Alek and Yerik reached the parking lot before the others. Dimitris and his brother were loaded into the black SUV just as Cate and Lukyan arrived. Cate scrambled into the middle seat next to her mate. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. She clutched his good hand and held it to her heart.
Mylo and Jeremiah, Noah’s second, arrived shortly after. Cate had half expected Mylo to haul the man physically into the vehicle, but he crawled into the back row of his own volition.
“What’s wrong with him? I thought shifters were resilient. Shouldn’t he be healing by now?” Her voice pitched up an octave, sounding shrill even to her own ears.
“Silver,” Alek grunted. “The bastard shot him with silver.”
Cate touched Dimitris’ cheek with the tips of her fingers. His beautiful face was marred with cuts and bruises. She kissed him lightly on the lips, lingering for a moment. Sitting back she took in the rest of his injuries. The cuts and bruises would heal, but the gun shot gave her real concern.
The flow of blood had lessened, but the wound looked worse rather than better. The entire limb had turned a sickly gray, and the red streaks that radiated from the bullet hole had elongated, curling their way up his arm past his shoulder and onto hischest. “If the infection reaches his heart, he will die. We need to be quick.” Alek pulled Dimitris’ injured arm into his lap so that it lay flat against his thighs.
“I’ll call the healer. She can meet us at the estate.” Lukyan grabbed his mobile phone from the console of the SUV and scrolled through his list of contacts. Yerik pulled the car quickly onto the road. Cate’s body lunged sideways, but she didn’t complain. The faster they could make it to the estate, the better.
“I still don’t understand why someone would shoot him. I thought the point of this was to battle for territory and still show honor. Where’s the honor in shooting one of the alphas?”
Jeremiah leaned forward from his seat behind her. “There was never any honor in Noah.”
“What about the other pack members? I heard what they were saying in the circle. No one had any love for your alpha. Some were even hoping he would lose. If they felt that way about him, why would they help him to win by shooting Dimitris?” Her wolf growled. As Noah’s second, Jeremiah should have worked harder to prevent this from happening.
“I don’t know for certain, but I suspect Noah told the kid to shoot Dimitris if necessary.” Cate’s growl was echoed by the other shifters in the vehicle.
Undaunted, Jeremiah continued, “ The shifter that shot your mate is young. He only had his first shift last year.” Cate shook her head. Jeremiah’s excuse made no sense to her.
“No one in my pack liked or respected Noah. I was on the verge of challenging him for alpha when news of your silent shift made it’s way around the web. I couldn’t challenge him before we came here because the full moon hadn’t yet arrived. And I wasn’t successful in talking him out of this nonsense. I did make it clear that I would not help him in his efforts.”
“So you came to New York out of duty to your pack, not out of duty to your alpha?”
“Exactly. The entire pack was behind my plans to challenge for alpha, but you can only do that during the full moon. Until then, we have a bond to our current alpha that prevents us from challenging him. Most of our bonds were weakened by the lack of trust and respect we had for Noah, but young shifters are more closely bonded to their alpha. As we age we get stronger, more independent. A young shifter will submit to his alpha’s wishes, even when it goes against his own will.”
Mylo growled. “Dimitris should have killed Noah on the front steps of the estate. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“I wish he had. I would not have made an effort to stop him.”
Cate looked away from Jeremiah and back into Dimitris’ still face. His eyes remained closed, but his mouth hung open panting for air. “We have to do something. He’s dying.”
Alek inspected the injury. The infection had almost reached his heart. “Pull over, Yerik. I need to remove this bullet from his arm.” The car jerked so quickly to the shoulder that Cate’s body flew into the door.
“Mylo, you and Jeremiah hold his shoulders from the back seat. Don’t let him move. Lukyan and Yerik, turn around and hold his legs.” Alek looked across Dimitris’ still body to Cate. “I need you to try and keep his arms still. This will hurt him and he might fight it.” Cate nodded and reached across to pin Dimitris down by both wrists.
Alek opened his door and stepped out, leaning his body inside the vehicle. He widened his stance, as if preparing to take a blow, and then placed both hands above the wound. Dimitris’ body began to shake and Cate struggled to keep his arms from flailing. In the front of the car she heard Lukyan, or perhaps it was Yerik, shift his weight to put more pressure on Dimitri’s shaking legs.
Alek ignored the silent protest from his brother’s body. Eyes unblinking, he continued to hold his hands a few inches from the injured arm. Cate watched as the skin near the hole began to ripple. A bead of energy pulsed just under the surface. Something was moving inside him. The ripple turned into a wave that circled under Dimitris’ skin, spiraling around the damaged flesh. Around and around it circled until finally, the wave was sent flying from the bullet hole. A metal ping rang above her head. Looking up, she could see the silver bullet, a mangled and mutilated ball of metal, protruding from the ceiling of the SUV.
Dimitris’ body stilled its protest. Alek got back in the car and quickly shut the door. “Maybe this gift is good for something besides party tricks.” He tapped the driver’s seat. “Drive fast. He still needs a healer.”
Slowly, he opened his eyes and let them adjust to the light in the room. From the looks of the soft orange light peeking through the shades, it was dawn. He moved to sit up, but the ache in his arm pressed him back to the mattress. He blinked away the pain, steadying himself with two fortifying breaths. Cate was near. He could smell her cinnamon coffee scent. Turning his head slightly, he saw her. She had pulled a chair near the bed to sit with him through the night. At some point she had fallen asleep, her head rested sweetly by his hip.
With his good hand, he reached down and ran his fingers through her dark locks. He needed to touch her, to reassure himself that she was okay. He came so close to losing her last night. She stirred under his soft touch. Stretching slowly, she sat up and gave him a sweet smile. He smoothed his palm across her cheek, and she turned her face to kiss it.
“How are you feeling?”
“It hurts, but that just means I’m alive, so I’ll take it.” She kissed his hand again.
“The bullet was pure silver. That’s why it hurt you so badly. Noah instructed one of his betas to shoot you if it looked like he was going to lose.”
Dimitris patted the mattress and Cate slipped onto the bed, snuggling to his side before quickly pulling away. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“It would hurt me more if I couldn’t touch you.” With his good arm he pulled her close. She tangled her bare legs with his. He rubbed her back through the thin t-shirt she was wearing. There was a moment in the ring the night before that he wondered if he would ever have another chance to hold her like this.
