Andrew stood up so quickly he bumped the table with his thigh. It shook and rattled the dishes, cutlery and food containers He swore under his breath, charging off to the hallway. A moment later, he was back.
“Rob, can you drive a Ski-Doo?”
“Yes, we have a couple at home.”
“Good. You’re coming with me. Get dressed. Use one of my parkas and boots if you need to. Now.”
Everyone followed them to the hallway with worried looks. Even Barb, which was odd.
“Can you use a rifle, too?” Andrew asked. The anger and impatience was clear in his voice.
“Yes.”
Andrew handed him one rifle. He went back to his room and brought out a box of ammunition, and his medical bag. He swallowed hard, trying to ignore his sinking feeling that things would go sideways. Deep down, he knew they already had. He could smell it. By the time they were ready to go out, they looked like winter hunters about to shoot deer.
“The rest of you, stay here. No one leaves this house, understood?” He didn’t wait for them to reply. “Ruth, did you learn to use the sat phone?”
She was so afraid, she only nodded.
“Good. Go get the one in the kitchen. I’ll take the other with me. Listen out for my call if I need you to get help. Rob, let’s go.”
He and Rob hurried to the shed and opened the larger garage door. In a matter of a minute or two, they were on two Ski-Doos out on the snow. Andrew took a brief look back at the front of the house. The three women peered out the window. God, how he wanted to be curled up beside Abby right now, instead of charging into almost certain danger to find the pair.
If Trina and John even made it that far.
They headed off the property in the direction of Broad Oaks. The surface of the pristine snow had hardened with the frigid temperature. It allowed the Ski-Doos to skim the surface with ease. They were built for these kinds of outdoor conditions. There was no mystery about where John and Trina had passed. They had left a human-wide path through the five-foot high snow. Rob kept pace beside him as they rode, and Andrew was glad to have someone to cover him should things become problematic.
He was most worried about the cold, and the likelihood they had not dressed well enough to be outside for this long. Buried beneath that worry was his sinking feeling about the coyote, or any other wildlife that would be out and about after this severe storm. With this much snow, everything that nature’s winter predators could hunt would be buried or taking deep shelter. It had been only two days, but two days were more than enough for all manner of predator to be out on the prowl.
They quickly made it out to the main road, and soon, they were a few hundred yards from the entrance to Broad Oaks. Rob waved at Andrew to get his attention, and they stopped.
“That’s it there,” Rob shouted over the engines.
The headlights from their Ski-Doos reflected on the SUV. Then, then they saw the two faint figures. He sighed a breath of relief.
“Good, let’s get them back to the cabin, and then I’ll give them hell.”
They continued driving closer. When they were within a hundred yards, Andrew’s heart sank, and raced at the same time. After that, everything else took place in mystical slow motion. His heart pounding hard in his chest when he made out what was happening.
John was in the middle of the street, with Trina behind him, closer to the SUV. In front of John, a mountain lion crouched. There was not enough distance between them. It was good that John and Trina didn’t run, but they probably didn’t realize that the animal could leap over twenty-five feet.
They did not hibernate. To the contrary, mountain lions loved hunting in this kind of snow, for all the reasons their prey liked to hunker down. Mountain lions were expert trackers, and maneuvered through snow like champion figure skaters on a patch of ice. Pushing the fear back into his head, he pressed on.
He raised the high beams and pressed the horn of the Ski-Doo to scare off the animal. Nothing worked. Had he been alone, trying to get the animal’s attention, a loud growl would have sufficed. He could not do that with these kids around. The mountain lion was fixed on John, and ready to pounce.
When they were about fifty feet away, Andrew stopped. He lifted the rifle off his back and gave a warning shot in the air. The sound had the opposite impact. Before he could do anything else, the mountain lion pounced. As if in frame-by-frame slow motion, John raised his forearm to shield his face and neck. The animal gripped him mid-arm. Trina screamed so loudly, it echoed against the surrounding trees. Rob took aim at the animal, but taking a shot could kill John. Andrew put his arm over the barrel of Rob’s gun and pushed it toward the ground.
“Cover me,” he commanded Rob.
He could have used his claws if he shifted, but shifting to a bear in the presence of people was not something he planned on ever doing. He knew what he had to do. Taking a short-blade knife in one hand and the medical bag in the other, he surged forward in a run that was more like a bolt, with the adrenaline rushing through him.
He made a long bound toward the animal when he was closer. As he leapt, he stabbed the animal at a nonlethal spot on its back. The mountain lion let out a painful whimper and dropped off John, releasing his arm from its powerful jaws. It limped off into the trees on the opposite side of the street near the Broad Oaks entrance. If unattended, the animal would die a painful death, and that choked Andrew up something awful. He wanted no casualties this night—human or animal.
Andrew looked over at John when the animal disappeared, now that the coast was clear. He had crumpled to the ground, and Trina was sobbing over him. There was blood everywhere. Andrew ordered Rob to move Trina to the side and handed over the sat phone so Rob could call Ruth and get emergency help fast. He stooped beside John and ripped the sleeve of John’s jacket to see what damage had been done.
John recoiled on instinct when Andrew attempted to feel his arm for any broken bones. It was common knowledge that bite of a mountain lion was so formidable, they were known to easily break the necks of their favorite prey—deer. He took a small flashlight from his pocket and aimed it at the injury. Andrew was close to panicking. John was not only bitten, his forearm was mangled and damn near sheared right off by that wild cat.
Andrew took two long medical splints from his bag and placed one on each side of the injury, binding them to John’s arm with tensor bandages from elbow to fingertips. He wrapped a sling up under the injury, doing his best not to add to the pain, and tied it around John’s neck. John’s face remained stoic. He gritted teeth to bear the brunt of his pain.
“Hey, buddy,” Andrew spoke calmly. “You lost a lot of blood, and we need to look at your arm. We’re going to take a ride back to the cottage. I need you to sit in front of me on the Ski-Doo just in case you lose consciousness. Hold on with your good arm, too, like your life depends on it, because it does. Okay?”
John nodded.
“Before we go, I have to do something. I won’t be more than a couple of minutes. You hang on, you hear me? Hang on.”
He took off his jacket and placed it over John’s shoulder, covering his chest and the injured arm. He looked up at Rob. “Stay with him. I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?”
Andrew stood up and walked toward the wooded area where the mountain lion disappeared. “I have to take care of that animal. I won’t be long.”
“That thing’s still dangerous.”
“Just stay here,” he ordered gruffly.
Andrew had precious little time to find the animal. As soon as he was out of Rob and Trina’s view in a dense patch of forest, he removed all of his clothes and placed them on a high shrub. It was time. He shifted to his black bear state. He had not shifted for nine days, on account of the kids’ visit, and his animal had grown restless inside of him. A few minutes in this wooded area was not going to be enough, but it helped—and he had shifted for a reason. The transformation this woman named Theriona had caused in him had several side
effects, but there was one that stood out as significant, pure and good in Andrew’s eyes. Somehow, being in shifter state gave him the power to heal animals. Like all of his shifter characteristics, he had only discovered it by accident during one of the times he had set his bear free. It did not work on humans, unfortunately. He had tried it out on a small cut his father had gotten during shaving—no dice.
With little time left, he found the blood trail of the mountain lion. He followed it and quickly caught up to the animal, which was cowering behind a cluster of pines. Non shifter animals seemed to know what he was, so when he approached, the mountain lion barely reacted. It lowered its head to its front paw as it lied there, waiting for what it instinctively knew was about to happen.
Andrew’s bear ambled over on all fours, pressed his paw over the wound, and waited long enough to see the wound closing up. That was all the time he had. He quickly turned, ran back to where he left his clothes, and shifted back from his black bear state to get dressed, before running back to meet the kids.
Andrew helped John off the ground, ignoring the puzzled look on Rob’s face. Trina was still in shock, shivering like a leaf at what had happened to John.
“Rob, did you get Ruth on the line yet?” he asked.
“Yes, she’s here.”
“Good. Rob, run back and get my Ski-Doo. You and Trina can walk to yours. He needs to get inside right now, before his body goes into shock.”
Andrew took the phone and spoke directly to Ruth. Behind him, Trina held on to John, and Rob took off in a sprint.
“Ruth. Listen carefully. Run into my office. In the top drawer on the right is a phone number on a bright orange sheet of letter-sized paper. Call that, and when they answer on the other end, tell them to send for Andrew Carrington immediately. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she cried.
“I’ll wait on the line until you get find the number. Hurry.”
“I’m already in your office and I see the paper.”
“Good. Okay, hang up now and call them. Tell them exactly what I said okay? Send for Andrew Carrington immediately. They’ll know what to do.”
“Okay,” she sobbed.
Andrew ended the call just as Rob returned with his Ski-Doo. They guided John to sit up front. Andrew climbed behind and took the handles.
“You two, run to that Ski-Doo and I’ll meet you back at the cottage.” He took off at full speed.
Minutes felt like hours as he raced back to get John inside. Before they got to the entrance of his driveway, John’s body weight slumped forward. He was unconscious from the blood loss.
No! It cannot be happening again.
Cabin Bear Fever (Book 2)
Chapter One
ABBY, Barb and Ruth looked on in horror as Andrew and Rob brought John’s limp body into the house. The angle at which they each held him seemed precarious. Abby noticed the bloody bandages on his arm. It couldn’t be good. Trina’s eyes revealed only terror, shock, and fear. She looked to be in a daze. Abby did not have to wonder too much about what she might have seen out there that made her practically catatonic. The outcome was John’s arm.
“Someone get me some blankets!” Andrew roared in haste.
He and Rob lowered John to the rug in the middle of the living room.
Barb and Ruth moved off at the same time, but Barb motioned for Ruth to stay. “I’ll get it,” she said, taking off in a brisk walk which turned into an all-out run through the hallway and up the stairs.
Andrew kneeled over John, taking his pulse on the injured arm. All signs pointed to John’s arm likely being fractured, as a best case scenario. Abby also understood from her training that Andrew needed to check the pulse beyond the injury; they needed to be sure that good blood flow was still getting through it. As curious as she was about what had happened, the priority was to stop the bleeding and wake John from his unconsciousness.
“Ruth,” Andrew called out. “How quickly did they say they’d be here?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“He may not have that long!” he said between gritted teeth. He looked up at everyone left in the room. “Abby, I’m going to have to help him right now, and I need you to assist. Ruth and Rob, I’ll need your help too. ”
Abby knew what needed to be done, as she had worked a few stints at the trauma ward in Sparks. She instinctively picked up all the pillows her arms could carry from the couch to the floor beside John.
“Okay, Abby,” he said with a stiff nod. “Lay those in as high a stack as you can. We need to elevate his arm and try to slow the blood loss.”
He looked around the room at the others. “Ruth, you keep those pillows steady. Rob, go into my bedroom closet. You’ll find a large first aid kit inside. We’ll need the sterile water bottles and a few other things. Bring the whole kit in here. Then, get me all the ice you can from the fridge. Put it in a large bowl, and bring two more empty bowls for me.”
Ruth and Rob moved quickly with their respective tasks, and Andrew turned to Abby. “Abby, you’re going to help me temporarily realign his ulna and radius. I have no way of telling how bad it is in there, other than by feel. Depending on how far out of place the pieces are, we’ll do what we can until help arrives.”
“Understood.”
She watched Andrew unwrap the bandages on John’s arm. Ruth could not bear to look. She sat with her arms stretched out to hold up the pillows, and averted her eyes far away from John.
“Should we try to wake him first?” Abby asked.
“I’d prefer not to. He only went under a few minutes ago. I don’t have any strong pain medications here at the house, so let’s get at this arm while he’s out.”
“Okay, and to confirm, are we doing a reduction?” Abby wanted to be sure. The non-surgical procedure involved manually moving the broken pieces of bone back into place. It would typically be completed with the patient under strong medication.
“Yes,” he confirmed, and turned to Barb, who had brought down a pile of blankets. “Abby. Take those and…”
“Got it,” she answered.
She took the pile from Barb and placed a few of them over John, right up to his neck. She was careful to avoid the arm they were working on.
“Barb, put a blanket over Trina and take her up to her room, please. It’s best if she doesn’t see this.”
Barb nodded and went over to Trina, who was still standing in the same place, looking just as dazed as when she came in. She guided her out of the room with what Abby could swear was actually compassion.
Maybe there’s hope for Barb.
Rob returned with the med kit, ice and bowls. It was time to start the procedure. Andrew and Abby quickly ran to the bathroom with latex gloves and two bottles of sterile water. They washed their hands thoroughly. Andrew needed his to be as sterilized as possible. In this uncontrolled environment, all they could do was try. He stood with arms outstretch and dripping as Abby poured more sterile water over them. She dried them off before putting latex gloves on him. The two of them rushed back to the room with a single focus—John.
She and Rob looked on as Andrew gently peeled back John’s already mangled flesh. He needed to find and reposition the protruding bones. It was not going to be an exact science, but it was the best anyone could do outside of a hospital, and without the needed surgical equipment and conditions.
When instructed by Andrew, Abby placed her hand on John’s neck to monitor his breathing and heart rate. For a split second, Andrew had frozen. It was not long enough for her to be alarmed, and she was certain no one else had noticed, but she saw a look in his eyes. It was as though he was not present. The look was gone before she was forced to do anything about it. She wondered what it was that had caused him to stop mid-procedure. If she had to bet, her guess would be he was suffering from a mild to moderate case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
She had volunteered in a veteran’s hospital for two summers during the time she worked on her undergraduate degree. She had
seen firsthand the look that would come over their faces when they experienced flashbacks or hallucinations. That was the look that had been in Andrew’s eyes for that brief moment. She parked the thought away to attend to the item at hand. Maybe, if he was comfortable enough with her, he might open up about it after they were done.
Andrew was finished molding the bones in John’s arm. He did what he could to reposition the largest of the broken blood vessels, and closed up the wound. He applied two new medical splints to the forearm, and wrapped new bandages over them. It was critical to control the movement of the broken bones to avoid further injury, especially to nearby blood vessels, nerves and other tissues surrounding the bone. He concluded the procedure by spreading a sling under the arm, and placing a thick layer of ice on it to reduce the swelling.
“Okay, we did everything we could,” Andrew announced, getting to his feet. “The paramedics should be here soon. Abby, are you okay to keep monitoring his pulse and breathing?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“I’ll keep his arm propped up,” Ruth added, her face still turned away from John’s arm.
“Good. Thank you. Rob, keep an eye out from the dining room, will you?”
“Sure,” he answered, clearly confused. “What exactly am I looking out for?”
Andrew looked down at the gloves on his hands. “The air ambulance chopper. That’s who Ruth called on the sat phone. They should be here any minute.”
“Oh, okay.” Rob headed for the hallway. “I’ll give a holler when they get here.”
“I’ll be back,” Andrew told Abby, holding out his arms in front of him. “I’ve got to wash off all this blood. I’ll be a couple of minutes.”
She nodded. “No problem.” She couldn’t avoid the tug she felt in her chest as he left. It was part admiration, part sympathy and part immense gratitude.
God, I could so love this man.
From what she had seen of his ability as a medical doctor, Abby struggled to understand how he could have left his practice. He had such talent and compassion.
Cabin Bear Heat Box Set: A Paranormal Fantasy Bear Shifter Romance (A Bear Shifter Romance Retelling of the Billionaire Redemption Series Book 2) Page 14
