He noticed his Alpha male and Beta male savagely mauling a human in a wild frenzy. Pallas cats were crawling all over the humans, tearing into them with claws and teeth. A wolverine bit savagely into the shoulder of a fallen screaming human while a margay cat raked at the human’s chest. Another wolverine had clamped his jaws around the flamethrower, mangling it with his bone-cracking teeth.
Hearing a whoosh of air, the wolf turned and saw a machete heading for him. He ducked, but it sliced off the tip of his ear. The wolf yelped at the harsh burn of the blade.
The cat readied to leap at her mate’s attacker, but a mace slammed into her head, dazing her. She shook her head, cleared the dots from her vision, and sprang with a vicious snarl. The human tried to bat her away, but she was too fast. Went right for his face.
A hand gripped the scruff of her neck as she bit into his scalp. Shaking his head, he desperately tried to pull her away. She dug her claws harder into his face. Refused to let go.
Having delivered the killing bite to his attacker, the wolf turned to his mate. She was clinging to a human who was punching her head. Growling in fury, the wolf crashed into the human. Knocked him flat. Clawed through skin and muscle, scraped bone and—
Something stabbed deep into the wolf’s flank. Something sharp and cold. It happened again and again. Yelping, he sliced at the human’s stomach, gutting him. The stabbing stopped.
The wolf collapsed, his sides heaving, pain pulsing through him. He tried to pull himself to his feet. Failed. Ribbons of agony rippled through him. The shock of it was so strong, he involuntarily shifted.
Dominic lay there panting, his vision blurring. He slapped a hand to the vicious stab wounds on his side, knew they were deep. Blood was pumping out of them, pooling on the ground beneath him.
Sleep lured him, but he fought it like a bitch. He needed to stay with his cat, who was butting him gently, as if urging him to rise. He weakly stroked her head. “I’m okay.”
Surging to the surface, Mila forced her cat to retreat so she could examine Dominic. The blood drained from her face as she saw how bad his wounds were, and a hellish dread wrapped around her chest like a tight band. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Her hands trembling, she pressed them over the wounds, helping him put pressure on them. He cursed with a flinch, and Mila winced. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” But she pressed harder, swallowing hard as his warm blood trickled through his fingers and hers. “Ally! Helena! Sam! Taryn! Someone!” she yelled over her shoulder.
Mila caught sight of Taryn lying pale and weak against her mate—not dead but drained from healing others. Glancing around, Mila found Ally. The she-wolf was busy healing Tate while Luke gave him CPR. Sam was nowhere to be seen. And Helena, where the fuck was Helena? Mila couldn’t see her anywhere. The smoke hazing the air certainly wasn’t helping.
Coughing, Mila looked back at her mate. “Someone will come over soon to help you. We just have to wait a minute.”
Dominic blinked up at her, his lips parted, his eyes stinging from the smoke. Fuck, his side hurt. What hurt more was seeing the fear on her face and feeling it echo through him. No, fear wasn’t a strong enough word. It was a soul-deep, all-consuming terror. Cupping her face, he breezed his thumb over her cheekbone. “I’m gonna be okay.”
“I know.” But Mila didn’t know. Not really. He looked far from okay. He was just so pale. Seemed so tired. And an odd sort of glaze was falling over his eyes.
Her cat never fretted about anything, but right then, her heart was beating as frantically as Mila’s was. The feline truly feared for him. And it wouldn’t take much to send her ape-shit.
Aware of how exposed and vulnerable he was while lying there bleeding profusely, Mila shifted her body over his a little, shielding him as best she could. The move wrenched at her wounds, making her wince. They throbbed and burned, but she ignored them.
There weren’t many extremists still on their feet at this point. Those still standing were being tag-teamed by shifters. But her protective instincts pricked at her to guard and defend her mate while he was unable to do the job himself. And he clearly didn’t like that she was putting herself at risk, because he snarled. At her.
“Move,” Dominic ordered through his teeth.
“No.”
He tried to lift himself up, and pain rolled over him in what seemed like never-ending waves that made his stomach churn. He almost gagged. “Fuck.”
“Stop moving!” she chastised, too anxious to sound gentle right then. Blue eyes swirling with pain fluttered shut, and her heart jumped. “No. Open your eyes, GQ, look at me.” He did, but she felt no relief because she could hear how lazy and erratic his heartbeat was becoming.
She glanced over her shoulder again. “Need a healer over here!” But Taryn was still out of it, and Ally was now working on her own mate. Sam was healing Luke, who looked in a bad state. And Helena . . . seriously, where the hell was that woman?
Mila turned back to Dominic, whose eyes had drifted shut again. “No, you have to look at me,” she ordered, her pulse spiking with panic. “Eyes open, come on.” His lids weakly fluttered open, and she touched her mouth to his. “You have to stay with me.”
Dominic double-blinked, as if fighting the need to sleep. “Not leaving you.”
Hot tears burned Mila’s eyes. “No, you’re not.” But she was terribly afraid that wasn’t true. His breathing was so shallow, and his pulse just kept on slowing. Worse, putting pressure on the stab wounds wasn’t helping. Each time his chest rose and fell, more blood seeped out.
“Just keep looking at me, GQ, okay? Keep looking at me.”
He coughed, and a little blood splattered onto his lips and chin.
The fear encasing her heart swelled and filled her chest to bursting. Fuck. “Someone will come. They’ll heal you.”
She heard an agonized cry of pain—something that came from the gut. And she saw Joel flat on his back with an extremist hovering over him, a jagged blade in his hand. They were close. So close. She could help. And a very small part of her that was purely base instinct urged her to save Joel. But the rest of her rebelled against it, because it would mean moving her hands from Dominic’s wounds. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that.
Instead, she called out, “Vinnie! Help Joel!”
Busy gnawing on a fallen human’s face, the Alpha cat whirled around and barreled into Joel’s attacker. Thank fuck for—
Mila stilled as Dominic went limp beneath her. Her heart slamming against her ribs, she shook him. “Hey, wake up.” He didn’t. “No, no, no, no.” Her chest went so tight with fear, she was surprised she could breathe. “No, GQ, you can’t sleep, you have to look at me. Seriously, you have to look at me. Right at me.” But he just didn’t. Worse, his sluggish heartbeat stuttered yet again. “FUCK!”
Footsteps rushed her way and a hand landed on her shoulder. Mila knew that scent.
She glared at the healer. “Helena, you’d better do something. If you let him die, I’ll slit your damn throat.”
“I’ll help him, baby, I will,” said Helena, unfazed by Mila’s threat. “You just keep your hands where they are, because he’s in a bad way.”
Like Mila didn’t already know that. She kept pressure on his wounds, feeling an echo of Helena’s healing energy buzz through him. With hope flickering in her stomach, Mila listened as his pulse quickened and his heartbeat steadied. Watched as his many, many wounds began to close over. Felt the bleeding beneath her hands come to a stop.