Cynful hs-2

by Dana Marie Bell

  Cyn shrugged. “That depends on the question.”

  “Does Tabby’s mate treat her well?”

  Cyn stared at Micah and started laughing.

  “What? It’s a legitimate question.”

  “Tabby’s mate is an overprotective Grizzly Bear who adores everything about her. Even the fact that she calls him sugar.”

  Micah paled. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Look, I’d leave her one last message and let her decide if she wants to talk to you again. Because if you don’t stop phone stalking her you’re going to get your ass chewed off.”

  “Got it.” He rubbed his face wearily. “Nothing is like I thought it was.”

  “Tabby had a rough time of it after she was exiled, but she’s finally got her life together. You’re not taking that away from her.”

  “I don’t want to. I just want her to understand that she’s got options. Her parents want to speak with her too.”

  Cyn frowned and started counting the crimson ink. She’d have to order more soon. “Her parents didn’t say a word when she was kicked out of the Pack.”

  “That’s not entirely true. After she left, they tried to find her. Like, almost immediately. They hired a private detective when they realized she wasn’t nearby. But they never found her.”

  “Because she spent eight years as a Wolf.” Cyn shook her head. “What would they have done if they found her?”

  “Run with her. They wanted to chase after her that night, but the Alpha set some of his men to guard them, to keep them from following her. They’ve hated him from that day forward. Hell, they’re my most vocal supporters, all because I promised I’d bring Tabby home to them.”

  Shit. Tabby needed to hear about this. If what Micah was saying was true then Tabby’s parents deserved to repair their relationship with her. “I’ll talk to her.”

  She hadn’t realized how tense he was until that moment, when he practically slumped against the shelving. “I’d appreciate that. Even if she never speaks to them again, at least they’d all have closure. I think both sides need that.” He tilted his head, listening. “It’s pretty quiet out there.”

  She kicked the shelf, frustrated beyond belief. “He got away again, didn’t he?”

  “Probably.” Micah winced and grabbed his shoulder. “Do you think your Julian could finish healing this?”

  Cyn rolled her eyes. Like hell she was letting Julian heal anything bigger than a wounded gnat. “I’ll do it.”

  He frowned. “I forgot you’re a Bear like him.”

  She snorted out a laugh as she placed her hands over his wound. “Trust me. No one is like Julian.” She began concentrating on his wound, calling on Bear to help her out.

  Micah frowned. “Cyn?”

  “Hmm?” She needed to focus. This healing crap was harder than she thought.

  “Do you smell deer?”

  Julian thanked the nice officer for telling him that the fucking asshole had gotten away from them. Really. He’d been right there, shooting at Cyn, and they’d lost him?

  And they called themselves shifters. He bet a monkey with pneumonia could have sniffed the guy out, but no. He had to get Deputy Fife and Gomer Pyle. He hoped they were able to find they’re fucking patrol car. After all, it was two whole cars down from the front of the shop.

  Maybe he wasn’t being fair, but enough was enough. Cyn was done. He wasn’t going to allow her to play bait any longer. He was grabbing her ass and heading for the mountains, where he and Alex could take care of the girls while the Wolves played Marco Polo with the rogue. Let Dennis Boyd be the hunted for once. All he’d find was a couple of Grizzlies eager for a new chew toy.

  “Cyn?” He stepped into the break room but it was empty. A cold shiver worked its way down his spine. “Cyn!”

  He sniffed the air, then dashed toward the back room, following her spicy sweet scent. He tripped over something and landed flat on his stomach, his legs tangled in—

  “Ugh.” Micah sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Shit.”

  Julian hauled himself to his feet. “Where’s Cyn?”

  “Huh?” Micah winced and pulled his hand away. His fingers were coated in blood. “Oh no.”

  Julian closed his eyes and tried to beat back the panic that threatened to engulf him. “Your dad.”

  “I think so.”

  “How could you not smell him?” Julian was screaming. What was wrong with everyone’s noses?

  Micah froze. “Fuck. He’s masking his scent. He used to hunt deer all the time. He’s adept at killing his body odor. He owns a whole bunch of hunting clothes with activated carbon in the lining and deer musk spray.”

  Jules took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. “Gabe, he got her.”

  A string of curses was broken by the sound of Gabe’s cruiser, its sirens shattering the quiet night. “Stay put, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Bullshit. He’d heard stay one too many times. He wasn’t a fucking dog. “I’ll be out back. If they didn’t go through the front, there’s only one other exit.” An exit he was currently running for.

  “Julian, damn it. Sit tight. If anything happens to you Cyn will kill me.”

  “He’s going to kill her. I’ve seen it.” Julian burst through the back door, sniffing like an addict after a coke dealer. Cyn’s scent pulled him to the right, mingled with blood. His mate was hurt, and once again he hadn’t been there.

  More curses poured from the Hunter. “I’m almost there.”

  “She’s bleeding. I’m following the scent.” He skidded in the gravel parking lot, muttering a few curses of his own as he realized Boyd had dragged her into a dark alley.

  “I’m heading to the back of the shop. Don’t do anything stupid, Julian.”

  Was Gabe kidding? Everything that could possibly go wrong already had. Murphy fucking owed him. “I’m following them down the alley.”

  “For fuck’s sake, listen to me. I need you to stop for a minute and concentrate. Cyn is your mate. You should be able to sense exactly where she is.”

  That was news to him. Then again, he’d never had a mate before. Could every mate sense their other half? “I’ll give it a try.” He stopped, the scent of old Chinese food, rotting cabbage and dog shit almost overwhelming the scent of Cyn’s blood. He closed his eyes and prayed Dennis Boyd wasn’t doubling back. If he was, Julian would be a sitting duck. He reached out to his Bear, praying his mate wasn’t far away. If Boyd got her into a car, it would be all up to Gabe and the shifter cops.

  Julian reached out for Cyn’s spirit, following the connection they had as mates. The connection was solid and thick, a brightly lit trail on a dark night, steady and strong. Without thought he was moving, following that radiant path. Gabe was right. It was like he had been following a shadowy figure in the dark, and now he could finally see where he was going. He didn’t even bother switching his vision to his Bear’s. He didn’t need the extra low-light vision. That bright trail would take him straight to his mate.

  “Got anything for me?” Julian was startled to realize how close Gabe had gotten to him without his knowledge. The Hunter was right next to him, matching him stride for stride. His dark blue eyes had shifted into his Puma’s gold, allowing him to see better in the dim light of the alleyway.

  Julian responded with a terse nod. “Follow me.” Cyn was close and still alive. Either Boyd was holding a gun on her or she was unconscious, because his fiery mate would be struggling, fighting for her life. There was no sound except for their footfalls.

  The trail was brightening; they were close to where Boyd had taken Cyn.

  “I’m not telling you where she is.” He almost stumbled at the sound of Cyn’s defiant voice. The sound of a meaty thud was followed by a string of Spanish curses.

  Julian began ripping off his clothing, preparing for the shift. He didn’t care where any of it landed.

  Boyd was about to find out what a pissed off Spirit Bear could really do.

  Chapter Twent
y-One

  Cyn couldn’t believe she’d allowed the asshole to get a drop on her. One minute she’s healing Micah’s shoulder, the next she’s experiencing blinding pain. It didn’t matter if the pain was Micah’s or hers. Boyd had sure taken advantage of it. He’d used her disorientation against her and dragged her out of the shop, forcing her down the alleyway. But now he would have to shoot her ass to get her to go any further.

  There is no way she was getting in that van.

  “Don’t worry little girl, you’ll help me, whether you want to or not.” Where Micah’s light brown eyes had been filled with warmth, Dennis Boyd’s were cold and dead. He had a huge pistol pointed at her with some kind of a hunting scope on the barrel. “I’m certain she’ll come back for your funeral.”

  That is a really big gun. And it would leave a really big hole in her if she didn’t move her ass out of the way now. “You could’ve just killed me in the shop.”

  “It’s harder to drag a dead weight than you think. This way all I have to do is shove you into the van, pull the trigger, and we’re gone.”

  “Gone to where?” She had a pretty good idea of what he had in mind, but she had to keep him distracted until Julian and Gabe arrived. And she had no doubt they were on their way. She could practically feel Julian chasing her down, pissed off because she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Scared because of who had her. If I die he’ll never let me live it down.

  His smile was chilling and creepy, and not just because he was going to shoot her. “I figured I’d dump it somewhere in the woods near the Red Wolf Lodge. How do you think that big, scary Alpha will feel when he finds out that I’ve killed someone he was supposed to protect?”

  “I think his Luna will eat your intestines on toast.” Because, if for some reason she didn’t survive this, Tabby would hit Def Con One. If Rick or Alex didn’t get to Dennis Boyd, Belle would, and it wouldn’t be pretty. The Luna had a seriously wide streak of mean in her that scared Cyn a bit. But it was Alex’s reaction that the man should be worried about. “And if they don’t get you, her mate certainly will.”

  Oh how she wished she were one of those mystical Hollywood shifters. Then she wouldn’t need to worry about things like clothing when she shifted into her Bear. She’d just shift and take this S.O.B. down before he could hurt anybody else. And then she’d magically be not naked when she shifted back. Unfortunately, she already knew that if she shifted in her clothes she would wind up hurting herself.

  Hurry up, Julian!

  “A mate, huh?” Boyd shook his head with a wry grin. “I’d wondered how she’d gotten into the Poconos Pack.” Boyd didn’t realize that Alex was a Grizzly and not a Wolf. She almost laughed out loud. She couldn’t think of anyone who deserved an angry Grizzly mauling more than this man. “Richard Lowell is supposed to be a real hard-ass. I wonder what he did to make her prove herself?”

  She’d done absolutely nothing but be herself, and that had been more than enough for Rick and Belle.

  Boyd’s gaze narrowed and he braced himself. It looked like her time was up. She closed her eyes, unwilling to watch him pull the trigger that would end not only her life but Julian’s as well. “I love you, Jules.” Why hadn’t she been brave enough to tell him that when she had the chance?

  A deep, gravelly roar sounded from right behind her, startling her. She’d never heard anything like it. She opened her eyes to see what fresh hell she was about to face and flinched as a wall of dark brown fur dashed past her. A deep, moaning wail sounded from the behemoth as it swiped at Dennis Boyd, shredding the man’s arm from hand to shoulder. Screeching, Boyd dropped the pistol…but not before pulling the trigger.

  The Grizzly reared up on its hind legs and roared once more in Boyd’s face. Julian barely recognized the fact that Ryan was literally ripping Boyd apart despite Gabe’s pleas to stop.

  All he saw was that Cyn was on the ground, and she was bleeding.

  It didn’t matter that he was naked, that he’d never completed the shift. Her blood poured out from her chest and onto the ground. She was already unconscious, her eyelashes dark against her pale cheeks. He was going to take every ounce of strength he had to heal her, and it might not be enough.

  If her soul fled her body, he would follow.

  Julian dug deep, tapping into areas he’d never dared touch before, dancing further down the spiral of the healing path than he’d ever been. What he was doing should have been impossible, and would most likely cost him his life, but it was something that he would gladly give up to save her. Ancient prayers repeated over and over in his mind as he begged for the power to do what needed to be done. He battled death itself, and this time there was no one there to lend him strength, no one to save him from himself.

  Beneath his hands torn muscles knit back together. Blood vessels repaired themselves seamlessly. The fragments of her shattered ribs drew together, whole once more. The bullet had been large caliber, bouncing around inside her rib cage before exiting and doing far more damage than he’d ever been forced to fix before. Her heart was nicked, forcing it to beat erratically. He mended the damage, making sure it beat properly once more. He moved next to her lungs, doing his best to be clinical and detached, and failing miserably. He wanted to scream at what had been done to his beautiful mate.

  The damage was extensive. Cyn’s right lung was practically torn in half. He knitted it back together piece by piece, repairing torn and inflamed bronchi. The pleural cavity had been breached, causing the fluid within to burst forth. He delicately repaired both the parietal pleura along her rib cage and the visceral pleura on the surface of her lungs, rerouting the pleural fluid in between the membranes back to where it belonged as he went.

  He was beginning to tire, slowly losing contact with his body. He wasn’t going to survive.

  “Julian.”

  There was a minor risk of infection, but he boosted her immune system in preparation for that.

  “Julian. You need to stop now.”

  But he wasn’t done yet. He needed to repair the damage to the bones and muscles of her shoulder where the bullet had exited. If he wasn’t careful, she would never again be able to use her right arm the way she had before. Her career, the living art she lived and breathed for, would be over.

  “All right. I’ll try and help, but if I cry I’m so haunting your ass.”

  Energy poured into him, feminine energy that was unlike anything he’d felt before. “Chloe?”

  “That’s me. Hang tight, Julian. I promise, you’re not going anywhere.”

  It was just enough. He was going to be able to complete his work. He’d hurt, and hurt badly, but thanks to Chloe and their connection he’d live through it.

  He’d just have to see if he’d live through what Cyn would do to him when she found out how far he’d gone. She wouldn’t be too mad, right?

  “You keep telling yourself that.”

  From somewhere far away he could hear the sounds of someone pleading with him to stop, but that was the last thing he planned to do. He was almost done. Her shoulder was almost completely repaired. All that was left to do was to repair the skin, make sure that not a single scar was left behind.

  The only mark that should mar her skin was the mating one he’d given her.

  “Jules.”

  Cyn’s bleeding had become sluggish, almost nonexistent. No internal bleeding remained. Chloe withdrew with a quick, psychic hug, leaving him to his weariness and the last of Cyn’s scrapes and bruises.

  “Knock it off, Super Bear. I think I can put a Band-Aid on the rest of it.”

  Part of him recognized that voice, but he couldn’t respond to it. It had gone dark where he was. He could no longer remember which way was up and out, and which way was down and in. The flesh between his hands was still knitting; he needed to hold on just a little bit longer.

  He was going to sleep for a week when he was done.

  “Gabe, knock his ass out.”

  What? No—

  Cyn wa
s going to kill him.

  Okay, maybe not kill him. He was so good at trying to die all on his own. He certainly didn’t need any help on that front.

  “Thanks.” Cyn took the spare clothes and, uncaring who saw, changed out of the shredded, bloody shirt she’d been wearing into the T-shirt.

  “You’re welcome.” Sarah sat next to her and held her hand. “You’re really angry.”

  Damn straight, she was. He could have stopped when he knew she’d live. Instead, he’d insisted on trying to heal everything down to the smallest scratch.

  “Gabe risks his life every day, and not just as a Hunter. He’s Marshall’s Second, and a cop. I worry every time he walks out the door that it will be the last time I see him.”

  Oh hell. Another Dr. Phil moment was coming on. Cyn could feel it. “I understand Julian’s obsession with healing. Hell, I encourage it.” She shot Sarah a wry glance. “Mostly. It’s when he pushes beyond what he should do that I want to tie him up and lock him in the closet.”

  Sarah laughed softly, not wanting to disturb the members of the Pride currently sleeping. It seemed all of the Pumas had arrived at the hospital to rally around Julian, ready and willing to lend a helping hand.

  Emma, the tough Curana, was currently curled up on Max’s lap, sound asleep. She looked young and innocent, and Max watched her with the same loving focus that Julian lavished on Cyn.

  Becky was nibbling on some fruit Simon handed her, her eyes red-rimmed from either tears or lack of sleep. Possibly both. Simon barely looked away from his conversation with Adrian, until she stopped eating. Then he turned and frowned at her, pointing to the fruit, ignoring everything around her until she rolled her eyes and once again began to nibble.

  Adrian was stroking Sheri’s hair, her head pillowed in his lap, her dark glasses protecting her sensitive eyes.

  Gabe was pacing, his gaze glued to a subdued looking Ryan. Ryan was staring at his hands as if he’d never seen them before, a haunted look on his face. Occasionally he would rub them together, a washing motion that made her wince in sympathy. He wouldn’t be forgetting how he’d torn a man apart any time soon, no matter how justified he’d been. Gabe had told Cyn he wouldn’t be arresting Ryan for defending her, but he was going to keep an eye on the Grizzly to see if he showed signs of going feral.