Did he love her? Did she love him?
“I’m perfectly fine, baby,” he teased and gave her a sideways smirk. “After dinner, we can sleep. I want you in my bed. I missed you last night.”
“I missed you, too,” she admitted.
As usual, the family dined together at the end of the day. Charlie was getting used to the constant banter between them, and she felt like she belonged more and more with each day that passed.
After dinner, they made their excuses to head to his cabin before the males made their rounds of the land. Until they knew more about the bears, each of them would split the radius up into thirds and spend some time in the forest around the compound.
“I have an hour until I need to meet up with Nash and Fury,” Mason began as they crossed the parking lot, hand in hand. “The females are going to come to our place tonight until we get home.”
“Our place?” she questioned. He’d been referring to anything belonging to him as theirs over the last few days.
“You’re my mate, and I know it will take time for you to understand it because you are human,” he replied. “Plus, I don’t want you to leave.”
“I’m starting to think maybe this is where I need to stay, Mason,” she said, squeezing his hand.
The moment he turned toward her, his eyes hazed over, and a split second later, Mason’s body jerked and a howl fell from his lips as he took her to the ground…but not before a pain bloomed in her leg.
“What the hell?” she gasped, looking down at her leg. There was an arrow sticking out of her thigh, and blood soaked into her pant leg. “Mason, what…”
He was on his side, gasping for air. Another arrow stuck out of his chest, and he was trying to shield her with his body. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I do?”
“Call…help…shift,” he panted, but Charlie was quicker, pushing him away so she could roll him on his back. The arrow stuck out of the right side of his chest toward the bottom of his ribcage.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” she cooed, removing her long-sleeved shirt. “It’s hit your lung. I need to get you somewhere safe.”
“I…can’t call out to Nash,” he growled, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Run to the terminal…scream if you have to. Get help. Hurry.”
“Fuck that,” she barked, using the arms of her long shirt to tie around his body. The arrow kept him from bleeding out, but that lung was going to be holding most of it if she didn’t get him some help.
Taking a look at the arrow, her eyes skimmed up the shaft, noticing it was homemade; nothing like what you could buy from a store. The tip was expertly made with feathers from a hawk. But what stopped her was a small note tied to the end of the weapon.
“You have to shift, Mason,” she growled. “I can’t run. They got my leg.” Her arrow was bare of a message, but she knew who had sent it.
Once the words registered with Mason, he howled, pushing his body upright. The sound was piercing, and it didn’t take long for his family to come out of the terminal building. They weren’t far, but it seemed like forever before they arrived.
“What the fuck happened?” Nash bellowed, dropping to his knees.
Aspen took Charlie, scooping her up. “Fury will get this out of your leg.”
“I can get it out of my leg, but I’m more worried about Mason,” she barked, trying to wiggle out of the female’s hold. “It hit a lung, and there is a message on the arrow.”
Everyone froze as Nash grasped the end of Mason’s arrow, snapping it off to read the message. “Get everyone to my cabin, now!”
Charlie didn’t have use of her leg, and Aspen wasn’t acting like it was a task to carry her. When they arrived at the alpha’s home, Fury was there with a small, black bag.
“Get the arrows out and Mason needs to shift,” he ordered. “I have little in the way of pain medicines for you, Charlie, but I’m going to try and make sure you don’t hurt.”
“Quit worrying about me,” she yelled. “Mason’s wound is worse.”
“Mason will be fine,” Aspen said as she laid a hand on her arm. “Shifting heals everything but a bullet to the head or heart. If he’s breathing, he’s living.”
“Thank god,” she breathed.
“Let’s work on you,” Fury said right when Mason screamed out in pain. Her first instinct was to push past the man who was blocking her view, but she remembered the touching thing.
“Let me see him!” she cried.
“It’s okay,” Isabell promised. “Nash just removed the arrow.”
“What did it say?” she asked when Fury took out a needed and bottle of what looked like a numbing medication.
“Let’s get you stitched up first,” Isabell ordered.
“Fine, but pull it out quick,” she gritted out when Fury wrapped his hand around the wooden shaft of the arrow. “Don’t count it down either. Just pull the fucking thing out, Fury. I’ve worked as a trauma nurse for many years. I know the trick. You say three, but you pull on two.”
God, she was rambling.
“Owwww, fuck…damn it!” she cursed as he did it like she’d told him.
“I’m going to sew you up as best as I can, Charlie.” He put on a pair of sterile gloves and reached for the needle and thread. Bile rose in her throat and she fell back against Aspen’s lap.
“Please, at least clean out the wound before you sew me up,” she begged.
She was thankful for the numbing medicine as he stitched the gaping wound, but her mind was on Mason. Nash had taken him outside to the back deck, and she couldn’t see where he was.
“All done,” Fury replied as he wrapped up her leg. “Be careful putting weight on it.”
“I need to see him,” she snapped, feeling her heart break.
In a small part of her mind, she knew what they said about shifting was true, but her nurse brain panicked, knowing that punctured lung was filling with blood. He could suffocate if it didn’t drain properly.
The first step was sheer agony, but the second and third were done with one goal in mind. She had to get to him. She had to make sure he was okay.
Chapter 11
Mason panted as he shifted for the third time. Breathing was getting easier as his body healed. An injury like he’d suffered would take a good hour of going back and forth between his human and wolf form.
Charlie was there, and had been there since his first shift, sitting on the back deck of Nash’s cabin, holding his human hand or wolf paw. There were tears in her eyes, and he wanted to check her over himself to make sure she was okay. The arrow she took to the leg had to be painful for her human body.
“You okay?” he groaned as his canines began to grow again with the impending shift.
“Oh, Mason,” she sniffled. “I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“I’ll be healed soon…” Then his wolf took over.
The animal closed its eyes, and Mason pushed at the animal’s mind to keep them open so he could watch her. His beautiful mate.
“Nash said you could hear me,” she began, leaning over to kiss the side of his snout. “There was a message on the arrow, Mason. The bears know you are here, and the message said that they want you to stay on your territory or the next one would be made of silver.”
His wolf rumbled. Silver would kill them.
She waited patiently as his wolf recessed, shifting back to his human shell. “They won’t hurt us. It’s a warning, nothing else.”
“They attacked us!” she barked.
“It’s different in the shifter world,” he promised. “They won’t be a problem unless we cross that line, and we’ve trained our wolves not to go further than the areas marked with our scent.”
“Are you sure they won’t come back?” she fretted.
Mason raised his naked, human body, thankful the pain in his chest was gone. He took a second to check the wound and was happy to see only a small, pink scar remained. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with everything he had left in him.
“Shifters send messages with warnings,” he sighed, inhaling her scent. She was going to be okay. They were both going to be okay. “We are animals, Charlie. They knew the shot wouldn’t kill me, and they aimed for your leg since you are human. If they wanted to kill us tonight, it would’ve been done instantly.”
“That’s fucked up, Mason,” she barked. His mate was angry, and he was too. They should’ve left a female alone. Shifters didn’t hurt women, but they’d caused her pain, and that alone was worth his retaliation. He’d get his revenge on that bear one day. It just wouldn’t be today.
“It is, but they won’t be back,” he said, kissing her temple. “I don’t know what Nash has planned, but I’m sure he will inform us come morning.”
“Let me take you home,” she offered, reaching for a blanket.
He wrapped it around his body and climbed to his feet. The shifting had healed his body, but Charlie was still limping. Instead of using the blanket, he dropped it on the couch and gave his brother a nod. They’d talk tomorrow.
“What are you doing?” she scolded when he scooped her up into his arms.
“I’m healed. You are not. So, it’s my duty to care for you,” he vowed, focusing on getting her to their cabin.
“That’s very sweet of you,” she replied, relaxing in his arms.
When they finally reached his cabin, Mason placed her on the couch and covered her up with his own blanket. It was his mother’s, and it made his heart swell to see Charlie snuggled into its warmth.
“Charlie,” he began, knowing this discussion had to happen. He dropped to his knees beside the couch; still naked because he refused to put on clothes. This talk was too important. “You could’ve been healed by now if I’d just changed you. Have you thought about becoming what I am?”
“I have,” she nodded, but her sad sigh caught his attention. “I don’t want to become a wolf.”
“That’s fine,” he deflated. “No one says you have to.”
“Do you want me to be a wolf?” she asked.
“I’m going to be selfish and say yes, because I want you in all ways. I want you to be able to mark me, too. And…eventually, I’d like to have young.”
Charlie closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t want to ever be what you are. It’s just that I think I should wait.”
“I love you, Charlie,” he paused to swallow a lump in his throat. “I don’t care if it’s as a human or a wolf. If you want to wait, I’ll be here. I’ll wait for you.”
“What if I don’t ever want to be a wolf?” she asked.
“You’re so stubborn,” he huffed.
“Never said I wasn’t, Mr. Ward,” she winked, cupping his face. “Mason, I have totally fallen in love with you, too. That arrow…it scared me. I thought I was going to lose you, and that made me realize my true feelings for you. It’s solid like everyone told me. Your mating instincts are spot on. I don’t get it, but I don’t care. I want to stay with you here…forever.”
“I thought you’d never say that,” he sighed with relief.
She took the lead and pulled him back to her lips. They spent the rest of the night tending to each other. He took care with her leg, but his mate was strong and resilient. There was nothing stopping them from having the relationship. A mating was a mating, and he’d claimed her with his touch and bite.
When he woke the next morning, she was still fast asleep. Her blonde hair was in disarray around her beautiful face. They had to meet with Nash to find out what the next course of action would be, but since the bears had sent their warning, it wasn’t as scary as his mate had thought.
The bears could’ve killed them all, but they didn’t.
And he wondered why…
About the Author
About Theresa Hissong:
Theresa Hissong is the bestselling author of the Rise of the Pride series. She writes paranormal romance, rockstar romance, and romantic suspense.
She enjoys spending her days and nights creating the perfect love affair, and she takes those ideas to paper. When she’s not writing, Theresa spends her free time traveling and attending concerts all over the United States.
Look for other exciting reads…coming very soon!
Other Books by Theresa Hissong:
Fatal Cross Live!
Fatal Desires
Fatal Temptations
Fatal Seduction
Fatal Intentions
Rise of the Pride:
Talon
Winter
Savage
The Birth of an Alpha
Ranger
Kye
The Healer
Dane
Booth
Noah
Taze
Storm
Morgan Clan Bears
Mating Season
Mating Instinct
The Ward Wolf Pack Novella Series
His Lost Mate
Incubus Tamed
Thirst
Standalone Novella
Something Wicked
Book for Charity
Fully Loaded
Club Phoenix
The Huntress
Cycle of Sin on Tour
Rocked (A Rockstar Reverse Harem Novel)
His Stubborn Mate (The Ward Wolf Pack Novella Series, Book 2) Page 8