Page 75 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

“Damien.” I can hear my own breathing. “Find out who sent all four of them. I want names before midnight.”

He’s already changing, nodding. There’s no time for clothes. I take my son under one arm, then get Ariela up against my chest with the other. The second I lift her, the wound starts pumping again, running down my forearm and off my elbow onto the ground. I hear Isabella howl in pain and Damien’s answering roar, but I’m already running. Because the woman in my arms is fading fast.

❦ ❦ ❦

Salar meets us in the hall, guards already streaming past me into the woods. He takes one look at Ariela and says quickly, “Your room.”

I carry her and Luca to my bedroom. Ariela has passed out, and Luca is barely holding on to consciousness.

“Put her down. Keep her head lower than the leg.” Salar has his bag open on the floor. “Alpha, let me see the boy first.”

“She’s bleeding out.”

“Give me ten seconds on Luca.”

Luca goes onto the rug, and Salar puts both hands on him, one at the arm, one at the chest. “It’s skin only. The wound is already closing, and he’ll be whole by tomorrow.” He’s turned away before he’s finished. “Reid, bring hot water and the case out of my room with the brass fastenings. I have some human medicine in there.”

Then he cuts the swimsuit strap and gets his palms over the wound. I watch the light come up under his hands, filling the gap between his fingers and her skin.

Nothing happens.

“It’s an artery, one of the small ones high in the thigh,” he tells me without looking up. “If it were the big one, she’d have died on that bank.” His jaw is tight. “I need to heal her, and my magic doesn’t take on a human body properly. It slides off her. I’m going to need some human medicine as well.”

It takes the better part of an hour, with Salar’s hands doing half of it and a needle doing the rest. He closes the vessel with two fingers and holds the magic on it until the bleeding drops to a seep, then stitches the muscle in three layers with silk out of a case older than I am. There is staff standing outside the room, and I don’t send anyone away. Reid and two of the maids are with Luca in his room.

I stay beside her.

There is too much blood.

I’ve seen worse. I’ve caused worse. That doesn’t mean anything when it’s hers. Her face is white. Her lips have almost no color in them. She hasn’t opened her eyes since I carried her inside.

I keep looking at her chest to make sure she’s still breathing, and Salar notices.

“She’s alive,” he says as if it is meant to comfort me.

When I don’t say anything, he sighs and goes back to work.

I look at her again.

She was laughing in the lake less than two hours ago. She pulled me into the water. She was arguing with me about Luca swimming. Now she’s lying here while another man stitches her back together because I left her alone for ten minutes.

The thought makes something violent move through me.

I should have stayed. I should have smelled them. I should have known.

Four rogues got close enough to my son for Ariela to have to stand between them. They got close enough to tear her open. My wolf has not stopped moving since I carried her back. He wants blood. So do I.

But there is nothing for me to kill in this room.

There is nothing I can do for her at all.

“How much longer?” I ask tightly.

“As long as it takes.”

“Salar.” My voice is harsh, and he looks up at me.

“She’s going to be fine,” he murmurs quietly. “You have my word.”