Page 44 of Mated
Not one. But two rogues.
Damn it.
I slip my hand into Daisy’s matted and sweaty hair. “D?” Her eyes flutter, meeting mine.
She grimaces. “Fucking cat.” Her expression slackens and she goes limp.
Shit.
I climb to my feet and scoop her small frame up in my arms. The motion pulls at my torn midsection, but I grit my teeth and ignore the pain. “Hold on, D. I got you.”
It’s only as we pass the tree that I remember the dart embedded in the trunk. I stop walking and the vamps follow my gaze.
Lilah gasps. “Is that—”
I look at Ruin as the first bay from Callus reaches my ears.
Ruin nods gruffly, grabs the darts, and pockets them before the pack ever clears the trees around us.
I peer at the dead cats and then at the wolves as they stalk out from under the low branches. “Don’t burn the bodies until I get back,” I say, pouring my alpha command into every word. “There was a man too. One with a rifle. Track him and detain him. No killing.”
A familiar dark cat steps to the front of the pack, his teeth bared. I raise a brow at Callus. “And if your Alpha doesn’t like it, he knows where to find me.”
I jerk my chin at Ruin and we start walking, leaving Callus to snarl if he wants. Right now, I have two friends to get to the nearest hospital.
Chapter 20
Tanner
“She should be fine,” Doc Wallace says to me. I peer behind her at Daisy’s sleeping form.
“Oh I don’t doubt it,” I mutter. But it’s still hard to see such a strong woman reduced to such a small frame in the narrow hospital bed.
The Doc chuckles. “You have this thing with bringing me hurt female shifters.”
My head turns.
Her eyes are luminescent with power. As the full moon grows more prominent, every shifter—alpha or otherwise—will begin to react to it. I had hoped Daisy would be clear to leave before then. But judging by the bags of fluid they are pumping into her, they plan on keeping her sedated through the full moon to heal.
But considering how the fox doctor is looking at me, she wants a little full moon action of her own.
I clear my throat. She is pretty enough. But the only female I want under me this full moon … Well, maybe I shouldn’t even fucking think about that one. Even though my body is more than willing.
Coming out of the woods to find Nisha pacing like a tigress in a cage, her lean, graceful frame tracking through the grass barefoot and wild …
She’s down the hall with Lilah and the team. And holding it together pretty well. Blaming herself, I know, for Daisy protecting her. She will realize soon enough that alphas are like that with the pack.
We protect our own.
“I really appreciate you taking such good care of both of them,” I say to the good doctor. “They both mean a lot to me.”
Wallace’s expression closes off for a moment before she wipes it carefully clean. “Of course. It’s my job.” She dips her head and walks off.
My sigh is tremulous. It’s the first time in years I’ve fucking turned down any proposition. And from one of the kin … on the night of the full moon …
I have to be losing my gods-damn mind.
The hallway is quiet as I step several doors down. Knocking once, I slip inside.
