Their Unexpected Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (20 page)

“Sullivan!” Mac spun around as he felt the echo of pain from his twin. “Son of a bitch,” he snarled, and with a twist finished the dragon. Racing under the huge form he grabbed Sully’s arm and yanked him from under the bulk crashing down.

Dropping to his knees, he pushed at Sully’s jacket and tore open the shirt. Slapping his comms, he forced himself to be absolutely calm. “Sully’s been shot, upper left shoulder.” He rolled his brother. “Fuck me! Shot ricocheted back into him near his spine. He’s lost a pint of blood already and is losing more. I need a medevac in here ASAP,” he said, yanking out a towel from the bag that Skittles tossed his way. Jamming it under Sully, he rolled his brother back gently and pressed another to his shoulder.

“Sullivan, look at me, damn it, and give me your vitals rundown.” He snapped out the order sharp. They were military through and through. It was in their blood. His brother wouldn’t disobey an order no matter what, especially in life and death.

“It fucking hurts so that means I’m still feeling,” Sully said right back at his brother with a growl. “The fucking lead is still in me but thankfully the dumb motherfuckers didn’t use silver.” Or Sullivan would be gone. “Fuck, you know she’s going to lose her ever-fucking-loving mind on this, right?” Once they operated and got the bullet out Sullivan could shift and that would help speed his healing, but he would have to stay shifted. Damn.

“Who the fuck shot me?” he coughed out again, focusing on Katherine and trying to stay awake for his bond-mate. He couldn’t die, and he had a feeling if he closed his eyes he was going to.

“Our little kitten is going to kick your fucking ass,” Mac told him quite succinctly as he packed the wound and applied pressure. “As to the ass wipe that shot you, I haven’t got a clue. But we’ve got ourselves some serious cover for a little while.” At least until Gaia reclaimed the body of the now-dead dragon. Then they were fucked. “Come on, Gaia, be on our side for a little while,” he muttered, moving to look around and ensure they didn’t have anyone sneaking up on them.

“Keep talking to me, bro. Help’s on its way.” Better damn well be. “Where’s my medevac?” he asked into the comms, his tone trying to convey just how fucked his brother was. “You do know that once she kicks your ass she’ll bloody baby you non-stop until you’re better in her eyes, right.”

“Yeah, I fucking know it.” Sully heard the blades of the medevac as well as the shots that rang from the sniper on board. “How are Skittles and Bulldog holding up?” If they were being fired on, what about their teammates? “And the Beta team, where the fuck are they? She’s going to fucking shit when she sees me in bear form.” Not how they wanted to show her their base fucking forms, but she would survive. “At least we aren’t dragons, right?” Dragons were massive, fucking huge, and cold and hard. Not cuddly like a bear could be in the winter.

“Just remember to give her the big eyes,” Mac advised, moving to flash a red light toward the copter to let the medics know where they were without the enemies knowing. “Girls fall for the big eyes every time,” he said, looking at him. “The others are kicking ass and taking names. You though are headed back to get that bullet removed and shift. No dicking around, bro. When we finish beating everyone down, we’ll come grab you and take you home, deal?”

Sully nodded. “Deal.” The medics all knew how to care for a shifter, knew what each species needed, and the basics were to remove the foreign object and let them shift. Preferably alone or else the beast might kill someone before the man took control. “Better not get hurt or Kat’s going to be even more pissed off at us.” He could already feel her upset. Even though they had all kept her blocked from seeing, feeling, and knowing what they were up to, they could feel her and she was mightily upset.

“Dude, I plan on sitting back and watching her kick your ass three ways to Sunday, bro.” Mac grinned at him and turned to let the medics in. “Bullet went in high on the shoulder and came back in near the spine off a dragon scale. It’s going to be mangled. He’s lost easily two pints by now. His speech is a little slurred, but he’s still sharp and responding to questions and taunts. Get him back fast, lads,” he said as he let them take over and check out Sully.

When they had him loaded on the gurney, Mac ran alongside to help them lift his heavy brother into the copter. “We’ve got this, Sul. You just heal,” he said, squeezing his brother’s hand and smacking his other to their joined hands. “See you in a few,” he added before racing off and crouching out of range of the blades as they sped up and the helicopter lifted up.

Touching his comms he looked to where the shit was still going down. “Sully’s off to get looked after. Where do you need me, Bulldog?”

“There are some fucking snakes in hiding. One of them tried to get Skittles as he was blasting the fuck out of the pricks. There are three of them. Bring them out because I want to know what the fuck is going on, why snakes would suddenly join in on the drug trade as well.” Mac and his team were fighting humans as well, but most of them were so drugged out that shifting to their base animal caused them to piss themselves and pass out.

“Copy that,” he said before falling silent. Moving quickly and quietly, he worked his way out in the shadows and then stood watching for a moment. Catching a small movement, he went in hard and fast. His fist connected with the jaw of the snake shifter in human form just as he figured out he was there. Pulling out zip-ties, he secured the snake tight, hogtied, so to speak.

“One down,” Mac breathed into the comm before looking for his next target. Spotting the faint outline he moved cautiously toward him. This one was a little more aware, but still went down under a hard right to the jaw. “Two down,” he murmured as he secured his second prisoner already looking for the third and not seeing anything.

When the snake realized what was happening, that his side was losing and losing big time, he thought to himself, Sometimes one has to get while the gettin’ is good. That was the adage that had kept him alive for as long as it had and the same one that would keep him alive far past when these “heroes” were dead.
Soon, though, soon I will have what should have always been mine.
Slipping away in the darkness and chaos, he found his hole and went to ground. One day he would show these fucks just what it was to be powerful.
One day.

Doing a full circuit, Mac had to call it quits and collected his two snake buddies. Carrying each under an arm, he approached the others who had finally beaten off and taken down everyone else. A few cuts and scrapes. Skittles had a hell of a shiner already starting and one of Beta team had a good cut on his arm that another was wrapping to keep it…sort of clean, he supposed.

Dropping them down on the ground, he looked to Talon. “The last one’s in the wind. My guess is he saw the tide turning and turned tail and ran like the chickenshit he is. These two should come around in a bit. They’ll have a good-sized headache but I made sure not to break anything.” This time, and only because he knew Bulldog wanted to get them talking and fast.

Bulldog nodded. “Appreciate the hell out of that.” Lifting his hand into the air, Bulldog made a circling motion and looked to Mac. “Let’s let our warlocks pull us a vortex so that we can get to medical. I’m sure that you boys want to get the wounded cub and get him home to momma bear.” Bulldog grinned and then said, “She’s going to kick his ass. Please promise me that you will record it just so that I can watch it later with popcorn?”

“Fuck you,” Trey said as he came up and dropped off two additional stragglers. “Mostly because we know our bond-mate, and that woman will be riled, hell yeah she will, but then she will get all lovey and then our clothes come off. No fucking way in hell are we letting you see our bond-mate naked.”

Mac growled in agreement. “Fucking A,” he said simply and then looked to Skittles. “You got it in you to pull a vortex, son?” he said, just to get under the man’s skin.

“Fuck you, too, bear,” Skittles said with a low and dangerous voice, one that all of the men recognized as a magic user who has put out a great deal of energy and pulled a hell of a lot of magic from the Earth. Opening the vortex, Skittles nodded. “It takes us straight to the secure area of the base.” The secure area was an area where magic users could flash in and out without worry of running into another. It was an area where only one vortex could open up at a time.

Mac and Trey both shared a look and then stepped through, trusting their teammate and friend. When they exited it was into the clean room, the safe room that was used for magi and warlocks to open travel vortexes. As per protocol, they waited for their whole party to exit the swirling, chaotic mass before heading for the sealed doors. Only the warlock who created the vortex could open it, so they waited for Skittles.

Placing his hand on the scanner, Skittles allowed the biometric reader to take the scan and then heard the click, unlocking the door and ushering everyone out. Once the door was unlocked they had ninety seconds to vacate the room before another magic user could open a vortex, and the room was white for a reason. Cleaning up the mistakes if someone was on the wrong side of a vortex needed lots and lots of bleach.

“Just saying, brother, you might want to stay out here until Trey and I have assured her that you really are all right, and to ease her into the sight of you.” Mac looked at his brother and snickered. “Well, looking at you all furry.”

The growl that came from the large Kodiak bear was unmistakable. It was one pissed-off man being asked to remain from away his bond-mate.

Raising his hands in the air, Mac shrugged. “All right, but when you scare the shit out of her you are going to feel real shitty.” He watched his brother cock his head to the side and then heard the words of the man that was for the time being trapped inside of the animal.

Shit, you are right. I fucking hate it when you are right,
Sully said with a huff of breath from the bear’s snout.
All right, well, tell her and don’t get distracted by just how good she smells. Tell her and then give me the signal to come in. It’s time that our little bond-mate saw us all in our base forms and not just fucking Scythe.

“Yeah, fuck you very much, buddy,” Scythe said as he headed for the front door. Stopping beside the shadows in which lurked the protection for their bond-mate, he whispered his soft thanks. Hearing the grunted “welcome,” he continued and opened the front door. She was who and what was important.

Katherine jumped when she heard the door open and for the barest of moments she thought that someone had come into the house, but then she saw Trey. “Trey,” she whispered and raced to him, jumping into his arms because she knew that he would catch her.

Wrapping his arms around her tightly, he buried his nose in her neck and breathed in deeply, the night’s mess wiped clean with her fresh scent. Squeezing her close, he turned his head to catch her lips with his. Growling softly at her taste, he just wanted to strip her naked and have her, then and there. Nipping her lip, he lifted his head though and smiled. “Hi, honey, we’re home,” he said.

Katherine smiled and nuzzled his cheek. She frowned then when she saw Mac entering the room, blood on his jacket. “Where is Sully?” She wiggled out of Trey’s arms and went to Mac, hugging him for a moment and then demanded, “Where is Sullivan?” She moved away from Mac and moved to the door. Looking out, she turned to the two men and felt fear, an ache, but she still felt Sully so she knew he wasn’t, well, she couldn’t say that. “Where is he?”

Mac held up his hands and cursed internally when he saw the blood on his hands. “He’s fine, sorta,” he told her. Moving closer, he took her shoulders in his hands. “He was shot during the operation and is currently in his bear form. He’s waiting outside for us to warn you so that you don’t drop a load when a full-size Kodiak meanders through the door.” Squeezing her upper arms, he smiled. “He needs to stay in his bear form for a couple of days so that his body heals fully and faster. In human form we heal quicker than an average human but in our alternate forms we heal nearly twenty times faster.”

“What?” she squeaked. “He was hurt that badly?” She wanted to move around Mac but he wouldn’t let her. Taking a moment, she counted to ten, twice, and then looked up at him. “All right, well, tell him to get in here.” A Kodiak? Holy crap, weren’t those bears huge? Deadly? “He will know who I am, right?” she found herself asking them softly.

Chuckling softly, Mac nodded. “He will know just who you are, love. We are the bear, the bear is us, but our minds are fully ours unless we are in a rage. Then it’s dicey. In that situation, find a big metal box to hide in until we come for you,” he told her. Turning, he sent a call out to Sully and drew her away from the door. Nudging her into a chair, he held up a finger. “Stay right there,” he told her and moved to scratch his brother’s ears as he lumbered into the house and threw a sheepish look to Katherine.
Nice touch, bro,
he praised, hiding his grin.

Katherine’s mind kept going back to what Mac had said about if they were in a rage as the animal. Shaking, she held out her hand and looked to Sullivan, who was, holy crap, huge! “Can I touch you?” she whispered softly. She had felt the same fear and trepidation with Trey, but Trey wasn’t as large as Sullivan was. “I’ve never seen a bear before,” she admitted. “Ever.”

Sullivan shuffled forward slowly, most of his weight noticeably not on his left foreleg. Pressing his nose to her hand, he closed his eyes and breathed her in.
I love you, Katherine,
he sent to her and prayed she’d hear him. Otherwise it was going to suck having to use Scythe or his less-than-accurate-in-transmitting-information brother to talk to her.

“I heard that, asshole,” Mac muttered, resisting the urge to kick his brother’s furry ass.

Katherine reached out and touched the brown fur of the bear that was before her. She licked her lips. “God, you are huge,” she whispered. “You know who I am, right?” she asked softly and scratched the bear behind his ear. “You do know me, right?” she asked with a smile. “You aren’t going to bite me, right?” She leaned closer and whispered, “And I love you, too, Sully, but I’m so angry with you because you got hurt.”