Reviving Bloom (14 page)

I hope my lack of fear
shock
s
him enough to give me some kind of openi
ng to get loose but Trace isn’t completely stupid. He tightens
his grip digging his rough fingers in
to my side. There’ll
be a bruise there
but it might be the least of my injuries if I don’t get away.

His lips are pressed to my ear when he says
, “After tonight my little flower you’ll never wa
nt another man again.” He sucks
my earlobe into his mouth
as the hand holding the gun leaves
my head and he d
rags it down my side. I know I have to get away or I’ll
never be able to get this night out of my head, if he even let
s
me live past
it
.

When his lips start
t
railing down my neck he loosens
his grip around my chest enough to grab roughly onto my breast. I kn
ow now is probably the only chance I’ll get so I attempt
to slam
my heel
into his foot. In my mind it gi
ve
s
me th
e chance to get loose so I can run, in reality it doesn’t
do anything bu
t anger the prick because he’s
wearing
steel-
toed work boots.
He thro
w
s
me
hard onto the ground and levels
the g
un at me with one hand as he’s
using the other t
o undo his jeans. My stomach’s rolling
.
I know it won’t be long before its contents co
me back up. I turn my head away from the monster in front of me not wa
nting him to see how much he’s
upsetting me. He may be able to strip me of what I have guarded for the last
20 years but there’s no way I’m letting him think this
will break me. The vomit starts to come up and I swallow
it back down. I
’m
fighting back the se
cond wave of sickness when I catch
movement in the truck. I tempt a gla
nce back at Trace to see if he
noticed. Nope, he
’
s too busy working his pants down with one hand. Turning back to the truck the movement
’s gone
.
M
aybe I
imagined it.

I’m
brough
t out of my thoughts when I feel
the weight of Trace on top of me, effectively pi
nning me to the ground. There’s no way I’ll
be able to get him off of me from this position.
My hands are still free but I can’t
see anything within
my reach that could
hurt
him enough to get away. He begi
n
s
pulling my dress up my body stopping every few inches to rub his sweaty hands along my legs
then my
stomach. Realizing his hands a
re both gun free I desperately search the ground for the gun. He ha
s
it tucked up against his sid
e near his pants. If I stretch
I may be able to reach it before he reali
zes what’s going on. I stretch
my hand over the hard ground trying to move as l
ittle as possible so he won’t notice. My fingers just feel
the cold metal of the barrel when it
’
s ripped away from my grasp.

“You little whore! You thought you could use my
own gun on me.” Then he slams
the butt of the gun down hard a
gainst my temple.

The pain’s so intense and the black’s
already starting t
o cloud my eyes or maybe I’m
closi
ng them, I’m not sure which one’s
happening. I
want
to
let the darkness take me away to a safe place
….

Growling, why is there g
rowling in my darkness? I fight
my eyelids to get them to open back up and focus.
I not
ice that Trace’s weight is
no lo
nger on top of me so I attempt
to sit up. The pa
in radiating through my head is so intense I about fall back to the ground. I grip
my knees to keep my upper half from falling back
wards. Once I feel fairly certain I won’t pass back out I raise
my head from my knees to survey the scene before me.

Pike! He has
Trace bac
ked up to the edge of the road.
There’s no doubt in me now that he’s a wolf, he’s
a predator and
Trace is his prey. He stalks
the monster that att
acked me. He’s not
looking for his open
ing, he already has that. What’s
he doing?

Chapter 19
– Pike

~
You have a lot more to worry about than my creative story telling
~

My wolf is
savoring the taste
of his fear. Even if I can’t
taste it in the air I’d still be abl
e to see it in the way his hand is
shaking around
the gun handle. He doesn’t
ha
ve it pointed at me and I want
to keep it that way. It’s time I take him out
so I can get to my mate. I hear her come to but I don’t
want to draw hi
s attention to that, he might try
to take aim at her.

I take
a few st
eps towards him and I’m
getting r
eady
to pounce wh
en the lights on the road catch
both of ou
r attention. Great! Just what I need,
some silly human getting in the way of me helping my mate.

The car slams on its brakes and I hear
the door
fly open. T
he driver co
me
s running our way and I think she
might throw hers
elf at me, but thankfully she ru
n
s
to my mate. Falli
ng on to her knees
,
Bonnie pulls
Bloom into her arms. I let o
ut a sigh of relief. My mate’s being cared for so I don’t
have to worry about leaving her side to take care of the trash in front of me.

I turn back towards my prey but he’s
no longer
in front of me. He’s
made it to
the still running car Bonnie arrived in. The coward’s
using the
drivers’
side door a
s a shield and he has the gun pointed at me. There’
s a smug
look on his face when he pulls the trigger. I try
to high tail it out o
f the bullets path but it catches my shoulder and I stagger to the ground. I pull
myself back to my
feet;
I
’m
not
going to let this
bastard think I’m weak, and take off after
the car.
He
’
s briefly stunned by my being able to take a bullet and still come for him but b
efore I can
reach him he jump
s into the car and slams the door shut. I’m
desperately trying to rip the
door off
t
he hinges to get to him
w
he
n he
thro
w
s the car into drive and ta
k
es
off.

I want
to chase af
ter him, I can
easily
catch
up with
the car
, but I need to get back to Bloom. She
pa
ssed out again when the gun went
off and t
aking
care of her comes before taking my revenge on her attacker.
I mak
e
a promise to myself that I will
hunt him down and make him pay. I k
eep
my eyes on the retreating tail lights
as
I back
myself up in the direction where
I know
my mate lays
unconscious.

“Alpha, get your tail over
here!” Bonnie impatiently calls for me. Feeling the threat’s
ou
t of the way for now, I turn and cross
the remaining distance. The
soft
green dress Bloom put on earlier in the day is
now a dirt covered
mess that has
rips
stretching from the bottom hem up to her hip
. Her beautiful legs are
covered in scrapes and bruises
that seem
to already be healing
.
Her hair is
falling out of the braid she styled it into and has
grass and twigs matted in it. And
there on her temple I can
see the bruising and
swelling from where the gun
connected. She’
s
heal
ing
from the injury, her
shifter
blood is
mak
ing
sure of that, but she may never emotionally recove
r from what almost happened to her
tonight.

“Pike, you need to shift. She need
s
to been seen by my
Dad
and I
can’t carry her
,
” Bonnie pleads
.

I give Bonnie a quick nod so she
know
s I hear
what she
’s saying
then
I will
the change to
take me over
. It starts
at my back paws cracking and rearranging my bones then
slowly works its way up my body. I’m
already
standing on two legs when I feel
my muzzle shorten and my face start to take shape.
Finally I feel
my ears shorten and my
sharp wolf senses dull and I know the change has
finished.

Ignoring the fact that I
’m
naked I
bend down and take my mate from Bonnie
’
s arms
. She’s breathing steady
bu
t she’s
still unconscious. The
knot on the side of her head is
alread
y going down but I still want
Mr. Harris to exam her.
I have
to suppress my growl
whe
n I think
of that human touching her. They consider my kind monsters and look what one of theirs did to
an innocent woman
.
I ta
k
e
a deep br
eath to calm my wolf then turn to Bonnie, “His vehicle’
s up by the
road
,
please go see if the keys are in it. She’s already healing but she still needs to be seen by your
Dad
.”

Bonnie takes
of
f towards the road and I cradle
Bloom
to my chest as I follow slowly
not wanting to jar her and cause her anymore pain. If I have to lay down my life to guarantee it, she will never be in pain again. It might be an unattainable goal, but it’s one I’m committed to achieving.

Standing by the
back
passenger door Bonnie holds
out a gym bag to me, “
I found these in the back. You might want to put them
on, you know in case we g
et pulled over
. I might be able to explain why we’re
in Trace’s SUV, but I doubt I’ll
be able to explain a naked stranger holding my unconscious best friend.”

I gently lay
Bloom
across the back seat then I ta
k
e
the bag from Bonnie. Taking cover at the rear o
f the vehicle I quickly dress then climb
into the back seat with my mate placin
g her head in my lap. Bonnie has
already taken the
driver’s seat and once I close
my door she put
s
the big SUV into gear and heads us towards what I assume is
h
er
Dad
’
s house.