"Back off, Caine," Jax said in a voice that was more of a growl as his long fangs slowly slid down, ready to tear Caine's throat out.
"You poisoned my mate, ass**le," Caine said as he went after the man seconds from shifting into a large beast.
Instead of shifting, Jax stilled. "How the f**k did I poison her, you ass**le? I wasn't even here when this started!" he snapped, sounding truly pissed.
"You gave us the blood!" he roared, feeling his fangs grow impossibly longer as he truly considered tearing apart one of his oldest friends.
"You were there when the order came in, Caine," Jax ground out. "Besides that you would have scented it!"
Not everything, Caine reminded himself as a low vicious growl escaped his lips.
"I didn't poison the blood, Pyte," Jax snapped as he shoved Caine into the wall and held him there. "Now calm the f**k down so that we can figure this out and help her!"
"I am calm!" he shouted as the fact that Danni wasn't crying out in pain registered in his mind. "Son of a bitch!" He shoved the Alpha away, stormed through the open doorway and headed to the bed only to find Danni right where he left her except for one very important thing.
Danni wasn't breathing.
"I don't hear a heartbeat," Jax said, sounding close to panicking as he came up behind him and for good reason.
If Caine lost Danni he would tear this f**king world apart and everyone in it.
"She's a f**king Pyte. I can smell it on her so why the f**k isn't her heart beating?" Jax muttered nervously as he crawled onto the bed and pulled Danni onto her back, exposing his mate's body.
"Don't. Touch. Her," he bit out through clenched teeth as he shoved the shifter away from her and scooped her up in his arms.
"Caine," Jax said, holding up his hands in front of him in a placating manner as he slowly came towards him, "I'm trying to help her, but I can't do that unless you let me look at her."
His breath sped up and his heart thundered in his chest as he looked down at the woman in his arms that appeared to be dead, but she couldn't be. He'd changed her and knew that she'd turned. She had fangs for f**k's sake! He could smell the change on her even now.
She couldn't die on him. She was just hurt, he told himself. As soon as he figured it out he'd make this okay and take care of her like always. He'd fix this, he promised her as he kissed her cool forehead.
"Caine, I need you to stay in control while we figure this out," Jax said calmly as he pulled a cell phone from his pants pocket.
"Who are you calling?" he asked in a guttural tone, never taking his eyes off his beautiful mate.
"I'm calling Ethan. If anyone would know what's wrong with her it's him," Jax said absently as he dialed.
The Alpha's friendship with the vampire always confused him, especially given the vampire's tendency to slaughter shifters. Then again the man did have a reason. Over four centuries ago his son, a sixteen year old Pyte who hadn't yet made his transition, was kidnapped and God only knows what else by a pack up in Maine.
Personally, Caine thought the pack probably tore the kid apart to make sure that he didn't reach his maturity, but the vampire wouldn't hear it. He was hell-bent on finding his son and had no qualms with killing anyone that stood in his way, something that Caine actually respected about the cold bastard.
Jax was right. If anyone would know what was wrong with Danni it would be Ethan. For four centuries the vampire has searched the world looking for his son and gathering any information that he could find about Pytes. If the bastard failed to help them then he'd be making a little side trip later to rip his heart out.
He looked down at the beautiful pale woman in his arms as Jax paced the room, explaining the situation to Ethan over the phone. She was so beautiful, fierce, funny, a smart ass and made him feel alive. He couldn't be expected to live an eternity without her. It would be his own personal hell, living without the woman who was made for him.
"I love you, Danni," he whispered reverently as he leaned down and brushed his lips against Danni's cool ones. When he pulled back, part of him was hoping and praying that was all she needed to hear before she came back to him and kicked his ass. He'd happily take it too. As long as she came back to him he'd do anything.
"Hey!" Jax snapped. "I said Ethan wants to know if there was something wrong with her when she was human."
"She was perfect," he said in a daze as he continued to gaze down at her, "absolutely perfect."
"There was nothing wrong with her? She wasn't hurt or anything? Caine? Caine!"
"What?" he snapped, dragging his eyes away from the woman in his arms to glare at the impatient shifter.
"I'm trying to find out if there was anything wrong with her, you jackass! Did you change her because she was hurt or to take her as your mate? Ethan needs to know."
He gave himself a mental shake as he forced himself to focus. "Her heart stopped," he said, his eyes moving back down to his mate as he sat down on the bed and leaned back against the large headboard, careful with the woman in his arms.
"Come on, Danni," he said softly as he gently ran his fingers through her beautiful hair, pushing it back away from her face.
"Ethan said that wouldn't explain this, Caine. Was there anything else going on with her?"
"She was dying," he mumbled as he pulled her even closer so that he could rest his cheek against her cool forehead.
"From what?" Jax pressed.
"Cancer," he choked out, still unable to believe that he could have lost her.
"What kind?"
"I don't know," he mumbled as he nuzzled his cheek against her forehead.
"Did you scent it on her?"
"No," he said hollowly, knowing that he would have dragged her ass to every specialist in the world if he had.
"Thank f**king God," Jax said as he hung up the phone.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked, willing his mate to stop scaring the hell out of him and wake up. She had to wake up.
"It's poison," Jax said as he allowed his fangs to drop.
Caine frowned as he watched the man bite into his own wrist. "That's what I told you in the first place, ass**le. How exactly is this helpful?"
"Because," Jax said as he climbed onto the bed and reached out and gently pried Danni's mouth open, "it wasn't the blood. It's the cancer."
"Bullshit!" Caine snapped as he watched the shifter place his bleeding wrist against Danni's slack mouth. "I changed her. My blood fixed her."
Jax nodded as he got comfortable in front of them. He kept his eyes on Danni's face and away from her large teardrop shaped br**sts, his large teardrop shaped br**sts, which is why he didn't kill the bastard for coming this close to her while she was naked.
"Didn't you listen in?" Jax asked as he gripped his wrist and squeezed, forcing more blood into Danni's mouth.
"No," he said hollowly as he focused on his mate. She wasn't swallowing and her heart hadn't started beating.
He learned long ago how to control his abilities to the point that everything came naturally now. If he wanted to, he could have heard the entire phone conversation with very little effort, but he'd been too focused on his mate.