Immediately.
I hear a strange little sound, and I turn sharply to see her. Felicity is no longer in her human form. She’s fully a fox now, and she’s standing on Allison’s chest and practically spitting at her. She makes a strange sort of fox growl, and she bares her teeth. Allison is sort-of awake, but only a little, and I realize that she’s crying. Maybe she knows it’s over.
“It wasn’t supposed to end like this,” she whispers.
I don’t even bother wasting my breath on a reply. Instead, I fumble around, searching for a cell phone, and I dial Henry. He answers on the first ring.
“Sup?”
“I need you,” I say.
“What the fuck is wrong, man? I’m on my way.” There’s something about the way I’m speaking that alerts him to what’s going on.
“They came here,” I whisper. “Need a doctor.”
I drop the phone then, and I fall to the ground and close my eyes. I’m going to rest. It’s only for a little while, and I could use the sleep.
*
“There we go,” a gentle voice says. “Open those eyes, big boy.”
I open my eyes to see a group of people standing over me: Felicity is the person I see first, and I want to reach for her, but I can’t seem to move.
“Take it easy,” a deep male voice says, and I turn to see the doctor. “You were in quite a fight, and your recovery is going to take awhile. Don’t try to rush it,” he says.
“That’s my mate,” another voice says. Meredith. It’s Foxy’s friend from the bar. “He’s a little bossy, but you’ll get used to him.”
“I’m always bossy when people need me to be,” the doctor says. “You gave us a scare,” he tells me. “But you’re going to be just fine.”
Henry is here, too, and he reaches for my hand and touches it gently.
“I don’t know if you remember anything,” he says. “After you called, I got the clinic and the cops on the phone. Everyone arrived at once. You killed that tiger, but it’s a good thing because he would have killed you first. Apparently, he and Allison were both obsessed with you: you and Foxy both. They found plans in his home to blow up your bakery. If he hadn’t died today, he would have killed you and me both, and soon.”
“Allison’s in jail,” Felicity says quietly. “Your mother has been arrested, too.”
So that’s why she hasn’t tried to see me. Well, maybe she has, and I just don’t know. Something tells me, though, that my relationship with my mother is over for good, and that’s quite all right with me. Part of me was worried that when I ended things with her, she was going to try to come back into my life. I’m glad that she didn’t.
“Yeah, apparently, your mom gave Allison and Aaron all of the information they needed to break into your bakery, as well as how to catch Felicity,” Henry shakes his head.
“Disgusting,” Meredith spits out.
“Be nice,” the doctor tells her.
“I will not be nice,” she says, glaring at him. “This is Felicity’s mate we’re talking about.”
“You still need to be respectful while you’re in my clinic,” the doctor says, and he does it with a tone that lets me know he’s both in charge and totally in love with Meredith. Somehow he seems to be both firm and loving with her, and I wonder if Felicity and I will ever reach that level of adoration in our own relationship.
I hope so.
I want her to be my mate.
She seems to sense that I want to be alone with her, because she nods at me ever-so-slightly, and then she turns to everyone else.
“Give us a minute,” she says to everyone else. “I want to be alone with him.”
“No sex,” the doctor warns her. “I mean it. Everyone tries to be kinky and make love here, but don’t do it. He’s weak, and he needs to rest.”
“I promise,” she says.