Her Fated Mates (House of Wolves and Magic Book 2) Read online

  Kate was a fighter, and I should have expected her to be able to react quickly, I just didn’t expect her to react quickly enough to shoot me.

  The minute the bullet pierced my skin, I knew I was fucked. I couldn’t even move enough to get myself off Kate where we lay collapsed on the floor. Instead, she had to force me to one side so she could roll me off and give herself enough room to get up. It didn’t help that she rolled me onto the side with the bullet wound either.

  As I landed on the ground, I let out a howl of pain, and the chaos that had been barely contained around me erupted. My mates howled with me, full wolf style, like they couldn’t resist adding their sorrow and pain to my own. I watched in anger as Kate dragged a beaten Brecken across the room and out the door.

  The closer they got to the door, the more Brecken seemed to perk up, until the two of them were hobbling out of it and no doubt down the street to their home. My guys should have given chase, but they didn’t.

  They all surrounded me instead.

  “Fuck, Nina,” Micah said as he knelt next to me.

  Roman and Blake were still in wolf form, guarding the two of us from any further attacks.

  “I think it’s still in me,” I wheezed, each movement of my lungs to draw breath intensifying the pain.

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. Usually, I’d say that’s not possible, but judging by what she shot into the walls, it’s a more concentrated and fragmented silver than the blade Rob used on me. We need to get you to a hospital. You won’t survive the night if the bullet is still in you, especially if it’s broken apart like that.”

  He gestured to the wall, and I glanced in that direction, my head already fuzzing with pain and silver. I saw enough though. The bullets looked like they had exploded on contact with the wall, fragments fanning out all around the main bullet hole. If that was what had happened inside me, then I was done for.

  Even if we went to the hospital, human doctors wouldn’t be able to save me from all the tiny fragments of silver that were now embedded in my body. Micah was right—I wouldn’t survive the night, but what was worse was that the estimate he gave was optimistic. I wasn’t sure I’d survive the next few hours if the silver spread that quickly.

  22

  Nina

  I blinked, but when I opened my eyes again, everything looked different. Blake and Roman were in human form, standing over me and arguing with Micah. When I’d closed my eyes, they’d all been worried but not freaking out like they were now. Plus, there had been two wolves and one human, not three humans, and certainly not three clothed humans.

  Micah huffed and turned away from me for a second before spinning back to face Roman and Blake, gesturing to me as though he was accusing me of something. “If we don’t get her to a hospital, she’ll die. The way the silver fragmented means that it’s spreading through her system faster than is usually possible.”

  Roman glared at Micah and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly not liking Micah’s plan. “At a hospital, they’ll have questions we can’t answer. What are you going to do when the police show up? How are you going to tell them that it’s a silver bullet that has broken apart inside her? Or that she won’t get better, won’t survive, if even the smallest piece remains in her body? Or were you just going to drop her on the doorstep and walk away?”

  “I would never abandon our mate!” Micah roared.

  I tried to say something. Anything. They needed to stop arguing and start working together to figure this out, or at the very least help each other through my death if possible. It was common for wolves who lost their mates to die shortly thereafter. Whether from heartbreak or the pain of a severed mate bond or something else, no one knew. I didn’t want that for my men.

  The more I tried to say something though, the more obvious it became that I couldn’t. It didn’t help that they were full blown yelling at each other, whatever little grunt I might’ve managed to make wouldn’t stand a chance of being heard over that.

  “I know somewhere!” Blake shouted, interrupting Roman and Micah, who were perilously close to coming to blows. “It’s not the kind of place most people would go, but there’s a doctor, he could help. The problem is that I can’t go with you. Not if we want to keep up the illusion that I’m still loyal to Jax. The moment I’m seen with you, that illusion shatters, at least with this guy. He might sell the information to Jax anyway, we just have to hope that he can get Nina patched up before Jax turns up.” Blake was breathing hard by the end of his short speech as though he’d kept his voice raised so that Micah and Roman couldn’t object to his suggestion.

  “An underground doctor is the best choice we have right now. Don’t you agree?” Roman demanded as he narrowed his gaze on Micah.

  After a moment, Micah just nodded, knowing he was defeated. He might’ve wanted the professional help of a hospital, but that help came with too many strings attached. I was relieved that a decision had been made and they weren’t still trying to fight with one another.

  It was their fear that was propelling them, pushing their anxiety, and probably some sense of the pain I was in, just like I’d felt a soft ache when Micah had been injured. I closed my eyes for a while, the darkness seeping in around the corners of my vision as relief washed through me that they had a plan now at least.

  “Nina? Nina, love, wake up. I need to know this is okay with you.” Blake’s voice was urgent in my ear but sounded like it came from far away. As much as I willed my eyes to open, it was like my eyelids were made of cement blocks. The likelihood of me being able to open them and respond was getting smaller by the second.

  I should never have charged Kate. We’d been fine talking, but once I made my move, I forced her to make hers. Only she’d brought a gun to a wolf fight, and I was no match for the bullets inside. Regret bubbled inside me, or maybe that was the silver, but either way, I felt torn up, hating myself for what happened and what I was putting my mates through.

  “We don’t have time to try and wake her. She’s dying, Blake, can’t you feel it?” Micah demanded.

  I knew I could feel it, but that was about it.

  “What if she’s not on board though? Does she want us to save her life?” Blake questioned.

  “Yes. Don’t ask stupid questions. Finding this doctor of yours is something we have to risk.” Roman’s voice was a snapping growl that, if I was fully in control of my body, would have made me flinch.

  Hands slipped under my body, and as much as I wanted to scream from the movements, I couldn’t. My body was frozen, my mind aware but my voice, my sight, even my sense of smell to an extent, all of it was locked away. Each tiny jostle of my body left me in agony, so when whoever was carrying me began walking with me, it made me want to scream and cry and beg them to put me down.

  I hoped that Micah hadn’t felt this way when he had silver poisoning. We had walked so long and so far with him… If he’d been in this kind of pain the entire time, then I was surprised he was able to look at us at all. The fact that I couldn’t see who was causing me this pain was a relief. I didn’t want to fear one of my mates because of the pain they caused me while trying to save my life.

  We were moving, that much was obvious from the pain tearing through my body, and I surmised that we were going to this sketchy underground doctor who helped shifters, but how we were getting there, I wasn’t sure. I hoped we weren’t walking the whole way, because that would just make me wish I could pass out from the pain. Hell, maybe I even would.

  “Shit,” one of the guys hissed, though I couldn’t tell which one, only that it wasn’t whoever was carrying me. “Get down.”

  “What?” one of them growled from close to me as we dropped to the ground. The pain was excruciating. I wasn’t sure where we were, but I could feel the wind blowing over my skin, so we couldn’t be behind that much cover. It carried the scent of flowers with it, strongly enough that I suspected we were in someone’s garden.

  “Brecken and Kate are back, and they’ve got som
e shifters with them,” Blake muttered.

  I heard a soft rustling a moment before the air was filled with the scent of fresh soil and mulch, as though someone was doing some late-night gardening. The strength of the smell was making my nose burn, and if it was doing that to me, then I could only imagine what it was doing to the guys.

  A moment later, we heard their voices. “They were here, you have to believe me.” Brecken was pleading with them.

  “Then where the fuck are they now, human?” A voice I didn’t recognize filled the night air and made me want to run. I probably would have if I could.

  “We got in a fight. Maybe they ran for it.”

  Someone laughed. “You two fought wolf shifters and survived?”

  “We had help,” Kate said defiantly. I could almost hear Brecken groan.

  “Help? From who?”

  “Some silver bullets,” she spat.

  “Did you hit the bitch?” the first man demanded.

  A yelp from Kate and a shout of protest from Brecken told me everything I needed to know, even without seeing what was happening for myself. One of the shifters was threatening Kate. I wanted to feel bad for her, to see things from her perspective and how scared she must’ve been, but then I took a breath and my lungs felt like they were being shredded, and that empathy that I wanted to have for her vanished.

  “I don’t know! I fired a bunch of shots, I don’t know who got hit,” Kate squealed in terror, but that was a lie. It had to be. She’d literally fired the gun at me at almost point-blank range, and I’d bled on her. She knew I’d been hit, but she wasn’t telling them.

  “You can see some of the shots in the walls if you look,” Brecken added, sounding desperate.

  “If you hit her with one of your damn bullets and she dies from silver poisoning, then you’re both dead as well, you hear us? Jax will kill you personally and slowly if you took his mate’s life.” The threat in the man’s voice was more than just deadly, it was ice cold. It was the kind of threat that you knew, without a doubt, would be followed through on.

  My heart thudded in my chest, or would have if, you know, I’d been able to react in any way. I wasn’t sure what happened, but whoever was carrying me must have jerked or twisted or something, because the next thing I knew, the entire world was blacked out, every sensation, thought, feeling, all swallowed by the anguish that was trying to tear my body apart.

  “Were you able to get it?” a hushed voice asked.

  I had no idea how long I’d been out, but I was relatively sure I’d been unconscious for a bit. Even though I was moderately awake, I still couldn’t get my body to cooperate. My eyes wouldn’t open, and my voice felt like it was stuck deep within me, to the point that I couldn’t even get a little grunt out to express the pain I was feeling.

  “I don’t know, I tried. There was only so much bleach in the house.”

  Bleach? What on earth would they need bleach for?

  “We have no choice, if we don’t try and get to the doctor now, then we’re going to lose our mate.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. Either we make a break for it and try to outrun or outsmart the wolves that are at the house, or we fight and risk taking too long to get Nina to the doctor. We’ve left a blood trail, and the bleach could only do so much, so we can either deal with it or ignore it and run, but we need to make a decision either way so we can stop this waffling and get moving.” The voice sounded distorted, but I knew it had to be Roman. Who else would refer to indecision as waffling?

  “I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.” Blake’s voice filtered into my mind. If Roman wasn’t going to like it, then I definitely wouldn’t like it. Whatever it was, I didn’t want him anywhere near it, doing it, or whatever it was that this idea was about.

  23

  Blake

  I never thought I’d be glad to see Nina unconscious, but if she’d been awake for what I was about to say, then there would have been hell to pay. “I can distract them. Lead them off in a different direction and give you a chance to get away with Nina. I need to get back to the pack anyway. No one has seen me except Kate and Brecken, and they’ve already run off. Plus, this would give me something to explain to Jax.”

  Roman’s eyes narrowed in thought as he clutched Nina more tightly to him. We didn’t have time for this. The silver was already starting to show as web-like veins on Nina’s skin. He knew what would happen if she didn’t get to the doc soon. This was the best option.

  “Nina’s not going to be happy about it,” Roman said quietly, glancing down at the woman in his arms.

  “She’s not fully present to object. Unless Micah and you both think it’s a bad idea, it’s what I’m going to do. I’ll write down the address of the doctor and the password you’ll need to get in. He probably won’t want to treat her, since he’s aware of Jax and what he’s been looking for, but you can make him. If tell him that Sharon would be horrified that he’d turn down a patient that would die without treatment, then he’ll probably back down.” I took a deep breath, readying myself to go up over the retaining wall and rose bushes that we were crouched behind.

  “We’ll come for you,” Micah said quietly.

  I shook my head. “No, you won’t. I’ll get away when I can.”

  “We’ll see. Nina will only wait so long, and I don’t trust Jax not to keep you around even if he knows you’re one of Nina’s mates just to fuck with you. When Nina wakes up again, she can tell us what she wants to do,” Micah said with a sad smile. He handed me his phone with the notepad app open, and I typed in the address and password for the doctor. The old grouch was so cheesy with his cloak and dagger bullshit that it made me want to scream sometimes, but this was how the doc worked, and I wasn’t about to jeopardize that when we needed his specific talents and tools to get Nina back on her feet.

  I handed the phone back to Micah and looked down at my ashen mate. If it wasn’t for the slight rise and fall of her chest, I’d say she already looked dead, a thought that sent a spear of pain through my heart. How had I become so attached so quickly?

  The mate bond.

  It was the obvious answer, and I knew objectively that this was what it did, but I had no idea how completely it would affect me. I didn’t know that I would find every atom of her being beguiling and that the idea of being away from her when she was so close to death, when she’d be in so much pain if she did survive, it was almost too much.

  “Any last thoughts?” I asked, not wanting them to object but also struggling to tear myself away from our little trio.

  “Good luck,” Roman said with a nod.

  Micah gave me a nod as well.

  “Don’t let our mate die,” I said quietly, my gaze locked on to Nina’s angelic face.

  Before I could stop myself, I leaned forward and planted a delicate kiss on Nina’s forehead. I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent one last time, something lightly floral and feminine about speaking to my soul. Before I opened my eyes, I turned away, blocking the three of them from my line of sight as I pushed myself up and over the wall.

  There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to turn around. I couldn’t though, so I pushed forward. I knew the house was just ahead on the left, and I could still hear the voices coming from inside. If Brecken and Kate had stuck around, then I’d be in trouble, but we couldn’t scent them. They were long gone, which meant it was just the shifters that Jax had sent to deal with the situation.

  I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was Chase and Goose. They were who I’d pick for something like this, but then Jax always did his own thing and didn’t always follow the rules, or logic for that matter. When I peeked around the edge of the window though, it was Chase, but not Goose. Instead of the capable duo, he sent one meathead, Chase, who would rather kick and punch than open his mouth, and one timid guy who was barely old enough to be considered an adult, Linc. The guy would rather have his head in a book or some computer programming code than be out in the fi
eld with the rest of the grunts, which was probably why Jax had sent him in the first place. The kid was smart, but smart didn’t get you very far in Jax’s pack.

  “Finally! I can’t believe it took Jax this long to send someone else after these assholes,” I called out as I entered the house. “I’ve been tracking them for the last few days and thought I’d never get back down the mountain, let alone get back up.”

  “The fuck, man! Don’t sneak up on someone like that,” Chase shouted.

  The man should have heard my coming a mile away, but didn’t. Why? I liked to think it was to do with the lack of smarts in his head. He was always a little slow on the uptake, not that there was anything wrong with that, but it was dangerous when you were a shifter.

  The even more telling thing was that Linc didn’t flinch when I called out but did when Chase yelled. Had the older wolf been rough with the younger one? I wouldn’t put it past him if I was honest.

  “Shit, my bad,” I said as I strutted into the room.

  “It’s cool. No worries, bro.” Linc’s cocky attitude was all for show. I knew the kid was wound tighter than a drum under that swagger.

  “Listen, I’ve been tracking them since Jax sent me and Ray out. They’re sneaky bastards and doing everything they can to hide that bitch. Every time I thought I had them, they had double crossed me, but I’ve got their trail now. They can’t escape forever, and soon, Jax will have his mate.” The words made my stomach churn. There was nothing I wanted more than for fuck Chase’s head up and scare the shit out of Linc so the two of them never messed with me or mine again.

  I couldn’t though.

  If I did that, then the ruse would be up. They’d know that something else was going on and not listen to me when I led them in the opposite direction from where Roman and Micah were taking our mate.