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“Hey guys. Daddy will be home soon. We should get back.”
They didn’t move from their spot, which was weird. Usually, they responded immediately when I called them. I moved closer and saw what had caught their attention. I didn’t, at first, realize what I was looking at, and when I realized, bile rushed up my throat. It was a bear, what was left of one. It looked butchered. The poachers. I looked around, fear creeping up my throat to form a lump in the back of it. I reached for my phone to call Killian, but I didn’t have service. I took a picture then a few of the surrounding area, so we could find it again.
“Let’s go boys.”
We started back for the house. Going the way I came, I noticed the carcass of a squirrel near the rocky cliff. I hadn’t seen it earlier, but then I was looking for the dogs. The squirrel’s neck looked like it had been snapped. Killian said poachers poached rattlesnakes too, the thought coming too late when I heard the rattle. My head swung around to see the snake and realized too late that I was standing in the way of his dinner. He was coiled and ready to strike. It happened so fast. Cooper jumped in front of me, and then yelped when the snake bit him.
“No!” I screamed, grabbing Cooper and pulling him back, before the snake could bite him again. Max tried to get to the snake, but I pushed him away and grabbed a rock. I didn’t want to hurt him, but the snake was pissed. I was riding on adrenaline, knew I wouldn’t be able to recall what happened next. It was sheer fight or flight, worry for the dogs had me attacking. I lunged, lifted the rock, and brought it down on the snake’s head. I dropped the rock and turned for Cooper. How I lifted him, I could only attribute to the adrenaline and that rush of strength people were known to get in times when loved ones were in danger. Somehow, I managed to carry him most of the way to the house before I lost my strength. Max ran ahead, barking. I was never so happy to see someone when Graham appeared following Max.
“He was bit by a rattlesnake.”
Graham lifted Cooper. “My truck,” he said, already hauling ass. I followed him, Max with us. My hands were shaking when I called Killian.
“Hey, Baby. Can I—”
“Cooper was bit by a rattlesnake. We’re taking him to the Vet.”
“I’ll meet you there.” The call disconnected.
My phone slipped out of my hand.
“It’s going to be okay,” Graham said.
“He jumped out in front of the snake.”
Graham put his hand on my arm. “He’s going to be okay.”
I hoped so. I couldn’t imagine being responsible for Killian losing Cooper.
Killian was waiting for us when we arrived. He lifted Cooper from the bed himself and in long, hurried strides brought him inside. The vet was waiting with the anti-venom and antibiotics. He asked me how long ago he’d been bitten. It hadn’t been more than fifteen minutes. They disappeared into a room. I didn’t join them, stayed in the waiting room, too terrified to move. I couldn’t stop the tears for Cooper and Max, but more, for Killian.
Killian stepped out of the room, looking up the hall then down, until he saw me. He closed the distance, pulling me close. “Thank you. Doc said if you hadn’t acted so quickly...”
“But, he jumped out in front of the snake. It’s because of me.”
He took my face in his hands. “It’s not your fault.”
“The thought of you losing him…”
He wiped at my cheeks. “Cedar, he’s going to be fine. You saved him.”
“Killian…” the doc called.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, then pressed a kiss on my forehead.
It was only after learning that Cooper was going to be okay, when the adrenaline wasn’t pumping through me, that I felt the pain in my thigh and looked down at the bloody puncture marks on my jeans.
“Killian,” I said, he glanced back and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Two
killian
Killian paced thehospital corridor, dragged a hand through his hair and then dropped down into a chair; his head went into his hands. She’d been so worried about Cooper, she hadn’t realized she’d been bitten, too. Fuck. If treatment wasn’t given within the first two hours…they’d barely made that.
She was young and strong; her vitals were looking good; she was responding to the treatment, but fucking hell. When she dropped at the vet. Goddamn, he couldn’t get the sight out of his head. Her eyes rolled up; he almost didn’t reach her before she hit the floor. When he saw the puncture marks, he’d never known fear like that. One minute they were talking about babies, and the next, but in that second, when she could have been lost to him, he couldn’t fucking breathe. It was then that he understood just a little of what she had to have felt the day she lost her parents and her boyfriend.
His parents were in with her. He needed a minute to pull his shit together. His dad joined him, put his hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay, son.”
