“Her heartbeat is increasing and her breathing is slowing,” Damian whispered. “We’re not going to have to live without her.”
“Thank God.” Luke looked at Damian and saw that his brother was also crying. Neither of them said another word to each other. They didn’t have to tell each other how they felt or how scared they had been, or still were. It was there in their expressions for anyone to see.
Luke and Damian sat beside Melissa on the floor for an hour, until her flesh was completely closed. Luke removed his T-shirt and between the two of them, they got it on Melissa without jostling her too much. When she was covered, Damian carefully lifted her into his arms and would have headed toward the front door to take her back to their cabin, but Rafe was just coming down the stairs and stopped them.
“Bring her up to one of the guest rooms. Until we catch whoever hurt your mate and tried to kill mine, you can stay here. It will be safer.”
“Thank you,” Luke said, and then he and Damian followed him to the spare bedroom.
Damian gently lowered Melissa onto the mattress.
“If you need anything, just ask.” Rafe frowned at Melissa and then left, closing the door behind him.
Between Luke and Damian, they removed Melissa’s clothes and then Luke carried her into the adjoining bathroom. Damian had rushed ahead to start the water in the bath and Luke didn’t hesitate to step into the rapidly filling tub. He trusted that his brother had checked the water temperature so their mate wouldn’t be too cold or get burned. After washing Melissa from head to toe, including her hair, and making sure all the blood was gone from her body, they dried her off and put her into bed. Hopefully their mate would wake up tomorrow, but since they’d never changed a human to werewolf before and neither had anyone else in the pack, they really had no idea how long it would take for her to recover.
“I’m going to go and see if the other Omegas have found any sign of our shooter. Call me if there is any change.” Damian leaned down and kissed Melissa on her forehead, then walked to the door. After one long, lingering look, he left.
Luke kicked off his shoes, climbed on the bed, and then gently pulled his mate into his arms. He breathed in her sweet scent but underlying that he could already smell her forming wolf. He closed his eyes and prayed to the gods, thanking them for not taking his mate when he and his brother had only just found her.
* * * *
Melissa woke up feeling like her whole body had been hit by a truck. Her muscles felt achy and tender. Her skin felt as if a thousand ants were crawling all over and underneath it. She groaned as she eased over onto her side from her stomach.
“Are you all right, honey? How do you feel, Mel?” Luke asked.
Turning her head, she saw Luke was lying on the bed next to her, his head propped up by his elbow and resting on the palm of his hand. She turned her head to the opposite side, noting Damian was also lying beside her.
“Wh-What happened?” she asked in a raspy voice. Her throat was so dry. Damian grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table. He propped her up and helped her take a few sips. Finally, she shook her head and collapsed back onto the mattress. She felt so damn weak and wondered if she’d been sick, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember.
“You were shot, sweetheart. You nearly died,” Luke explained, his face pale and taut with what looked like a mix of fear and rage.
“Who would want to shoot me?” she asked. Her voice sounded husky, like she hadn’t used it for a while.
“He wasn’t after you, my mate. He was trying to kill our queen, Tessa. You moved in behind her at the wrong moment and were shot in the back. The bullet came out of your chest and, from what we could see, just missed your heart. Your lungs were damaged and it was touch and go whether you would survive.”
“Oh my God.” Melissa pushed the covers down, lifted the T-shirt and stared at her chest. When she saw no wound, she looked at her men with confusion. “You…I…you…”
“Take deep breaths, baby.” Damian smoothed a hand up and down her arm. “Don’t panic. All is well.”
“We had to…” Luke began but Melissa cut him off by placing her fingers to his lips.
“Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Melissa…”
“No, Damian, I’m too tired to deal with anything right now.” And it wasn’t a lie. Melissa was having a hard time keeping her eyes open and finally decided it was futile to fight the fatigue assailing her, and closed her eyes.
The next time she opened her eyes, she felt much better. In fact, she felt so energetic she thought she just may jump out of her own skin. Neither Damian nor Luke was in the room, so she pushed the covers away and cautiously sat up with her legs over the side of the mattress. She was pleased when she didn’t feel dizzy or weak and headed for the bathroom. After taking a shower and brushing her teeth and her damp hair, she went in search of some clean clothes and was pleased to find a bag with new things in it. She hoped they weren’t meant to be for someone else, but since she didn’t have anything with her she decided to put them on anyway.