My stomach dropped as I recognized his breathing pattern. I’d heard it before too many times and always in the last days of a herd member’s life. He might’ve been a shifter, but his healing was far too slow. He wasn’t going to make it left on his own.
I inhaled again, and what I had interpreted as stinging before wasn’t that at all. It was recognition, a recognition my unicorn had refused to let me have. I’d pester him later for why. For now, everything that mattered was in front of me. This man… he was my mate.
But there was more to his scent than that. Something about it didn’t sit right.
Rogue. My unicorn said it as fact, but without the disgust that came from the last one we’d encountered. To be fair, the last rogue was given “freedom” with his marking instead of facing the consequence he deserved, which was death. He’d been a horribly violent member of a neighboring pack and had killed a child in his rage. He’d earned our disgust. This man? We didn’t know his story yet, but I refused to believe that fate sent me a mate that wasn’t worthy.
This alpha being rogue changed everything. I couldn’t take him back to the herd, like I’d been planning. They weren’t friendly to strangers on a good day, but they’d have let him be healed first and dealt with after. Being rogue took that off the table. Not only would the healer not help me, but my father would probably demand to end his life quicker.
Or maybe my father would make sure he was helped only to have someone waiting for him when he healed. My father was an ass like that, and if he thought he could earn favor from someone in a position of power by turning a rogue in, he was going to do it.
The safe and “smart” thing for me to do would be to walk away and pretend I hadn’t seen a thing. Once I touched the man, once I accepted my unicorn’s claim that he was mine, I would be involved, and my life would be in danger.
But I couldn’t do that. Absolutely not. And even if I wanted to, my unicorn wouldn’t let me. He recognized this bear as ours. There would be no rejecting him for any reason, and especially not a selfish one like keeping my hooves clean.
“I’m here.” I fell to my knees and checked his pulse. It was there, but barely. He was weak.
If I hadn’t been forced to help so many others the past few days, I’d be strong enough to heal him, but I had been, and I didn’t have enough strength for that. I needed the healer if I had hope, but that was no longer an option.
I would heal him as completely as I could and go from there. First, I had to make sure we were safe, because I wouldn’t be able to protect him once I began working on his wound. It would pull all of my strength, and depending on who crossed our paths, could put an even bigger target on him.
“I’m not leaving, I promise,” I whispered, and I got up, pushing through my unicorn’s attempt at stopping me.I need to protect him. I have to make it safe first.
My plea seemed to work, and I was no longer fighting against myself to move. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my “special spray,” the one I used to keep other shifters from me when I wandered alone. It was my own creation, a shifter and animal repellent, skunk musk mixed with a little something extra. It was designed to keep wild animals away and confuse other shifters.
I sprayed as I ran, making sure I covered as wide an area as possible. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t perfect, but it might buy us some time, and that was what we needed.
Border secured as best I could, it was time to go. I didn’t want to, but if I healed him without clean water, I was in trouble. I’d be working against myself.
I looked back at him as I left.Please don’t die. Please.
Ideally, I’d go back to the herd and get supplies, but there wasn’t time for that. Grabbing my bag I’d lost mid run was the best option. It was closer than I thought, when the pack came into sight. I snatched it up and slung it over both shoulders, not wanting to risk dropping it again.
Goddess help me, my strength would be able to help seal the wound and the clean water could help wash some of the bacteria away, unlike the river water that would be riddled with it. Paired with the antibiotics and the gauze I had in my pack, maybe we had a shot.
4
BRYDEN
The temperature had dropped after nightfall.
Instead of the agony from the past few days, I was pain-free, and it was as though I was floating above my body. Was I already dead?
I peered over the river and beyond to the mountains. Were they the ones where Emerson hid with his mate? If we could see one another just once, I’d tell him I had a mate. And said mate was weaving between the trees toward me with something in his hands.
He was coming for me because he loved me, and I adored him, though I didn’t know his name or also whether he was a shifter or not. Perhaps he was a bear like me? Or a wolf? Or he could be human. That would bring challenges, but we’d work through them.
I tried to wave to him, but he wasn’t looking upward at me floating above him but rather at my body beside the river. He couldn’t hear me either when I shouted. I should go back down there and we could chat, but when I did my best to swoop down,nothing happened. I stayed aloft, and my beast was annoyed, saying he wasn’t supposed to be airborne.
“I’m here. You’re going to be fine.”
My mate was talking. Was he with the goddess too? We’d be together for eternity.
But my mate put a hand on me and it was so real. The warmth of his palm and his breath that smelled of something sweet. His skin was so pale and yet he appeared healthy.
I found myself falling, and I cringed as I prepared to hit the ground. But instead of slamming onto the forest floor, I opened my eyes, and I wasn’t lying near the creek but was propped up against the same tree where I’d been after the beta attacked me. And a man, the one from my imagination, was kneeling in front of me.
“You need a doctor and antibiotics.” He brought a water bottle to my lips and urged me to drink. “But I have something that will cure the infection so manmade medicine might not be necessary.”
