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“Yes. Luckily, he was able to get out of her hold fast enough. With shifter healing, he should be back to normal by the end of the day tomorrow.”
I sighed in relief and peeked at Tori. She was still dead to the world.
“Thank you for calling. I’m on my way. I’ll help with the search.”
I hung up. Thankfully, other shifters ran the care facility, so my aunt couldn’t do severe damage. Even though she was an older woman, she was still feral, and a feral shifter had strength like no other. It could be hard to subdue one of them because they had no balance, no compass, and nothing to lose. That made them highly volatile.
Getting up, I wrapped the blankets tighter around Tori so she wouldn’t get cold and kissed her forehead. I dressed, then texted Tori’s phone, letting her know that an emergency had come up and I’d explain everything later.
I took one last look at her, and my heart twinged at how beautiful she looked sleeping in one of my beds. Hopefully, I could make it to where she would sleep in the master bedroom with me. That would make everything not exactly perfect, but definitely better.
Quickly, I drove to the remote care facility several miles outside Blackwood Creek. A large expanse of woods surrounded the area, which was beneficial to situations like these so the patients weren’t instantly a danger to humans.
I parked my car at the far corner of the woods on the opposite side of the facility. That way, my aunt would be looked for on opposing ends. Hopefully, we’d catch her before she made it into town.
I stripped and shifted, sniffing the air for my aunt’s scent. When I got nothing, I ran into the woods. I kept a steady pace, but her scent evaded me. It wasn’t until dawn was fast approaching that I finally got a whiff of her scent. She was headed straight to town.
I double-timed it, worried about what would happen if she made it to the town before I could cut her off.
Her scent became stronger, and I caught sight of her from the north side of town. She was in wolf form, frothing at the mouth from the abundant scent of humans.
I approached her cautiously, but rabid and violent creature that she was, she attacked me. It didn’t matter that I was her alpha and three times her size. She was feral, vicious, and unpredictable.
She bit down hard wherever she could, drawing blood. I struggled not to retaliate, afraid I’d kill her. She was my aunt, and she didn’t know what she was doing.
I slammed her into a tree, stunning her momentarily. Quickly, I leaped onto her, determined to make her surrender, but feral creatures lost touch with their natural instincts. It was nothing like me forcing any other shifter into submission. She lunged at me, biting hard into my shoulder. I responded by howling and growling right back at her.
Clawson ran up in wolf form, launched himself into the fray, and helped me pin her down. We stayed in that state until sunlight lightened the forest floor.
Aunt Lucille’s feral fit finally passed, and she shifted back into her human form, now unconscious. My heart felt heavy when I saw the bruises popping up on her body.
If Tori didn’t connect with the wolf, she’d end up like this. I didn’t think my heart would be able to handle that.
Clawson and I stepped away from my aunt and returned to our human forms.
“Thanks, Clawson. I appreciate the help.”
“No problem. I heard there was a wolf nearby. Figured it had to be shifters. I brought a bunch of blankets for cover.”
Clawson opened a large bag he’d set behind a tree, pulling out blankets and his sheriff’s uniform.
I wrapped up my aunt and myself while Clawson got dressed.
“My car is just over there. Why don’t I drive you two back to the care facility?” he offered.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“This was another bad one. She’s not getting any better, is she?”
I carried my aunt to Clawson’s police cruiser. “It’s like she doesn’t want to get better since my uncle died. They were true fated mates, not just chosen mates. She’d rather keep being feral to forget whatever happened to them.”
“Fated mates do make things different. It’s like half of her soul was ripped away from her. How could anybody feel complete after that?” Clawson said.
We were silent as he drove us to the facility. We took a detour, and he dropped us off at my car so I could get dressed. I settled my aunt in the back seat and made sure she was comfortable.
“Thanks again for the assist, Clawson.”
“You bet. Oh, I’ll be naming a couple of prime suspects in the deputy’s murder case. When you have all this settled, come get me and I’ll tell you more about it.”
