And the curtain swept over her. It wasn’t dark, frightening or smothering. Just a gentle silken veil that covered her and eased her from the pain and the worry.
She would deal with David later.
“Ely?” Tanner whispered as he smoothed Scheme’s long hair back from her forehead and watched her worriedly.
“A week, she’ll be good as new.” Ely shrugged. “The hormones will rush to heal her body first. It will delay the symptoms of the mating heat to allow the body enough time to strengthen for it. Ain’t Mother Nature great?”
Tanner sighed in relief. He couldn’t bear to have to take her in the shape she was in. It would have destroyed him.
“She’s strong,” Ely said. “I was listening to Jonas debrief David as the nurse checked him out. He said she fought to get him out of there, to get him away from Tamber. Then she traded herself for him, claiming she had information no one else had.”
Tanner narrowed his eyes on her. “And Tamber believed her?”
Ely shrugged, but Tanner could detect the scent of her concern. She was bothered by this, more than she should have been.
“And David didn’t know what it was about?” Tanner asked her.
She shook her head. “He said he didn’t.” The scent of nervous fear was a subtle fragrance now. She didn’t believe him, and neither did Tanner.
If Scheme was still holding secrets, then she would never be safe from Cyrus Tallant. Not that she was anyway.
“How long will she be out like this?” he asked, staring at her face, his chest aching with the bruises that marred her creamy flesh.
“She’ll be in and out for a few days,” Ely told him. “She’s hurt, Tanner, not dying.”
“I want her in her own bed.” He smoothed her hair back, feeling the silkiness of it even as he pulled free several more twigs. “I want her comfortable.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Ely said softly. “She’s going to be okay, Tanner. I promise.”
“This time,” he whispered. “This time.”
He wiped his hands over his face, breathing out wearily. Tallant wouldn’t stop. He would never let Scheme go. Not until she was dead.
“Once the mating heat stills, Tanner, we need to do a CAT on her ovaries and fallopian tubes. She has the same concentrations of an unknown hormone in her system that Sherra showed when her body was repairing the tubal. We need to check on that.” Ely’s voice was still soft, compassionate.
A child. Her body could be preparing to conceive. It most likely was preparing to conceive. Many of the hormones associated with Breed mating heat hadn’t been completely identified. The research into it was slower due to the extreme need to keep the facts of the heat hidden from the world.
God help him, another attack like this, during pregnancy, would be disastrous. He couldn’t let it happen again. But God help him if he knew how to stop it.
Shaking his head, he looked around the small medical room. On the other side of a curtain was Jolian Brandeau. She hadn’t survived the surge of electricity Tamber had slammed into her brain with the tazer. She had died instantly, no doubt as Tamber had intended.
Cabal was behind the curtain with her, and the scent of his regret and pain washed over Tanner. They hadn’t trusted Scheme where the girl was concerned, and now they would all pay for that. Cabal more so than others, Tanner suspected. They had all known Jolian fancied herself in love with Cabal. She was pathetically shy around him, yet the scent of her pleasure when he was near was like summer itself. But the smell of deception that centered around her had always thrown them off. The deception was the love she believed she had kept secret.
Ely’s gaze followed Tanner’s to that curtain, grief twisting her expression as she turned back to him.
“She was a good kid,” she whispered.
“Yes.” Tanner breathed out roughly. “She was a good kid. Take care of Cabal for me, Doc.”
Ely looked at him in surprise. “He’ll be fine, Tanner. The two of you have your mate—”
“Scheme isn’t Cabal’s mate,” he revealed, staring down at the woman he loved beyond life. “She’s mine. Just completely, all mine.”
Ely blinked at him in shock. “We can smell the scent on him, Tanner,” she suddenly whispered. “Is it possible—” She looked back to the curtain. “Dear God. Was she his mate?”
Tanner shook his head. “It wasn’t her, Ely. And it’s not Scheme.”
“Then what?”