“Wyatt?!” I tried again. “What’s going on? Where are you? What just happened? Are you okay?”
I flung question after question into the void, but there was no answer from him. I’d almost convinced myself I’d imagined it, but the pain in my stomach was worsening and I had no explanation for it.
I curled into a ball on the ground, soft whimpers escaping my lips as the pain radiated through my whole body. On some level, I realized my sisters and a few of the enforcers had circled around me, but I was in too much pain to concentrate on that.
Just as the blackness had begun tunneling my vision and I knew I’d pass out from the pain, it abruptly vanished. I laid there panting, waiting for it to return, but it was gone, and it was like it had never been there to begin with.
I crawled to my feet and shook out my coat, expecting some kind of wound, but there was nothing. It was almost like I’d imagined the whole thing, but I knew I hadn’t.
And I also knew Wyatt was in trouble.
I don’t know how I knew that, or what led me to that realization, but I felt it down to my bones. He was hurt somewhere, and I had to get to him. Now.
Without giving it a second thought, I took off running. Question after question followed by demands and pleas filled my head from my sisters and the other wolves I’d just left, but I ignored them all. I didn’t have time to answer their questions and I couldn’t concentrate on that anyway. I was too busy following that feeling in the pit of my stomach that I knew would lead me to Wyatt.
I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, faster than I’d ever moved in my entire life, and it still took too long. It still felt like years passed as I sprinted through the woods, my stomach in knots and my heart in my throat.
I burst through a cluster of trees and landed on a gravel drive leading to a small cottage. There were a couple vehicles parked out front including Abey’s truck, so I knew I was in the right place. I felt that thing tug in my stomach harder than ever and I knew Wyatt was nearby.
I trotted around the other side of a green Jeep I only vaguely recognized and finally picked up Wyatt’s leather scent. My feet carried me faster as I followed my nose. Finally, I caught sight of a body lying on the gravel drive and my heart leapt to my throat.
I raced over to him, my body shifting mid-stride. “Wyatt!” I screamed.
He was still and deathly pale except for the crimson blood leaking from a little round hole in his stomach. I reached out to him, but my hands just fluttered uselessly above his naked body. I didn’t know what to do or how to help, but I knew I needed to.
Because even though I could see the slight movement of his chest that meant he was still breathing, I knew he didn’t have much longer left. I knew he was dying. And I could not let that happen.
We hadn’t had enough time yet.
I wasn’t ready to lose him.
I refused to lose him.
“Callie?”
I looked up through watery eyes to find Ellie standing there, her face somber.
“What happened, Ellie?” I asked as the tears streamed down my face. I rubbed at them viciously, but they continued to fall as I listened to her explain.
Apparently, Peyton and her brother Paul had shown up at this cottage that Abey and Ellie were honeymooning at to kill her. Peyton never liked Ellie, and once she got kicked out of our pack, we all knew she’d hold a grudge, but I don’t think anyone expected her to go this far.
While Peyton confronted Ellie, Wyatt had tried to take out Paul when he got shot. Clearly, Paul knew he’d never win in a fight against Wyatt, so he’d had to resort to the gun he’d been issued as a cop.
I looked back down at him as my heart pounded in my throat and my stomach hollowed out. It was so typical of him to get himself hurt protecting someone else. He’d told me before what an honor it was that Abey had trusted him to protect Ellie. I knew he cared deeply about her. Knew he would have done anything to keep her safe, and the proof of that was the bullet hole that had ripped through his skin.
A sob tore from my throat as I leaned closer, my hands shaking violently. “Wyatt, please,” I begged. “Don’t leave me. I can’t lose you. Please,” I cried again.
I cupped his pale face between my hands and kissed his lips, hoping, praying, begging anyone who’d listen that it wasn’t the last time.
It couldn’t be.
I wouldn’t let it.
I sniffed hard and turned to Ellie. “Can you find me a shirt or something? I’m coming with you guys.”
“Um. Sure. Yeah. Here,” she said as she handed me a bundle of cloth. “See if you can get these on him.”
With careful movements, I slid a pair of shorts up his legs before looking around for something to stem the steady flow of blood leaking from his stomach. “I need something else. A rag or something,” I said out loud to whoever was listening.
If I’d had a stitch of clothing on me, I would have torn it off and used it, but I was bare and completely useless.
My brother came into view, a dirty cloth in his hands. “Here, this is better than nothing.”
I gratefully accepted it and pressed it against the bullet hole
