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I feel hands on my shoulders.
“Hey, Erica?” Greyson is here.
I whimper. “Please be okay, Riley. He stabbed him and shot him with two darts, Greyson. Threw a smoke bomb in here and shot Lincoln and Mason with darts and then I heard three gunshots.”
“We’re okay,” Lincoln says, pressing a hand against the wound in his shoulder. “He shot each of us with darts and then again with a regular gun, but then he got sucked out and the bullets went with him.”
“We’re all here now, all seven of us. Everyone else is okay, Erica,” Greyson says. “Ty’s gone after the fucker. We’ll catch him. Find out what he did. Hey. It’s okay.”
I’m sobbing. “It’s not okay if Riley isn’t okay,” I whimper, wrapping my arms around the limp, unconscious and bleeding man that I love. “There’s too much blood. He’s been stabbed and I think he got shot.”
“Riley, man, wake up and shift,” Greyson calls out, jiggling Riley’s shoulder. “Shift and heal, brother.”
“What are you doing?” Greyson then asks.
“I’m sending every bit of good energy I have inside me into him.” I press my hands to his chest and touch his mouth with my lips. “Please Riley, be okay. I don’t know why or how but it’s like I have new magic, Greyson. I got the bad air out of here and I got the bad guys away and, and… I don’t know how I did it.” I’m shaking.
”Take a deep breath,” Greyson orders, looking into my eyes. “Keep sending good energy at Rye. I wanted to make sure you guys are okay, now I wanna help Ty chase that fucker down. It’s my mate’s brother.”
I try to send more good energy. “Riley’s hurt really bad, Greyson.”
“Keep at it, cuz. Tell me everything, somebody,” Greyson orders, squeezing my shoulders. “What’s with the two-man bonfire outside?”
Jase speaks up. “She blasted those betas with magic. They dead?”
“They’re on fire so I’d say.”
“They tried to take me,” I whisper.
Lincoln continues. “This alpha was stabbing and kicking Rye while I was coming to. And then he shot all three of us. Got my shoulder, Riley’s gut, Mase, where’d he get you?”
“Back of the leg. Guy’s a bad shot. I’d have gone for the head.”
The idea of that has me ready to barf.
“I almost set him on fire, too,” I say. “But I didn’t want to burn everything in here up, so I whooshed him out.”
I hear a car and then running across the wood porch.
I look over my shoulder.
A dark-haired lady with green eyes and a medicine bag.
I cry out with relief.
“I’m gonna catch up with Ty. Help track that fucker down. Be back. Good job, Erica.” Greyson drops a kiss on top of my head and then he’s rushing out.
30
Riley
I come to… enraged, fighting something. My vision is blurry, my skin is slick with sweat. My head pounds. I feel like I got into a fight with a knife and a pair of steel toed boots and lost. Strong hands are on me, holding me down as I flail.
I need to shift and heal, to fight, but I can’t. I’m stuck. Where’s my mate? Where is she? I have to save her. Everything is so fuckin’ blurry.
She was snatched not just once; my bullshit meant it happened to her a second goddamn time. Right under my fuckin’ nose.
“Where is she?” I holler, vision clouded. I think I smell her, but my nose has been fubar’d lately, so I don’t know.
Hands tighten on me. Smells are familiar.
“Riley, it’s okay. Don’t shift just yet, please. I’m drawing some blood. Hang tight.”
Aunt Cat. The adrenaline in my system subsides a touch.
That’s Joel and Jase in my nose; they’re holding me down.
“There. Got it, Riley,” Aunt Cat says.
Where’s she? They got her!
I’m trying to get up. Hands guide me to sitting but stay on my shoulders.
“It’s okay, bro,” Jase says. “Take a couple breaths.”
“Why’s it so fuckin’ blurry?” I fist my eyes, trying to shake this – whatever it is – off. “Where’s Rikki?” I demand.
Aunt Cat pats my shoulders. “Lie down, Riley. She’s okay. She’s here, she’s fine.”
“Where?”
“Erica, come over here, honey,” Aunt Cat says, “Show him you’re here.”
I feel warm hands on my chest. Hot, smooth hands. Hers. Warmth envelopes me. Comfort blankets me. I grab her wrists. I smell her.
“You’re not hurt?” I manage to get out.
“Ease up there, bud,” Jase says, and I growl in response and grab his throat with my right hand, hanging onto her with my left.
“Rye,” Joel clips in a harsher tone. “You’re hurting her. Ease up! That’s Jase you’re choking, brother!”
I let go of Jase but keep my grip on her.
My eyes still swim with floaters, but I can make the color of her hair out in the blurry haze. I let go of her wrist and reach for her hair. She catches my hand with hers before I get to it.
