First Eclipse

Fauna blinked. She was standing in the courtyard of the palace.

Alona came out of the Solarium. With one hand over her swollen belly, she hurried toward her. Holding out her hand, she nodded. "Come. We'll port to the medical building." Fauna lunged in her direction and grabbed her hand. They were in some sort of lobby when Alona released her hand.

"He'll be this way."

Fauna followed the queen down the hall and into a larger area with beds.

A nurse came over to her and put her hand up. "I'm sorry, you can't be in here."

"Don't touch her." Someone growled.

"Oh." The nurse gave her an apologetic look. "His mate. This way." She turned on her heel.

Fauna looked to see several of the royal women around a bed. The short doctor who had helped her was there. When he shifted, she saw it was Tim on the table. Sucking in air, she hurried over.

"Tim." The bodies parted and let her closer. He was covered in blood. A nurse and the doctor were cutting his jacket off.

"Leisha." He dropped his head back onto the table. "It's fine." He said.

She didn't even bother to glare at him. It was not fine. "How bad?" She looked at the doctor.

"Still assessing."

"I did what I could."

She glanced to see Princess Reagan standing at the end of the bed. Her hair was completely grey.

"How is he?" Prince Leone appeared. His brother Quinton was right behind him.

"What the hell happened?" Daxx glared at Leone.

Leone shook his head. "The third just appeared out of nowhere." His eyes rounded. "Appeared out of nowhere. Shit." He wiped a bloody hand on the sheet and pulled out his phone. Stabbing it, he turned and gave Quinton a look. "Trendan. One of yours was at that building. No, the one your guy Tor was at. He just appeared out of thin air when Tim was already taking on two." He nodded. "Meet you there in a minute." He jammed the phone in his pocket.

"Tim, you need to be still." The nurse tried pushing his arm back down. She gave up and looked at Fauna. "Stand by his head, keep him calm."

"I'm calm."

"Just behave," Daxx said but without any forcefulness in her voice.

Fauna moved to the top of the bed and put her hands on either side of his head. She leaned down. "Hey."

His eyes flicked to look at her, and then he stopped fighting the nurse.

"Just let them do their thing." She looked at Leone and then Quinton. "Why are you just standing there? Give him blood."

Leone opened his mouth and then snapped it shut and looked at the doctor.

"I need to check internally before you go healing things up that should be closed." The doctor mumbled.

Fauna watched more blood-soaked items be tossed on the floor. "Fauna."

She looked up to see Ava hurrying across the room. When a nurse tried to cut her off, Ava's wings were out, and she glared at her. The nurse stepped back. If it weren't such a dire moment, it would have been funny. Ava hurried over. "How's he doing?"

Fauna looked down to see Tim lying there, his eyes opening and then slipping shut. She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned over him. "Don't you leave me. I trust you to take me into the mountains and get me back again." His eyes opened. "Take you." He said in such a weak voice it took a moment for it to register.

"Fauna, you may need to tone it down a bit." Princess Kinsley came in. "It's like the gathering of every pet in Alterealm outside this building right now."

Fauna cringed. She hadn't realized she was sending out her panic. Nodding she closed her eyes and blew out a breath as she sent calming emotions out. She did it a few more times and then opened her eyes. "Sorry." She whispered. "He needs to feed. I have to repair this tear, and then he can have blood." The doctor said.

Fauna looked at him. "I'll do it." She caught the surprised look Ava gave her but then looked at Daxx. "What do I do?"

Daxx exchanged a look with Quinton, and he nodded. "Okay." She moved around the nurse and came up to the top of the bed with her. "Because it's you, he's going to want it from here." She pointed to a spot on the side of her neck. She looked down at Tim. "Move your hair and get close enough, and he'll do the rest." She shrugged.

Fauna nodded. "Okay." She shifted to the side of the bed the doctor wasn't on and pulled her hair away from her neck. Her heart was beating like crazy, and she couldn't believe she was doing this, but something inside her told her she had to. "Tim, you behave," Daxx said, sounding emotional.

Fauna leaned down close to his face, "You need to feed, Tim." She shifted her upper body so she could get her neck in front of his mouth. "Leisha." He said breathlessly.

"It's okay, Tim." She pushed her neck closer still. She could feel his breath against her skin. It was shallow and not regular. "Tim, you need to feed." She whispered. His hand touched the back of her head, but he still didn't do anything. Reaching across his body, she put her hand under his head and lifted his head so his face was against her neck. "Feed."

"Stop being difficult, Tim. That's an order." Daxx said loudly.

His heated breath touched her neck, and she knew he opened his mouth. Before she could tell him it was okay again, she felt the pinch and brief pain of his fangs piercing her flesh. She felt calm and knew that he'd used the effort to make it so it didn't hurt her. He had to be all right. It wasn't lost on her that they had been targeting him because of her. There was no other reason to. It was her fault he was lying on this bed.

"That's enough, Tim." Daxx was on the other side of him now.

Tim withdrew his teeth but continued to hold her. She felt his tongue lick over her neck, and then he relaxed.

Lifting her head, she looked down to see him looking back at her. His eyes were red, and it didn't even freak her out this time. Leaning down, she kissed his forehead and smiled at him. "Now cooperate with the doctor." "Yeah."

She looked to see what the doctor was doing and that's when she noticed a few of the other guards standing there and more of the royal brothers and their mates. "Okay. He can have blood now." The doctor stepped back.

Quinton started to step forward when King Troy put his arm out to stop him. She watched the king come over, and saw an expression on his face that held such compassion she was shocked. He moved to stand where the doctor had been. Someone held out a small curved knife to him. Fauna glanced to see it was Daxx. Troy took it and didn't even hesitate for a second; just cut it into his wrist and held it in front of Tim's mouth. "Drink." The king said. One word spoken softly was filled with so much authority. Fauna looked to Tim to see him nod his head to his king, and then he grasped his wrist and put it to his mouth.

"He'll need to rest to make sure everything stays closed. At least two days." The doctor said.

"Can he be ported?" Mac asked as he stepped closer to the table. "He'll be more comfortable at home."

The doctor nodded. "Once should be safe enough." He looked at Tim as he was releasing the king's wrist.

Fauna expected someone to hand him a cloth or something, but no one did. The king didn't seem to care his wrist was cut open. She looked at it to see it was closing up right before her eyes. Surely, this was an illusion caused by the eufori. The doctor and nurses moved out of the way. Prince Rafael came over to the bed and looked down at Tim. "Do we need to go over the basics again?" He smiled.

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"No, sir, blades are just attracted to my abdomen."

Rafael snorted and then his expression grew more serious. "They were targeting you, Tim." He looked at Fauna. "We don't know why they want her so bad, but they were willing to take you out of the equation to get her."

Tim nodded. "Good luck to them." There was a growl in his voice.

"While you're recovering, you have some decisions to make."

Tim nodded.

Rafael looked at Fauna. "Are you able to go keep an eye on him?"

She glanced at Ava and then at Tim. "I don't think I have a choice. I can't go home right now, can I?"

"No."

"We'll find out what that mage knows and let you know." The king looked at Tim. "There will be a guard near your property until your two days rest are done."

Tim turned and looked at Mac and then nodded. "Yes, sir."

"I can go get you some clothes." Ava jerked her chin toward Fauna, and she looked down to see she was covered in Tim's blood.

"Thank you."

"Don't port him away until I get back." She told no one in particular and then walked over to the other side of the room where Firo was standing.

"Was it someone from Solrelm that got me?" Tim looked at the captain.

"Tor is looking into that right now. He's down at the cells with Arius." Tim nodded. "Let me know."

"We will." Prince Rafael looked at her. "If you need anything, let one of us know."

She nodded, still trying to process everything that had happened since she dialed into that call. Since Tim had told her they were mates, she hadn't felt anything different inside. Sure, he was nice and very caring toward animals, which to her was the most important thing, but other than thinking he was a sexy pirate, there had been no other signs that this mate thing was real. When she heard he was hurt over the call, she could barely breathe and was sure her heart paused completely. Seeing him on the bed with so much blood on him, the only thing she could think was she couldn't continue without him in her life.

Looking down at him, she saw he was watching her. He had such concern in his eyes, which made no sense at all; she was fine. Reaching over, she put her hand on his chest and left it there. He covered hers with his own and closed his eyes. This mate thing was real, and if the last half hour had shown her anything, it was that it was forever, even without being completed. She had some serious thinking to do in the next few days.