I pulled the zip cuffs off my wrists and ran for the door, shoving past two large men who were racing toward the sound of the gunshot instead of away from it.
“Bane!” The first man yelled over his shoulder as he shoved me out the door.
“On it!” Another voice yelled back as two strong arms wrapped around me, lifting me from my feet and carrying me toward the tree line behind the motel much faster than I could have run on my own. “We’re friendlies,” he grunted as I struggled against his tight hold. “Oof! You’re safe, I swear!”
Once the trees were obscuring the view of the motel, the man carrying me set me down, helping me balance before rubbing his ribs. “You okay, Paul?”
I stood silently, trying to slow my breathing. “Who are you?”
“Oh, right,” the big man shuffled his feet. “Sorry. My name is Bane. I’m a friend of Chuck’s.”
“One of the wolves,” I clarified. “The Alpha?”
Bane laughed. “Hell, no. Just a lowly Beta. Our Alpha was the one who nearly ran you over racing toward the danger.”
Oh. Right. I guess that made sense.
“What are you doing?”
Bane’s brow was furrowed but he remained calm. “Right now, I’m going to leave you here just long enough to get my first aid kit.” When I cocked my head, he nodded toward my shoulder. “You were shot. We need to stop the bleeding.”
I followed his line of sight down and my stomach flipped at the sight of the bright red blood dripping down my arm. I weaved on my feet and Bane reached out to steady me.
“Come over here,” he said gently, leading me to a small boulder and pressing on my uninjured shoulder until I sat. “Stay right here. I’ll be right back.”
I watched the blood dripping off my fingers and pooling on the dirt in horrified fascination until Sylas’s voice in my head surprised me.
Blood? You’re hit?
Silently cursing myself for distracting Sylas at such a dangerous moment, I tried to focus.
I’m okay. I nicked myself or something,I tried to reassure him.One of the wolves is helping me, don’t worry about me.
Instead of words, the response was a sudden, overwhelming rush of love and comfort as I waited on my rock for Bane’s return.
“Here we are,” Bane said briskly, his no-nonsense tone comforting as he opened a battered red soft-sided bag and removed a large square of cotton. Handing it to me, he sought my eyes. “I need to remove your shirt. Are you okay with that?”
“Yeah, fine,” I mumbled, my throat suddenly dry as dust. I sat without moving as the bloody fabric was worked off my arm and pulled over my head. Reaching for the cotton, Bane pressed it to the wound, pressing here and there until I winced and stifled a whimper.
“Well, the bad news is that the bullet is still in there,” he said after a moment. “The good news is that it didn’t hit anything important.” With nimble fingers, Bane proceeded to clean the blood away and wrap my shoulder in soft, white gauze. “I know you don’t want to but you’re going to have to come with me,” he said softly. “We need to get that bullet removed as soon as possible.”
“But..” I started to protest only to have Bane shake his head.
“Rafe will explain and Sy will meet you at the hospital,” he assured me, “but they’re still dealing with shit in there and this is kind of an emergency.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath and let Bane lead me back to the parking lot.
“With your arm, you won’t be able to hold on to me,” he said with a frown as he stopped in front of one of the large black motorcycles and pulled a leather jacket from a bin on the back.He slid my good arm in the sleeve and then buttoned the top to keep it on my shoulders.“So, I’m going to have you sit in front of me, okay? It’s going to be crowded, but I promise it’s only out of necessity.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he was talking about until he helped me onto his bike and crowded on behind me. To be able to reach the handlebars, Bane had to press his entire body against mine, his chin resting on my good shoulder.
“Hold on to the sides of the gas tank,” he instructed, showing me where to place my hands. “And if you start to get dizzy, tap my arm, okay?”
“Okay,” I managed to agree weakly, gritting my teeth against the pain that vibrated through me when the bike growled to life.
“Okay, Paul, hold on,” he said as his thigh shifted against me. “Here we go!”
Chapter Thirty-Six
