I gasped and looked at her. “Are you—”
“Not yet. We’re giving it the summer. Like you two are.”
“Come on!” Delia hissed.
Addi and I pressed our shoulders together and walked backward down the hall, keeping our guns on the stairs. We backed into the room and backed up to the window.
“Go,” I hissed to her.
She handed the gun out to Brandy and climbed through. A moment later, the long barrel of the rifle snuck back into the room.
If she had to fire that gun, I’d probably be deaf.
I handed the gun back to Brandy again and walked backward to the windowsill, shoving myself through and onto the roof. I perched against the window again and took the gun back from Brandy.
“Can you see the coyotes?” Addi asked.
“They’re all around the front, yipping and crowding into the house,” Zanna whispered back to us.
Delia peered over the edge. “It’s about ten feet to the deck, fifteen to the ground. If we hang drop down, five feet isn’t bad. Might twist an ankle. We can run into the woods.”
“Are the woods really a better choice?” Zanna asked.
As if he heard her, Garrett howled again, very close by.
“The woods are a better choice.” I nodded. “Wolves won’t attack us. They’ll leave us alone.”
“Are we faster than coyotes?”
“Do we have a choice?”
I shook my head. “Do it. Let’s just get down from here. Garrett will be here soon. We only have to stay out of their line of sight.”
“Just Garrett?” Zanna asked.
“Patrick will be too,” I added.
Delia nodded. “So will Jason. And probably Martin.”
“And Tati, if she doesn’t give them a choice.” I laughed quietly. “Let’s go. Hang and drop. Run for the trees to the right. They’re the closest and the farthest from the front door.”
Brandy and Delia were the first two down. Both landed and rolled so they wouldn’t make too much noise. They took off like bats out of Hell. Zanna was next, and we handed down the rifle. She took Addi’s too and started running with both of them.
Addi dropped and I handed down my rifle. She nodded at me, telling me it was my turn.
An explosion of pain hit my shoulder as I saw the ground rushing up to meet me. I didn’t remember hitting the ground.
Chapter Twelve
I was going to kill Bart.
If I couldn’t kill him, I’d exile him.
His grudge with me had nothing to do with the safety of those women. We’d always disliked the exiles hanging out so close to our own pack lands. But while Harrison had owned it and not lived on it, there was nothing we could do. Now that the women were there, the coyotes were too close.
I raced through the woods at the fastest speed I could manage to coax my wolf into. Patrick, and surprisingly Jason, were on either side of me.
When I had let out the gathering call just a few minutes before, he had come running. The nerdiest of the wolf pack, he only begrudged his wolf the minimum amount of time.
Dude was fast—he could keep up with an Alpha and a Beta. When we got back, I had to check his standing in the pack, because it was not nearly high enough. Especially if he had been a victim of the Alpha effect the day before.
The house had all the lights in the living room blazing as we raced up to it. There were no lights on in the bedrooms, but I caught a glimpse of someone climbing out of the window in the back.
We raced to the front, and the coyotes were boiling in through the open door—with a broken knob.
Shit!
I gave direction, a quick yip sent most of the pack around the right, and another yip brought me, Patrick, Jason, and Tati around the left.
I saw two of the women drop off the roof and run. Another and another did so as I ran closer, and the last one on the roof was Jess.
Of course she was. Making sure all of her friends were safe.
The glint off the gun barrel was brief and I didn’t even have a chance to bark before it discharged.
Jess jerked forward and started falling.
I darted forward, finding speed I didn’t even know I had as Addi dropped her rifle and scrambled under her, trying to catch her. “Oh my God, no!”
I leapt the railing on the deck and helped her direct Jess onto my soft, furry body so she didn’t hit hard.
“Garrett,” Addi gasped quietly. “Oh, God, she’s hit bad.”
I shifted quickly and realized she was right. The shotgun blast had hit her shoulder and peppered her whole upper right hand side, even tearing into her neck.
Her pulse fluttered as her blood pumped out of the gaping wounds all over her and me.
Addi’s terrified hands drifted over the missing skin and bone, at a loss for something to do, grab, touch. “Shit, shit, we have to get her to a hospital.”
“Jess! Jessica!” I screamed in her ear.
“Don’t shake her!”
“Who shot her?”
“I don’t know!” Addi was in full-on tears. “We climbed up the stairs because none of us wanted to shoot anyone.”
God, Jessica’s shoulder was a mess. I could see all the bone and sinew, and the blood pumped out. I ripped the shirt off with a claw and wadded it up, pressing against the flow.
“She’s going to die…”
Patrick was standing next to her, allowing Addi to lean against him. I stared at him, my whole brain going into shock trying to process what had just happened to the woman who was meant to be my mate.
Finally, I growled, “Take them out. I don’t care who gets hurt or dead. I’ll take the heat.”
He nodded, butted his head against Addi, and ran off.
Addi grabbed my arm. “Zanna is a field medic.”
“Tati!”
My wolf-sister yipped and ran off the porch with Jason hot on her tail.
“We tried to get out of the house. She was the last one down—”
“I saw. The gun came out of the window. Whoever pulled that trigger won’t see sunrise.”
Addi gasped and sobbed, “She’s bad, Garrett.”
I put my fingers on her neck to find a pulse. It was thready, but there. Her breathing wasn’t much better. I could hear the gurgle of her lungs, and the whole shirt was soaked in red. “Come on, Jess. Don’t do this. Hang on.”
“Where’s the closest hospital?”
“To handle this? Anchorage or Vancouver.”
“Jesus, those are hours away by boat or helicopter!”
I was more than aware of that. I also painfully aware of the blood that was draining out of her fast.
Her eyes fluttered open and locked on mine.
“Gar…”
“Hush, don’t talk. Zanna’s coming.”
I could feel her trying to shake her head. “…too…”
“No, no, it’s not too late. It’s not.”
It slammed into me like a terrible wave.
Jess was dying. My Jessica, my mate, my heart, was dying in my arms.
My wolf let out a howl I couldn’t hold back.
I didn’t want to hold him back.
“God, don’t leave, don’t leave me.”
Zanna dove in, shoving Addi out of the way. She ran her hands and eyes over her friend. “Oh, God. God, I can’t fix this. I can’t patch this. We need to get her to the hospital. There’s no medic kit in the world—”
“The closest is in Anchorage.”
Jess’s hand worked against my skin and I sensed she was trying to pull me closer. I leaned down and saw the blood trickling from her lips.
She managed to pull in just enough breath and push it back out. “I love you.”
“Oh, baby, don’t do this.” I leaned my forehead on hers. “Don’t go. Hang on.”
“I’m trying…”
The night was filled with barks and growls, the sounds of a massive brawl were all around us, and while I heard them, I didn’t hear them either.
Jess was dying in my arms.
“You know what you have to do, Son.”
My head snapped up to find my father standing there, just in the dark beyond the stairs. I hadn’t even realized he’d come with us.
I shook my head. “She never said yes.”
“Risk her ire, or lose her forever.” But his tone was not that of an Alpha. It was of a father, trying to tell his son something, encouraging him—me—to grab something before it slipped away.
Addi gasped and grabbed my arm. “Can you do that? Can you… Please. Save her.”
“She didn’t say yes.”
“Don’t be noble!”
“I’m not. I trying to respect her…”
“She loves you, you heard her! Don’t let her die.”
She was going to die.
Unless I mated her.
But she never said yes. We never talked more about it after I told her. We were going to wait until the summer was over.
I stared at her, and I could hear her heart slowing.
One true mate, once in a lifetime.
It was slipping away.
And I could stop it.
I raised my head. “Leave. All of you. Go help Patrick.”
“No!” Zanna screamed. “No! I’m not leaving her!”
Addi wrapped a hand around her arm and pulled her away. “Leave them. You have to trust him, Zanna. You have to. He can save her, but we have to go.”
“He’s—”
“Zanna.” Now my father was in Alpha mode. “Come with us. Come.”
“I…”
“Go,” I said again. “Please. Just leave us…”
I needed to do this alone. So that if she hated me for it, it was only me she hated.
They moved quickly, as soon as Tati and Jason pulled on their clothes and led them off the porch. Addi was the last, and she dropped a quick kiss on my head.
“Save her.”
I pulled Jess close to me and held her tight. The wound was bleeding badly still, which was actually good because her heart was still trying.
“Jessica, I’m sorry I have to take this choice away from you. But I can’t live in a world you’re not in.”
Releasing a claw from my wolf, I ripped a line on my wrist. It should have been on my neck, but there was no way that was going to be possible. I press the heavily bleeding skin to her mouth.
I tilted her head toward me, exposing the uninjured side of her neck. It was the perfect angle to make sure that my blood could slide down her throat.
I lowered my head and let my fangs out. I dropped my mouth to her neck and pierced the skin. Her blood flowed onto my tongue. Just a few drops, but it was all I needed.
This was supposed to be intimate and beautiful.
Not this desperate attempt to save her life.
I waited, my teeth withdrawing, my tongue desperate to coax a few drops out of her vein. I sucked very gently.
Jess swallowed. Just once, weakly.
The mate bond happened immediately.
It drove through me, into my own blood, and spiraled through my brain. I felt hot and cold at the same time, and instead of sharing the delight of mutual climax—
I felt her pain. All of it. The burning, the cold, the sharp pain of broken bones, the dull pain of lungs that fought to draw another breath.
I called my wolf and let him rest just below my skin. He whined, but the magic that was there helped both of us. Me to bear her pain and her to heal faster and better.
I was able to lick my wrist to heal the wound I’d ripped open, and the marks on her neck were already healing, even though they’d never fully fade away.
I could feel the wounds stitching together. There was a lot of damage and it was going to take a while. But I could feel her there. I could feel her healing.
Time didn’t matter, so I had no idea how long we’d been there when my father and sister, in wolf, trotted back up the stairs and sat down in front of me.
There was a whinny from my father, and I nodded. “Yes. The mating took. She’s healing slowly.”
Addi appeared on the stairs. “Jason went to get the truck.”
“The coyotes?”
“Dealt with for now,” she said. “They won’t be back here any time soon.”
“How many?”
Addi looked around, and Tati nudged her. “Half. A little more than.”
“The shooter?”
“Gephardt. Someone named Gephardt. He ran.”
I found my father’s gaze. “He’s dead when I find him.”
He gave me a slow, sage nod.
Addi knelt down next to me on the deck and brushed some of the bloodied, matted hair from Jess’s face. “She’s going to live.”
“Yes. This hurts. It’s not supposed to. It’s supposed be intimate and wonderful. Instead all I feel is pain.”
“Thank you, Garrett. We couldn’t lose her.”
I looked up. “I know.”
Her pain was incredible. But so was my wolf, and our magic. I hoped she could forgive me for this one day.
Chapter Thirteen
Death was cozy.
It smelled like Meyer lemons and felt like fresh washed linens.
I was warm and comfortable, though my shoulder twinged a bit. Pulling the covers up, I nestled down a little more.
I wasn’t alone.
That was a strange sensation. I was dead. Why could I feel more people around me?
Well, not people. Person. Just one. A very warm body nearby.
…and a new sensation. A strange, untamed sensation.
Deciding that maybe this wasn’t Heaven, I opened my eyes slowly and could tell I was in Garrett’s bedroom.
But I should be dead.
The ground rushed up at me.
Gasping, I shot up and jumped from the bed, taking the sheets with me. It was a bad move—my shoulder convulsed.
“Hey, hey!”
Garrett had me in his arms and back on the bed in a moment. “Hey. Breathe, baby. Come on. Breathe. Don’t jump up like that. You were hurt, bad.”
“I was dead!”
“You weren’t. Not at any point.” Wrapping his arms around me and pulling the cover around me, he sat with me on the bed.
My eyes traveled over his features, and I realized he was unshaven, haggard, exhausted, and his eyes sported dark circles.
“What happened, Garrett? I was shot and fell off the roof. I should be dead.”
He was suddenly riddled with guilt.
I can smell it.
I could smell everything. The sheets, the floors, the paint. The scent of bacon from days before. I could smell the grass outside—
I realized it wasn’t really morning. It was only the first few hints of sun starting to break the night. But I could see Garrett sitting there, the blue of his eyes, the dark black of his hair. I could see the tiniest, fine lines of the comforter wrapped around me, the dust that sat on a frame across the room.
“Garrett, what happened? Why do I smell your guilt?”
He shoved off the bed and paced away from me. “You were dying. I had to create a mate bond to save you.”
“Why?”
“You were dying. We wouldn’t have even been able to get you in Juneau to the medical center. I didn’t want you to die.”
It was so strange. I wasn’t even remotely upset with him. He was torn in two about doing this, but why? “I thought being a mate was just like being a spouse.”
“I didn’t want to force you into anything, so I never told you all that went along with it. There’s… a bit.”
“What do I need to know?”
He sat on the bed next to me again. “There’s only one. You get just one mate in your lifetime. You can have other partners, but there’s only one true mate your whole life.
“When you bond, every bit of magic the shifter has is shared with and awakened in the mate. Sight, smell, hearing, speed, healing, life. Everything. The bond creates a link between the two t
hat makes them inseparable. It also guarantees children when, and if, they are able. There’s a silent bond that’s forged between our minds as well. You’ll be able to hear me when I send my thoughts to you.”
“Telepathy…”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Well, you know the Alpha deal. When my father and mother are ready to step down, I’ll take over. And you’ll take over for my mother as Alpha female. You’ll have just as much power in your voice as I will.”
I let out a breath and blinked a few times, and rolled my shoulder. “How long was I asleep?”
“Two days? Two and a half.”
I looked down at the shoulder I knew I had been shot in, and it was just tender and pink. “You never took me to the hospital.”
“There was no time.”
I studied my arm. “This was a shotgun blast.”
“Yes. Close range. Didn’t have time to scatter the shot much.”
This healed because he’d given me a mate bond. I had the feeling there was a lot more to the Alpha thing than he was telling me. I was tired and I didn’t want to press him for more.
We sat quietly, and he traced his thumb over my knuckles. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I took the choice away.”
“You didn’t take the choice. The guy who fired the gun did. The coyotes did. Not you. But why did you do it?”
“It would save you.”
“No, Garrett, why did you do it?”
“I didn’t want to live without you.” He stared down at me. “I didn’t want to take this choice away from you. We hadn’t talked at all about this, about the mate bond, and I swore we wouldn’t until you were ready. But seeing your blood rush out of your body, hearing your heart dying…”
“I feel weird. Like… there’s something else inside me.”
He looked confused. “There shouldn’t be…”
“It’s not… bad. It’s wild, like it needs to be outside and running.”
The confusion went from astonishment to shock and fear. But not fear of me.
For you.
I gasped and leapt backward on the bed. That had been Garrett’s voice in my head.
“Holy shit,” I finally managed. “What’s…”
“You’re not supposed to have a wolf,” he whispered.
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