Taming the Beast

Chapter 41 (Keegan)

(Keegan’s POV)

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong and I knew it, but Caroline dismissed it like she

always does when she’s trying to hide something from me. Danny arriving took everyone’s attention off

of Caroline for a moment, including Caroline’s. She was looking a little pale but she smiled and stood to

greet him. She mumbled his name before she started falling. I quickly caught her before she hit the

ground. I scooped her up in my arms bridal style and looked worriedly over her pale, sweating body.

Her brother looked between us confused.

“What happened?” he asked confused. My frantic eyes met his.

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. I could feel the guys shuffling restlessly and uncomfortably behind

me as they didn’t know what to do. Hell, I didn’t know what to do. I never knew what to do when

Caroline got hurt; I always freaked out instead. I was a poor excuse for a boyfriend. Hell, I was a poor

excuse for an Alpha. “Mom!” I yelled. She came out all smiles when she saw Danny. She held out a

hand to him.

“Hi, I’m Lena; Keegan’s mother,” she introduced herself warmly, not feeling the tension in the air or

seeing Caroline’s limp body in my arms.

“Danny,” he said grimly, shaking her hand with his free one. His other arm was holding Preston. His

eyes flickered over to me and my mom finally turned around.

“My heavens! Keegan, why are you just standing there?!” she yelled at me.

“I don’t know what to do!” I yelled back frantically. I was getting more and more anxious and time

passed. My mom sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering something about my brain switching off before

she looked at me again.

“Get her to the infirmary downstairs,” she instructed. “Tell Dr. Thomas what happened. He’s the one on

duty right now,” she said.

“A hospital… downstairs?” Danny asked. That was exactly what Caroline said when she found out. My

worried eyes flickered down to her and she muttered something and rested her head against my

shoulder, clutching to my shirt like Preston would have. I turned and started walking towards the

kitchen.

“You can come with us,” I threw over my shoulder. I heard the shuffling of Danny’s feet behind me as I

pulled the door open and walked down the stairs. Dr. Thomas met us in the hallway in front of a room.

He motioned us inside. I walked in quickly and set her down on the hospital bed.

“Ninny?” Preston said softly, looking at her. He looked like he was about to cry. Hell, I was about to cry.

Caroline stirred a bit on the bed. I pushed her damp hair out of her face. Danny sat in one of the visiting

chairs as he looked around amazed. At this point, I didn’t care if everything was exposed to him. I just

wanted Caroline to be okay. Dr. Thomas came back and set her up on an IV of fluids. He put a cold

towel on her head and checked her vitals, hooking her up to a monitor. The machine came to life as it

started beeping to match her heartbeats. Dr. Thomas pushed lightly on her stomach. She yelled out in

pain as he pushed on her side where I marked her. My eyes widened as he lifted her shirt lightly,

exposing the bandage. He undid the bandage to reveal a very purple area. Her dark veins were visible

on her pale skin. The teeth marks were raised slightly. Dr. Thomas sighed before replacing the

bandage.

“Mr. Porter, could I speak with you alone for a moment?” he asked knowingly. My eyes flickered to

Danny, who was staring at his sister. When he realized that we were looking at him, he stood quickly.

“I’ll be upstairs,” he muttered before he hurried off. Dr. Thomas waited until we heard the door at the

top of the stairs close before he looked back to me.

“You marked her? Are you crazy? She’s human!” he hissed at me. I sighed and hunched over a little

bit.

“She’s my mate and I love her,” I said desperately.

“You poisoned her,” he countered quietly. My eyes went to her sleeping form.

“Can you fix it?” I asked. He sighed before he nodded.

“Her human blood is too weak to accept your marking. If left untreated, it could kill her. I figure, we can

give her a little of your blood; maybe a pint or so in a blood transfusion. Your blood could ease the

process, heal up that scar and counteract the poisoning. It may or may not work. We’ve never

encountered anything like this before,” he guessed. I nodded quickly.

“Anything, just… save her, please,” I begged. Dr. Thomas looked over my face before he sighed. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“I need to get her blood type first and see if you are a match,” he said. After running the proper tests, I

was a match. Dr. Thomas got a pint of my blood and switched out the bag of fluids with the bag of my

blood. “Now just give it a little time. She probably won’t wake up for a few hours,” he informed me.

“Please… you can’t tell anyone,” I begged him. He hesitated before he nodded grimly. I could tell he

thought it was a bad idea, but he agreed anyway. I thanked him and sighed before I went to see my

dad again. He looked at me worried.

“Is Caroline okay?” he asked. I hesitated.

“She will be,” I answered softly. As I stood there, a comfortable silence fell over the room. I enjoyed it

while it lasted.

“You marked her,” my dad practically whispered. “And it poisoned her?” he continued. I could tell he

was curious. No one of our kind had ever mated with a human before so everything about my

relationship with Caroline was new. There wasn’t a handbook for these things like there is for the latter.

I sighed and shook my head.

“I just… I just want to be with her dad. She’s quickly become my world,” I admitted. “I don’t know what I

would do if…” I trailed off, not even wanting to finish that sentence. My throat choked up and I

swallowed roughly.

“I know son. She’s quickly wrapped all of us around her dainty fingers,” my dad said with a small smile.

We were both silent as we hear her start to stir. “Go to her,” my dad said softly. I nodded once before I

rushed back to her room. I held her free hand in mine just as she let out a deep breath and turned her

head to the other side.

“Keegan,” she muttered. I smiled lovingly at her. I loved it when she said my name in her sleep. I

peeled the bandage away and looked at my bite mark. Caroline and I had taken the second step to

mating. The council couldn’t know about this. If they knew I went against them, there’s no telling what

they would do to me or Caroline. They weren’t above or past doing things the old fashioned way. The

thought sent a shiver down my spine. I wouldn’t let that happen. No one could know until our mating

process was complete. I knew what I had to do now. I had to turn Caroline. It hadn’t been done for

centuries because of how dangerous the whole thing was, but every one that survived it turned out a

pure white wolf. There weren’t any more white wolves in existence. They signified a newly born wolf,

pure in all their ways. The reason a lot of people didn’t survive the change, according to history, was

because their heart had to be pure going into it. If there was any deceit in their intentions for changing,

the process would only kill them. Others died because they weren’t strong enough to survive the

change. Eventually, we started giving birth to wolves instead of making them. We didn’t have a

population problem or anything; it was just that too many people were dying because of it.

Waiting for Caroline to wake up brought the most grueling hours I’d ever lived through. My leg bounced

nervously. Finally, she stirred and groaned as her eyes blinked open I let out a breath of relief and

stood to kiss her head.

“Oh God, Caroline,” I breathed in relief as I held her gently. She looked at me confused.

“What happened?” she asked hoarsely. My face fell and I dropped my eyes to her white bed sheets.

“I-I… your mark… my mark poisoned you,” I practically whispered. Her hand reached up and touched

my cheek.

“Don’t do that… don’t regret anything,” she said hoarsely. I poured her a glass of water and handed it to

her. She drank it gratefully.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. She shook her head and set her glass down.

“Keegan, I feel fine. I just want to go home,” she said. He looked towards the hallway before he

nodded.

“I’ll get you out without anyone even realizing you’re gone,” I smirked trying to lighten the mood. Once

her transfusion was complete, Dr. Thomas suggested that we finish the mating process before my

blood wears out of her system just in case we run into any other hiccups. I sighed and rubbed my

hands along the front of my jeans.

It was now or never.