Second Chances

Dimitri

When I arrived, I shifted quickly. There’s a wolf whimpering nearby, but he goes quiet as we approach. I point to one of my warriors to finish him off, seeing the blood, guts, and dead bodies littering the area in front of the thicket where my son was hiding. I can smell that these are Masuzyo's men. They found Cathal while I was fighting Masuzyo.

I slowly step forward, seeing my son holding the body of a woman in his arms. He’s sobbing over her, rocking her in his arms as if she’s his dead mother. I’ve never seen my son like this before and the image is like a punch to the gut.

Almost as startling as that, is the scent that is coming from this woman, lemongrass and lilies. She smells earthy and floral. I haven’t smelled a scent this intoxicating since…

I shake my head. This woman looks like she’s on her deathbed, if she’s not already dead.

“Cathal, what happened,” I say, dropping beside him and wrapping an arm around him protectively as I check the woman for a pulse. She’s alive, but barely. Her scent has Zev thrashing around in my head, making it hard for me to think.

“She saved me, dad. She fell out of the sky as if dropped by the Moon Goddess herself. She fought them all. They had surrounded me, and she fought them off. I killed that one,” he says, pointing to a man with a rock lodged in his throat. “But they were going to kill her. I couldn’t let them kill her, dad.”

“No, of course not. You did very well son. Are you injured?”

“No. I’m okay, because of her. She protected me dad. We have to save her,” he says, fear and worry coloring his tone.

“Hey, hey, breathe. We’re going to take care of her,” I say. I’m not sure I could leave her body even if she was dead. Zev would never allow it.

‘We have to get to Masuzyo, Zev.’

‘Take care of her first, Dimitri. Her and our pup, then we kill Masuzyo.’

I stand, seeing the dead body of Masuzyo’s Beta along with four other warriors. The one that my warrior killed finally shifting back to his human body now that he’s dead.

“You two, stay here and hide these bodies. I don’t want Masuzyo finding this place until we have a chance to go over it and find where this woman came from. Nico, I need you to carry Cathal back to the pack. I’ll get the woman,” I say to my Gamma before very carefully picking her up her broken body.

I can see Nico’s surprise that I’m choosing to carry a rogue woman rather than my own son, but I know my wolf and while I may not understand why this woman smells so good, I know that Zev will kill any man who touches her.

Nico shifts and I help Cathal get on his back before he takes off running. I have to stay on two legs, running with this woman in my arms which slows me significantly.

“Stay with me,” I murmur to her while I run. “You need to stay with me.”

I look over the gorgeous woman in my arms as I run. Even covered in blood and gore, she's beautiful to me. I notice that she’s much too light given her height. I can see her ribs and her hip bones jutting out from her body. Her hip has a huge gash in it and I can feel the blood dripping down my body where her hip is pressed against me. The other leg is dislocated, and her arm is severely broken. It looks like they tried to rip her arm off, and she’ll most likely have shoulder tears, if not a second dislocation. She has several other scratches and injuries that I notice aren’t healing.

Her long brown hair is matted with blood and the guts of the wolves she attacked while saving my son, but it looks like it would be silken when clean. She has high cheekbones and she’s young, several years younger than me and I’m twenty-seven.

“I’m going to take care of you, but you need to stay with me, you need to stay alive,” I say.

‘Zev, can you feel her wolf?’ I ask him.

‘She’s as weak as the woman is,’ he says, but I feel him trying to make a connection, to get the wolf to acknowledge his presence in some way.

‘Alpha, we need you!’ Sergei says in the mind link. He wouldn’t be calling me if he didn’t need me.

‘I’m almost to our pack lands. I need to take care of something, get Nico, and then I’ll be on my way. Where are you?’

“We’re outside Masuzyo’s pack. He’s got us blocked out. I’m pretty sure his Beta is still out here somewhere,’ he says.

‘His Beta’s dead. He attacked Cathal,’ I tell him.

‘Alpha, is he…’ his voice, full of fear.

‘No. Someone saved him, a rogue. But I need to make sure both of them are being looked after,’ I tell him.

‘We’ll be here, waiting for you.’

I pass the borders, mind linking the pack hospital that I have an emergency coming in fast.

‘Nico, how is Cathal?’ I ask as I run through the pack, glancing at my remaining warriors who are cleaning up the mess around the pack where our pack members or Masuzyo’s pack members are lying dead on the ground.

‘The doctor is looking him over now, but he says that he looks fine, other than some superficial scratches. I’m pretty sure they’re going to release him.’

‘Good, I’m almost there,’ I say.

When I rush through the hospital door, the team is waiting for me. I know they are busy with my pack members, but this woman needs help and she saved my son.

When I lay her down, the doctor comes rushing out, looking at her.

“This is a rogue,” he says to me, surprised.

“And you will treat her,” I order, holding Zev back as the doctor begins looking over her injuries.

“Her wolf is weak, we’ll need to take her into surgery, Alpha. It will be a couple of hours before I’ll know if she’ll survive.”

“Make sure she stays alive,” Zev growls at him. The doctor jumps but nods. I pull Zev back and turn, linking Nico to join me.

“I have to go. Masuzyo made it back to his pack. We may have more injured. Make sure you have enough staff here to assist throughout the night,” I tell him. I look at the woman once more before shifting and racing from the pack hospital.

Zev lifts his head to the sky, howling to Cathal that we'll return, howling to the pack that they are safe and howling for the woman who may or may not survive until morning.