No one had.
Tiko, the rabbit shifter with the broken arm appeared by my side, patting my shoulder with his good hand. “What was Julian’s part in the mission?” he asked calmly.
“He, uh, didn’t have one,” I said slowly. “He was inside asleep, but he’s not there anymore.”
Tiko arched a brow at me. “You’re sure? Because several of us saw him outside earlier and a couple of the werewolves reported him over by the Hunter’s camp.”
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “That can’t be right!” Except, the open window and now he was missing. “The window was open! They must have kidnapped him!”
Tiko shook his head. “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” he suggested. “Our team will start a search, okay?”
“Yeah, great,” I mumbled before turning away to find Kade and Colby to start a search of our own. As it turned out, that wouldn’t be necessary.
Less than ten minutes had passed when a team of rabbits raced past me, an emergency field stretcher loaded down with a large gray fox carefully balanced between them. Startled, I turned to see where they were taking the fox and nearly tripped Pete who was busting his furry butt to try and keep up.
“What’s going on?” I huffed, more than a little annoyed at having part of the search party called away. “I thought you were looking for Julian?”
Pete gave me a look that I assume he usually saved for the most dim-witted of dunderheads. “Who the hell do you think is on the damn stretcher?”
Well, shit.
Julian
Everything hurt.
Breathing hurt. Sounds around me hurt. Hell, somehow just being hungry hurt.
Everything hurt.
“Hey, there,” the whispered words made me cringe even as a comforting blanket of Alpha pheromones wrapped around me, anchoring me as it soothed the rough edges of pain shooting through me.
Either my world had taken a seriousGroundhog Daytwist or I’d been here before.
“Chuck?” I mumbled his name through a mouth that tasted like sour cotton.
“Yeah, baby, it’s me,” he confirmed softly. “You thirsty?”
I started to nod and caught myself. “Yes.”
“Okay. Hang on a minute.”
When he returned, Chuck carefully lifted me to lean against his chest and brought a straw to my lips. The cool water flooded my mouth and I swallowed it eagerly.
“Thanks.”
Chuck pressed a kiss against the side of my head. “Do you want to sit up or lie back down?”
Good question.
“Sit up, I think.” I raised my hand to pat the gauze wrapped around my head. “What happened to me?”
“You fell,” Chuck said simply. “I’ll tell you about it later, but the long and short is that we think you have a couple of bruised ribs and you knocked your noggin again.” Chuck’s voice was tight with concern. “We wrapped you up out of an abundance of caution until Doc can get here and check you out.”
“Okay. How long have I been out?”
Chuck pulled me a little closer. “We aren’t sure. We found you about an hour ago, but we don’t know how long before that.”
Okay, well, that wasn’t as bad as I’d feared.
