Beauty in the Beast

**Nick’s POV**

I snapped the neck of this worthless wolf and spit his blood in the dirt. My team was taking down rogues faster than they were coming. Daniel was hurt, but not badly. He still fought valiantly by my side.

“Nick, we need you.” Alex’s wolf was tuning in my head.

“More rogues?” I asked him.

“No, it’s Emma.” My body instantly froze.

“Emma? What’s wrong?”

“We’re in the van on our way to the hospital. Nick, please hurry.” I wasted no time and took off running. I hit the ground with my paws faster than I have ever before. I needed to get to my Luna. I could see the van speeding down the dirt road of the mountain.

“Open the door.” I commanded. The back doors of the van swung open and I jumped, my claws sliding across the floor of the van as I came to a stop. Emmett reached behind me and shut the doors of the van. Jimmy was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, gauze wrapped around his shoulder to stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t doing its job. Alex was in his wolf form, he needed to be to contact me. Emmett was leaned over my mate. Oh, Emma. I shifted quickly and went to her side. I cupped her cheeks and turned her head to me. “Emma? Open your eyes, little wolf.” I searched her face, but she was unconscious. Emmett was holding a blackened gauze square to her chest. No… “What the hell happened out there?” I turned my anger towards Emmett. He stared at me with fear in his eyes but said nothing.

“We were attacked by three rogues.” Alex shifted to answer my question. “That’s how Jimmy got hurt. We killed them. We killed them all, I don’t—I don’t know what happened. Someone must have been watching us from the woods.” He reached beside Alan, who was driving the van, and pulled out an arrow. “She was hit with this.” He handed me the arrow and I held it to my nose. I didn’t need the arrow to tell me it was wolfsbane, the black seeping from my mate was enough proof.

“We’ll be at the hospital in less than a minute.” Alan called back to us. Alex handed me a pair of basketball shorts and I stood as best as I could in the van to slip them on. I carefully pulled Emma into my arms as the van skidded to a stop. Alex pushed the doors of the van open and I jumped out with Emma. Alan ran around the ran to help Alex grab Jimmy’s body from the van. I’ve carried many wolves from battle injuries and my wolf told me Jimmy wasn’t going to last long. Emma needed a better outcome. I wouldn’t let her go.

Nurses came rushing out of the hospital doors to us, Alan called on the way down to let them know we were coming. I laid Emma on the gurney and helped them push her into the building. Dr. Morris stopped us and held her stethoscope to Emma’s chest. She looked up at me with sorrow in her eyes.

“Don’t do that to me, Doc, tell me she’s going to be okay.” I needed her to be okay.

“Her heart is still beating, but it’s weak. I need to get her into surgery and get the wolfsbane out of her system.”

“Whatever you need to do.” I let her take my mate, knowing she would be in good hands. There was no way this would be the last time I saw her.

“Clear!” Claire screamed as she pounded Jimmy’s chest with defibrillators. I turned my head to look away. Take care of my warrior, Moon Goddess. I had to get out of here, I needed air. I stepped into the lobby of the hospital where it was calm, a security guard and a receptionist were the only people there. The front doors slid open and I scrunched my nose at the smell of the familiar wolf. I narrowed my eyes at him and growled.

“Where is she?” Derek kept walking toward me, regardless of my warning growls.

“That’s none of your business.”

“The hell it isn’t my business! You’ve been her mate for less than a week and look what you’ve done!” The wolf had balls to get in my face, but I couldn’t help but feel cut of his words.

“Back off.” I growled.

“You couldn’t just leave her alone. You’ve been nothing but her stalker for years!” I pushed him back with such force he fell back on his ass.

“Hey!” The security guard put himself between us, but he was no match for me. I could have gone through him to get to Derek, but I didn’t. Emma wouldn’t want this.

“Get him out of here.” I turned from the mess and went to the waiting room where I knew Doc Morris would be able to find me. I needed to be here when she finished her surgery. I needed to be here when Emma woke up.

I paced the waiting room so much that my bare feet were sore from the tile. I needed a shower and some clothes. I was covered in blood from the battle, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the hospital. Not without Emma.

“Nick?” I turned my head to my beta. “Oh, Nick.” He pulled me into a hug. I was never one for the touchy-feely, but I allowed it. “She’s going to be fine, Nick. She’s a fighter, she’ll be okay.” Daniel pulled away and I collapsed into one of the chairs.

“Distract me, Daniel. How’s my pack?” I put my face in my hands and focused on my breathing.

“They took care of all the rogues. The bodies are in a van, everything in the territory is cleaned up. I sent a few Omegas to the clinic to get checked out, nothing major.”

“And you?” I asked.

“Fine.” He lifted his arm which was wrapped in a bandage. “Couple stitches will dissolve in a few days like it never happened.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “Jimmy didn’t make it, Nick.” I nodded. I knew it was coming, but that didn’t stop the pain of losing one of my own. “I’ll talk to the three boys and get a full report of what happened out there.”

“I want a team put together.” I sat up in the chair. “I want any and every evidence of that shooter collected. Take Emmett and Alex out to the location and get a clear view of where the shooter was hiding out when he—”

“Of course.”

“Alan will be useless out there. He was most likely with Jimmy when everything went down. Give him time to mourn.” Daniel nodded and stood, ready to go give my orders.

“Daniel?” He turned to me. “One more thing.”

“Anything.”

“I want to know how the hell Derek knew Emma was here.”