“No, you ain’t taking anybody anywhere looking like that.”
Ronan looked up at his father, his gaze furious. “She’s my mate!”
“That’s not what I mean. You got blood all over you, and you’re nekkid. You take her in like that, they’ll arrest you for putting her in this condition.”
“What the hell am I going to do?”
Maverik threw his head back and bellowed. “Baaaammmmm! Bammm, we need you!”
A huge black Bear peeked his head out from around the tiny houses he was nosing around. When he saw Ronan holding an unconscious female, he dropped what he was holding in his mouth that looked suspiciously like a body, and ran toward them. When he reached them, he shifted. He reached out his hands, but stopped right before he touched Giada. “Can I?” he asked.
“Do whatever you have to,” Ronan said.
“First, let’s lay her down,” Bam said.
Ronan laid her on the grass and knelt beside her, watching everything Bam did.
Bam closed his eyes and hovered his hands just over her body from her toes to her head. He paused at her hip, her shoulder, and then along her face and head. Then he went back to her hip and laid his hands there, palms open just gently resting his hands against her hip. Then he moved to her shoulder and did the same, before moving to her face, where he gently ran his thumbs and fingertips across her face, almost like he was feeling for the shape of her face before he pressed his palm to her left cheekbone. Once that was finished he moved to her head,lifting her head gently with one hand as he prodded her injury with the other. He sat down beside her instead of kneeling there and leaned over, pressing the side of his head and temple against hers while his hands still manipulated the back of her head. This entire process lasted just short of ten minutes. When he was done, he smiled down at her as he smoothed his hand across her forehead again. “She’ll be okay.”
“Are you sure, Bam?” Ronan asked, his fear nearly overriding him.
“Mmhmm. She’ll need to rest and it’s going to take a little time to heal, but she’ll be okay,” Bam said, trying to get up and plopping back down on his ass.
“Alright. You overdid it. Sit here for a minute or two and steady yourself,” Maverik said. Then he looked at Ronan. “Where’s the kids?”
Ronan looked up from where he knelt beside Giada. “Tempest said they were hidden.” He looked down at Giada, then up at the tiny houses.
“I’ll go, you stay with your woman,” Maverik said.
“No, they don’t know you. They’ll be so scared. I’ll go,” Ronan said.
“Alright. I’ll stay here with Giada, but you kinda bloody. Maybe wash it off somehow before you get them kids,” Maverik said.
Brandt looked down at himself, then around everyone else. “We all are.”
Green and lavender mists began swirling in the distance, though it was too far away for any of them to notice. As they cleared, Tempest took a second to look around and focused on her people across the street from the shelter. She gathered her mists and went right to them.
“Everybody’s good?” she asked as her mists dissipated and she moved toward Giada who was lying on the ground.
“Bam healed Giada,” Brandt said. “The rest of us are just bloody.” She paused beside Brandt and pecked a kiss to his lips that barely even stopped her forward progression.
“Hello, my love,” Brandt said, glad to have her back at his side. “How’d it go?”
“Viciously,” Tempest said, with that cold, bloodthirsty look in her eyes — now black and predatorial — as they usually got for a little while after she’d unleashed the darkness that lived down deep inside her.
“Some. I healed her some,” Bam said. “Enough to help, but I can only do so much. I’m not like you.”
Tempest lay a hand on Bam’s shoulder as she knelt between him and Giada. “What happened to her?”
“He was beating her, threatening her and the kids. When I attacked he shoved her away from him to try to take me on. She hit her head and has been out since,” Ronan said regretfully.
“It’s not your fault, Ronan. Who knows what he’d have done without you to intervene,” Tempest said, sliding her hands under Giada’s head to feel the injury. “Yeah, there’s some pressure inside…” she said, closing her eyes as her green mists appeared from beneath Giada’s head. Tempest breathed deeply and steadily as she worked, intuitively knowing exactly where to concentrate the healing. Finally she laid Giada’s head gently on the grass and sat back on her heals. “That should do it. I’ll check her again later to be sure she doesn’t need more,” Tempest said, with a smile. Then she looked at Bam. “You did good, Bam.”
Bam grinned proudly.
She glanced around and realized the kids weren’t there. “Were the kids not where I said they were?”
“They’re safe, I left them there while…” Ronan gestured at their mother lying on the ground.
