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“Damn wolves keep getting too close to my property! I have a right to protect myself. I know you folks in town think they need to be coddled like they’re damn pets but I can’t have them thinking my home is a food source when things are scarce.”
“Are you crazy? Get out of here before I call the police! You aren’t supposed to be hunting wolves. They are protected here.” It took everything within Ryan not to lunge at the guy as he hesitated.
“Look at it! That one is sick and scrawny. I probably did their population a favor. Let me finish it off. It could have rabies.”
As Ryan glared at the other man, a rumble of a growl slipped past his lips. As if sensing danger he backed away slowly before finally turning to run. His instincts demanded that he chase after the retreating hunter and eliminate him as a threat, but needed to stay with Kelly to get her help.
As soon as Ryan was certain he was gone, he crouched by Kelly; her eyes were glazed with pain and blood was pooling around her. It was a lot of blood, enough that it was alarming and he conveyed that to his brother.
“What do I do here? Do I pull the arrow out?”He was afraid to touch the shaft, unwilling to cause Kelly more pain.
“Where is it?”
Ryan gave the location of the arrow to his brother trying to be as accurate and detailed as possible.
“No! don’t pull it out, the head could cause more damage. Your safest bet is to break the fletching off and push the shaft through to the other side.”
“Are you sure?”
“When she shifts it should heal any damage.”
“Should?”Ryan didn’t like the sound of his brother’s voice. The odds didn’t sound promising.
“What do you want from me, Ryan? Quit busting my balls, I don’t have any guarantees with a wound like this.”
Shutting out his brother Ryan leaned towards Kelly pausing when she bared her teeth and snarled at him. He shifted in the grass next to her keeping his tone low and soothing as he reached out for the arrow in her side.
“I know it hurts.” He said while wrapping his hands around the body of the arrow. Kelly whipped her head around and snapped her teeth at him, her upper lip curling.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m trying to help.” Moving quickly, he snapped the end of the arrow and pushed it through her side. Thankful that the projectile had clipped her and would make missing vital organs easier.
He worked quickly ignoring the bile that rose in his throat at the feeling of the arrow slicing through her flesh. He blocked out her whimper as he forced it out.
“It’s out.”He relayed the information to his brother, his brief sense of relief coloring his tone.
“Okay, now when she shifts it’ll heal”
She watched him from where she lay with sad eyes, and although she was in animal form Ryan swore he could see tears and complex human emotion in her gaze.
“Shift Kelly. It will heal the wound.” He was getting nervous about the amount of blood coming faster from the wound. It was gathering around her to stain the grass where she lay.
Panic nearly blinded him as she blinked at him before closing her eyes as if resigned to her fate.
“Change damn it, now!” Ryan could practically feel her slipping away. Refusing to let that happen he did the only thing he could think of. He placed his hands over the wound in her side burying them in the soft sable fur to touch the skin beneath.
“You are not giving up, understand? You can’t leave me. I won’t let you.” He called on the power he used to change, but instead of using it to transform himself, he visualized it flowing into Kelly.
He shoved the energy into her. It was like a bright blue electric wave that arched between them. Kelly’s form shifted under his hands and as it did a single word exploded in his mind.
MATE!
Ryan pulled his hands back, shocked as that one word reverberated through him.No! There was no way it was possible. He would have known.
Stripping off his coat and shirt, he dressed Kelly in them even though he’d brought her clothes with him. He couldn’t explain the sudden need, but he had to have her wrapped in his scent. He carried her from the woods, bypassing her house and heading straight for his.
She was so weak. He could feel each of her ribs and she weighed no more than a child would in his arms. How the hell had he not seen that something was wrong with her? How had he been so blind? The man who had shot the arrow was right, she did look sickly even in her human form. Her hair was dull, her skin tone so pale it was nearly translucent, its paper-thin texture so fragile he was worried that touching her too roughly would cause it to tear.
His wolf seemed to stare at him from within his gaze full of pity that the man had been too stupid to see their mate had been under their nose for years and he’d ignored her.you didn’t just ignore her you sent her away.
