“Definitely,” Gunner said with a nod. “We’ll be checking the roads for a while. He’ll probably keep us company. Anyhow, I’ll let Thorn know what we—”
He stopped speaking mid-sentence and stood stock still. He and Gage tilted their heads almost indiscernibly toward the front door at the same time.
“Everyone get down. Now!” Gunner ordered, saying it through clenched teeth as though he didn’t want the sound to carry.
The twins charged toward the door. If they had been planning to close it, they were too late. Gage had made it close to the door, and took a step back, stumbling at the sight of a Remington shotgun aimed at his face.
A middle-aged man with a scrubby beard stepped into view, followed by three other men with rifles. They were all armed to the teeth, with gun belts at their waist as though they had just stepped out of a Wild West movie.
“Well, look what we have here,” the lead man said, looking around the room. “How’s everyone doing this evening?” He didn’t wait for anyone to respond. “I just want to let you know that if you cooperate, no one’s gonna get hurt. All we want is wallets, jewelry and any valuables you have.”
Shit. So these were the roving bands of armed thugs they were talking about.
Gunner raised his hands to show he wasn’t armed and stepped closer to Gage. “We don’t want any trouble, gentlemen.”
The man stared at Gunner, checking him out from head to toe. “Try not to be a hero tonight, cowboy.”
“I won’t let you harm these people.”
“Just shut the fuck up and stand real still. Every one of you. Hands on your head, now!”
The older man should not have said that, because everything went to hell and moved lightning-fast before the word now fully came out of his mouth.
A snarl escaped from Gunner’s mouth, and at the same time, he lunged forward, shoving the man’s rifle skyward. Gage launched at the other three men still standing close to the front door. One of the guns went off, then another, and another. Finn, Dawn, Lauretta and I crouched down to the floor, taking cover from the bullets. I must have hit my shoulder on the end table on the way down. A sharp pain gripped me on the spot.
Out of nowhere, a giant gray timber wolf with bright blue eyes leaped through the front door. It landed directly on top of the three men Gage was fighting off. A year or so ago, I would have been scared out of my mind and scampering to get the hell away. Tonight, knowing what I did, I just tucked my head down, waiting as the wolf clawed at the three men. It pounced on the lead man and swatted it massive paws across the man’s face. The leader was out cold in no time.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell?” Finn shouted after the wolf ran off. He got to his feet and ran over to Lauretta, pulling her close. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” she told him, shaking.
Gunner got to his feet, and dusted off his shirt. “Are you ladies hurt?”
“I’m good,” Dawn said, not moving from her spot on the floor in front of the sofa.
“I’m okay too,” I told him.
“Everyone stay down. Finn, get the ladies to your bedroom and keep low to the ground, in case there are more of them outside.” Gunner extended a hand to help his brother up. “We’ll, round up these guns and get these men outside.”
“What about the wolf?” Finn asked. “That thing was huge!”
“Just stay down.” Gunner whipped his head around at me. “I smell blood. Serena, you’re bleeding.”
“No I’m not,” I said, pressing my hand against the spot where I thought I had hit my shoulder. Something warm and sticky coated my fingers. I looked down.
Blood.
I was shot.
10
Gunner
Eleven p.m., December 22, Buffalo Springs, Texas.
I forced myself to draw from every ounce of will power not to take on my wolf form and tear those men’s hearts out for what they had done. We had to move fast to stop the bleeding. Ordering Lauretta and Dawn to watch over the babies and keep trying their phones for a signal, I had Gage drag the unconscious men outside, while Finn and I tended to the imminent emergency in the cabin. Finn went looking for first aid kit and other medical supplies we had bought. I took off my shirt and rolled it into a ball, stuffing it under Serena’s shirt.
“Hold this against the wound,” I told her, carrying her into her room.
“I can apply pressure to it just fine. It’s not that serious,” she said, looking down at her injury after I stretched her out on the bed.
“You’re losing a lot of blood. It is serious. We can’t call 9-1-1 yet, so maybe after we stop the bleeding we can talk about how you’re doing. Try to relax.”
Finn came to my side with the supplies. “I can take care of this,” he said. “Gage and Thorn aren’t safe out there. What if those men come to?”
“I’m not going anywhere until we have this bleeding under control,” I grunted.
“Let me check if the bullet went through,” Finn suggested. “Serena, I’m going to roll you to the side for just a second, okay?”
“No problem,” she said weakly.
Finn took a quick look, wincing as Serena grimaced from the pain of being moved. “It’s a through and through. The bullet has exited her body, so all we need to do for now is stop the bleeding, keep the wounds as clean as we can, and make sure she’s warm and hydrated.” He placed her to lie back again. “But you know what, Gunner?”
“What?”
“We’re all dead if you leave your brother out there on his own. For all you know, those men got Thorn before they stormed the place. Please, just go. Find the kid. I’ll get Dawn to help me.”
“Finn’s right,” Serena whispered as Finn began to tend to the entry wound. “Although I’d go so far as to suggest that Finn should go out with you.”
“No,” I said firmly, acutely aware that Thorn was still in animal form somewhere outside.
“Why not?” Serena asked. Her breathing was more labored now.
“Try not to talk. I’ll go.”
“Listen to me. Dawn can patch me up while Lauretta stays with the babies. Think about it. The upside is we now have four to ten more weapons than we had before those thieving pricks got here. And a wolf buddy. Did you see how it only attacked the bad guys and left us alone? That was one hell of a hero wolf if you ask me. I wonder if he can heal me like that gorilla and his three bear friends did for that girl on Mount Houghton last winter.”
“Maybe. Try to relax, okay?” Finn shook his head and looked up at me before I could react. “She’s in shock,” he explained. “It’s the blood loss.”
“Right,” I said, relieved. Serena was making no sense. Still, the mention of animals on Mount Houghton had me worried she may have seen shifters before. But a gorilla and three bears? That sounded more like a Goldilocks parody I’d seen on late night TV. “We’ll watch out for the hero wolf, Serena,” I said lightly, and nodded at Finn. “Stay with her. I’ll be back, but just holler if you need anything.”
11
Gunner
One-Thirty a.m., December 23, Buffalo Springs, Texas.
The last couple of hours were quiet, except for the whirlwind of thoughts going through my head. Serena was stable now. Everyone except Gage, Thorn and I was asleep. I had a hell of a time pulling myself away from Serena’s bedside, let alone remaining outside all this time. The problem was I couldn’t be in two places at once. Someone had to keep watch to make sure nothing like this could happen again. It was as though my brain had short-circuited. Blood rushed through my skull, blocking out everything but one coherent thought that resonated at the surface.
Protect Serena.
Kill anything that gets close to her.
After Gage had thrown all the injured, bloody men into their pickup truck, he got inventive. First, he siphoned almost every last drop of gas from their tank and cleaned out all their weapons. After that, he drove their vehicle out of the campgrounds and around to the other side of
Buffalo Springs Lake. His plan was to find the muddiest, swampiest terrain to park the truck. That would stall the idiots for at least the night. He intended to shift to his wolf and run back here.
By the time my brother returned, Thorn had returned to his human form and was getting dressed. Heading over to the clothes he had been wearing, Gage dropped to the dirt to transform into his wolf and heal himself away from the line of fire.
“You okay?” Gage asked Thorn.
“That was pretty darned impressive,” Thorn told him.
Gage grinned as he threw on his clothes, then he patted the kid on the back. “Congrats on your first shift, birthday boy. You’re a man now. Or not a man. A shifter.” He took a few steps as he headed to the Lincoln.
“Thanks. So guys, when are we going to shift and heal Serena?”
Both Gage and I snapped our necks to look at him.
“Does losing your mind happen right about when you have your first shift too?” Gage asked for the both of us. “Because I thought you just said something about shifting and healing Serena.”
Thorn nodded excitedly. “That’s exactly what I said.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Holy crap, guys. I didn’t tell you the best and worst part about being a shifter.”
“Apparently you didn’t,” I said. “Let’s back up a bit. For the record, my brother and I are aware that if we get injured in our human forms, our body will heal if we transform to our animals. Are you telling us that we can heal others too?”
“Yes! Well, to clarify, you can’t heal other people on a one-to-one basis. Only if two or more shifters are siphoning a portion of their life force into a human. The more shifters, the less of an effect it’ll have on each one participating in the healing.”
“So Gage and I together can heal Serena, but if you help, it’ll be less taxing on us.”
“Exactly.”
“How do we do that?”
“We all need to shift. Once we do, it’s just a matter of making direct contact with her bare skin. Anywhere on her body. Hands, arms, feet, forehead. Doesn’t matter where.”
“For how long?”
“Less than a minute.”
I wasn’t sure why, but that was the point where I remembered what Serena had mentioned earlier. “What did you mean by healing is the best and worst part of being a shifter? And while you’re at it, do you know if there are gorilla and bear shifters in Nevada?” I asked, and immediately felt like an idiot for saying that out loud, especially with Gage narrowing his eyes at me.
“It’s the worst part because some shifters believe that the government will eventually start hunting us down once they know. Shifters like Zeke Mulligan. Do you know him?”
“Sorry, Zeke who?”
“He’s a gorilla shifter. I couldn’t tell you about bears, though. There’s a bit of a rift between the different shifter species. We mostly keep to our kind, although there are exceptions. Like Zeke. He’s a turned shifter who pretty much crosses every boundary known to man and animal,” Thorn informed us, letting out a short laugh. “Oh, and most born shifters don’t trust the turned ones like you. It’s just a thing, but don’t let it discourage you.”
“So Zeke, the gorilla shifter, could actually have three bear shifter friends,” I repeated, feeling just as foolish saying it again.
Thorn kept looking inside through the front door from time to time. I assumed he was just checking to make sure no one was nearby. “Let’s put it this way,” he continued. “Zeke knows and is friends with hundreds of born shifters, and probably thousands of turned shifters around the world. The guy was big in tech, hacking and all things geek before he was turned. He’s put those skills to use online, and has been connecting turned shifters to one another for at least a few years. A good example is, let’s say that you or your brother weren’t sure what the hell happened to you after your accident.”
“We didn’t for quite a while.”
“Exactly. You’d probably do an internet search of the word ‘shifter’ or ‘human to animal’ or ‘Theriona’.”
“Nope. That never crossed our minds,” Gage said.
“Well, if you did, there’s a high chance that one of the links you clicked on would have been one of Zeke’s breadcrumbs. He has figured out how to verify that you’re a real life shifter and lead them to his encrypted internet community. You’d be able to exchange information and learn more about Theriona. Don’t try to understand how he does it. He’s a genius slash maniac slash conspiracy theorist. Zeke insists that the government knows all about us and are running experiments on any of us they can get their hands on. He says he has proof.”
“Doesn’t surprise me one bit,” I told him.
“If you meet him and ask about how he’s able to find newly turned shifters seeking information on the internet, he’ll go on at length about spiking the shifter long-tail keywords and anchoring IP addresses. That means nothing to me. I’m going to study forest conservation sciences like one of my cousins.” Thorn paused and glanced inside again. “So, how do you know about Zeke?”
“Serena said something about a gorilla and three bears healing some kid on Mount Houghton. Finn and I thought she was delusional.”
Thorn pressed his lips together, nodded thoughtfully. “I doubt it. Sounds just like something Zeke would do. Maybe the Doc knows. Anyway, we really need to get in there and help her. Her pulse is pretty weak and she’s lost s ton of blood.”
Gage tilted his head and gazed at Thorn curiously. “And how would you know that? You haven’t been in there.”
Thorn bowed his head again, kicking a pebble at his feet. “You turned shifter guys have a lot to learn. Ditto on the alpha part, but we can get to that eventually. Just listen to her heartbeat. Can’t you hear it?”
“Uh, from all the way out here?” Gage asked skeptically. “We can hear voices but not people’s vitals. I sure can’t. You’re telling me you can?”
“Dudes. Your shifter abilities don’t disappear just because you’re in human form, especially not your hearing or sense of smell. I can help you later on, but Dr. Rizzo’s heart is racing and her pulse is really weak. We need to move now.”
“Let’s get in there,” I said. “Someone is going to have to ask Dawn to wait outside while we do this.”
I stepped inside first, just as Dawn was leaving the bathroom. “Wait outside for what?”
“We, uh, need to take a look at her wounds,” I answered. “It won’t be pretty. Can you wait in the kitchen? You can help by keeping an eye out from the windows for any approaching vehicles.”
“Sure. Okay.”
“We won’t be long.”
I waved for Gage and Thorn to follow me, but Dawn stopped us.
“I think I have a better idea, guys,” she said from her spot at the bathroom door.
“What’s that?” I asked, eyes trained on Serena’s bedroom door, and with some shortness to my tone of voice that I just couldn’t control anymore.
“How about you three heal Dr. Rizzo, and I’ll stand out here in case Finn and Lauretta wake up,” she proposed calmly, as if she had just suggested she would go out to the store to buy us a loaf of bread.
Gage did a double take, and I gave Dawn a sideways glance. How the hell did she know? Unless she was one of us. I was about to ask when she held out her palm facing toward me so I would listen.
“I’m not a shifter, guys, but I can spot one a mile away. I have, since Serena and I saw four men strip down to their birthday suits and change before our eyes from four humans to one gorilla and three bears. We wished we hadn’t seen it, but we did. Since then, I can just tell. Wait, I forgot to add that Dr. Rizzo has a sister whose badass ex-outlaw biker president fiancé is also a bear shifter in Red Ridge.”
“You’re not talking about Silas Corrigan are you?” Thorn asked. “As in the Beartooth Brotherhood MC President?”
Dawn nodded. “One and the same.”
This cabin stay was turning into a crazy time, with one outrageous r
evelation after another. I wasn’t sure I could take another, but I indulged them. “Serena’s sister is engaged to a bear shifter? No, a biker gang president who’s also a bear shifter?”
“That’s right. Sabrina Rizzo. She’s Dr. Rizzo’s younger sister, but I’ll let her tell you about her Chicago mob boss dad yourself.”
That was officially my limit for new information. “Fine. I’m glad you got us up to date. And yes, you keep watch while we get this healing over with. Come on, men.”
Thorn and Gage just shook their heads and followed me to Serena’s bedroom. We shut the door. The first thing I noticed was the way she made small panting noises as she breathed. She was unconscious. My animal could tell now, somehow. I pulled back the covers to expose her forearms so that we could make skin-to-skin contact, as Thorn had conveyed. Grabbing the scissors from the first aid kit, I cut open the dressing that covered her entry wound. With a nod, we quickly stripped out of our clothes and transformed to our wolves. Working silently, Thorn and Gage lightly pressed a front paw on her forearm. I placed mine on her forehead, and waited, affected yet concerned by the intoxicating smell of her citrus perfume, mixed in with the metallic smell of her blood and the salty sweat from the stress of her bullet wound.
After a few seconds, I felt it. My life force was funneling out of me and into Serena. Right before our eyes, the messy injury on her shoulder began to close. It transitioned from a bloody wound, to a pink blotchy scar, to the tiniest red dot, to perfect skin as if it had never happened. The only remaining evidence that she had been shot was the dried blood that crusted on the skin near her shoulder. Serena’s breathing evened out. Her heartbeat grew stronger almost immediately. Soon afterward, her eyes slowly fluttered open, but closed again.
I looked over at Thorn, then Gage, and felt weak all of a sudden. Removing my paw from her forehead, I lowered to the floor to rest. This healing ritual thing transferred life energy from us to her. My sides heaved as I panted in more air. Thorn sounded out a soft instruction in a yelp, signaling for us to return to human forms and dress quickly. I had almost no energy, which made the shift harder than ever. Still, we all returned to our human forms, made a half-assed attempt to get our clothes back on, and stumbled out of the room.
Doomed Mate (Under a Fated Moon Series Book 1) Page 6