“Help!Help!Jupiter, Amadeus, Lucius!Someone help!!”She screamed for his family and pride as her hands shook, her fingers ghosting just over his bleeding leg, too scared to touch anything.
She said his name on a whispered, tearful cry and put her hand on his big head.“Stay with me, okay?Don’t move, you’ll make it worse.”
She’d tried to save him, and he’d saved her.
She heard footsteps running toward them and she called out an alert for the traps.Flashlights illuminated suddenly from phones, pointed downward to watch for what were clearly some kind of spring-loaded wire traps.
As the pride approached, she saw a flashlight sweep nearby and saw another trap in the grass.“Shit,” Jupiter said.“That’s a fucking coil wire trap.What the hell!How did this get here?”
Lucius dropped to his knees next to his dad and shone his flashlight on his leg.
Sera gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth, as she saw the damage to Caesar’s leg.The barbed wire was wrapped from his ankle up to his hip, sharp barbs sunk deep into the flesh as blood flowed freely.Caesar’s toes curled and he snarled, his claws digging into the dirt.
Jupiter stood over them.“Don’t move, Dad.You’ll make it worse.Sera, are you okay?”
“I…yes.I’m okay.I saw the metal and I pushed him away, and then I tumbled toward another trap and he pushed me out of the way and got caught in it himself.”She lowered her head and pressed it to his.“You saved me.”
As she lifted her head, she saw his eyes flutter shut and he groaned.
Panic slammed through her.She knew Otto had done this, but it didn’t matter how right now.All that mattered was helping Caesar.
She put her hand on his chest to feel the thump of his heart.
Caesar let out a blood-curdling roar as the pride members tried to disengage the wire from around his leg, and then he shifted.
It was agonizingly slow as he shifted back to human.
“I can’t see,” Caesar said with a wheeze, grasping for her.“Baby, are you okay?”
She grabbed his hand and brought it to her lips.“I’m okay, Caesar, because you saved me.”
“You can’t see, Dad?”Lucius asked.“Someone get Doc Paula on the phone.We’ll bring him down to her clinic.”
“I’m already on it,” Amadeus said, his voice tight with stress.“They’re waiting for us.”
“I think there’s a bigger problem,” Caesar said.“This trap is coated in poison.I…” His voice cut off as he groaned in agony, his body shaking violently.
And then he went still, and for a heartbeat, no one moved or said anything.
Sera sobbed as worry shot through her like a bullet.
“Help him,” she begged.“Please.”
His sons lifted him and walked toward the maintenance shed.“Here’s your clothes,” Sidney said.“Let’s hurry.”
Sera dressed quickly, hands trembling, and watched as pride members moved in front of the small group to light the way, pointing out traps.
Otto, that asshole!
“We’ll do a grid search when the sun’s up,” Devlin said as he joined them.“Let’s get over to the doc’s so she can help our alpha.”
He shone the flashlight from his phone ahead of them as they hurried toward the shed, pride members surrounding them and looking for danger.Sidney held Sera’s hand tightly, murmuring words of hope, but Sera didn’t really hear them.
The worry for her mate was too loud.
She’d just gotten Caesar, she didn’t want to lose him.Not now, not like this.
Please, don’t let him be taken from me.
