A snarling wolf was suddenly over them, using his teeth and massive jaw to rip her attacker away from her. Blair gasped for air and sobbed at the same time. The pain she was in was nothing compared to how thankful she was to be alive. She looked over as the man screamed while the wolf attacked. It was a light colored wolf, unlike Cole, who had very dark fur, matching his hair.
The strange wolf looked up at her as she let out another cry. She wasn’t sure if it was pain or relief, but the wolf must have thought she was in a lot of pain as he discontinued his attack on the man and loped over to her.
He shimmered in the air, the magic swirling around him as he shifted. A wolf and a man co-existed in the same place for a moment before Caleb finally stood where the wolf once stood.
“Caleb,” Blair breathed out, relieved. “I thought you were dead.” Relief filled her at seeing him alive and whole, and saving her life.
“No, I was knocked out when that truck hit us. Fuck, Blair, did he do anything besides hit you?”
Blair shook her head. “No, I really made him mad, so he was going straight to killing me.”
Caleb picked up the man’s knife and cut through the twine holding her arms together. Her arms fell forward with no strength in them. She cried out at the terrible pins and needles feeling in them. Caleb grabbed her arms in a firm hold and started massaging them. It only intensified the feeling of being stuck with a thousand needles.
Blair jerked away from Caleb with a whine. “Sorry, your circulation was cut off.”
“Blair!” Cole’s scream made her jump again, and her heart wrenched as she heard the fear in his voice.
“Cole,” Blair screamed back. She jumped up to run to him, but pain and dizziness hit her and she fell over, almost blacking out again.
“Easy,” Caleb said, putting his hands on her. “You have had several hard hits to your head.”
“Blair. Where the fuck are you?” Cole yelled, his voice, high pitched with fear.
“Here, I’m here,” Blair called, weaker, as her adrenaline was fading, and she began to feel like she was crashing.
Cole crested the landing she sat on, and his eyes were wild as he looked from Blair to Caleb and back to her again. He ran to her, tripping in his haste over a rise in the rock face and crawling the last bit of ground to get to her. Blair reached for him with hiccupping sobs. Cole picked her up and pulled her into his lap.
“Blair, my sweet mate. Who did this to you?”
Blair clung to Cole as much as her tingling fingers could, and she breathed in his wonderful scent. His scent was safety and strength to her, and she soaked it in as much as she could.
Cole kissed the top of her head lightly, his breath ragged with emotion. “Blair, baby, please talk to me. Tell me who hurt you.” Cole held her a little tighter, making her wince.
Blair saw Michael talking to Caleb, and several other cholan who had arrived. “Someone attacked Caleb and me when he was taking me home. He drove a truck into Caleb’s car.”
“Yeah, Mitch called it in when he heard the crash and screams. He got down there, and Caleb was just crawling out of the car. Caleb told him to call for help and he would start looking for you.”
Michael walked over and crouched down next to Blair and Cole. “Blair, do you think you can shift?”
Blair shook her head. “No, when I started to pass out, I started to shift. I couldn’t control it, but I was tied and pinned.”
Cole let out a ragged cry. “My sweet Blair, are any bones broken? I will kill the motherfucker, I swear it. Who did this?”
“I feel like it.” She licked her lips. “Caleb attacked the man, and I saw him running down the mountain.”
Caleb looked around. “That ass ran away. I was too concerned with Blair to follow him.”
Aaron ran over looking frustrated. “I can’t get any scent but Blair’s. This guy knows how to hide his scent from us.”
“Do you think it was a shifter?” Michael asked.
Cole nodded. “He knew how to pin her so she couldn’t shift, and when she tried, it fractured bones in her body,” he said in a tone full of anger.
Michael’s eyes blazed with the cold fire of a guardian ready to kill those who threatened shifters he swore to protect. “I will put down whoever is leaking information about us. Someone is betraying us.”
“Looks like it,” Caleb told him. “We need to call in an airlift.”
Blair noticed Caleb was wearing an ill-fitting sheriff’s uniform. He studied the ground where he had attacked the man who tried to kill her.
Michael looked around scanning the area, then shook his head no. “They won't be able to hover around here due to the cliffs, so we need to get down on foot.” He put his hand gently on Cole’s shoulder. “Come on, Blair needs medical attention, and the cholan can go over this area far better with us gone.”
“Right,” Cole agreed, standing up. He looked at Caleb. “I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my mate, and she is more precious to me than my own life.”
Caleb looked him in the eye. “You don’t owe me any thanks. I just did what anyone would do. I could hear her screaming and knew she was in a lot of trouble.”
“Not everyone would have helped. You did, I owe you my life. Thank you. You need anything from me, you just ask.”
Caleb shrugged as if he did not see it was a big deal. “It’s not necessary, but thank you for the offer.”
Blair snuggled into Cole. The one good thing that came from this nightmare was that Cole finally saw what a good guy Caleb really was.
Chapter Eleven
Blair bit down harder on her lower lip. She was determined not to cry as Cole and Michael led her down to the road. Cole had tried to carry her, but she was determined to walk. Now she was feeling a bit foolish for trying to once again prove how strong she was, even when she knew she needed help.
Her head was spinning and her body ached in places she didn’t know existed, and now she was short of breath. At first it was a headache, but now with the dizziness and nausea she felt truly awful.
Cole leaned down slightly and picked her up in his arms. “How is this? Am I hurting you?”
“No, how’d you know?” Blair asked not even bothering to pretend she was not in pain and wilting fast.
"I am your Dom as well as your mate. I know when your stubborn streak has gone on long enough and you are ready for me to take over without a fight.”
Blair stared at him for a moment then cuddled into him. He was right. If he had picked her up earlier, she would have argued she could walk. She was far too stubborn for her own good sometimes. She could see how good Cole was to her now. Why did she fight him for so long? Because you’re stubborn and wanted to prove to everyone that you didn’t need Cole, and that you were strong enough to stand on your own, without anyone.
Blair wanted to hit herself. Was she really being that foolish? No one could go on forever without anyone to help them. She had helped many humans and shifters countless times. She had never thought any less of them for it, and she had been happy to help. Her crying picked up again.
Cole looked at her with worry in his eyes. “Blair, are you in more pain? Do I need to stop and call in for an airlift?”
Blair gave him what she hoped was a brave smile. “No, I can make it.”
“Are you sure? We can stop and wait here, Blair. No one will think less of you. You have fractured and splintered bones.”
Blair looked at him and felt tempted to agree and let him call in for a helicopter. The town’s hospital was not that far away though. She was a strong, independent woman, and she could make it. Although sometimes it takes more strength to say, “I can’t do this.”
“I’m calling it in,” Cole said suddenly.
“Wait Cole, what if someone else is really hurt and needs it? I can make it.”
Cole gave her a stern look, but his tone was gentle. “Stop it. You are hurt and in a lot of pain. There is no need for you to be in more. We have another hour on
foot if we continue at this pace. This is a perfect spot for the forest service to drop a stretcher down and get you.”
Blair thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “Ok, you win.”
Cole talked on the radio and read off their coordinates. She had not realized it was that much farther to go. She knew they had hiked a long time to get from where that man attacked her, but she had not realized it was that far.
Cole kissed her.
“Thank you.”
Blair felt herself drifting off to sleep despite her shivering and pain. She hoped she could get some numbing sleep, and wake up full of Doctor Trask’s painkillers.
****
Cole held Blair while trying to contain his shaking rage. Someone had attacked Blair, his mate. If Caleb had not found her when he did, then Cole knew he would have been too late. He may have got to the man to tear him apart, but his mate, his whole world, would be dead. Cole shivered at the thought of going on without her. He couldn’t even imagine it. The only reason he made it before on his own for so long, was he knew he still had a chance with her. Once he got past Blair’s walls she would come back to him, and he had always known it.
Since he got the call from Warren that Mitch found Caleb’s car smashed, and Blair’s scent and blood were in the area, Cole had been in a panicked haze. He had ordered Warren to call Michael, and he ran to his SUV, leaving the on-scene FBI agents here where they’d found Stacy to deal with everything. Scenting Blair’s blood and fear in the air when he arrived at the scene had driven him mad with worry.
He had screamed her name all the way up the mountain. Every time his cries came back unanswered had made him go a little bit more insane thinking she was already gone. Only when he heard her call his name did the sick dread in his soul turn to hope. When he saw her lying on the ground, crying and bruised, he wanted to howl in both relief and rage. He couldn’t though. He was sheriff, and that was a crime scene. He had to hold it together for his shifters. He could run out into the night and howl once Blair was safely in a hospital bed.
First an innocent girl, then Mandy, now Blair. What the fuck is going on around here all of a sudden?
Cole keyed up his radio again to check on the helicopter. Blair needed medical treatment, and she couldn’t make it down on foot. She was brave and didn’t complain, but he felt her tense with every misstep and heard the whimpers she couldn’t hold back.
“Where’s that helicopter?” He asked the dispatcher for the forest service.
“Sorry, sheriff, I am checking on them right now. There is only one equipped with the night vision to make a night rescue, and it is out on a car accident with critical injuries.”
Cole let the radio drop. “Fuck, they’re not coming. There is an accident with criticals, and they will take precedence over us.”
Michael rubbed his hands together to warm them. Even though the days were still warm, the nights were colder. “What do you want to do? Caleb and I can shift and keep her warm and wait for daylight, or we can keep moving.”
Cole was not sure what would work better. If he had regular human eyesight he would have chosen to stay put and work on keeping Blair warm and stable, but he had cholan senses, and he was a Kelach, so his senses were far superior to humans’ and other cholans’.
He looked around, and he could see the trail just fine thanks to the moonlight. “We need to keep moving. We can make it down before daylight.”
“Agreed,” Michael said pushing himself off of the tree he was leaning against.
Caleb started to strip his clothing. “I am going on ahead to make sure they know where to meet you all.”
“Good idea,” Michael agreed. “Let’s get moving. This is going to be a long night, so let’s move quickly.”
****
Blair heard the beeping of medical equipment and felt like she was floating. She could almost feel the drugs coursing through veins her making her feel light and pain free. When her eyes finally opened she saw Cole hovering over her with a smile on his face.
“Hello, beautiful.”
“What happened?” Blair asked looking around and seeing she was in the hospital end of the clinic.
“Do you remember being attacked?” Cole asked her looking worried.
Blair tried to remember what had happened. She barely remembered being in the car with Caleb and getting hit. She had flashes of a man attacking her, but it was so vague and disjointed she found herself shaking her head.
“Not really.” Blair winced at the pain shaking her head had caused.
Cole put his hand over hers. “It’s ok. It may come back to you later.”
Blair looked at him, confused. “What happened? It is all confusing images.”
“You and Caleb were attacked.”
Blair nodded her head, then winced again. Even that slight movement caused her head to throb. “I think I remember that part.”
Blair had something nagging at her, like she knew something important, but she couldn’t remember. She felt like she would be just on the edge of remembering, but then it would be snatched away. She shook her head slowly. “I just can’t remember.”
Doctor Trask leaned over her and looked into her eyes. “You have a skull fracture, so I am not surprised you have memory loss.”
Blair gasped. She had always heard those were serious head injuries, even for a shifter. “Will I be ok?”
“Yes, with plenty of rest, I do believe you will make a full recovery. The fracture is a minor one, and I did not see much swelling.”
Blair’s eyes widened in fear. “My brain is swelling? Goddess, isn’t that deadly?”
Doctor Trask patted her hand gently. “If it was severe then yes, there would be cause to worry, but your swelling is minimal. It explains the memory loss.” Doctor Trask turned to Cole. "I want her to remain here for at least a few days.”
“I can’t! What about my baking? I can’t just lie around while my customers want a pastry with their coffee. Mandy is still on medical leave, and honestly I am not sure if she will ever want to come back.”
Cole took her face gently in his hands. “Everyone will be fine. I will leave a note on the door explaining you are closed. Everyone will understand.”
Blair could feel her eyes tearing up. She could not stand the thought of not working. She looked over to Doctor Trask for some help, but he only shook his head at her. “This is for the best. Trust me, you will not do anyone any favors by injuring yourself further.”
Blair gave in with a sigh. “Fine,” she muttered glaring at Cole. She was giving in, but she didn’t have to like it.
Cole looked up at the doctor. “Would it be OK if she went to watch Cassie and Michael?”
Blair gasped. “That’s today? Goddess no. I was supposed to make the dinner.”
“Shhh. It’s ok, Blair. We managed,” Cole said kissing her head lightly.
Doctor Trask nodded. “Go ahead and take her, but I want her right back here in no more than two hours. I do not want her wandering around with a head injury, especially with her memory loss.”
Cole picked her up. “Toss me her robe, doc.”
Blair shook her head, then regretted it as the pain flared.
“Don’t argue with me, baby. No one will care what you look like. Cassie will just be thrilled you were able to come. She tried to cancel, but it would take too long to reschedule everything at the last minute.”
“I understand." Blair really did. It was not an easy thing to cancel a wedding days before the date. She would have felt guilty if Cassie had canceled just for her. It looked beautiful outside, a perfect day for a fall wedding. A nurse brought a wheelchair. Cole placed her in it then covered her in a soft, fleece blanket. Blair nearly cried at the care he took with her. Cole treasured her as if she was the most important part of his life.
Why was I so stubborn for so long?
Cole pushed Blair in her wheelchair out of the small hospital, which was more like a large clinic, and towards the park in tow
n. Blair could see the balloons swaying in the breeze. Some of them flew through the air as if children ran with them. Cassie wanted children to have balloons to play with, insisting on laughter and play instead of formality.
Cole walked her into the seating area. Many turned and smiled happily at Blair. She gave a small wave, not wanting to take the attention away from Cassie.
Michael was standing at the front in a black tux with Warren and Travis standing with him.
A classical song that usually played around Christmas time started to play. Cassie walked down the aisle made from chairs and a strip of white carpet. She was so beautiful it brought tears to Blair’s eyes. Cassie’s eyes shone with happiness while she looked at Michael. Her grandfather, Jake, had her by the hand, and when they got to the front, he gave her hand over to Michael, then went to sit by Cassie’s grandmother, Norma.
Blair didn’t bother to try to stop her tears. It was so beautiful the way Michael tenderly took Cassie’s hand and looked into her eyes, and Blair barely heard the judge who spoke, the whole scene was so perfect.
Cassie and Michael recited some vows they had written for each other. Mating was far more permanent than marriage, but Blair still loved a good wedding. It was not uncommon for shifter couples to have some sort of ceremony, and Blair knew, since helping Cassie, that she wanted a wedding, too.
The judge smiled and pronounced, “I now present Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sinclair. You may kiss.”
Blair was crying, but still watched them kiss then turn to run down the aisle together. Cole held her closer. “I think we need to get you back.”
Blair wanted to argue, but she did feel weak and her head still hurt. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” Blair would see Cassie soon enough, and she could give her hugs and have a drink to celebrate when she was better.
****
Josh paced in the cabin where he was to meet his current employer. Almost as soon as the parents of the kid had paid him for his job the strange guy in the mask had hired him. He couldn’t tell him no, even though he thought about it. This place freaked Josh out, and he just wanted to get home and back to his own work. Still when the guy showed up and Josh had planned to get his money and quit, he didn’t want to.
The Protector Page 15
