Endangered Species

“HELP!” I barely got the word out before Max’s wolf was on me. His jaws went high, so I dropped underneath. I avoided the bite, but his lower body knocked me flying. One of his paws scratched across my left shoulder, tearing my blue dress apart.

I rolled, reaching under the thin sleeve of my left arm and removing one of my silver-plated throwing knives while I got back on one knee. I heard an angry howl behind me as I pulled it free from the sheath. There was no time to throw it; Max was back on his feet and attacking again. This time, he didn’t have to leave his feet. I had no choice; I raised my left arm to protect my neck. Max’s wolf clamped down on my forearm, his big teeth ripping through flesh and crunching bone. I screamed again as I brought my right hand up. I buried the knife to the hilt in the wolf’s chest.

Max let go of my arm, howling in pain as he fell to the side. His movement twisted the thin knife from my hand, so I left it buried between his ribs. I could hear wolves approaching fast, and so could Max. My left arm was a mess, so I reached under my skirt and grabbed another knife from that sheath. As Max came for my neck, I punched with my right hand. I buried the knife into his left eye.

The wolf knocked me over, landing heavily on my chest. My head hit the floor hard, making me see stars. I couldn’t see anything, and I could barely breathe. I couldn’t push the wolf off me with my one good arm, and I couldn’t roll out from underneath.

I started to panic.

Seconds later, the wolf was gone, replaced by a furious and naked Cole. I saw Max hit the wall ten feet away and drop bonelessly to the floor. A bloodstain marked the impact.

“Angela? Baby?” Cole was kneeling over me, his fury replaced by his worry. “You’ll be fine. Help is on the way.”

I didn’t feel that way! All I could do was groan in pain. My left arm was on fire from the bite, blood was spraying from the wound, and my head was still spinning. I tried to lift my head, and my stomach flipped. I turned my head to the side just in time to projectile vomit all over Cole’s feet. To his credit, Cole didn’t get out of the way or yell at me for the mess. Instead, my mate pulled my hair out of the way and held my shoulders until I stopped retching.

“I’m going to set you back down, baby. There’s blood on the back of your head, and I don’t want you going into shock.”

Pack members flooded the hallway, but they made a hole for Doctor Pine. She went to the clean side of me, setting her bag down. “Damn, he did a job on you,” she said as she tore open a battle dressing. “Cole, after I put this in place, elevate her arm and apply pressure to reduce the bleeding.” She placed the big bandage over the top of my forearm. I screamed in pain as Cole started pressing down while Doc tied it in place.

“The Alpha is dead,” Beta Mark called out.

“Good riddance,” Cole grumbled. “Where’s the stretcher?”

“It’s on the way,” Doc replied. She had a penlight out and was flashing it in my eyes. “Angela, did you lose consciousness?”

“I don’t think so,” I mumbled.

“Good. I’m going to apply a neck brace, just in case. You’ve got a concussion, and you might have whiplash.”

I jerked at a sudden thought. “Help Lois! Max knocked the shit out of her.”

“She’s being taken care of, Luna. Relax and let us do our jobs.” I heard a gurney rolling our way. One of the Omegas came with a towel, and I felt her wiping my vomit out of the way so they could work. Another Omega handed Cole a towel to clean off his legs before putting on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

I didn’t see much but the ceiling and Doctor Pine after that. A thick orange collar went around my neck to lock my chin forward. They held me in place as they rolled me to the side, then onto the backboard. Four people lifted me onto the gurney while Cole held my arm up, still pressing down on the wound.

I had to close my eyes as they wheeled me to the infirmary. The lights and the ceiling flying by made me nauseous. Thankfully, my stomach was empty. Cole stayed on my arm, promising me everything would be all right. “I’m going to change,” I said as they transferred me to the examining table.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Angela. I wanted you to choose this life, to want to be with me, and now you don’t have that anymore. I failed, my love. I’ve known Alpha Max my entire life; my father considered him his closest ally. I knew that he’s had a rough time of it, but I didn’t know how bad until now.”

Doctor Pine inserted an IV needle into my right arm. “I’ll have to put you under to repair the hole in your artery,” she told me.

I didn’t have much time to relay what Max said to me before the attack. “He told me he blames himself for the deaths in his Pack, that he didn’t prepare adequately.”

“I didn’t prepare enough, Angela. If I’d been a better Alpha, I wouldn’t have had to take over this base,” Cole admitted.

“Max said he needed to kill me to get to you,” I said as the drugs started to hit. “With you weak, he could kill you and take over the Pack, take over this base. He said they couldn’t survive in his territory.”

Cole nodded at that. “It almost worked,” he said. “Max lost his mate that first day. He could never beat me straight up, so he had to bring me down to his level. I think he hoped he’d find another mate among the women here.”

“Your Goddess should never reward… murder….”

I dropped into a dreamless sleep.

I didn’t know where I was at first. I couldn’t open my eyes, no matter how hard I tried. I could hear a machine beeping, along with a soft snore. The tingles shooting up from my right hand told me it was Cole.

I relaxed into the feeling, gathering strength with each passing minute. When I got my eyes open, the room was dark. I moved my head to the right, seeing the heart monitor and Cole’s shaggy black hair. He was by my hospital bed with his head on my right forearm. I could feel his fingers in mine below my IV tube. I turned my head to look at my injured arm. It was wrapped in gauze with a rigid brace over it. It ached, but it was warm and tingly. I remembered how badly that wolf had chewed it up, but it didn’t hurt now.

I looked at the IV bottle over my bed and wondered what kind of drugs were in it.

I squeezed Cole’s fingers a couple of times before he squeezed back. His head lifted off my arm, and his eyes locked in mine. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “Am I?”

“The Doctor is coming,” he replied.

Sure enough, the door opened, and Doc Pine came in. She checked my vitals, asked about my pain, and tested finger dexterity and grip strength. “What’s the verdict,” I asked.

“You got chewed up pretty good, but most of the damage was on the top of your forearm. The knife and sheath kept the lower jaw from doing much. Even with that, you had lacerations to the bone, a punctured artery, and your ulna bone fractured in three places. If you remained human, these injuries would take months to heal, and the nerve damage might be permanent. Since you will become a werewolf, it’s already healing. I’ll take that brace and wrapping off in a few more hours to check the progress.”

“And after that?”

“You won’t even have a scar,” she promised. “Everything is proceeding as expected. I should be able to release you before breakfast, but your fevers could start as early as dinnertime.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“It’s my pleasure, Luna Angela.”

“I’m not the Luna.” She just smiled and walked out of the room.

I looked over to Cole. “How will the Council see this?”

“Their investigation is ongoing, and they’ve interviewed everyone but you,” he replied. “Now that you’re awake? Expect them to show up soon.”

“What should I tell them?”

“The truth. I told the Pack to answer all questions honestly, without hiding anything. Too many people know what I did and what our Pack did. It’s up to me to justify those actions, not you.”

“Even to me?”

“Especially to you.” He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “They’re here. I’ll be waiting outside.”

He left, and three Alphas walked in.