The wolf buckled beneath me, growling and trying to wrench her arm away. When she realized she couldn’t toss me like the others, she growled and snapped at my shoulder.
“Listen to me; I’m trying to help you—”
“Give me my mate!”
“What?”
“I’m going with my mate. I’m going with him now!”
She yanked my nursing scissors out of my chest pocket and tried to stab herself through the heart.
Shayna muffled a scream. “Oh, my God.”
I twisted the she-wolf’s wrist and forced her to drop them.
The wolf broke through the other restraint, punching me hard in the head and knocking me into a metal table full of instruments. I rebounded and grabbed her in a full nelson. “Shackle her arms!”
Shayna manipulated the metal bars of the stretcher and snaked them along the wolf’s arms. The wolf lashed out violently, vengeance and heartbreak fueling her strength, twisting the metal. Taran flew into the room as a slew of reinforcements pounded into the ED. “Son of a bitch!”
“Taran, knock everyone out; wipe their memories. Do it now!”
Taran paused briefly before the scent of her magic filled the room. A storm cloud of blue and white shot from her core, expanding as it seeped out into the hall, engulfing the entire ED. Screams faded into yawns until only silence remained.
Silence except for the increasing snarls from the she-wolf and Taran’s cursing. “For shit’s sake, I knocked out Emme!”
The wolf kicked her legs out, freeing her feet and further damaging the bleeding veins at her hips. “Get Emme up. We’re losing the wolf!”
Tires screeched near the front entrance. My heart pounded. I left Shayna to continue to strengthen the shackles she’d fashioned around the wolf’s arms as I dove on her legs. She kneed me hard in the stomach. I couldn’t control her flailing limbs.
But then I was no longer alone.
Aric and Gemini grabbed onto her legs while Koda and Liam locked onto her arms. Aric growled. “What happened?”
I fell back to search the cabinets for packing and tape while Shayna retracted the metal bars away from the she-wolf’s arms like slithering serpents. I grabbed another metal tray and poured my supplies on top of it. “She and her partner were brought in. The staff thought they’d been attacked by bears.” I paused to look at Aric. “Her husband didn’t make it.”
The collective fury of the wolves filled the room like a heat wave. The she-wolf thrashed harder, snarling through clenched teeth. “They took my Paul! They took my Paul from me!”
Aric’s head snapped up. “Liam, go find him.”
Gemini and Koda took over flailing-limb duty as Aric and Liam released their hold. Aric stroked back the she-wolf’s blood- and sweat-soaked hair. “Leya, calm,” he whispered before murmuring sounds that resonated more animal than human. Aric took slow, deliberate breaths. Within moments, Leya began to mimic his breathing. “That’s it. Breathe with me, Leya.”
Liam returned. “Paul’s dead. His neck was in pieces and his heart was torn out.”
Leya stopped breathing. A wet sob tore out of her as she wept like a small, hurt child.
“Shhh…we’re going to take care of you, Leya.” Aric’s voice stayed soft and reassuring. “I need you to trust me.”
Leya’s eyes rolled back into her head with Aric’s very next stroke. Her arched back relaxed until she lay flat on the gurney. “Don’t let go of her,” Aric instructed the wolves. “Her grief is such that she could easily break my hold.” The wolves nodded, relaxing their grips enough so her limbs weren’t twisted against theirs. He motioned for me to get started. Emme stumbled in behind Taran, frazzled like she’d been startled awake by an obnoxious alarm.
“Seal her wounds,” I whispered. “She’s bleeding out.”
Emme staggered toward her, dazed by all the blood saturating Leya’s body. She touched Leya’s ankle. As her soft yellow light encased her, Leya’s eyes shot open and she bucked her off.
Aric’s voice grew more stern. “Leya, stop. These are friends of the pack. Let them help you.”
Leya stopped struggling, but this time wouldn’t fall back into a relaxed state; her breathing bordered on the verge of hysteria. I grabbed her wrist and felt her pulse.
Taran leaned in. “How is it, Celia?”
“Weak and thready. She’s lost a lot of blood. We need to transfuse her or she’ll code soon.”
I could sense Aric’s worry, yet his voice remained smooth as silk. “Tell me what happened, Leya.”
“We were out with the pack, hunting the infected vampires. Paul didn’t want me out because…because of our baby.” Her choked sobs barely kept her words audible. “He was walking me back to the car when a cluster of them attacked. They took me down. Paul tried to protect me but…there were too many, Aric.” A whine broke through her core, thick and heavy with misery. “I watched them feast on my m-m-mate, Aric. I watched them eat him alive.”