“Booker?” Liam barked as he shook her mate when his head turned to the side and his eyes closed. He looked peaceful, and that scared Aspen. “Booker, hang on, man!”
“You’ve got to make a choice, Aspen,” the leader of the clan barked. “He’s losing too much blood, and I don’t think he’s going to make it to Anchorage.”
Aspen leaned over him when the bears moved away to give her space. Their gazes locked, and his beautiful blue eyes were fading. A sheen of death began to cover them, and she knew then and there that she couldn’t lose the male she loved. And she did love him…even more than her own life.
“Booker, you have to drink my blood until it starts hurting,” she hurried to say while she ripped at her sleeve to expose her skin. “Don’t stop until I tell you to.”
He gave her a short nod as his eyes closed again, but she was there to shake him back awake. The pain of her own bite to her wrist wasn’t even felt. She was only focused on Booker…not the bears…not the sound of them moving around the room…nothing.
Just Booker.
“I love you,” she cried as she pressed her wrist to his lips. When he didn’t swallow her blood, she begged, “Don’t leave me. Please. I need you here…I need you to drink my blood.”
His pulls on her wrist were weak at first. “You have to fight for me…us. Come on. Drink more.”
His body jerked, but he didn’t scream.
“Aspen!” Charlie gasped, dropping to her side. “What can I do?”
“I need a sedative,” she ordered, feeling her alpha powers rattling inside her body. Her own magic was stirring, and she wanted to raise her head to the sky and howl from the power of it. “He’s about to be in a lot of pain, Charlie. I hope you brought medicine with you.”
“I did,” Charlie promised. “It’s right here.”
“Get it ready,” Aspen said as she used her free hand to make a fist and rub on Booker’s sternum. “He’s going to start screaming any second.”
Charlie worked quickly to get the medicine from the vial into the syringe, and the bear clan made a protective barrier at the cabin door. A change was coming, and Booker would be vulnerable for a while. The bears were being protective, and Aspen wanted to cry from their respect.
The moment her blood took in his body, Booker’s head fell back and an unhuman sound ripped from his throat. Aspen wanted to comfort him, but she knew it was time for Charlie to inject him. “Charlie!”
“On it,” she replied and swabbed Booker’s arm, sticking him with the needle. She pushed the sedative in right as Booker’s body began to thrash. Charlie moved just in time to keep from being touched by a male that wasn’t her mate.
“Give it a few minutes,” Charlie urged. “Can we move him to a bed now?”
“We can,” Aspen replied, looking up to see the three clan members. They gave her a nod and waited for her to back away. As soon as she was clear, all three males knelt beside her mate. Each one took care with Booker as they lifted him as one, carrying him as if he weighed nothing.
“Where’s Nash and Mason?” Aspen fretted as she followed them with Charlie in tow.
“They’re less than ten minutes away,” Charlie said.
“Damn it!” she growled. “I don’t know what to do, Charlie.” All the emotions of seeing her mate broken and dying sent Aspen to her knees.
“Breath, Aspen,” Charlie cooed. “I don’t know what’s going to happen now. Your brothers will be here any minute. Booker is going to need you to be strong.”
The three bears laid Booker on the bed in the room she’d used the first time she had been there. His large body filled up the small bed, but it would be enough to keep him comfortable during the next few days.
“Have you ever turned a human?” Isaac Duncan, the bear alpha, asked.
“We turned a human female,” Aspen sniffled. “Our alpha’s mate was human. We didn’t know what to do, and we only had our memories of a story from my cousin’s husband. We’d already given her a sedative, and it worked throughout the three days she was going through the change. I don’t want my mate to be in pain.”
“Come,” Isaac ordered. Aspen narrowed her eyes at his bluntness but held her tongue. “I hear your brother’s plane. We need to talk to you and Nash. I’ll leave one of my brothers here to watch over your mate.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” she replied. A foreign feeling bubbled up inside her chest. The magic that made her who she was built so quickly, she was sure she would go feral from it. “He’s my mate!”
“Aspen,” Nash barked from the doorway. Her brother’s voice shocked her, and she felt a little of his calming powers, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to stop the need to protect her mate while he was in distress.
“Aspen, you must stay calm,” Mason called out, pushing past the bears to come closer. She saw the leader whisper something to Nash and back out of the cabin.
“What’s going on, Nash?” she asked, feeling her canines thicken in her mouth.
Nash lifted his chin, relaxing his pose…but it was all a ruse. The moment Booker started screaming, Mason was on her, taking her to the ground.
“You’re going feral over your mate being in pain, Aspen,” Mason snarled in her ear. “Your alpha powers are stronger than Nash’s right now, and he can’t calm you. You’re going to have to dig down deep
