Healed: True Mates Book 3 (Wolf Shifter) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) (5 page)

I scanned the crowd, watching as all the pack pitched in, trying to put out the fire. “They made a mistake.”

Amanda glanced at me, her eyes questioning.

“They hit the rec room, a place every member of the pack is going to want to save. Now, they’re all working together, pulling together as a team. This is better than any social event.”

Amanda grunted next to me, and I stifled an inappropriate chuckle. Ladylike Amanda sure was full of surprises!

She murmured out of the corner of her mouth, “You’re right, but I’m worried that when this doesn’t have the desired effect, the culprit will escalate.”

I looked closer at the crowd, searching for someone who wasn’t pulling his, or her, weight. But no one stood out. I just didn’t know them well enough yet.
Dammit!

Then my eye caught the sun glinting off something metallic far over to the right, partially hidden by the long grass.

I threw myself at Amanda, shoving her to the ground as a shot whizzed through the air, the sound of a rifle being discharged echoing through the forest.

“What the—?” she huffed, her breath having been knocked out of her, her hand shoving at me to get off, but I stayed where I was, pressing her safely into the ground beneath us.

“Shot fired,” I hissed, glancing up, but I couldn’t see the rifle anymore. No telltale glint.

“Seriously? Someone tried to
shoot
me?”

“Uh, yeah. Instead, they managed to shoot me.”

***

Amanda

Tarq looked shell-shocked, his gray eyes blinking at me in disbelief. His body covered mine, his hips pressing heavily into me, his wide chest nearly smothering me as one of his arms gave out, causing him to slump to the side.

I shoved at him again, but Sweet Mother, he was like a dead weight. “Move! Let me look!”

“Didn’t know you cared,” he muttered dryly, trying to smile, but I could tell that he was in pain.

“I don’t,” I snapped back, and immediately regretted it when I saw sadness crowd into his eyes.

He rolled off me with a grunt, and I sucked in gasping breaths of air, suddenly able to breathe again.

“I’m normally more courteous, and would never crush a woman who I had the pleasure of having beneath me. Don’t hold it against me, or judge me. It’s just my arm…it doesn’t seem to work?” He was babbling, trying to lighten the mood, and I steeled myself to look at his arm.

The bullet had ripped through his shoulder, leaving a bloody mess of skin and muscle. Ripping his t-shirt, I pressed it against the wound in a state of shock. That bullet had been meant for me. And it had hit Tarq’s shoulder—head height for me.

I looked back down at him. He was a little pale, and way too quiet for my liking. “You’re going to be fine,” I whispered, unable to stop myself from running a hand lightly over his hair. Tarq had nearly died; a few inches further to the right and it would have hit him in the heart. Even a shifter would have a hard time healing from that!

“I know. I just like you looking after me. That’s why I got shot, you see?”

“Idiot,” I muttered, looking around me for the first time and noting that the fire had finally been put out. Everyone had gone, the area deserted. Probably fled when they heard the shot being fired. Having existed for so long under Eric’s control, I couldn’t blame them for fleeing, but I would have to speak to them about it. A healthy pack is strong, can rely on each other. They don’t abandon fellow pack members at the first sign of danger.

We needed to get out of the open, and fast, before they decided to have another go.

“You need to get up. I can’t carry you, you’re way too heavy.” I shoved at him until he struggled to his feet, swaying almost comically. “What have you been eating? Bricks?”

“I said I was sorry for squashing you. It won’t happen next time—”

“Next time?”

“Yeah, next time you’ll be writhing underneath me, coming with my name on your lips…”

“You’re delusional!”

“Maybe. I’m in quite a lot of pain. But never say never.”

“Never.”

“Coward.”

“What did you call me? I’m your Alpha—”

“And I’m your mate. Evens.”

“No, you’re not.”

“You can’t have it both ways. I’ve noticed that about you, always want things your way. Now, in bed, I could maybe be convinced…” He stumbled on the steps, lurching to the side.

“You need to shift and heal.”

“Not with this damn bullet inside of me. It needs to come out.” He gritted his teeth and stomped up the steps onto the porch, shoving open the door with his good shoulder.

“And then you’ll shift?”

“Yes ma’am,” he drawled, and I felt like I had missed something. Something important.

I readjusted his arms around my shoulders, asking, “The office or upstairs?”

Tarq winced, looking at the stairs longingly, then he sighed. “The office.”

Thank the Mother! Turning, we made it through the living area. Seb made a move to come over, and I waved him away. He was
not
what Tarq needed right now. Groups of people huddled in corners, their faces twisted with worry and concern, but they didn’t approach, just watched with wide eyes as we made our way into the large office. I slammed the door shut behind me. I couldn’t focus on them right now.
Later
, I promised myself.

Shoving the couch over, I made space for Tarq on the floor and he collapsed in a heap.

“Dig it out,” he commanded through gritted teeth, then looked away.

CHAPTER FIVE

Amanda

I dropped the bullet into a small bowl I had found, wiping the blood off my hands with what remained of Tarq’s t-shirt. He had stayed quiet throughout, only flinching once, and that had been when I’d had to dig down to his bone to retrieve the bullet.

Now, he was sitting up, already starting to look loads better, his skin returning to a healthy glow, his tan not looking as fake as it had against his previous pallor. Using the other half of his t-shirt, he swiped at the wound, huffing with satisfaction as he flexed his fingers, testing the affected arm.

“I’ve been hit by a bullet before and I don’t remember it hurting like that!” He prodded the bowl cautiously, metal clinking against metal. “Must be getting old.”

“You have? Been shot before, I mean?”

Tarq twisted around, showing me his back. “Here,” he said, pointing at the top of his shoulder blade, then he twisted back around. “Here,” he added, indicating the side of his stomach. He reached for the top button of his jeans. “And her—”

“Stop! I believe you,” I blurted out, before he got the chance to pop all of the buttons. Though I was in two minds whether to stop him.

While removing the bullet, all my concentration had been on the wound and getting the little sucker out. Once he was bullet-free, I hadn’t been able to control my eyes, and they had roamed all over his chest, drinking in the sight of the tightly packed muscle stretched over his chest, the broad arch of his shoulders, and the rippled effect of his abs as they bunched and flexed with every movement. My wolf was pawing inside of me, wanting to reach out and touch.

I desperately seized on something that had been bothering me ever since he had shown me his back.

“What is that across your shoulders?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It must mean something. Fancy writing like that, it looks like a piece of art…” I shuffled around him, lightly tracing the intricate calligraphy with a finger.

Tarq froze under my touch, his chest ceasing to rise and fall.

My finger froze on a downward stroke.

“It’s just some Latin. A phrase, or something.”

I continued outlining the letters, watching how they shifted and twitched with every small movement he made. “You must know what it means, or you wouldn’t have got it.”

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” he said abruptly, jumping to his feet. I think I’d better shift now, fast track the healing. I need to be in top form for when he tries again.”

“You think he will?” The thought distracted me, and it was only when I heard the sound of denim sliding against skin that I realized what had just happened.

Tarq was naked. And standing right in front of me.

***

Amanda

I didn’t know where to look. I’d seen Tarq naked before, like I’d seen most of the pack stripped down, ready to shift. But this time felt different. Whether it was the intimacy of the room, or the fact that I knew Tarq believed us to be mates…I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his toned physique, my eyes traveling down his chest, past his rippling six pack, and coming to a shuddering halt at his groin.

“Like what you see, babe?” Outwardly, he sounded amused, but the hoarseness in his voice betrayed him.

I gulped, then closed my eyes, seeing as they were refusing to obey my command and look away. But it was as if the image had burned into me, the long length of him, thick and promising.

“I don’t see anything,” I tried to snap, but it came out a croaking whisper.

My body was betraying me, reacting to him on the most primal level, my breasts tightening, my pussy throbbing with need. Maybe it was because it had been so long since I’d been with a man. I wracked my brain, trying to remember the last time. Nobody knew that James and I hadn’t slept together, he’d claimed old fashioned values, insisting on courting until mating. I think, deep down, he had known it wasn’t right between us. Before James…I drew a blank. Which might explain things.

Not for the first time, I wished that Tarq wasn’t so insistent on making
this
between us into something big, something important. That he’d ruined any possibility of a fling.

No matter what he said, or tried to prove, it was just physical attraction between us.
It had to be.
Nothing else. My hand crept up and fingered the smooth metal of the locket that hung heavy between my breasts.

I focused on picturing the photo trapped inside, one old and faded with time. This time, the image wavered, blurry and indistinct, but it was still enough to stop me.

Lent me the strength to stop my traitorous body from throwing itself at the man in front of me.

***

Tarq

She crouched on the floor in front of me, her eyes squeezed tight, a frown wrinkling her brow and puckering her lips.

I hadn’t been thinking when I’d stripped. After all, it was natural to be naked around other shifters. All right,
maybe
I’d been a little aware of what I was doing, I admitted to myself. But the way she had looked at me had been worth it. Like she wanted to eat me alive, something I would give anything for to actually happen.

Now, she was lost in thought, her fingers playing with what looked to be an old locket nestled between her breasts.

Man, what I would give to be that locket! I mentally slapped myself, trying to figure out my next move. She wanted me, but she wouldn’t admit it. I could make her lose control, but that wouldn’t be fair. So, all that left was trying to figure out her reluctance and seeing if I could reason with her.

Which left me with…nothing.

Sighing, I let the shift come, my bones cracking and realigning, fur sprouting. My wolf still thought he was a pup,
young at heart,
I liked to say. Large and rambunctious, he liked to play, especially with the one he’d decided we should have claimed already.

Maybe he could break through Amanda’s shell? I decided to give him free reign, retreating back a little to watch through his eyes.

Shaking out my fur, I stretched out the last of the shift, wagging my tail. My mate still had her eyes shut, her fingers still stroking the locket in a way that implied that she drew comfort from it.

Tilting my head, I eyed the object carefully. Hanging on a long chain, it had hidden beneath her clothes until she’d pulled it out. I made a mental note to investigate further once back in human form, then gave control back to my wolf.

With a delighted yip, I bounded toward the woman and licked my tongue up the side of her face, nearly knocking her over in the process. Her eyes flew open in surprise, and I danced around her, circling and rubbing against her, my tongue lolling out of my mouth in a wide doggy grin.

Her hands flew out, grabbing the scruff of my neck and halting my playful antics. I nudged her with my large head, wet nose snuffling into her throat, drinking in her scent.

“What are you playing at?” she said, laughing, as I nudged her again, then licked her jaw. Digging her fingers into my neck, she pulled us away, pulling an expression of mock disgust. “Ewww, doggy breath!” But she was still laughing, the sadness I had glimpsed earlier gone.

Deciding my work was done, I curled up on the floor next to her, my head resting on her lap.

“Pushing it a bit, aren’t you, you big oaf,” she murmured, but she didn’t push me off, her fingers tickling at my ears, smoothing across my head as she petted me.