Chapter 21

The healers had shown up while Remy was on the phone with Promise, his friend and a wolf with healing power in the venom emitted from her claws and fangs. They told him that Thyme was beyond their abilities to heal, and he’d nearly roared at the unfairness of it all. But Promise and her mom Reika were on the way, he just hoped they got there in time. He couldn’t handle it if he lost Thyme.

Resting his head against hers, he pressed his hand lightly on the bath towel Mila had grabbed from the house to help staunch the blood flow.

“Please don’t go, Thyme, please.”

He heard people shift and come talk to him, offering their support and hope, but it was a buzz in the background of the rage he was feeling. Someone had shot his mate while they were out hunting with the pride. They were new to the area, but the territory was theirs and there shouldn’t have been a shotgun or any kind of weapon anywhere near them.

Someone put their hand on his shoulder and his claws erupted as he let out an angry roar.

“Whoa, man, it’s me, Promise. And my mom.”

The gentle, familiar voice cut through everything in his mind and he blinked to clear the haze from his blurry vision and looked at his friend.

“Let us look, Remy.”

He sat back on his heels and rubbed his palms against his eyes. He was exhausted and grief-stricken, and so fucking furious he couldn’t think straight.

“She’s alive, but just barely,” Reika said. “We’ll both shift and bite her, and together our venom may reverse what was done.”

His brain latched onto that one word: may.

“May?”

“I just don’t know, honey,” she said. “But we’ll try. You need to trust us.”

“I do, I swear. Just save her. Please.”

Promise stood. “The pain will probably make her shift to human, which will start the healing process for her. She has to stay human for at least three hours.”

“Make that four, she’s really injured,” Reika said as she joined her daughter.

“I’ll make sure she stays human,” Remy said.

They stepped into the house and emerged a few minutes later in their wolf forms, their fur so black it was nearly blue.

He moved far enough away to give them room. They murmured at each other, and each took a position on either side of Thyme. With low snarls, they ground their teeth together and he could see the venom as it seeped from their gums. They each licked the claws of one paw, placing the venom on the sharp tips.

At once they both flexed their venom-covered claws into the biggest wound on her side where the bullets had torn through her, and then they bit her, sinking their teeth into her flesh. Reika bit the upper part of her foreleg and Promise bit the back of her neck. They growled together, their claws flexing into the blood-soaked wounds.

Nothing happened.

Thyme didn’t even twitch.

Reika and Promise released their holds on her and sat on their haunches with identical whines.

He wanted to ask what was going on. He wanted to beg that they bite her again and again, however much venom it took to bring her back.

Rubbing the space over his heart, he concentrated on the connection between them as mates.

“Give me your hand, honey.”

A soothing voice broke through his grief and he realized it was Jenna, a fairy from his family’s pack. He blinked at her, thinking he was hallucinating, but then he saw his parents and Jenna’s mate, Logan.

“What are you doing here? How?”

“Reika called your parents,” Jenna said. “And they called us. Now hurry, you don’t have much time.”

He offered his hand to her and she twisted his wrist so his palm was facing up. Then she stabbed him in the center of his palm with a thin blade, deep enough to scrape against the bone. He stared mutely as she lifted Thyme’s paw and cut through the center pad. She sprinkled something sparkly like fine glitter into the wounds and pressed them together, and then she spoke some words in a language he didn’t know. His hand began to burn and a golden glow emanated from where Jenna held his hand and her paw tightly together. He felt something stir within him, a strange ache that spread throughout his whole body. Everything burned, everything was white hot like his veins were filled with molten metal.

And then Jenna released them and Thyme suddenly shifted back to human. Her stomach was torn up from the bullets, but he watched the wounds heal before his eyes. He could see the venom mixed with blood that literally seemed to sew up her flesh like tiny little needles.

Thyme screamed in agony.

Remy leaned over and caught her gaze, holding her head between his hands. “Baby, stay human. Don’t shift. You were nearly dead and my friends came to help heal you. You have to stay human for four hours or the healing won’t work. You were shot. Sweetheart, please, stay human.”

She opened her eyes and they were bright red and amber mixed together, her wildcat’s coloring and his wolf’s. He could feel her anguish through their connection, but the only thing he cared about was that she was alive. Tears blurred his vision and a few dropped onto her cheeks before he could stop them. He brushed them gently away.

“Brilla.” Her voice was a whisper through clenched teeth.

He sniffled and leaned a little closer. “She did this?”

Thyme whimpered and nodded.

“Was Leif there?”

Another nod.

“Did either of them shoot you?”

There was a pause and she shuddered violently, and then shook her head.

“Who shot you?”

She swallowed audibly, then managed to squeak out, “Hunters.”

He brushed his lips very tenderly across her forehead. “I’m going to fix this. My mom’s here and our pride members too. Stay strong. Don’t shift. I’ll come back for you.”

She blinked luminous eyes at him and tears slipped from both. He straightened and then rose slowly to his feet.

It warred with him to leave his mate in her injured state, but his wolf wanted vengeance, needed it like air to breathe.

He looked at his dad and Logan, males he’d known his whole life and who he trusted more than anything.

“I need to handle this,” Remy said.

“We’ve got your back,” his dad said.

Logan nodded with a soft growl.

“We’re with you too,” Marty said.

Remy turned and faced a dozen pride members.

Dana stepped forward. “I’ll stand watch over my bestie and make sure she doesn’t shift.”

A few males offered to stand guard over the females, and the others vowed to fight with Remy to put a stop to the murderous behavior of the pride members, led by Leif, Brilla, and Jacob.

“I want to know why they’re doing this,” Remy said, “but I need to right what happened tonight more than anything.”

After grabbing a blanket from the house to lay over his mate while she healed, he dressed swiftly and hugged his mom and then Jenna. “Thank you for helping to save my mate,” he said as he touched Reika and Promise on their furry heads.

“Where should we start?” Logan asked.

Shit.

“Maybe Jacob’s house?” Remy suggested. “We’ll have to drive there.”

A male stepped from the small crowd of pride members. Remy recognized him as part of Leif’s crew.

“They’re at the factory,” Issan said with a grimace.

Marty moved forward and wrapped a clawed hand around his neck. “You’re with him. You’re with Leif and Jacob. Why would we trust you?”

Remy joined them.

Issan’s eyes bulged and his face turned red. Marty eased his grip but kept the claws tight against his skin. “Because,” Issan wheezed, “Leif threatened all of us, that we had to be part of what they were doing or he’d kill us. I don’t know exactly what’s going on and I don’t know why they’re trying to stop you guys from being alphas, but I do know that they’re at the factory in Marin. And they’ll do anything to keep the pride from leaving town.”

Remy looked at Marty and the others.

“Anyone with me, let’s go to Marin. I’d like to speak to Jacob and Leif.”

After saying goodbye to his still-healing mate, Remy got into his truck with Linus, Marty, and Logan. While his dad got behind the wheel, Remy put the factory into the GPS and said, “Thanks for coming tonight.”

“It’s what you do for family,” his dad said.

“One-hundred-percent,” Logan said.

The engine roared as his dad pressed on the accelerator and they pulled away from the house.

On the patio his mate had nearly died right in front of him. Without the intervention of his family and former pack members, things would have gone very differently.

Now, he was going to get to the bottom of why Leif was so intent on being alpha and keeping the pride in Marin. And then he was going to put the threat to his mate down once and for all.