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“D-don’t,” he rasped. The thick heavy sound brought fear to her gut. She ignored the command and clicked on the lamp anyway. The room flooded with light, and she turned around, dreading what she would find. A scream rose to her throat, but she swallowed it.
Sebastian lay in a heap on the bed, blood soaking almost the entirety of his shirt and staining the bed. His chest heaved up and down, although he seemed hardly able to draw in a breath.
She rushed to him as tears sprang to her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Sebastian, you’ve been shot. What are your Guard doing? Why aren’t we at the hospital?”
His eyes were shut, and he seemed to fight to open them but failed. He muttered something unintelligent, and she ran to the door to wrench it open.
“Hey! Anybody, get in here and help him.” Two of his Guard stood in the hall, both looking miserable. Tom wasn’t there, which was unusual, and she wondered where he was. “Why the hell aren’t you helping him? We need to get him to a hospital.”
Neither of the men moved.
“Please,” she begged. “Forget about how much you hate me. Help Sebastian.”
Neither spoke and she was ready to start swinging. Maybe if she beat sense into them, they would get their asses moving. Before she could follow through with her plan, Ava appeared carrying a basin with water and a small case under her arm. She didn’t approach the bedroom door but stopped halfway down the hall. Sophia ran to her, and that’s when she noticed Diana and Darla crouching fearfully at the top of the steps. They’d all lost their minds.
“What’s going on, Ava? Why haven’t any of you tried to help Sebastian?” Her voice rose as her fear grew.
A growl rang out seeming to shake the very foundations of the building. Sophia dropped to all fours because it startled her. Not to mention how loud it was. Her reaction didn’t compare to the way the shifters all crouched and whined in pain. Ava dropped the pan of water and covered her ears. She dipped and swayed and mumbled with her eyes shut.
Diana and Darla shifted into their wolf forms and scrambled farther down the stairs. Both whimpered. They lowered their heads with noses almost touching the floor. When Sophia turned around to see how Sebastian’s Guard faired, she found them suffering as well.
Alex beckoned to her, and she left the incoherent Ava to approach him. At least he was ready to speak now.
“What’s wrong with all of you, Alex?”
“Go back,” he pleaded.
She wrinkled her nose. “What? You’re the one that called me over here.”
He touched his forehead and winced. She looked on in shock as the big man fell to one knee and panted. He tried to raise his head but failed. “Go back…to him, please.”
“He needs a doctor.”
“He’ll heal.”
“He’s covered in blood. There’s no way he’s going to just up and heal without getting stitches or something to stop the blood.”
Alex spent several minutes catching his breath. Sophia began to suspect he had been hit by all the bullets flying about. There was a patch of blood on his shoulder, but it didn’t appear to be spreading. One of his arms also hung in an awkward way, but he paid it no mind.
“It’s killing me to explain,” he rasped, “but you’re so stubborn you won’t go if I don’t.”
She resisted telling him what she thought of his insult.
“He wants you close to him to protect you. With you gone from his side, he’s suffering more. Especially because he can’t do anything to protect you right now.”
Sophia’s heart broke. “But—”
“Shut up,” Alex growled. “We heal from most any wound, and if we have trouble, the alpha helps us. With his help we can heal faster. It’s a part of his ability.”
“Wow. That’s amazing. So you can help him too, right?”
He looked at her as if she had crawled out from under a rock. “No. And what’s worse is he’s half out of his mind with pain. Because he’s been hurt so badly, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“W-what is he doing?”
“Pressing us.” Alex dipped his chin into his chest. “He’s exerting his position on us so strongly that we can’t get close to him. Only Michael and I can stand here, and it hurts like hell to do it. The girls can’t come down the hall. If we were to even try, I suspect he’d rip us to shreds.”
“There’s no way. He’s just in pain!”
