It took him a second to realize what Carson referred to, but once he did, Jared had the decency to flush. "I overheard you talking with Declan that first night."
To his surprise, Carson's face clouded with anger. "You knew you were my mate when you came to the house and pushed me yesterday? What the fuck?" he roared.
Jared took a step back from the upset man and frowned. "What does it matter?"
"You fucking challenged my wolf, then submitted to it. Now we're mated, I'm fucking bound to you and you're blowing up buildings and making me think you're dead." Jared's brows lifted as Carson built up a head of steam. "Then you're going to leave in three days and I'm going to slowly go fucking insane without you!" Carson glared, spun on his heel and prowled a few strides away. He turned back around and roared, "Why didn't you fuck with someone else's life?"
Jared's jaw dropped as he watched his mate stalk into the forest and disappear amidst the trees. A sharp pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before stabbed through his chest and he gasped. "My god," he whispered, his eyes widening. He'd never truly set out to hurt the man. When he'd broken into the house to talk to Carson, he'd gotten just as carried away as the other man obviously had. He knew they'd both enjoyed it.
Movement from the animal in his arms caught his attention and he nearly dropped the shifter. Instead, he managed to fall to his knees, but still the creature gave a soft hiss as it hit the ground. Jared didn't know if it was from pain from the impact, or if it was due to the contortions the shifter's body was going through.
What fur the animal had receded, bones contorted, tendons popped, limbs lengthened and its head reshaped. Seconds later, a small albino-skinned man lay curled up on the ground, gasping for breath. Even curled up, Jared knew the man couldn't be more than five feet tall and his alabaster skin and white-blond hair made him look like he hadn't seen sun in years.
Staring up with pain-filled, pale pink eyes, the guy whispered, "You really fucked that up."
Jared stared at the shifter for several seconds before whipping his shirt over his head and growling softly. "Yeah. I fucking figured that out already," he snapped. He watched the man cringe and Jared sighed and shook his head. "I won't hurt you. You know that." Lifting his palms up, he forced a smile. "I think we need to get you out of here. Don't you?"
The man nodded hesitantly.
"And to do that, we need to get some clothes on you. You'll be swimming in it, but at least you'll be covered," he said, holding up his shirt. After another hesitant nod, Jared forced himself to gently cover the man with his shirt. "Do you heal when you shift, like in some of those fantasy books?" he asked, curiosity filling him as he took in the stitches that had somehow transferred to the man's human side.
"That'd be really nice, but no," the small man whispered. "The injuries remain. Things that are part of our skin, like stitches, shift with us, but things that are on us, like casts, do not."
"If you don't mind my saying, that's just weird," Jared commented, hefting the tiny man into his arms and heading through the forest. He kept looking around, hoping Carson would reappear, but they reached where he'd parked a getaway car without seeing him again.
"He's not around anymore," the guy said as Jared set him into the passenger seat.
"Who?" Jared asked, though he knew the answer.
"Your mate," the bunny shifter answered softly. "He won't stay away long though."
Jared climbed into the car and stared at him. "Why do you say that?"
"Because you're his mate." Cocking his head, he frowned. "Why'd you mate him if you didn't plan to stick around?"
Running a hand through his hair, he glared out the windshield. "I didn't do it on purpose," he growled. He grabbed his phone and punched a number. Grady answered on the second ring. "It's me. I have the bunny shifter with me. He needs medical attention. Where do you want him?"
"Take him to Declan's," Grady ordered.
"Be there in thirty." Jared hung up the phone and got the car moving. After several moments of silence, he asked, "What's your name?"
"Casey Streusel."
"Nice to meet you, Casey. I'm Jared Templeton." He flashed a smile toward the guy. "How long have you been with those guys?"
The albino cocked his head. "What's the date?"
"September twelfth."
"Three months and eighteen days," Casey whispered with a shiver.
Jared had no idea how to comfort someone. He patted the man's bare knee gently. "I'm taking you to Declan McIntire. He's the alpha of the nearby wolf pack. He'll take very good care of you, Casey."
"Why'd you blow up the building?" Casey whispered. "Did you get everyone out?"
A fresh wave of anger swept through him at the treatment of the people held there and Jared's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "Because it will set them back. They'd closed down for the night, so no one was there that late except the guards." He hazarded a glance and from the way the man immediately looked away, Casey had seen the icy glint in his hazel eyes. Jared knew he could make people uncomfortable with his cold detachment about taking other's lives. "The guards were dead, Casey," he said.
He didn't bother telling the young man that he'd found three hiding in the labs. How the shifters who'd checked the labs had missed them, he wasn't certain, but they wouldn't bother anyone else now. And he hadn't bothered to check the third floor or the offices, so it was entirely possible there were still people living when the building went. He gave a mental shrug. Oh, well.
"You weren't carrying any bombs," Casey mused softly. "How did you blow up the place?"
Jared chuckled. "A few household chemicals in the proper proportions."
"Oh."
A moment later, he looked to the right and saw his passenger was asleep. When he arrived at Declan's house, he rounded the hood of the car and gently eased Casey into his arms. The small man instinctively mewled unhappily before snuggling against his chest and slipping back into sleep. As he crossed the yard toward a smirking Grady, the irony of the situation wasn't lost on Jared. He'd just come from killing a half dozen guards and yet he carried one small shifter to safety.
"Where do you want him?" he asked gruffly.
"Upstairs, third door on the left," Declan ordered.
Jared turned toward the alpha's voice and saw the big man pointing up the stairs overlooking the dining room. He followed the instruction and settled the small man on the bed. Casey stirred, shifting restlessly. The shirt rucked up, revealing far more than Jared wanted to see on any man, with the exception of Carson. Oddly enough, he couldn't wait to see more of that man and hoped he could figure out a way to apologize to him. He paused in the act of laying a blanket over Casey's body. When did I decide this whole thing was my fault?
Pushing the thoughts away, he gently roused Casey. He introduced him to Grady and Declan, knowing the small man probably remembered their faces from the rescue. When Lark walked into the room, Casey cringed away from the doctor. "No," he murmured. "No more."
Settling on the bed, Jared pulled Casey into his arms. "Easy, little bunny," he crooned. "These are good people. They won't hurt you."
"Are you sure?" the man asked, his eyes so big. "They won't sell me?"
"Sell ye?" Declan murmured. "Why would we sell ye?"
"You're predator shifters," he whispered as if that explained everything while staring around the room. "You mate with humans." He looked up at Jared and added, "No offense," even as he clung to Jared.
Jared smiled, rubbing Casey's back lightly. "Grady tells me that not all shifters are so accepting of outsiders, but that's not the case with this pack, little one. They are the ones who asked for my help to break into the facility to save a blind human, who is the brother of a leopard shifter's mate not in their pack, but living nearby."