Sugar Creek 2(34)
The three Alpha males took their places at the table close to their mate. They tried to cajole Melissa into opening herself up to them and by the time she started to relax, she felt like she fit in here, like she was meant to be a part of this family, just like she was meant to have met and mated her men.
Damian and Luke entered the room half an hour later and instead of taking a seat at the table, they each came over to her and took her mouth in passionate kiss. She was a little uncomfortable showing affection in front of so many other people, so Melissa refused to look at them. She lowered her head and hoped the hair covering her face was hiding her hot cheeks as her men took seats at the table. She and Tessa continued to talk and then even more men entered the dining room. She tried to ignore her men but it was impossible. Every time they were near her, their delectable scents surrounded her. Finally, she turned to face them.
“Did you find where the breach was?”
“No,” Damian answered, and then sighed. “We still have people working on it.”
Alice served a scrumptious lunch of steak, vegetables, salad and warm dinner rolls and after eating her fill, Melissa decided to go for a walk outside.
She wasn’t used to being around so many people and was feeling rather overwhelmed. She didn’t bother to tell her men what she was going to do and was sure she would get into trouble for her oversight, but she just needed a little time alone. There was so much going on in her head she was getting a headache.
Melissa carried her plate into the kitchen, rinsed it, and put it in the dishwasher. Then she moved toward Tessa, stopped behind her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. She didn’t get the chance to speak.
All she heard was the sound of glass shattering then a searing pain radiated from her back through to her chest before she fell to the floor.
Chapter Nine
Luke howled with fury and Damian’s roar of pain joined his. They sprang from their seats as their Alpha and Betas surround their mate and ushered her from the room. Luke knelt down next to Melissa, Damian at his side, and when they saw the amount of blood covering their mate and still pouring from her chest, they knew the wound was life threatening.
Damian ripped open Melissa’s shirt and after elongating a claw, he shredded her bra. The hole in her chest was big and Luke didn’t know if they had enough time to save her. Damian removed his shirt, placed it on Melissa’s chest and applied pressure. Luke called to his wolf and his own claws erupted from the tip of his fingers. He slashed his wrist and held it to Melissa’s open mouth, watching as his life’s essence dripped into her mouth. When he thought that he’d given her enough of his blood, he covered Damian’s hand and took over trying to stem the flow of blood seeping out of his mate. His brother clawed open his own wrist and gave her some of his life-saving blood, too.
Luke didn’t even realize he was crying until a teardrop plopped onto Melissa’s breast. Her breathing was shallow and he could hear that her heartbeat was sluggish, but there was nothing more he and Damian could do. Now it was just a waiting game to see if their mate accepted or rejected the conversion.
He was only vaguely aware of the pandemonium around him, but he never took his eyes off of Melissa. The other Omegas had shifted and bolted from the room, no doubt to find and eliminate whoever had shot his mate, but he didn’t think that Melissa had even been the target. Now that he thought back, he remembered that she had been standing between their queen and the large bay window.
“She wasn’t supposed to be the victim,” Damian said in a voice hoarse with pain.
“I know,” Luke replied, and cleared his throat when it came out a little tremulous.
“Lift the shirt. I want to get a look at the wound. If our blood has done what it’s supposed to, it should be starting to heal.”
Luke glanced at Damian and then slowly lifted the cotton shirt from Melissa’s chest. He nearly collapsed with relief when he saw that the wound was a little smaller. Their DNA was now coursing through their mate and she was starting to heal.
“I want to get her back to our house as soon as possible,” Damian said.
“Me too, but we can’t move her until both wounds have closed completely. Hopefully the one in her back is already closed, but I’m not willing to risk moving her to look. She can’t afford to lose any more blood.”
“We’ll wait.” Damian brushed the hair back from Melissa’s face.
“She looks so damn pale and fragile. We can’t lose her, Damian.” Luke again lifted the shirt to peek at her injury and saw that it had closed a little more and he finally realized that he wouldn’t lose the woman he loved more than his own life.