Authors: Gigi Moore
She turned to get a better look at the tawny wolf’s wounds and swallowed down a healthy dose of bile that threatened to spew from her mouth and splatter the grass. There was so much blood, more than she had ever seen before outside of a horror or gory war movie. This was real, up close and personal. Someone she cared about bled to death before her eyes.
“I’ll be damned.”
Desiree looked over her shoulder to see Jesse had joined Jax and Maia, looking at her in awe as she knelt beside the injured wolf and rubbed his pelt.
“I told you,” Maia said.
“What, that your sister’s a wolf whisperer?”
Desiree chuckled through her tears, glad that she was able to see the humor in Jax’s words. If she could laugh, then maybe everything would turn out all right.
Not unless they got Sam to a doctor, though, and soon.
How could they do that without divulging who the wolf was? Would it be easier to take him to a vet? Did shifters have the same anatomy as full wolves? Would a vet find something in Sam’s anatomy to tip him or her off and perhaps put Sam in danger of being imprisoned and studied like a freak, for the sake of science?
Maia, always full of great ideas, said, “Why don’t you boys go back to the ranch, and Desiree and I will handle things from here.”
Jesse and Jax reacted just the way Desiree thought they would. They both looked at Maia as if she had grown another head.
“Handle things from here?” Jesse asked.
“Yes. It’s obvious that Desiree has things well under control. I’ll help her get the wolves into your truck so that we can transport them to a safe place to heal. You can take the Jeep. The keys are still in the ignition.”
“That wolf needs a vet. Both of them do.”
“We’ll handle it.” Maia pushed both men back toward the Jeep. “Just call Division of Wildlife to report the one that got away.”
Jesse arched a brow. “And not these two.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’ll be long gone by the time the people from Division of Wildlife come out here. Tell them anything.”
Jesse gaped, looking at her as if it dawned on him right then who the two wolves were. Just as quickly, he shook his head, as if to deny realization.
It didn’t matter. Desiree already knew for sure that he believed the wolves were The Double R’s two MIA night wranglers. “Let’s head back. They’ve got it from here,” Jesse said.
“You sure?” Jax frowned.
“Yeah. Let’s git.”
Desiree watched as Jesse tossed Maia the keys to the truck before he headed for the Jeep with his brother. A minute later, Jesse started the Jeep, driving through the forest from where they had come. Maia sighed. “God, I thought they’d never leave.”
“You know,” Desiree said.
“That these here fine young wolves are Carson and Sam? Yep.”
Desiree wasn’t even shocked. She’d half suspected it, after all. “I think Jesse and Jax believe it, too.”
“Probably.”
“So are you going to bring the truck over and help me load him in?” Desiree asked.
Maia stood at attention and saluted. “Right away, ma’am.” She headed for Jesse’s truck then turned back to Desiree and gave her a long look. “Are you okay with this, Desi?”
Desiree responded with almost the same answer she had given Carson when he’d asked her the exact identical question so much earlier in the evening. “I honestly don’t know yet, Maia.” She paused and looked down at the tawny-colored wolf—looked down at Sam. She caressed his soft pelt with one hand and put pressure on his wounds with the other as she willed him to hold on. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them to stare at her sister. “But I know we can’t let him die, so you’d better get moving now and we won’t have to worry about that.”
* * * *
The wee hours that had snuck up on all of them since leaving the emergency room with Maia and Desiree what seemed like a lifetime ago proved the perfect cover for transporting two bloody and naked bodies—one animal and one human—through the woods and back to their mama’s house for refuge.
Sam, however, hadn’t shifted, and this worried Carson more than anything. If he didn’t shift, he wouldn’t be able to heal. If he didn’t heal…
“He’s not going to die, Carson,” Maia said as she brought the pickup to a screeching halt in the driveway beside the two-story farmhouse he and Sam shared with Mama.
He remained sure he would never get used to that woman’s fey way as long as he lived but was glad of her sensitivity in the situation and hoped she proved right.
“Help us get him inside.”
Carson glanced back over his shoulder to see his brother reclining on the backseat with his head resting on Desiree’s lap. Desiree gently caressed his pelt, seemingly oblivious to all the blood Sam had been shedding on her clothes since they’d left the clearing by the stream. The red hoodie Desiree had pressed against Sam’s midsection was soaked through, totally ruined.
What had been on Sam’s mind? It had been a really boneheaded move, but then his brother had always been on the impulsive side, more impulsive than Carson had ever been.
Carson, however, never would have predicted Sam’s attacking Remy like that, and he wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t witnessed it with his own two eyes.
He was going to have to have a serious talk with the
peeshwank
about his timing as soon as Sam was well enough to listen, that is if he didn’t strangle the whelp with his bare hands first.
Carson pulled the blanket Maia had provided from the backseat of Jesse’s truck tighter around his body. “I’ll carry him.” He got out of the passenger seat and circled the front of the truck before opening the back door.
He reached in to gather Sam in his arms and paused when Desiree whispered, “Be careful with him.” He gave her a sad smile and said, “I will.” Carson lifted Sam in his arms, grimacing at the wolf’s dead weight but even more at the pitiful whine that emitted from his brother’s throat.
Once Carson had gotten Sam out and cleared the backseat, Desiree got out of the truck and headed for the front door of the house, where Helena had already flung it open.
“Oh God, did you boys overdo the roughhousing?”
“I wish.” Carson shook his head. “It was Remy.” He pushed past his mother into the house. He didn’t add anything, knew he didn’t have to.
“Where is he now?”
“Don’t know. He ran off after…this.”
“My poor Samson.” Mama glanced at Sam in his brother’s arms, gently burrowing a hand in his fur and caressing him. “You’re home now. You’re going to be okay,
bebe
.” She looked up to see Desiree and Maia entering the house behind Carson, then looked to Carson as if for help.
“They know all about us. At least the shape-shifting part.”
“Oh, well then…”
“Tell us what we need to do to help,” Desiree said.
“Yes. Use us,” Maia added.
Mama gave them a rueful smile as Carson wrapped the blanket around his brother before gently placing him on the country floral sofa in the living room for the time being.
“You can put on a pot of water to heat so that we can clean his wounds.”
“I’ll do it,” Maia volunteered, and Carson left his brother to follow her into the kitchen.
He showed her where the pots were, and Maia retrieved a medium-size one, filled it with water, and put the pot on the stove to heat.
“You know this is all a waste of time, don’t you?”
“Don’t say that.”
“I mean he doesn’t need any of this. Once he shifts, he’ll accelerate the healing process and it’ll be as if he was never injured.”
“But he’s not shifting.” Maia frowned. “Why not?”
Carson leaned against the kitchen counter beside the sink and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not sure.”
“Maybe he can’t.”
It was a possibility that Carson had considered and dreaded on the way over. He’d heard of it happening before. Shifters injured so badly that they were too weak to make the shift.
Not Sam. Not my brother!
“If he doesn’t shift soon, it’ll be too late.”
“Well then, we have to make him shift.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Oh, so that stubbornness runs in the family.”
Carson shook his head, wanted to laugh at Maia’s teasing, but couldn’t find it in his heart to smile. His brother might be dying, and there he stood in the kitchen, naked, calmly discussing Sam’s inability to shift and the probable consequences.
He was naked!
Merde
, he needed to get into some clothes.
Maia smiled when he gaped at her with the realization that he was standing alone with her in a room, naked. Granted, nudity wasn’t usually a big deal for a shifter, but this was his…his quasi-sister-in-law, after all.
He’d forgotten all about his and Sam’s clothes at the clearing, and by the time he’d thought about it, he’d already shifted, and Maia had arrived offering the blanket, which he’d quickly accepted. Things had happened so suddenly he hadn’t had time to think about getting decent for anyone.
“Why don’t you go wash all that blood off and put on something clean? I’ve got things under control here.”
Carson liked the way she took charge and didn’t waste time doing her bidding.
He headed for the back stairs leading up to the bedrooms and took them three at a time until he reached his room. He took a quick shower, got into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and headed back down the carpeted stairs, still barefoot.
He made it to the living room in time to see his mother sitting on the sofa beside Sam. He watched as she gently cleaned the blood from his underside and neck with the warm water and a rag Maia had brought her.
“There are so many,” Mama murmured as if in shock that her baby had survived the countless gashes and bites covering his body.
Sam hadn’t stood a chance, really. Remy had been vicious in his retaliation. Granted, Sam was an excellent fighter and had gotten better over the years practicing with Carson, but had Carson not been there tonight to rally round, he didn’t think Sam would have survived Remy’s counterattack at all.
Again he wondered what had been on his brother’s mind striking like that, hoping that he would get the chance to ask him and find out.
He sat on the arm of the sofa as gently as possible so as not to jar his brother but thought that something
needed
to jar the
peeshwank
. “He’s too weak to shift.”
“It’s possible with all the blood loss,” Mama said. She raised her head from her task and glanced at Desiree and Maia standing nearby. She stared at them as if suddenly realizing she was discussing intimate pack secrets in front of strangers. The idea wasn’t actually too far from the truth. “You girls should go now. There’s nothing else you can do here.”
“I’d like to stay,” Desiree said, giving Mama an appealing look. “Please don’t send me away now, Helena.”
Carson saw something pass between the two women as they looked at each other, something he didn’t quite understand, but something he felt down deep nonetheless.
The silence, those looks, scared him like a conspiracy, as if the two women had come to a decision about him.