Page 94 of Hunted

“He’s in rough shape.” Topher shook his head. “They just got him loaded up. Rowan and Vlad are going with him. Phoenix is meeting us at the hospital.”

River swore.

Topher continued, “You need to let them take you to the hospital. Forget the tough guy act for two seconds. You have a cracked rib where the bullet hit your vest and you were underwater longer than Cris was.”

River tried to argue, only to be hit with a fit of coughing. I whined, licking his neck where his scar was. He squeezed me tighter.

“I’m stable enough to be transported by private vehicle. And I’m not going without Ellie. So you can just let the hospital know they’d better figure out how to treat a wolf by the time we get there if she hasn’t shifted back.”

He strode towards the SUV. I tucked my muzzle under his chin, wagging my tail like a nice, well-behaved wolf.

“I’ll drive,” Ethan interrupted, his arms around my sister. “Pretty sure Hays has a concussion, if not a cracked rib or two. She needs to get checked out.”

We loaded into the car, with Ethan driving and Hayden up front. River opened the door to the middle row of seats and carefully put me on the seat before climbing in. He tucked an earpiece into his ear, murmuring something to Fallon as he got me situated.

“Let’s roll.” Topher got in the very back. He snapped on gloves, nodding to River. “Can you hold her so I can check her abdomen?”

“Yeah. You okay, Ellie?”

I whimpered as fingers probed my fur.

Topher frowned. “There’s blood, but not a lot of it. Okay, found the entry wound.”

I whined.

“I’m sorry baby.” River stroked my head. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.” To Topher he said, “We’re going to need additional security at the hospital. There’s been a fire at the university. The lab was completely destroyed.”

That hurts. Topher’s fingers were gentle probing along my spine.

“Can you give her something for the pain?”

“I’ll do that right now.” He began rooting through a bag of supplies. “I’m not finding an exit wound. I’m guessing the bullet is still inside. The wound is trying to close on its own. They’re going to need to go in there and look around, but if it had hit anything important…”

He trailed off.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, if werewolves could even do that. I was a microbiologist. Like I didn’t know if the bullet had hit anything important, I would have been dead by now.

“But I don’t love the idea of them performing exploratory surgery on her in wolf form,” Topher continued. “I don’t care how good Simon is. He went to human med school, not vet school.”

River growled. I licked his chin.

“Stop that.”

I licked him again.

Hayden, who was watching in the rearview mirror, snorted. “Get a room, you two.”

River took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine. He touched the scar on his arm, opening our mated bond. My bones began to hum, my fur standing on end, the dominant pull of his wolf drawing me out.

Shift, he ordered.

My spine bowed, moon magic searing through my blood. Shifting back to my human skin was just as painful in reverse, every snapped bone, every muscle to be regrown torn from my tender flesh as I silently screamed. My change lasted mere seconds, but left me limp and wrung out. Shivering and weak as a kitten, I tried to sit up, only to realize River and Topher were draping me in a metallic emergency warming blanket.

Because I’d shifted back without any of my clothes.

“Oh my god,” I mumbled, cheeks flaming. “Worst werewolf ever.”

“Takes practice,” Topher said kindly. “Is it okay if I check your stomach again?”