Snarls and growls rumbled around him. For a second, he thought the cougar might stay and fight, but then it bounded off. Luca paced close to him, limping but still mobile. It hadn’t been a pretty fight, but they’d both survived.
“What the hell?” Jaxon roared the second he shifted. He crouched next to him, examining his leg without touching it.
Niko tried to stand, but his leg wouldn’t hold, and he stumbled back to the ground.
“Don’t you fucking bite me,” Jaxon ordered, his tone firm. Both Luca and Emmett remained in their wolf forms, keeping guard.
Niko gritted his teeth. If he thought the pain of the broken limb was bad, setting the bone would be worse. When Jaxon gripped his paw and his hip, Niko heaved a deep breath into his lungs. One second, pain exploded through him, and the next, everything went blessedly black.
***
Rylee paced Maple’s kitchen, ignoring the worried looks she was getting from her new friends. She popped another candy into her mouth, chewing the sweet treat like her life depended on it. They were delicious, and under different circumstances, she’d enjoy them a hell of a lot more. “Yes, definitely this one. You have to sell it,” she said as she spun on her heels and strode to the window again.
When she turned and saw both Maple and Bonnie staring at her, she sighed. “I said that already, didn’t I? Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Seriously, though? It takes a lot to keep our men down. Try not to worry,” Maple assured her for the third time in the last five minutes.
When Jaxon had texted Maple a little over half an hour earlier, saying that there had been an attack in the forest, to her credit, Maple hadn’t tried to hide the information from her. She’d come right up to her and told her that Niko was injured. Jaxon hadn’t said how badly he was hurt, just that they were bringing him in and that he’d be in his wolf form. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to see him in his shifted body, but not under these circumstances.
Bonnie’s head snapped up seconds before Maple’s did. “They’re here,” she said just before the sound of a vehicle coming into the drive drifted to Rylee’s ears. Then a car door slammed, followed by two more.
Rylee’s heart pounded. “Will he know who I am if he’s in his wolf form? Should I stay away from him?” Animals could be unpredictable when hurt. Crap. She wished she knew more about the shifter world.
“He’ll recognize you. If anything, his wolf will even before the man does. He won’t admit it, but he’ll want you close. Men are big babies like that,” Bonnie said in a loud whisper.
A man Rylee didn’t recognize entered first, holding the door open. His gaze went to Bonnie, then slid to Maple, and finally, to her. He gave her a small nod but didn’t say a word.
The second to come in looked a whole lot like Niko. Same dark hair, same brown eyes. An inch shorter—maybe. “Luca?” she asked, her voice shakier than she’d expected it would be.
He gave her a pained smile. “He’s okay, little sister. Jaxon’s trying to calm him before bringing him in.”
Some of the tension that had been coiled so tightly inside her released. If his brother wasn’t worried, she shouldn’t be, either. Right?
Luca guarded his stomach as he gingerly stepped forward. Under his arm, a splotch of drying blood stained his blue T-shirt.
If he was hurting and coming in under his own steam, what kind of shape was Niko in? They might expect her to stay inside and wait, but she couldn’t. Deep, vicious growls greeted her as she approached the door.
“He wouldn’t want you to see him this way,” Luca said but didn’t try to stop her.
“I’m not bringing you in until you calm the fuck down. I swear, if you bite me, I’m going to break your other damned leg,” Jaxon said from just outside the door in a voice that brooked no argument.
Rylee gasped and rushed from the kitchen. Alpha or not, if he thought for one second she’d let him lay a hand on Niko, he had another thing coming.
In the grass, not ten feet from the door, a brown wolf lay on its side, panting. Blood matted the fur of his left leg and ribs. Growls rumbled from his chest. The second he spotted her, they grew louder, and his lips curled up in a snarl. Not aimed at her, but at the man who was standing there, towering above him with his arms crossed over his chest.
Ignoring the warning glare she got from Jaxon, she went to the wolf’s side, kneeling next to him. Niko was somewhere in there, and if what the women had said was true, then he wouldn’t hurt her. His body trembled, and muscles bunched beneath the fur in what looked like a wicked spasm, making the wolf whimper.
“What’s happening?”
“He’s being a stubborn ass. He’s going to shift and rip apart all the healing his body has done already,” Jaxon said, his voice filled with censure.
Niko’s wolf’s body contorted again.
“Don’t,” she snapped at him. “Stay as you are.”
The spasms in the wolf’s body subsided.
“Why is he doing that if it’s going to hurt him?”
The man ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re not mated. Having any man near you is going to drive his wolf crazy.”
As though reinforcing the Alpha’s statement, Niko growled again.
She stroked her fingers over the wolf’s neck. “Does he need a doctor?”
“Not if he stays as he is. If he shifts, he could do permanent damage. He needs a few hours to heal.”
She nodded. “If you can give me directions, I’ll take him home.”
