Unstoppable

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Wildlife rescue?” Jacob murmured, throwing her a questioning look as he continued pouring soapy water over Kale.

  “They use dish soap after oil spills to help get the oil off animals,” Ashley said, realizing that she was going to have to cut his pants off. “Hand soap made the blood thicker, so I tried dish soap.”

  “Never would have thought of that,” Jacob said as Ashley grabbed the scissors only to realize that they weren’t going to be able to cut through the thick wet material.

  Biting back a sigh, she tossed them aside, noting that her skin was once again beginning to heal as she knelt there, debating their options only to realize that they really didn’t have any. They needed to get his clothes off before the blood could congeal.

  Slowly exhaling, she grabbed hold of his pants and pulled, ripping the thick, wet material apart and-

  Stopped when Kale screamed in pain. Releasing his pants, Ashley grabbed the bottle of dish soap, poured more in her hand, and worked her hand between his ruined pants and his leg, slowly washing away the blood holding the two together until she was able to slide her entire hand beneath his pant leg. Then she pulled her throbbing hand free, ripped his pants until she reached the next section of blood and did it all over again as the scent of apples became weaker.

  She kept going until Jacob was able to reach down and rip the remainder of Kale’s jeans off, leaving him in soaked boxer briefs that had somehow managed to protect his hip from the blood before focusing her attention on his torso only to feel her stomach drop when she saw it.

  “Oh, fuck me…” Jacob said as Ashley’s gaze flickered from the bullet wound that she’d just uncovered to find Kale watching her.

  “Silver bullet,” Kale said, making her swallow hard as her gaze shifted back to the wound that had been concealed in demon blood a moment ago, to find it bleeding now that the demon blood was gone.

  “Oh, shit!” Jacob said, gently pushing her aside as he grabbed Kale and pulled him onto his side to reveal an exit wound on his back.

  “He’s going to be okay, right?” Ashley asked hollowly as she watched the last of the demon blood slowly slide away from the wound on his back and-

  She got her answer.

  Chapter 23

  “Fucking shift!” Jacob shouted as he dropped Kale on the bed and-

  God, there was so much blood, Ashley thought, feeling her stomach drop as she slapped her hands against his wound, praying that it would stop the bleeding only to watch blood seep between her blistered fingers and down his torso where it pooled on the sheets. Everything went red as she looked at Jacob to find him shoving his hand through his hair as he stared down at Kale, who couldn’t seem to do much more than groan in pain at this point, looking lost.

  “We have to do something,” she said, pressing her hands that had stopped healing at some point more firmly against Kale’s wounds.

  “He needs to shift,” Jacob said more to himself as he watched the blood continue to pool on the bed.

  “He can’t!” Ashley said, looking around the bedroom for something to fix this.

  “He’s fucking stubborn,” Jacob said, shaking his head in disgust as Ashley looked back down at Kale to find him watching her through silver eyes as he struggled to stay awake.

  Licking her lips nervously, Ashley tried for a reassuring smile as she said, “You have to shift, Kale.”

  When he only continued to stare at her, she added, “Please!” hoping that it would be enough to make him listen because she didn’t know what else to do.

  They couldn’t bring him to the hospital, which meant…

  He was going to die if he didn’t shift.

  “Please, shift,” she said, pressing her trembling hands tightly against his wounds as she struggled to think of something that would help him.

  “We have to close his wounds,” Ashley said, shifting her attention to find Jacob watching her with something close to pity.

  “He’s not going to make it, Ashley.”

  Shaking her head stubbornly, she said, “You don’t know that.”

  “There’s too much damage. If he’d shifted sooner, he might have had a chance, but with the demon blood…” Jacob said, letting his words trail off as Ashley knelt there, shifting her attention back to Kale and-

  No, this wasn’t happening.

  “Either find something to close the wound or I will,” Ashley bit out as she shifted her attention back to Jacob, wondering why he wasn’t doing something to stop this.

  “Why do you care?” he asked, watching her curiously.

  “Because he doesn’t deserve to die like this!” Ashley said, struggling to keep it together when all she wanted to do was cry as memories of her mother struggling to take her next breath threatened to tear her apart.

  God, she couldn’t do this.

  She couldn’t watch someone else suffer like that.

  She just couldn’t.

  “You don’t even know him,” Jacob pointed out in that same curious tone as he watched her.

  “I don’t care!” Ashley snapped. “Just help him, please!”

  For a moment, Jacob didn’t say anything as he continued standing there, watching her, and then…

  “He doesn’t deserve you,” Jacob said, slowly exhaling as he shifted his attention back to Kale’s wounds. “We could try cauterizing the wounds to stop the bleeding and hope that his body does the rest.”

  “Do it,” Ashley said, shifting her attention back to Kale.

  While Jacob set to work getting everything that he needed, she tried to give Kale a reassuring smile as she said, “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  Reaching up with a trembling hand, Kale cupped her face in his cold hand as he whispered, “Liar,” with a faint smile.

  “What makes you think that I’m lying?” Ashley asked around a sob as Kale gently caressed her cheek.

  “Your toes,” he said, surprising a weak chuckle from her.

  “I’m going to have to work on that,” she promised him, watching as the silver in his eyes faded away until she found herself looking into warm green eyes.

  “Mo ghrá,” Kale whispered reverently as he continued to watch her, his expression turning sad.

  “What does that mean?” Ashley asked, watching as his expression turned pained as he dropped his hand and looked away from her.

  “Get out,” Kale bit out coldly, making her frown.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Ashley said, watching as Jacob set one of those small butane cans she’d seen advertised online for camping, on the nightstand and lit it.

  “Get out!” Kale shouted as Jacob held a large blade to the flame as she tried not to think about what he was about to do.

  “Not happening,” Ashley said, refusing to leave the stubborn jerk like this. She didn’t give a damn what he wanted right now or that he hated her. She wasn’t leaving.

  “Hold him down,” Jacob said, pulling the knife away from the flame as he gestured for her to move her hands.

  “Get her out of here!” Kale shouted, looking more alive than he had a moment ago as he reached over to shove her off the bed only to end up pulling her closer and held on to her as Jacob pressed the side of the blade against the wound on his stomach while she prepared herself for the crushing squeeze that was about to come, only…

  It never came.

  While Kale struggled to bite back an anguished scream, he wrapped his arms around her as he pressed his forehead against her shoulder and held her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. After a slight hesitation, Ashley found herself wrapping her arms around him and…

  God, this felt so right, Ashley thought as she closed her eyes and said the only thing that she could think of, not really sure which one of them needed to hear it more.

  “Everything will be okay.”

  Chapter 24

  “Do you have any fucking idea how lucky you are?” came the softly drawled words as Kale opened his eyes and-

  “Oh, fuck!”
Kale bit out on a groan while he was forced to press his hand against his side as he turned over onto his other side as he tried to breathe through the pain that felt like it was tearing him apart.

  Fuck that hurt, Kale thought, releasing a shaky breath as he opened his eyes and-

  Ashley.

  “You’re lucky to be alive,” Jacob murmured as Kale swallowed hard, taking in the small woman fast asleep on the bed next to him. Before he realized what he was doing, Kale was reaching over with a trembling hand only to drop it away and clenched his hand into a fist as he ran a hungry gaze over her and felt his stomach drop.

  “What happened?” Kale demanded as he took in the headphones that she was wearing again, the bags beneath Ashley’s eyes, how fucking pale she was, and…

  God, her fucking hands and arms.

  They were covered in bruises, burns, and cuts.

  “That’s what I want to know,” Jacob said, sighing heavily as he dropped down on the end of the bed. “She’s stubborn.”

  “When’s the last time she ate?” Kale asked, moving to shift closer to her only to stop with a groan when pain tore through his side. Pressing his hand against the white gauze wrapped around his torso, he brought his other wrist to his mouth as his fangs slid down, not bothering to wait for an answer.

  “Two weeks ago. Like I said, she’s stubborn,” Jacob said as Kale gently placed his bleeding wrist against Ashley’s mouth and fucking sighed when the stubborn woman reached up and pushed his hand away only to whimper when the move hurt her hand.

  Grinding his jaw, Kale moved so that he was sitting up and leaned back against the headboard before reaching down and carefully pulled Ashley into his arms and-

  Felt something deep inside of him break. There was no other way to describe it. When she curled up in his arms and laid her head against his chest, he found himself wrapping his arm around her and holding her close as he pressed his wrist against her lips. It took her a moment before she opened her mouth over his wrist with a soft moan and began gently suckling on his wrist as Kale held her, realizing just how fucking stupid he’d been.

  If they’d followed him…

  His eyes shifted to silver as he remembered every fucking promise the demon made. The demon barely had a chance to tell him what he planned on doing with Ashley’s pretty little mouth before Kale finally lost it. At that moment, he hadn’t fucking cared about Vane, the twenty million dollars, or all the rules that he’d lived by that had kept him alive for almost a thousand years. He tore the demon apart with his bare hands when he should have taken the kill from a distance to make sure that the demon’s blood didn’t touch him, but at that moment, he hadn’t fucking cared.

  The only thing that mattered to him was keeping Ashley safe.

  “Any news?” Kale asked, watching as Ashley’s arms began healing.

  “There’s a bounty on your head,” Jacob said as Ashley finished drinking with a sleepy little sigh.

  “How much?” Kale asked, gently pulling her headphones off as he sat there, wondering what the hell he was going to do with her.

  “Ten million,” Jacob said, sounding bored as he stood up and walked around the bed so that he could drop down on the bed next to Kale with a heartfelt sigh.

  “Dead or alive?” Kale asked, carefully pulling the blankets free from underneath Ashley so that he could tuck her in.

  “Dead,” Jacob mumbled absently as he reached over and helped Kale.

  “Are you going to take it?” Kale asked as his gaze flickered to the other shifter to find Jacob helping himself to the bag of peanut butter cups that he’d placed in his nightstand the last time he was here.

  “No,” Jacob said, shrugging it off as he tore open the bag and stuffed a peanut butter cup in his mouth with a satisfied sigh as Kale shifted his attention back to the woman in his arms.

  “Any problems with the Council?” Kale asked, holding his mate close, not giving a damn if the other shifter thought it was odd that he was holding a client at the fucking moment, not when he thought that he would never see her again.

  “They lost interest at the moment. Seems they have bigger problems to deal with than a few odd blood deliveries,” Jacob said, shoving another peanut butter cup in his mouth.

  Nodding absently, Kale traced the curve of Ashley’s jaw, noting that the color had come back to her face. She looked so fucking peaceful, Kale thought as he ran his fingertips over her jaw, watching her as she continued to sleep in his arms and-

  “Do you have any idea what she went through to save you?” Jacob asked as he climbed off the bed and headed for the door after tossing the bag of chocolate back on Kale’s nightstand.

  “She shouldn’t have done it,” Kale said, shifting his attention back to his mate, wishing like hell that she hadn’t seen him like that.

  Christ, he wished that she hadn’t touched him. Watching her suffer while she’d tried to save him had fucking destroyed him. She’d been in so much fucking pain. He saw it in her eyes every time she’d touched him. He also saw the determination that forced her to keep going, putting herself through that kind of excruciating pain for him, and he was…

  He had no fucking idea what he was right now. The only thing that he knew was that she was too fucking kind, and in their world, that was a problem.

  “No, she shouldn’t have,” Jacob murmured in agreement. “I don’t care who her mate is or how much fucking money he’s giving you, the next time that you treat her like shit will be the last fucking time,” Jacob said, heading for the door only to add, “Next time, fucking shift.”

  “There won’t be a next time,” Kale said since he never made the same mistake twice.

  Chapter 25

  He was fine, Ashley told herself, repeating those three little words that had gotten her through the past week as she lay there, squeezing her eyes shut as she slowly released a shaky breath only to repeat those same three little words through her head one more time as she opened her eyes and…

  Regretted that decision when she found herself looking into a familiar pair of silver eyes. Doing her best not to make any sudden moves, Ashley licked her lips nervously, noting that his eyes followed the move before moving back up to meet her gaze. At least he didn’t look like he was about to tear her throat out, Ashley told herself as she cleared her throat while she struggled to think of a good reason why she was sleeping in his bed since he probably wouldn’t appreciate the truth.

  He’d scared the hell out of her.

  Granted, he hadn’t done it on purpose, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d spent the last week terrified that he was going to die. He didn’t like her, didn’t want anything to do with her, and he wasn’t exactly her favorite person, but…

  She didn’t want him to die.

  There was probably something seriously wrong with her, but every time he was near her, she felt safe, but it was more than that. He made her feel like she finally belonged and she had no idea why. They barely spoke. She didn’t know anything about him other than what Jacob had told her, which wasn’t a hell of a lot, and she knew that he loved to glare.

  Well, that, and he hated her.

  He was also the only connection that she had to her mate. Not that it really meant that much to her, but right now, she needed the protection that her mate could offer her. It should be her main concern, but…it wasn’t.

  Kale was.

  Over the past week, she’d watched over him, sat with him, and held him, running her fingers through his hair when the pain became too much for him and he screamed her name and fought to hold it together while he struggled to take his next breath. Every day, she begged him to shift, begged him to keep breathing only to promise him that everything would be okay when it looked like he wouldn’t make it, and now…

  Now, she really wished that he would stop glaring at her.

  “How are you feeling?” Ashley managed to get out as she somehow resisted the urge to touch his face and make sure that the fever that had been ravaging hi
m over the last few days was gone, knowing that he wouldn’t appreciate it.

  When Kale only continued to glare at her, she decided that perhaps it would be in her best interest to get up. Decision made, Ashley cleared her throat, shifted, and finally sat up and climbed off the bed, aware that he watched her every move as she made her way to the door. Once she reached the door, she couldn’t resist looking back to make sure that he was really okay only to wonder why he made her nervous.

  She’d never been nervous around men before, probably because there had never been a reason to be nervous. She’d been trapped in the body of a little girl with absolutely no chance of falling in love, so she’d never bothered to hope for anything more than to be ignored. She’d never expected anything more, never let herself truly believe that she would ever have a chance at a normal life and now that everything had changed…

  It didn’t matter.

  Biting back a sigh, Ashley headed downstairs to her room where she spent the next half hour debating going back to bed only to decide against it since she was hoping to actually sleep tonight. She knew that if she went back to bed now that she would end up spending another sleepless night on the couch. Then again, she would probably end up doing that anyway, Ashley thought as she forced herself to head to the bathroom, trying to ignore just how exhausted she was.

  Over the past week, she hadn’t slept much, too afraid to close her eyes only to finally pass out last night after Kale had finally calmed down. She really needed to figure out a way to fix this, Ashley thought as she took a quick shower, noting that her arms had completely healed and her headache was gone as she got dressed. When she was done, she found herself standing in the living room, looking at the stairs, wondering if she should go check on him only to head to the kitchen with a sigh when she heard Kale moving around upstairs.

  He was fine.