Bear Necessities (5 page)

“What?”
She sniffed.

“No
matter how many times I ask, don’t ever tell me the name of your ex-Alpha.”

“Why
not?” Her Wolf snapped to attention as his hazel eyes bled slowly to dark
brown. A predator looked out at her through them. He looked lethal, ready to
take out the world if she asked him to. It was strange to see that look in the
eyes of a Bear. She’d thought Bears were more like her friend Julian, soft and
sweet with a quirky humor, but Alex’s eyes were those of a hunter. Maybe they
were only that predatory where a mate was concerned? “Oh. That’s why.” She knew
her mouth was trembling. Hell, all of her was trembling. No one had stood up
for her in years, other than Cyn, Glory, Julian and Gabe.

She
darted a glance at Bunny and caught him smiling at her. He was still stroking
her fingers, sending tingles down her spine. His heat and scent surrounded her,
his eyes still a deep chocolate brown. God, she actually felt
safe
. How
the hell had that happened? She hadn’t felt truly safe since the day her
parents and her Pack turned their backs on her.

“Is
everything all right?”

She
looked up to find the waiter standing by their table, a concerned look on his
face. “Everything’s fine.” She pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped her
eyes.

“Can
we have a moment? I think we’re going to have dessert and coffee. The tiramisu
looks really good.” Bunny took a seat next to her, scooting his chair closer,
angling his body in between hers and the waiter’s.

Big
goof.
From the
look on his face, he wasn’t about to let anyone near her he didn’t approve of
personally. It was sweet, in a caveman sort of way, but could be a real pain in
the ass if he chose to act that way at LA. She could feel her lips curving up
in a smile at the protective gesture. She cleared the last of the tears from
her throat. “I’m thinking of the French silk pie.”

“Two
coffees?” The waiter left to fetch their desserts after they nodded, leaving
them alone.

He
stroked her fingers, refusing to let go of her hand. His eyes turned back to
the warm hazel they’d been before she began discussing her Outcasting. “Did you
really live in the woods all those years?”

“Yes.
If it wasn’t for Gabe and his grandmother, I’d still be living out there.” Or
dead. But she wouldn’t say that in front of the increasingly growly Bunny. His
chest was actually rumbling.

“Where
are you from originally?” The question was innocent, but Bunny’s expression was
anything but. In the dim lighting, she couldn’t quite see the color of his
eyes, but she thought they might have darkened just a hair.

She
decided it couldn’t hurt to answer in a roundabout way. “Georgia.”

“Near Marietta?”

She
shot him a look. No way was she confirming that he was right. Besides, she’d
probably given it away when she mentioned her uncle worked for his father.

Bunny
sighed. “Is there any way for you to join a local Pack?”

“The
closest sanctioned Pack is in the Poconos, about two hours away.”

Bunny
smiled sweetly as the waiter set the deserts on the table and left. “Ah. So,
whereabouts in Marietta is your Pack, anyway?”

Tabby
decided to try a little soothing of her own. She reached up and patted Bunny’s
cheek. “Down, Baloo.” Bunny looked startled. “For a Bear, you’re awfully
growly.” Tabby shook her head before taking a bite of her pie.
Mmm,
chocolate.
Screw that whole “chocolate isn’t good for canines” shit. After
what she’d just gone through, she needed her fix.

“What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.
I know a Bear or two, and I thought most of you were pretty laid back.”

Bunny
scowled. “And you think I’m not laid back?”

Tabby
tried to hide her growing grin behind her coffee mug, but knew she’d failed
when Bunny just shook his head.

They
left the restaurant in total accord. Bunny helped Tabby onto the bike and
climbed on after her, careful not to jar her. “Want to head to my place?” He
had every intention of claiming her tonight, but had no desire to do so in her
tiny apartment with her roommates down the hall. He took a deep breath. He
longed for the scent of his mate to fill all the empty places inside him.

Instead,
he caught the scent of something else, something terrible. “Chloe?” And blood.
Lots of blood.

“Chloe?
What about Chloe?”

“Tabby?”
The scent was stronger now, the breeze bringing him his cousin’s pain. He
handed Tabby a helmet, the need to move, to protect his little cousin gripping
him with steel hands.

“What?”
She shoved the helmet on and wrapped her hands around his waist.

“I
need you to hold on.” He started the bike, roaring out of Noah’s parking lot.
He ignored Tabby’s squawk of surprise, concentrating only on getting to Chloe.

He
turned the corner and found an ambulance, lights flashing in the darkness. They
illuminated the body of his little cousin sprawled on the street, her red hair
mingling with the blood under her, around her. The paramedics bent over her
body worked frantically to save her.

“Sir!”

He was
off the bike and charging for the scene before anyone could stop him. Chloe was
hurt. Chloe needed him. Ryan was going to freak if anything happened to his
baby sister. He needed to call Ryan…

Oh
fuck.
She
looked dead. There was a stranger bent over her, obviously not a paramedic. The
man had long, dark hair bound in a braid, but that was all Bunny allowed
himself to see. “Chloe?” If he could just touch her, he might be able to help
heal her.

One of
the paramedics stared at him with sympathy in his eyes and shook his head ever
so slightly.

Someone
was tugging on the stranger’s arm. “Sir, you need to step back and allow us to
do our job.”

“I’m a
nurse,” the man growled, deep, bass, primal. It went straight for Bunny’s gut.
The man was a Bear like him.

He
trusted another Bear a hell of a lot more than he trusted a human paramedic.
“How is she?”

The
man pushed Chloe’s light jacket aside, baring her shoulders. “She’ll live.”

The
weary pain in the other Bear’s voice was a dagger in his gut. “Live how?”

A car
screeched to a halt next to them. A blond man stepped out, his eyes concerned.
“Let me through.”

Surprisingly,
the men did. Bunny, however, wasn’t moving. Not until he scented Puma.

“I’m
Dr. Jamie Howard. I saw the lights.” He knelt down next to Chloe, taking the
bag a dark-haired woman, also Puma and smelling strongly of Dr. Howard, handed
him. “What happened?”

“Julian
Ducharme. I’m a nurse and acquainted with the patient. I don’t know what
happened, but her injuries are bad.” Julian began a catalogue of Chloe’s wounds
in a cool, professional tone that left Bunny feeling left out in the cold.

“Bunny?
Who is she to you?”

He
turned to find Tabby standing in front of him, shivering in her light dress. He
took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her
against him. He needed comfort, the scent of Chloe’s blood poisoning the air
around him.

It was
bad. He knew it was bad, just as he new his paltry gift was of no use here.
“She’s my baby cousin.”

Tabby
sighed. “Oh, sugar.” She pulled his head into the crook of her neck, and held
on tight. He took a deep breath but nothing could wash away the metallic tang
of Chloe’s blood.

Tabby
could barely see what Julian and Dr. Howard were doing. Bunny took up a lot of
space in her field of vision, but she could hear what they were saying and it
wasn’t good. Julian seemed to think he could help if he had time alone with
her, but time was rapidly running out along with the other woman’s blood. Bunny
trembled in her arms, his hands fisted at the small of her back. She knew he
wanted to help, but there was no way he could. Even Tabby could see Chloe was
beyond saving.

So she
held on as hard as she could, feeling the fine tremors racking her mate’s body,
while her friend knelt at the side of a dying woman.

“Make
them go away, doctor. Get them away and I can save her.” Julian’s voice was
intense.

“At
what cost?”

Bunny
stiffened in her arms at Dr. Howard’s soft words.

“Let
me do this. I can save her, they can’t. Trust me.”

She
almost walked over to tell Dr. Howard that Julian could be trusted, but before
she could the man sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.” Dr. Howard walked over to
the paramedics who’d huddled off to the side. “These are her family. They want
a moment alone with her.”

“Sir,
she’s not going to make it.”

Bunny
keened softly, the sound full of anguish. His arms surrounded her, held her
while he trembled.

“Let’s
grant their wish. It’s not like it will hurt anything, or anyone.”

Somehow
Dr. Howard got them away, got the paramedics to give them a moment of privacy.

Bunny
let her go, grabbed hold of Julian’s hand and placed his other on Chloe’s
shoulder. Tabby watched Julian take a deep breath and…

That’s
when Tabby knew she was losing her mind.

Bunny
relaxed and allowed Julian to direct the path of the healing. He might be a
Bear, but Julian was trained as a nurse and had far more knowledge than Bunny
could lay claim to. Modern medicine had made the healing the Bears did easier,
allowing them to know the ways in which the body functioned, but it came at a
price. A price Dr. Jamie Howard somehow knew about. The small amount of healing
Bunny could do might keep his cousin alive long enough for them to get her to
the hospital, but it would leave him exhausted. He knew he’d sleep around the
clock after they were done.

He
began to assess the damage. He could feel every cut, every bruise, every single
broken bone his cousin suffered from. There was no way,
no way
they
could save her. Her body was too injured to sustain life. It was amazing she’d
lingered as long as she had.

He
owed Julian for giving him the opportunity to say goodbye.

Just
as Bunny opened his mouth to thank the other Bear, the strangest thing
happened. Julian took a deep breath, focused, and his hair turned pure white.

And
then the
real
healing began.

Julian
mended the broken bones, repaired the severed blood vessels, healed the damage
to her skull. The fluid pouring into her cranial cavity was causing pressure
her fragile brain wouldn’t be able to tolerate. Julian drained it off
efficiently and moved on to the next wound. Bunny could tell there was
something wrong there, in the soft tissues of her brain, but he didn’t possess
the knowledge to figure out what it was. He was pulled along in Julian’s wake,
helpless to do anything but watch and marvel.

Bunny
was stunned at the strength the other Bear possessed. Julian poured his energy
into Chloe, revitalized flagging organs and sped the beat of her heart once all
of the blood vessels had been properly repaired. He left enough outer damage
that the paramedics would not be too suspicious of what had happened here this
night.

He
wouldn’t have much time when he was done. Bunny could sense the fatigue that
pulled at the other Bear, trying to make him sloppy in his healing, but Julian
pushed through. His healing remained precise, catching even the tiniest details
of the internal damage Chloe had suffered. Bunny offered his strength, letting
Julian pull on him to complete what Bunny knew was impossible. It wouldn’t be
enough to keep the Bear on his feet more than five minutes, ten tops when they
were done, but he would survive, thanks to the strength Bunny lent him. Bunny
knew that Julian’s selfless act would have ended his life. The man had to have
known it before he even started.

Bunny
owed him, big time.

Another
source of energy poured into him. Alien, feminine, it wrapped around him,
scented by wild forests and the feel of soft paws on leaves. The howl of a
wolf, barely heard, the pull of the moon on a four-limbed body told him whose
energy filled him. Savage strength held in check by a heart too big for its
frame coursed through him, leaving him dizzy and so aroused he almost lost the
spiraling tendrils of the healing path. Tabby lent them her strength, using the
bare beginnings of their mate bond to channel her energy through Bunny to
Julian and ultimately to Chloe.

That
added strength allowed him to help Julian finish healing Chloe. Julian pulled
back and released his hold on Bunny, his hair turning dark once more. Bunny
watched the white fade from Julian’s hair until not a pearly strand was left.
Julian was visibly shaking, deep dark circles under his eyes, but when he
lifted his face, his expression was serene. “I’ve done all I can, and it wasn’t
enough.”

And
then he collapsed like a broken puppet. Bunny barely stopped his head from
cracking on the street.