty intelligence now and again. But I’m not talking about that part.” He flexed his fingers on his knees. “I’m talking about when you brought me here. After …” He pushed away the memories. “You gave me a place where I could stay away from other people. Because I couldn’t control my animal’s thirst for blood.” And that was the truth. When Damon found him, he’d been in a feral state, living deep in the mountains of Kargan in mostly animal form. The locals had thought he’d been some kind of monster. And he was.
“But you’re better now,” Damon pointed out. “You’ve come so far. I mean, look at where you are now.”
“Remember that day you told me that you found your mate?”
The chief’s jaw hardened. “I would have lost her, if it wasn’t for you.” Anna Victoria had been kidnapped by her ex-fiancé who had chased her down because she was a key witness in a crime he committed. Krieger had found her right before the bastard’s goons could do the deed and he took care of them. “So, you can consider that debt paid.”
“But you saved my life again.” He lifted his head to meet his friend’s gaze. “I saw for myself the change that happened to you. And that’s when I realized I was wrong. Wrong for pushing Dutchy away. To think I couldn’t change for her.”
Damon swallowed hard. “This … was all for her?”
He nodded, then hung his head low. “And now it’s too late.”
“Krieger, no.” Damon put a tentative hand on his shoulder. “It’s not. She’ll be fine.” He squeezed gently. “She’s a shifter, right? Met her once, you know. She seemed a little sad. What happened there?”
And so, he told Damon everything. About finding her in the snow all those months ago. How his bear instantly knew who she was. And how he pushed her away. “You know why I had to do that. I couldn’t force her to choose between a life of isolation with me and her real life out here. It wouldn’t have been fair. She would have resented me.”
“Jesus.” Damon sucked in a breath. “I had no idea. Listen—”
“Are you the family of Duchess Forrester?”
Krieger shot to his feet at the sound of the voice. “How is she, Doc?” He said to the older man clad in a white coat. The ID around his neck identified him as Dr. Charles Jenkins.
“And you are?”
“He’s her mate,” Damon offered.
The doctor relaxed. “She’s stable after the surgery. They just moved her into a private room. Four-oh-five. I need to tell you something, though. She’s—”
Krieger didn’t bother to wait for the doctor to finish his sentence. He tore down the hallway, giving the room numbers a cursory glance as he tracked down 405. Bursting into the room, he skidded to a halt at the sight before him.
Dutchy lay on the bed, looking frail and thin, dressed in a drab hospital gown. A machine was hooked up to her nose and mouth helping her breathe, and her left arm was bound in a cast.
A cold wave washed over him. Dr. Jenkins said she’d been in surgery. But why? She