Chapter 9
NINE
Mason
Brooke’s cry carried through the woods. I picked up my pace, moving to a run and not letting the ache in my thigh slow me down. A roar followed quickly, coming from the same direction, and I knew I needed to be faster. I shifted, my bear tearing out of me at a speed I didn’t know was possible.
My bear burst into the clearing just in time to see Vince’s finger twitch on the trigger of his gun, and everything slowed down. Brooke was wide-eyed with her hands raised ten feet away from him.
Vince would never miss from that distance. Even if Brooke dove from the path of his first bullet, which was highly unlikely, the second would catch her. My bear’s paws thudded against the muddy ground, his claws digging in for grip.
Regret for not claiming Brooke washed over me. If I’d been honest from the start, she wouldn’t have gone to Vince for answers, and he wouldn’t have a gun pointed at her.
Instead, I’d let my fear and guilt control me. Since Aaron died, I’d gone through the motions of living, but I’d never fully engaged with life. I had pretended to put it behind me, but I wore it like armor, letting no one get close enough to see the pain inside.
My bear strained to find more speed. He pushed his body to the limit, and the ache in his leg, the mirror to the one in my thigh, threatened to overcome him. But Brooke was his mate, and we would never allow that to stop us.
I hadn’t saved Aaron, though I’d given it everything I had. I refused to fail Brooke. Not today.
With a final, lumbering lunge, my bear threw his body in front of Brooke just in time for the bullet to bury itself in the muscles of his front shoulder. Pain exploded through me, and the bullet drove me sideways toward Brooke, who narrowly jumped back and avoided being crushed.
My bear struggled to stand, but his shoulder couldn’t bear his weight. He bellowed, the sound tearing at my heart. The pain was excruciating, and blood flowed freely from the hole. Brooke kneeled at my side, tears soaking her cheeks as she tried to put pressure on the wound.
I wanted to tell her to run and save herself. She should use this opportunity to escape. My bear nudged her with his head to push her away, but she pushed back. A hero, just like her brother.
Panic edged her voice. “Don’t move, Mason. Let me stop the bleeding.”
Vince laughed, a sound so filled with darkness I almost didn’t recognize him. “This is perfect. Mason will be forced to watch his mate die in front of him, knowing he can’t save her, just like he didn’t save Aaron.”
His head tilted, a thin-lipped smile spreading across his face. “Then, I’ll put a bullet in his bear’s head and leave him here to rot.”
I gathered my strength, willing my bear to ready himself for one last attempt to save Brooke. We would get only one chance. Vince seemed to be enjoying himself. He was drawing it out and torturing me now, but once we made a move, he would get serious quickly.
Vince’s gaze lifted to Brooke, and he waved his gun at her. “Don’t even think of moving, Brooke. There’s nowhere left to run.”
She tensed, her breaths ragged as she continued to press down on the wound. My bear rocked slightly, trying to dislodge her hands. Brooke stilled and held her breath. Then, she carefully slid her hands over my shoulder and away from me, as if she sensed our plan.
When Vince raised his arm to aim at Brooke again, I screamed in my bear’s head.
Move!
With a pained roar, he heaved himself onto his paws and staggered at Vince. My bear’s teeth closed around Vince’s gun hand, bones crunching beneath his powerful jaw, and a blood-curdling scream echoed through the clearing.
The gun fell to the ground just as the wounded leg collapsed under my bear. I felt the metal of the gun beneath us. Away from Vince’s reach.
He stumbled toward my bear’s prone form and dug his good hand into the wound, and an explosion of pain made my vision go white.
I vaguely heard my bear’s roar, as if from a distance, blending with Brooke’s scream.
The white morphed into black at the edges, the darkness spreading as I felt my mind slipping away.
Brooke’s voice was fuzzy. She was saying something, but I couldn’t make it out. I wished I could hear her voice one last time. I wished I knew she would be safe.
The white was almost gone now. I tried to bring Brooke’s image up in my mind. If I died today, I wanted my last thought to be of her.
Brooke
The scream I let out as Vince sank his hand in Mason’s wound still rang in my ears. The anger that twisted Vince’s expression told me he wanted to end Mason now, as painfully as possible. I wouldn’t let that happen.
I took in a lungful of air and screamed at Vince. “Hey! I’m over here.”
He looked up from where he kneeled at the bear’s side.
His fingers still twisted in the bloody shoulder wound, but the bear didn’t move.
If it weren’t for the ragged rise and fall of its chest, I might think it was dead.
Rage rose in me at the sight of Vince torturing Mason when he was already down.
I jogged backward, continuing to taunt Vince. “You thought you could get me? Not going to happen. Mason won. He saved me.”
Vince gave one last twist of his hand, then staggered to his feet.
His right hand hung broken and bloody at his side.
Rage-filled eyes turned on me and promised me I was back to being his target.
I broke into an uneven run. My ankle was almost numb but still shot tendrils of pain through me. I forced myself to push through.
I no longer watched where I stepped as I moved through the forest. Both Vince and I crashed through the brush.
Branches snagged in my clothing, but I kept moving.
I needed to put some distance between Mason and Vince.
Shifters healed fast. I didn’t know exactly how fast, but I hoped to buy Mason enough time for him to survive.
Chloe had said the sheriff was coming. I hoped he was nearing Mason’s location with Declan and Austin. They would help him.
I was running on pure fury now. My brother was dead because of Vince, and Mason might die too.
I was determined not to let him win. I was too slow to outrun him, even if my ankle wasn’t injured, which meant I had to fight him.
Vince had a definite advantage in a physical fight, so I had to play it smart.
I burst into a clearing. It was where Vince and I were originally supposed to meet.
A fitting arena for our showdown. I pulled out Aaron’s pocketknife and spun to face Vince.
It wasn’t the best option for a knife fight, but it was all I had.
Aaron’s knife felt heavier in my hand than it ever had as I brandished it.
We moved in a circle, neither making a move toward the other. I needed to put Vince off his game. I’d had self-defense training, but Vince was former special forces. If I gave him too long to strategize, this would end fast.
“You’re getting bested by a woman, Vince.”
The jab landed. His eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring. It wasn’t enough.
“You should be used to losing, though.” I pushed a hint of hard laughter into my voice. “First, Mason ruined your plan to eliminate him on that mission. Then he kept you from shooting me so you could watch him suffer. And now? I’m going to beat you in combat.”
If a man could growl, Vince did. He lunged at me, but I was ready for it and jumped to the left, twisting toward him and digging the six-inch blade into his side. I jumped back as he spun in my direction.
Now, blood dripped from both his hand and his side. He pressed his good hand to the wound, then held it in front of his face, as if shocked I had cut him. He advanced, and I retreated to create distance between us again.
“What would your special forces buddies say if they saw you now?” I baited him again. I doubted the same move would work twice, but I had few other tools remaining in my bag of tricks.
He rushed toward my left-hand side but changed course when I moved to the right. He reached for the knife with his uninjured hand. I twisted and kicked his leg before jabbing the knife at him again. This time he was ready, and he disarmed me with a quick flick of his wrist.
He grinned a wicked grin and waved the blade in my face. “Who exactly is besting who? As soon as I’m done with you, I’m going to go back and finish Mason. I might even make a rug from his bearskin. It will be a nice reminder of my victory.”
My stomach clenched. He had really gone off the edge into madness. My mind raced as it considered and dismissed every option that came to me. I was out of moves. This was Vince’s game now, and my only hope was I’d bought enough time for backup to arrive. If not, I prayed he’d make it quick.
A flash in the forest behind Vince caught my eye.
I struggled to keep myself from staring at it.
It looked like Mason in his naked human form, blood dripping from his shoulder.
I wondered if it was a mirage, brought on by my desperation, but if it was real, I didn’t want Vince to notice me staring past him.
“You don’t need to do this, Vince.” No words would stop him, but I was back to delaying him. I kept my gaze on him, trusting Mason to save me. “I don’t believe you want to do this.”
“You ruined everything!” Vince snarled angrily. “You were supposed to be mine, not his. But you had to fall for him. If you won’t belong to me, you won’t belong to anyone.”
He held the knife in front of him and took a step forward.
“Hey, Vince!” Mason’s voice was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard, despite his painful rasp. Vince spun to face him.
My gaze flew to Mason. He stood there covered in blood, with his wounded shoulder hanging low. His left arm dangled uselessly at his side. But his gaze was calm and steady. As was his right hand, which lifted Vince’s gun and fired as Declan, Austin, and the sheriff rushed from the trees.
Vince dropped to the ground as blood bloomed from the hole in his thigh. The same thigh that Mason injured during the sabotaged mission.
The sheriff stepped toward Mason. “I’ll take that gun.”
Mason handed it to him before collapsing. The sheriff approached Vince, keeping the gun trained on him as he pulled out his handcuffs.
The squawk of the radio as the sheriff called for EMTs faded as I ran to Mason’s side. Tears flowed freely as I kneeled next to him on the dirt. Declan crouched beside me and examined the wound while Austin swung a bag off his back.
“We need to get the bullet out so he can heal properly.” Declan nodded to Austin, who dug in the bag until he found a scalpel and tweezers.
“Will he be okay?” My voice wobbled, and I wiped my face with hands bloody from when I pressed them on the bear’s wound.
“It’s nasty, but if we work fast, he might pull through.” Declan worked as he spoke, digging into Mason’s flesh with the scalpel before reaching for the tweezers.
Mason moaned when his brother yanked out the bullet. When Declan moved his hand away from the wound, Austin immediately took his place and pressed a pad of gauze against the hole in Mason’s shoulder. Red soaked through it quickly, and Declan handed him more.
I held Mason’s good hand and murmured words to him. I didn’t even know what I was saying, but I kept going. Encouraged him to fight to live. To come back to me.
Declan wrapped an arm around me and hugged me to his side. “Mason’s a fighter, Brooke. And nothing makes a shifter fight harder than his mate. Keep talking. Let him hear your voice.”
I lifted Mason’s hand and pressed his icy palm against my cheek. “You can do it, Mason. You have to live. I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t. Please.”
His fingers quivered against my skin. Just slightly, but enough to signal he was still with me. If he survived this, I would never let him walk away again.
I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips before whispering. “I’m here, Mason. I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right by your side.”