Page 29 of Primal Bonds 1

“He’s with Janet, helping her with the two boys,” Chase said. “I’ll go get him for you.”

“Mm-hmm,” Adam responded.

Before he disappeared around the corner, Chase said, “Oh, and I’ve given Shiro some meds.” He winked. “His vitality will be back to normal in no time.”

Adam narrowed his eyes. “Just because you’re my best buddy doesn’t mean I won’t beat you into a pulp, Chase. If you give him anything funny…”

Chase chuckled. “Just some painkillers and supplements to boost his healing. Boy, but beastkin have great regenerative abilities, don’t they?”

Again, that rhetorical, teasing tone. Chase knew, Adam thought, that he had done more than just take Shiro home after the beating and treat the boy’s injuries.

But of course, the friend wasn’t wrong where beastkin’s regenerative abilities were concerned. Adam knew that firsthand because, after all, he was a beastkin. Well, not a beastkinbeastkinto be precise, but rather, a hybrid one—just like Chase himself, Nolan his brother, and both Luka and Shane, that didn’t have the small animal characteristics. They were the rare type that could blend into society and bring about devastating chaos, the type the institute and the government greatly feared. A new type of evolution where beastkin looked just like normal people and then shifted into either their alpha or primal forms whenever they desired. But of course, to most, their type were merely urban legends.

Oh, but how little did they know. How very little.They thought they had the beastkin under control, but that was far from the truth.

“Wait in the foyer,” Chase said.

“Mm-hmm,” Adam responded. Inside the clinic, he was just walking along the corridor and rounding a corner toward the foyer when he heard the door open and then bang shut. This was followed by light footsteps. Curious, he retraced his steps, and then he stopped short.

Standing there frozen before him was a redheaded fox boy, staring at him, looking freaked out as hell, his emerald-green eyes wide in terror.

Wow! Just wow! No wonder Chase was smitten. This youth was beautiful. Strangely enough, the boy reminded him of Shiro, Adam thought with intrigue.

The boy took a tentative step back, his eyes still on Adam. Then he swirled around and sprinted out the door again, like the devil was chasing him. Adam thought about going after the boy, but decided against it. He’d only scare him even more. Those eyes, he had seen the likes of them before on Shiro, signifying great terror. He wondered if it was his alpha wolf aura. But of course, he hadn’t meant to scare the boy. The aura came naturally to him, just as moving his body at lightning speed and exuding overwhelming strength in fights came to him.

Damn, did he just ruin Chase’s lucky night? Oh, well. It wasn’t like Adam himself was going to get any ofthateither tonight or in the near future. Turning on his heel, he headed toward the foyer to wait for Shiro.

10

Shiro

The two boys were finally calming down and were now sleeping in the patient beds.

I had been surprised at first, to learn this clinic not only had a fully functional lab, but beds for patients, too, and they occupied three of the five floors. We were currently on the third floor now where the room was previously unoccupied, and now here I sat, watching over them because Janet, the catkin nurse, had instructed me to while she was busy checking on other patients.

I didn’t know there were other patients staying here, and apparently, most of them were beastkin.

“This is that type of place,” Janet had said. “A safe place for beastkin to come to for treatment.”

That red cross sign at the front of the door, apparently only beastkin could see it, which I didn’t know. Normal people couldn’t see the red color, even though it was there, and most assumed it was just a run-down building where dubious business operations were takingplace. It was also why the clinic was strategically positioned out of sight where only those who knew would come.

When the two beastkin boys turned up about an hour ago, I had been with Janet. The moment I saw them, I had felt frozen in terror because the sight of them looking like that—skin bruised, their clothing disheveled, and faces hollowed and terrified—reminded me of myself when Tony and his gang had done those horrible things to me. I had no doubt the same thing had just been done to them, too, and I wanted to cry out in anguish.

When would they stop doing that, those bastards? When would anyone teach them a lesson? It just wasn’t fair.

A tap on my shoulder caused me to jolt out of my dark thoughts, and I turned to see Chase behind me.

“Adam’s downstairs,” he said.

The moment Adam’s name was mentioned, all those morbid thoughts of mine disappeared and a sense of something like warmth took over its place. I stood and then asked, “Will they be all right?”

Chase nodded. “They’ll be fine. This is a hospital, of sorts.”

I turned on my heel then, since I didn’t want to keep Adam waiting. I was just about to leave when I couldn’t help saying, “But they won’t be able to pay for their medical bill and stuff.”

Chase chuckled. “No worries. I’ll just bill the guy who saved them.” He winked at me.

Oh, that man in the dark suit who had dropped them off. I had a feeling I had seen him somewhere before.