Chapter Six Desiree #2
“Baby, dammit! I’m a shifter. If you ever do something so stupid I’m gonna tan your ass! Help me get him in the door!” Austin grunts and shoves at a pile of black fur.
“Dammit, Jericho, you heavy motherfucker! What the hell were you thinking?” The panther doesn’t respond and my mouth falls open.
“What just happened?” I grab onto the big cat and tug and pull uselessly. Austin grabs him around the neck and strains and grunts, pulling him inside the door and slamming it closed.
Wood splinters seconds after he closes it. “Shit! Motherfucker!” he growls and rips at his clothes. My breath stutters when he drops to the floor and his body contorts, his bones cracking and muscles shifting.
I blink and a huge brown bear stands in front of me. Silver and gold glints in his eyes and I whisper, “Austin?”
He huffs out a breath like it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever asked and I glare at him. “Don’t fuck with me, bear! What the hell?”
Then he plods over and strides quickly down the hall. I see a back door and scream, “wait! What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t go out there! He’ll kill you!”
The bear stops and turns, stalking back to me. I can’t breathe when I look into his soft eyes and I know he’d gladly trade his life for mine. It’s all right there.
I reach out a shaky hand and run it through his soft fur, watching his eyes close and a shudder roll over him.
“Don’t you dare get dead,” I growl at him, my voice shaking with my fear for him. His eyes open and I feel that connection to him. Hear his voice clear as day in my head.
“I promised you forever. I’ll be back, mate.” His big head swings to the cat. “Take care of Jericho. I’ll be right back.”
I nod my head slowly, hoping that he’s right. Needing his assurance. At the same time I want to go out there and take care of this myself.
He shakes his big head. “I’m a shifter, you’re not. He’s a shifter. You can’t hurt him. I can,” he growls angrily.
It goes against everything in me but I nod and hold the door while my mate stalks out the back. I walk over to find the panther’s golden eyes open, a flash of blue barely hanging on in their golden depths.
“Jericho? Are you okay?”
He stretches out his long, lean body and grunts, struggling to his feet. Then he pads over to the door out the back. His big, dark head turns to me and he hisses.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You got shot. You’re not well.”
A smile curls his lips and his tongue lolls out of his big teeth. He holds out a paw and I look. “What? Where did you get shot?”
He nods at his paw again and I look closer. I can barely see a drop of blood. “That’s it? You’re all good? What the hell? I wish I was a shifter, for heaven’s sake,” I grumble. He scratches at the door again and I sigh. “Fine. But Austin’s gonna be pissed.”
He shoots me a dangerous glare and I shuffle to the door. “Fine, fine. I’m coming.”
I shove the door open and the big cat slips out, leaping for the woods. I don’t hear anything for a second. Then I hear a wolf howl and a hissing cat that shakes the cabin. A deep grumbling rumble jangles my nerves. That’s my mate. I know it.
Then all hell breaks loose and all I hear is howls and screams of pain. Roaring shakes the cabin windows and a wild cat scream drops me to my knees. My hands cover my ears and I scream from pain. The sounds wash over me, loud and earth-shaking. I can’t stop shaking and my body folds in on itself.
Then suddenly silence breaks over the cabin. There’s no sound at all. No breath of wind, no birds, nothing. Like the earth’s holding it’s breath just like I am.
Is he? I shove myself to my knees and then stand shakily. I can’t feel anything. Can’t hear him. Tears well in my eyes. I would feel him if he….I bring my thoughts to a halt. I can’t bear to think of him gone. It’s been a day and I already know that my life would be nothing without him.
Now I know the truth. My sister wouldn’t want to live without her husband.
Because if Austin is gone, I’ll never be able to take a full breath again.
Never feel happy, never be able to love anyone else but him.
He’s my everything. My whole world wrapped up in one gigantic, dangerous and loving man. Mate.
He’s my mate.
I stagger to the door and pull myself out of it, looking. Searching for him. Tears drip down my cheeks and sobs wrench out of me in soul-deep agony.
“Austin!” I scream. The wind that was dead begins again and it whips my own words back at me.
“Where are you? Austin! Please don’t be gone!
Austin!” I drop to my knees, sobbing. I don’t feel him.
Can’t hear him. Terror lashes at me and then sorrow so deep that it settles in my bones takes over and squeezes my heart in my chest.
“Austin!”
“He’s alright.” My head whips around and I see the blond shifter step out of the woods, hauling my mate, his arms wrapped around his waist. He’s pale and there’s a trickle of blood down his face.
“He got knocked out but he’s alright.” He drops him to the ground and then drops to his knees beside him.
“Oh shit!” That’s when I see the gaping wound along his left side. It runs all the way from under his armpit to his knee. He’s gasping for breath, his eyes glazed over from pain. He collapses on top of Austin and I groan.
There’s no way I can move them. They’re both so damn big.
“Hello the cabin! Austin! What the hell, man! Where are you?” Multiple voices holler and I wince. Unless I’m very much mistaken, there are more shifters here.
I shake my head and stumble to my feet. I don’t want to leave Austin’s side and my heart flips when I look back at him lying there so still.
But I need help.
I stagger out to the front of the cabin and wave down the four big men on horseback. One horse rears and a giant of a man who dwarfs Austin grumbles. “Dammit! Stop that, Bo! If you throw me again I swear I’m gonna kick your damn ass!”
“I need help,” I gasp. “Austin and Jericho are hurt!”
One of the men glares at me. “What the hell is Jericho doing here? Did those two idiots get into a fight?”
I shake my head and swipe my hand across my forehead. “Yeah, with another guy. He killed your foreman.”
All four of them jump off the horses and tie them to railings. One of them wraps a hand around my shoulder. “Come on. We’ll get them taken care of. You need to rest. We’ve got this.”
Ordinarily I’d glare at him and tell him to keep his hands to himself but I’m just so happy that they’re there to help that I lead them around without a word.
One of them skids in next to Austin. “Austin, man. You alright?” Austin lifts his head and growls at him. “If you lay one filthy paw on my mate, I swear to god I’ll rip it off and beat you to death with it.”
My heart flies up into my throat when he sits up and groans, rubbing at the blood on his head.
He grins at me. “Were you worried about me, mate?”
I glare at him. “I should kick your ass for putting me through that. Asshole,” I grunt. But I’m too relieved to do more than glare at him.
He throws his head back and laughs and the corded muscles in his throat bring me back to the fact that both of the shifters are naked. Austin glares at me when he sees me glance at Jericho.
“If you don’t turn your back, I swear I’ll kill him myself,” he grumbles.
Jericho groans, “I can’t help it I’m better looking than you, man. Don’t kill the innocent victim here.”
All of the men stare wide-eyed as Austin stands and reaches down a hand to help Jericho up. The blond man limps to the cabin, Austin’s arm wraps around his shoulder, half-carrying him.
“What the hell happened here?” the biggest man hisses.
Another one hurries after them. “I don’t know but I’m damn sure gonna find out.”
All of us follow behind the two battered and bruised shifters. I sigh and close my eyes, so exhausted that it feels like just putting my feet in front of me is a struggle.
But if my mate can be injured saving me then I can damn sure make it inside on my own two feet.
The pull to my mate makes me smile. I’m home. I’m safe. And forever is starting to look pretty damn good.