Chapter 52

Cleaning out the claw marks and putting in the stitches took a long time. Ryker had pointedly not looked at Jo's shoulder while Brett worked, keeping his focus on Jo instead. He knew that if he thought too long about what had happened, it would become increasingly difficult to not march over to the exam room and hurl Blake out the window. He deserved it. But he wasn't going to leave Jo.

"Still awake?" he asked her, tapping on her hand.

She opened one eye and nodded. "Nope. Your eyes are greener now. Nice."

"They're usually green when I'm not a wolf," he said. He brushed his fingers through her hair, tucking it back. It kept falling in her face whenever she moved her head, and Brett fussed whenever she moved too much.

"No, they're not, they're a lot of colors," she mumbled back. She closed her eyes and wriggled her fingers at him. "Like...so many. This many."

"Do you have mood ring eyes, Ryker?" Brett asked quietly, amusement tugging up the corner of his mouth.

"Shut up," Ryker said, rolling his eyes.

"No," Jo grumbled back at him, her eyes opening again. She frowned and pointed a finger at him. Or in his general direction. "Don't tell me to shut up. You shut up."

"No, babe, I wasn't talking to you..." Ryker said. Okay, this version of Jo was adorable and worrisome at the same time. He looked up at Brett. "Is this a normal reaction?"

"I gave her strong painkillers, so yeah," Brett said, "I didn't want her to feel any of this."

"You're so nice," Jo said, smiling as she craned her neck to look at Brett.

"Nuh-uh, sweetheart, we don't want to look at the stitches, remember?" Ryker reminded her, gently pressing his palm against her cheek to bring her head back down.

"Right," Jo said, giving him the cutest frown as she rested her head again.

"Just about done," Brett said. "Then you can take her home." He glanced over at Ryker. "Since I know you'll be glued to her side, just watch for any signs of infection, although I doubt there will be any."

"Signs of infection?" Ryker asked with alarm. He'd never worried about that before either.

Brett rolled his eyes. "If you see pink streaks spreading out from the stitches, call for me, okay?"

"Does that happen often?"

"Never happened with any of my human patients, how's that?"

Ryker wanted to ask how many human patients exactly Brett had given stitches, but he decided it was better not to know. He was just going to tell himself it was a lot. And then when he got home, he was going to google all the pictures of infected stitches he could find so he'd know what to watch for.

Just in case.

"You worry too much," Jo said with a quiet chuckle.

"And you need a doctor too much," Ryker retorted.

"Not for a human," Jo shot back.

"Your humanity is questionable."

"Hey! No more than yours!"

Brett snorted at their back and forth--and even though he didn't know the full story of what Jo could do, his eyes slid over to her with a curious light. Which reminded Ryker--he needed to check in on Lexi and see what she'd seen during the fight. Explanations might need to happen sooner rather than later.

Lexi. He hoped she was waiting somewhere not in Blake's room. AJ and Lincoln had better have listened to him.

Yeah? Everything ok? How's Jo? Can I come in? I--

Woah, slow down. He stroked his thumb against Jo's hand as she blinked up at him sleepily. It's all good, Brett said we're almost done. You can go on home if you want. We'll talk tomorrow, ok?

I'm holding you to that.

Trust me, I know. I just need to be with Jo right now, ok?

Ok.

Ryker closed the link, then focused back on his mate. Brett seemed to be tying off the last thread, which meant they could be out of here and away from Blake soon. "Hey Brett, when you're done with Blake, tell them to put him in the holding room, will you?"

It was a secured room in a guest house not far from the Monroe house. He didn't like Blake being too near Jo but he'd make sure he was guarded until he was healed up. And then he'd send him back to Duncan with a strongly worded message.

Very strongly, if Ryker was in charge of dictating it.

"If that's what you want," Brett said, distracted as he put a bandage over the stitches, taping down the edges. It was an awkward place for a wound, and it was going to leave a set of very distinct scars, though Brett's stitching would probably make them less noticeable. Still...Ryker was going to feel some kind of way...but maybe it would remind him more that Jo could take care of herself. She was more capable than he gave her credit for.

Which, at the moment, she was asleep. She had rested her head fully on her left arm, which was going to go numb, but he doubted she would even notice. Reaching out, he played with a lock of her hair.

"I'd like to do something else with him," Ryker grumbled, "But that's the most diplomatic option right now..." Brett paused and gave him a considering look that made Ryker sit back. "What?"

"You. Being diplomatic. Makes me want to cry with pride."

"Don't make me punch you," Ryker said, settling back in his chair, his ears red and warm. His family didn't dole out praise easily, so he was grateful that Brett at least added a bit of teasing in there.

"You do know there might be problems since it's Blake, right?" Brett asked, gently smoothing down the bandage over Jo's shoulder. "Duncan's not going to be a happy camper when he notices his Beta is missing."

"Yeah..." Ryker would've gone crazy if someone had done something to Charlie, who was currently running the perimeter with his dad and a few other pack members. "It's their fault for coming onto our territory."

"The agreement's not even fully sealed," Brett said.

"Right. Which makes it worse," Ryker said, "It tells me they wouldn't have respected it even if it was completely sealed."

"I think you're going to have to be more specific about the details," Brett said. He leaned back and peeled off his gloves, tossing them into a nearby trash can. "You can't leave so many loopholes."

"I know that now," Ryker growled.

"Don't get mad at me." Brett turned to start cleaning up the exam room. "I just want you to think everything through before you make an agreement that you don't like and they won't abide by. Got it?"

Ryker nodded, running a tired hand down his face. "Sure you don't want the Alpha job?" he asked, only half-joking. They both knew Brett didn't want that--he'd been very clear on his feelings about it back in high school--and they both knew Ryker cared too much about the pack to just give up the title.

But every now and then.

"You're funny."

Ryke ran his hand through Jo's hair. "Jo says the same thing. So I must be hilarious."

"She's good for you, you know." Ryker looked up in surprise to catch Brett casting him an amused but warm look. Ryker cleared his throat and scratched his head awkwardly before nodding.

"I know." He looked back at Jo and couldn't stop himself from shifting her head just a little bit so her arm wouldn't fall asleep on her. "I didn't know I needed her until I met her, but she...she makes me better." She challenged and pushed him in every way, but she also grounded him when he needed it sometimes, or got him to laugh when he didn't think there was much to be happy about. She was probably the best thing that had ever happened to him, and sometimes he felt like he had to hold back, worried he'd scare her with the intensity of his feelings.

"You should tell her." Ryker glared at Brett for a moment, thinking his brother had read his thoughts through their mind link until he realized his mental walls were still securely up. Brett just knew him.

"Seriously," Brett continued, coming to stand over near him. "Take it from a married man. Sometimes, a woman just needs to hear from us how we feel about them. They like that."

"Noted," Ryker said, smiling wryly. "Though I gotta admit, never thought I'd be having this conversation with you."

Brett chuckled as he checked on Jo again, removing the IV. "She's good to go now, let me just get some pain meds for you to take with her in case she wakes up and needs them." Brett grabbed a bottle from a cabinet and scrawled some instructions on a piece of paper before stuffing them in a bag and handing them back to Ryker.

"Thanks man," Ryker said, giving Brett a one-armed hug before turning back to pick up Jo. "We'll get out of your hair for now."

"I like how you added on that 'for now."

Ryker smirked a little. "I'll be honest, you know I'm gonna send you a draft of the agreement before we bring it to Duncan to sign."

"If he signs it after this..."

Ryker shrugged. "He will if he doesn't want a war. And it's not like we murdered Blake." Ryker glared at the part of the clinic Blake was in, holding Jo a little tighter to his chest. "Even if he deserved it."

"I can't argue too much with that," Brett said as he reached into a cabinet. "He hurt Jo and could've hurt Lexi, too." He pulled out a thin white blanket and tossed it over Ryker's shoulder, probably remembering before Ryker did that it was cold out now and Jo's shirt had gotten shredded. Details were never his forte, but Brett had an eye for them. "I'm not exactly the Duncan pack's biggest fan right now either. In case that wasn't clear."

Ryker nodded and headed out, carrying Jo. Right now, he could either take Jo home or bring her to his house. At the moment, most of the members of their pack were patrolling for Duncan werewolves, and AJ, Lincoln, and Charlie were busy so they couldn't help guard Jo's house.

No matter what, he was going to stay wherever Jo was tonight, but Jo's house was more exposed than his own. At his house, he would be there and so would Lexi and there were plenty of other pack homes not far from theirs. Packs naturally lived in the same area, and while Jo's house wasn't too far from his, his own was in the direct center of most of the other houses and homes. It was safer...

As he left the clinic and carefully put Jo into the truck, he reached out toward his father with his thoughts, but he was beyond the range of their link. Ryker didn't think he would object, so he decided to take Jo home with him. It made more sense. He knew what his dad would say though since they weren't officially mates or married, so he would sleep on the floor while Jo took the bed.

The radio clock showed that it was almost three in the morning. Maybe it wasn't just the meds that were making Jo sleep. The Duncan pack seemed to be doing its best to run them all ragged. Reaching over, he tucked the blanket around Jo so she would stay warm on the drive.

Honestly he was starting to feel the exhaustion too, though the roiling anger he felt toward Blake was probably going to manage to keep him up. If Duncan had any sense in his head, he would stay far away from Ryker for the next month or two because if he saw him, it was going to be very hard to keep from punching him teeth in or wolfing out and doing worse.