Adriel looked behind him to Avery and then back to her. "Mate?"
She nodded. "Yes, he is mine."
Declan groaned and opened his eyes. "Gods, what smells so good? Am I in heaven?"
Micah snorted. "No, and don't get any ideas about heading toward the light. I'm busting my balls to keep your wound open for the doc."
Startled, Kari looked at him. Micah had a fine sheen of sweat on his upper lip and dripping along his hairline. "Why on earth are you keeping it open?"
Micah started to answer and Adriel interrupted him. "Concentrate on our brother, I will answer." Micah nodded, looking relieved.
Adriel turned to her. "Micah is keeping his wound open so that we do not have to cut him open later. The doctor will need to make sure that his intestines are not twisted and nothing was punctured. As a shifter, his flesh is healing, which means wounds are closing, but we have learned the hard way that doesn't mean it will untwist itself."
Kari looked down at her mate. He was inching his face toward h
er belly. Smiling, she stepped closer to the bed, and he buried his nose against her body.
"Declan, quit moving," Micah chided. He looked down, his eyebrows rising. "Well, this is awkward."
Kari looked down the length of Declan's body to what had distracted Micah. To her utter shock, the sheet was tenting, a lot. "Oh my."
Avery giggled. "That's impressive."
Kari leaned over to look her mate in the eye. "How do you have enough blood in your system for an erection?"
His eyes were glazed in pain, but he gave her a boyish grin. "Having an erection for my mate will never be a problem. Gods, you're beautiful." He gave her a dopey smile.
Kari looked around and saw that as they had been talking, the man they called Broderick had run an IV, and painkillers were now relaxing her mate. Broderick caught her staring and nodded.
"Thank you," she whispered.
He growled low. "It's literally the least I could do. If I had known I would be called upon for so many medical emergencies I would have studied internal medicine more."
A stunning man walked up behind Broderick and wrapped his arms around his waist. "You have done beautifully, darling. No one here blames you."
"Thank you, Caspian my love, but it is still frustrating that I know just enough to realize I cannot help."
Her hand was squeezed, and she looked down.
Declan stuck his tongue out at her. "You can only think I'm pretty."
Kari fought back her laughter. Her drugged mate was adorable.
"He's blitzed," a female voice said behind her.
"Bethy! Thank goodness, can you please go help Cheryl..." Magnus started.
Bethy held up her hand. "I already handled her. As luck would have it, I was in your office waiting on you when you called. I found the number and sent Etain to the portal to escort Dr. St. John directly to Level One when he arrives. Which should be any moment..."--she looked down at her watch and muttered under her breath--"if he knows what's good for him."
"Bethy lurves me!" Declan declared.
"Is he high?" a male voice asked, a large impressive looking vampire pulled Bethy under his arm.
Kari stared. She had never seen another vampire that huge. She cocked her head and looked from Adriel to the newcomer. "Are the two of you brothers?"
The man looked at her, and a slow smile formed. "In a way, yes, he is my family. My name is Gavriel Ambrosios." He inclined his head regally.
Kari looked from Gavriel to Adriel. The unit leader was related to one of the oldest royal vampire families? When had this happened? She shook her head. "Nope, not trying to figure that out right now." She turned her attention back to her mate. "How are you doing?"