Page 78 of The Bull's Head

“I’ll be right there.” He stood. “I have to go. They’re about to start the procedure.”

Ivan got up and gripped Teddy’s shoulder. “Let us go be there for our Byk.”

He would never be able to tell Ivan how much he appreciated the support.

When they got to the room, Lydia and Gwyneth stood over Byk and smiled down at him as Damon and Cece, Mal and Alp, as well as Wiley and Micah, watched from the outer office.

“Nervous?”

He glanced from person to person, letting his gaze linger on Teddy. “No. My family is here, so I’m fine.”

Gwyneth stroked a hand over Byk’s head. “You know that shifters can’t really be sedated normally. Well, they can, but the drugs they use have to be in such high concentrations that it could have serious side effects. What we’re going to do today is combine two different drugs. One that Lydia uses for her animals and one I use on people. Neither by itself would put you under at the dosages we’re using, but we feel that together they’ll work on both halves.”

“I understand.”

Gwyneth frowned. “This is risky, Callum. I mean, I don’t even want to tell you the odds of something going wrong, because they’re extremely high.”

Byk waved Teddy closer. When he got there, Byk took his hand. “We understand the risks, but this is something I need to do.” He sighed. “The voices are getting louder, more insistent. I feel like… I feel like they’re calling me from the other side. Like I’m dying, and the only way I can stop it is to find out what’s happening to me.”

Dr. Lydia nodded at Gwyneth, who wiped down Byk’s arm with an alcohol swab, the scent nearly overpowering to a shifter nose.

“Little pinch,” she said.

Byk didn’t even react when the needle slid through the skin and into his arm.

“It won’t take long,” Gwyneth said as she adjusted some valves. When she finished, she headed for the door. “I’ll turn off the lights and let the two of you talk a bit, okay?”

“Thank you, Gwyneth, Dr. Lydia. I—we—appreciate what you’re doing.”

The room went dark gradually, until the only lights came from the equipment the doctors were using. Even in this dimness, Teddy could see Byk perfectly. The tightness around his mouth, the pinch of his eyes, the tremble of his lip telegraphed to Teddy what was going on in Byk’s mind.

“You can’t hide from me, Byk,” he whispered.

“I wasn’t trying to, I promise. I told her I wasn’t nervous, but I am. I’m not sure what I’ll discover. I can’t be certain I’ll survive. Hyde stole a third of my life, and all I want is to carve out something for us. I want us to have a child, because despite what you say, regardless of the blood you think you have on your hands, you would be an amazing father.”

“I’ll make you a deal, yeah? You come back to me and we’ll see about adopting a child from here. One who’ll know we understand them, one who will look to us for direction and love.” He squeezed Byk’s hands, noting the chill of his fingers. “I can’t do this without you, so you need to come back to us.”

“I promise I will.”

Teddy could only pray to the Maker that it was a promise Byk could keep.

Byk couldn’t have been happier. Teddy declared he wanted a family. One they cobbled together from the broken pieces of lives in the complex that started with nothing but pain and death, but had been transformed by hard work into something of love.

If someone had told him a year ago he’d be living in Wald, that he’d actually wanted to be here, he would have laughed and said they were stupid. Who could want to live in a place where his brother died? Where Byk’s life was stripped away from him. Where…. But Hyde was dead. Those days were behind him. Now, everywhere he looked, Byk saw new lives forming. And his was one of them.

He’d come a long way in such a short time. From being trapped in a crap-filled room, with hooves that were rotting away, to a shed outside where he could smell clean air and nibble on blades of sweet grass, to being mated to a bear of a man who doted on him.

And yet, he was about to risk losing all that.

“Getting hard to think,” he murmured.

“Then close your eyes and rest,” Teddy said, brushing a hand over Byk’s head. “I’m right here and won’t be going anywhere.”

Byk nodded. Or at least thought he did. His limbs were heavy, his mind becoming more muddled as he slid toward unconsciousness. This was nothing like the experiments they’d forced on him. The sedation then had crushed his mind, dragging him under, giving him a feeling that he was drowning. This was different. He wasn’t sure if it was because Teddy was there, holding his hands, whispering he loved Byk, or if the doctors had come up with a cocktail that worked without worrying about killing him.

When he opened his eyes, the room was black as night. Even with his shifter senses, Byk felt as though he’d been wrapped in cotton batting. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t touch. He tried to call out for Teddy, but his throat was raw. Had it—Teddy and Wald—all been a dream? Was he still locked away in the lab, waiting on the next experiment? No, it couldn’t be. He’d been with Teddy. Been filled by Teddy. No way could he have dreamed that.

Yet the darkness persisted. Deep, impenetrable.

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