Chapter 37 #2
“Luna, get the fuck out of there!”
Time slows down. A massive paw swings toward my face, three-inch claws that could disembowel me with a single swipe gleaming under the overhead lights. Fear freezes me in place, my body refusing to process the command to move.
Something slams into me from the side as Maren tackles me, throwing us both to the floor as the bear’s claws tear through the air where I stood a heartbeat earlier. White-hot pain explodes across my shoulder as one claw catches me during the fall, tearing through flesh like it’s paper.
“Out! Out! OUT!” Ethan grabs both of us, rolling us toward the door.
We scramble out of the cell in a tangle of limbs, and Ethan slams the steel door shut with a resounding clang. The lock engages with a solid click just as the bear lunges toward us, his massive paws hitting the bars with enough force to make them ring like bells.
Tate bursts through from the reception area. “What the hell happened?”
For a moment, we all stand there panting, watching the furious black bear pace inside the cell, roaring in anger and pain. He’s magnificent and terrifying, wild eyes fixed on us through the bars.
“That was too fucking close.” Ethan forces the words out between ragged breaths.
“Luna!” Maren grabs me as my knees buckle. Her face fills with horror. “Shit. You’re bleeding bad.”
I look down at my shoulder. The bear’s claw has left a deep gash from my collarbone across my shoulder. Blood is flowing freely, warm and sticky against my skin. The adrenaline starts to ebb, and pain floods in to replace it.
“Not arterial,” I say through gritted teeth, professional assessment kicking in even as my knees threaten to buckle again. “Just messy.”
“We need to get you to the hospital.” Ethan guides me to a chair, pressing a large towel against my shoulder. “Maren, keep the pressure on that.”
“No hospital.” I can’t deal with the thought of having to drive all the way to Estes Park, sit in an ER for hours, and explain what happened. “You can stitch me up here.”
“Luna—” Maren starts, biting her lip as her gaze darts between my face and my shoulder.
“No hospital.” My words are final as I cover her shaking hand with mine. “You can stitch me up, Ethan.”
A silent conversation passes between them, and Ethan’s jaw tightens before he sighs. They both know that fighting my stubbornness is a losing battle.
“Fine, but we’re doing this properly. Full sterile protocol, and if there’s any sign of complications, you’re going to the ER whether you like it or not.”
“Deal.” Relief floods through me even as the pain digs deeper.
“Maren, take her into the OR. Start an IV with morphine and prep the suture kit. Let me get this guy back under.”
She nods and takes a breath as her professional mask slips back into place, but I know Maren; she’s going to crash once this is all over.
“Tate, help me.”
At her request, Tate crosses the room in three strides.
He scoops me up like I weigh nothing. Pain tears through my shoulder, white-hot and vicious.
A scream rips from my throat. He carries me across the hall into the small operating room, moving as gently as someone carrying a bomb.
Sweat slicks my forehead. I bite down hard when Tate lowers me onto the table, but a cry still escapes.
Everything blurs, tears flooding my vision.
The adrenaline drains away, leaving nothing but fire, and each heartbeat sends another wave of agony from my shoulder blade to my fingertips.
“Thanks, Tate. Can you watch things up front while we take care of Luna?”
“Yeah. Let me know if you need anything.”
He squeezes my hand once, worry etching lines onto his face.
Then he’s gone. Maren grabs scissors and cuts through my sweatshirt.
Panic flutters in my chest for a second as the fabric falls away.
What if she sees the marks my wolf leaves on my throat, the fingerprints that betray our twisted nights together?
But his touch has been gentler this week, less brutal since he hasn’t killed anyone.
My skin is clear and unmarked, and the relief that washes through me is almost as powerful as the pain.
She finds a vein on the first try and inserts the IV with steady hands, pushing the morphine through. I have to strangle the scream building in my throat, grinding my teeth together until the drug spreads through my system and my muscles finally surrender to the table beneath me.
The bear’s claw ripped clean through my bra strap, so Maren pins the loose fabric under my arm to keep me covered. She switches out the bloody towel, guiding my other hand up to hold it in place.
“Press on that. You’re losing too much blood, Lu.” Her hands are steadier now. “I need to get the suture kit prepped.”
I do the best I can as I watch Ethan through the open door extend an injection pole and deliver the sedative into the bear’s massive hindquarter. The bear swipes at the pole but misses.
“That should keep him out for a while.” Ethan rushes into the operating room. “Long enough for us to patch you up and finish the surgery. Do you have a pair of sterile forceps?”
Maren nods. “Yeah. I ran everything through the autoclave yesterday.”
She disappears into the walk-in closet where we store sterilized equipment.
Ethan moves to the sink and scrubs his hands while looking back at me. “I don’t want to put in staples because we’re too close to bone, but I want to get some internal sutures in there to reduce some of the tension on the outer layer.”
Maren comes back with several vacuum-sealed packages and sets them on a tray beside me.
Then she takes Ethan’s place at the sink as he walks over to me, snapping on latex gloves.
He pulls the towel back to examine the wound.
“It actually doesn’t look too bad, Luna.
I still want to put internal stitches in because it’s your shoulder. ”
Pain drowns out most of his words, but I nod, trusting him to do what’s right.
“First, we have to irrigate and clean. I need to get a better look at it.”
Maren steps up beside the table. “Okay, babe, we’ve got to be quick about this, and it’s going to be painful and bloody as fuck, so I need you to be brave.
” Maren squeezes my hand, as much to encourage herself as me.
She bleeds along with the people she loves when they’re hurt, but being strong for them is her superpower.
I squeeze back. “You guys got this.”
Ethan starts cleaning the wound, and the world explodes. A scream tears from somewhere deep inside me. My eyes roll back, and everything goes black.
The next time I surface, Maren’s brushing my sweaty hair from my forehead, her fingers cool against my fevered skin. I turn my face toward her palm, seeking the relief of that coolness, leaning into her touch.
“All done. You missed all the excitement, Lu.
“How bad is it?” I try to crane my neck, hissing through clenched teeth. Pain shreds through me.
“You’re incredibly lucky it didn’t hit anything vital.” Ethan appears beside me. “Few inches to the left, and he would have caught your throat.”
“Lucky me.”
My tongue feels thick. The words come out slurred.
Ethan says something to Maren about the morphine level. His mouth moves, but the words don’t quite register.
“Hey.” I give them both a dirty look. “Don’t pull that back.”
“We’re not. I’m having her up it a little. You can take oral meds tonight, but we need to stay ahead of the pain.”
“Yeah, you think it’s bad now; it’s going to hurt like fuck once the adrenaline wears off.”
I grab Maren’s hand and kiss it rather than reply. The new dose hits my system like a warm wave.
“You lie here and rest while we finish up with our cranky patient.”
Ethan walks out as I struggle to sit up. “No. I want to—”
“Lu, you need to rest.” Maren places a hand on my uninjured shoulder, trying to guide me back down. I shrug her off, swallowing a cry as pain lances through my arm.
“I can observe.”
“You’re such a fucking control freak.” Maren shakes her head but slides an arm around my waist to support me. I lift her hand to my lips in apology.
She sets me up in a chair outside the cell, covering me with a blanket and adjusting the morphine IV on its stand beside me.
Then she and Ethan work together to complete the surgery.
It kills me not to be helping, but I know my limitations.
One-handed surgery while under the influence of narcotics is a recipe for disaster.
As they clean and dress the wound, I study the bear’s massive form.
Even unconscious, he radiates power and wildness.
This is why I built this sanctuary, why I push myself beyond exhaustion day after day.
For creatures like him, who have no voice against human cruelty and selfishness, even when they try to kill me.
“Those fuckers better get jail time.”
I mutter it more to myself than anyone else. Neither Ethan nor Maren pays attention to me. They’re too focused on the bear.
Thirty minutes later, with Tate’s help, Maren leads me back to my house.
“Nappy-nappy time for Luna. And yes, that’s a medical term.”
I snort against Tate’s neck as he carries me up the stairs.
As Maren helps me into my pajamas and tucks me into bed, I can’t deny the dark truth growing inside me.
The wound in my shoulder throbs with each pulse of blood, and beneath the pain lives something else.
Hope. The twisted kind. That somehow the news will reach my wolf.
That he’ll know what happened before he comes to me tonight.
That vengeance will find those hunters without me having to voice the desire out loud.