Emerson snorted at the imagery, but gripped his wrists and nodded. “That would make me feel better. So…we’re okay?”
Bash looked at her like she was the silliest creature on planet Earth. “No matter what, we’re always okay.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bash inhaled deeply, but these weren’t his woods. This wasn’t Boarlander territory. He looked around to the unfamiliar pines that creaked in the breeze. Something wasn’t right. There were strangers in these woods. People. Humans.
Movement to his left drew his attention, and he crouched, ready for a fight, but it was just Harrison. His alpha came to a stop near him but didn’t look at Bash. He was pale and shaken, his hair mussed, and his gaze stayed glued to the space between two tree trunks.
“Harrison?” Bash asked as the hairs on the back of his neck rose.
When Harrison dragged his gaze slowly from the woods to Bash, his dark blue eyes looked hollow, empty. Lifeless. “Run, Bash. Run home.”
Home? Bash looked around the strange woods. Where was home?
The crack of metal on metal echoed through the woods, and Harrison fell to his knees. He looked down at his torso with sad eyes. His alpha lifted his hands, palms dripping red, as circles of wet crimson spread across his shirt.
“No,” Bash said, stumbling toward him. “No, I saved you. I saved you!”
The whoosh of wind nearly flattened him against the ground, and he looked in horror as something massive flew across the sky blocking out the moon and stars. Damon.
“Harrison!” Bash yelled as he bolted for him.
Fire lit up the night sky as Bash threw himself over his alpha’s fallen body. The pain of blistering heat was excruciating on his back, and he gritted his teeth against the scream of agony that clawed its way up his throat. He didn’t want Harrison to leave this world on the sound of his pain.
But with the ache lifted and his skin cooled, it wasn’t Harrison he heard, but soft crying sounds he didn’t recognize. When Bash eased up, Emerson lay in his arms, her curls draped across his forearm, her amber eyes wide and frightened as a single tear streamed down the side of her face. So much red on her shirt, spreading everywhere.
In a hoarse whisper, she said, “Bash, they’re here.”
Bash shot up in bed, his body drenched in sweat and ready for a battle he didn’t understand.
“What’s wrong?” Emerson asked in the dark, her hand soothing against his back.
“You’re breathing. You’re breathing,” he chanted mindlessly as he patted her body. Touch wasn’t enough. He had to see her. Bash bolted for the light switch and slammed it on.
Emerson winced hard and curled in on herself on the bed of 1010. He was sorry for her pain, but he had to make sure. Bash ripped the neck of the black T-shirt he’d given her and checked her chest for bullet holes.
She had frozen, eyes round and locked on him. “Bash, tell me what’s wrong.”
He dropped the tatters of her sleep shirt and lurched off the bed away from her. Not gentle enough. He could see her chest rising, could see her skin free of blood, but his bear was still roaring inside of him to Change. Outside, the soft bellow of a bear sounded.
Bash bolted for the front door, and behind him, the soft footfall of his mate followed.
“Bash, what’s happening?” she asked in a scared voice, but he didn’t have any answers for her. He didn’t know. Something bad.
He pulled open the door. His heart banged against his chest like a war drum.
Harrison’s massive dark-furred grizzly was pacing back and forth across the road, eyes on the woods behind Bash’s cabin. Fuck.
“Stay here,” Bash said low.
“Why?” Emerson was holding her tattered shirt together as best as she could.
“I’ll be back.” If I’m able. He kissed her forehead and bolted down the stairs just as Harrison made for the woods. Two weeks wasn’t enough time with her. Not near enough.
Bash let the snarling bear rip from his body because it wasn’t just Harrison and his crew he had to protect now.
He had to keep Emerson safe from whatever waited out in those woods.
****
Emerson gasped as a massive, coal-black grizzly exploded from Bash’s body. When a wave of raw power blasted against her skin, she stumbled backward against the side of 1010.
With long, strong strides, Bash followed Harrison’s grizzly into the woods.
Something was wrong. Something bad was happening because she hadn’t ever seen fire like that in Bash’s eyes. Tensed, growling, every muscle rigid as he’d searched her chest for something she didn’t understand.
She sprinted into the trailer and pulled on her jeans and tank top that sat in a pile on the dresser. She shoved her feet into a pair of sneakers and didn’t even bother to tie the laces before she sprinted out of 1010 and toward Clinton’s trailer. She took his porch stairs two at a time and banged on the door.