“I’ll replace them.” I shoved the man into a chair. “But first, we need information. I won’t let the other guy get away.”
“I got pictures of both of them. They tampered with one of your water tanks.”
“Your camera’s destroyed.”
“It backs up automatically to the cloud, as long as my cell has a signal.” She gave me a grim smile. “But someone hired them. I heard them talk about a boss.”
The man cursed, saying some unsavory things about my mate. Another punch shut him up. My bear wanted to end him, but Chloe’s presence held me back. I crouched in front of the man. “You should know something about shifters. We will do anything to protect our mates. They are everything to us. And you threatened mine.”
I watched the man’s throat move and let my bear’s eyes flash over mine. “You may think you’re tough enough to not talk, but trust me when I tell you that you aren’t. You will talk. The question is, what shape will you be in when you do?”
Even the sound of horses approaching the cabin didn’t break my focus from the man in front of me. He was panicking, but seemed hopeful that whoever had arrived might save him from me.
Chloe kneeled next to me, inspecting my wound. “Declan, you’re bleeding.”
“Got shot.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you got hit? We need to get you to a doctor.”
“It’s fine. I heal fast.” I continued to ignore the pain, which was only getting worse. Because of my bear’s thick shoulder bone, the bullet hadn’t gone through and was still in my flesh. I didn’t tell her that would slow my healing. I wanted to see this through.
“Don’t be an idiot.” Mason’s voice cut through the fuzziness that was invading my brain. “We need to get that bullet out.”
“I called for help. Better not rough the guy up too much before the sheriff arrives.” Ethan joined us inside the cabin, standing near the door, watching the man in the chair with hard eyes. “Or at least make it look like he got it during the fight.”
“I can do that.” I was sure my grin was unpleasant.
The man certainly didn’t appear reassured as the color drained from his face. “I…I know nothing. We used burner phones. Boss insisted.”
“How did he pay you?” I growled, fighting to stay upright. Mason crouched by my shoulder to give him a better view of my wound. I hissed when he pressed against the skin over the bullet.
“He left a bag with the money at a drop point. We never saw him. And his voice always sounded different. Like he used something to change it.”
Mason tore a strip off his shirt and applied pressure to the bullet wound. “If the shot had been any higher, it might have dropped you.”
“Hard to shoot a charging bear.” My words were slurring now.
“But not impossible. I told you to wait for us.”
“You’ll understand when you find your mate.”
He stiffened, his eyes unreadable, but remained silent as he continued to try to slow my bleeding. Voices outside camecloser, and I grimaced when I recognized Sheriff Danvers’s drawl. I wouldn’t be getting any more information.
“We need to get Declan medical help.” Chloe took charge, crossing her arms as the rest of my brothers entered with the Sheriff. “And Sheriff, you need to arrest this man. And find his accomplice, who drove off on an ATV. I can get you a picture of him as soon as I have access to a cell phone or computer.”
I staggered to the side. Mason caught my weight and guided me out of the cabin while the Sheriff insisted on taking statements before he arrested anyone. Mason leaned me against the outside wall and grabbed his field kit from his saddlebag. He pulled out a scalpel. “This is going to hurt, but we need to get the bullet out before you heal around it.”
He handed me his belt, and I bit down on the leather before nodding at him. We weren’t near any shifter hospitals and avoided human ones if we could, as they didn’t understand shifter healing. Our parents had made sure we all knew enough first aid to get by, and Mason had picked up more while he was in the army. The belt muffled my scream as he cut my skin and dug out the bullet.
My vision blurred and darkened around the edges. Then he poured antiseptic on the wound. The shock had my mouth opening on a yell, and the belt fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was Chloe running toward me before everything went black.
EIGHT
Chloe
Mason insisted Declan would be fine, but I refused to leave his side. When I realized he’d been shot, panic clawed at my throat, making it hard to focus on anything but him. I only met him the previous day, but already it was like he was a part of me. The mate bond was working hard on me, despite me being human.
But it wasn’t just the bond. On the surface, he was grumpy, rigid, and overprotective, but I saw beneath that. He was grumpy and rigid because he took responsibility for everything. And he was overprotective because he cared deeply. There were layers to him, and I wanted the chance to discover them all.
