Abbey's Protectors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Menage & More) (6 page)

“I’m so cold,” she whispered.

Clay cuddled her closer against his body. His emotions were warring with each other. He loved that she was in his arms, but he worried that she was burning with fever.

“I’ve got you, honey,” Clay told her softly, leaning in and resting his face against her right cheek.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” Hunter asked her as he pushed her hood back, carded his fingers through her soft, brown hair, and massaged her head lightly. He loved the darkness of her tresses and the soft silkiness of the long strands despite the blood that soaked into the right side of her hair along her temple.

“That feels nice,” she murmured, leaning into his touch. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, darlin’,” Hunter whispered, overwhelmed with being in the presence of the woman he knew would bring love and happiness into their lives. “I’ll be happy to touch you like this any time.”

Abbey looked up at him and smiled, reaching up to gently rub the back of her knuckles across his cheek before rubbing her thumb across his square jaw. “Be careful with offering me that,” she told him, smiling. “I might just take you up on that.” She laughed softly then coughed as the chilly air of the early morning filled her lungs.

Clay tightened his hold on her and stood carefully. Hunter picked up the blankets, duffle bag, and backpack that lay on the ground beside them and immediately took his place beside Clay as they walked the distance to the back of the house. He pressed against Clay’s side and wrapped his free arm around their mate’s body. He held her tightly between them, sharing his warmth with her. He smiled as she cuddled against them and accepted their warmth gratefully.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She looked up at the man carrying her, saw the smudge of blood that was on his cheek, and reached up to wipe it gently from his face. “I’m sorry.”

Clay nuzzled into her hand and kissed her palm lightly. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, honey,” he told her, his voice suspiciously gruff.

“I don’t feel good,” Abbey whispered.

“We know, sweetheart,” Hunter told her, leaning down to kiss her forehead lightly. “We’re going to take you to the hospital and make sure all of your injuries are taken care of.”

“No!” Abbey croaked, struggling immediately and pushing herself from the strong arms that held her.

Clay allowed her to push from his hold to stand between them but never stepped away from her as she began to sway with dizziness. “Honey, please let us take care of you. We’ll make sure you’re safe. We’ll protect you and help you.”

“I don’t need help,” Abbey insisted, reaching out to hold onto the hands that both men offered her. “I’m fine. I just need to get warm.”

“Sweetheart, you need medical attention,” Hunter told her gently. “You have an injury here.” He reached up and touched her right temple lightly. “And you’re burning up with a fever.” He ran the back of his knuckles across her cheek to soothe her.

Abbey leaned into his touch and closed her eyes as the exhaustion that filled her made her crave his gentleness. She felt him press against her side and winced slightly as the pain in her left side flared.

“You’re hurt here, too?” Clay asked her, touching her side gently.

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

“No, honey, you’re not,” Clay stopped her gently. “Please. Let us help you.”

“But I don’t want you to be in danger,” she whispered, her body sagging against them both. “He’ll hurt you.” She knew this with certainty. If Peter had the lack of morals to actually shoot at her with every intention of killing her, he would not think twice about hurting anyone who helped her to escape and ruined his plans.

“No one is going to hurt us,” Hunter told her softly, reaching out to cuddle her against his side. “And we’re damn sure going to make certain no one is going to hurt you either. You belong to us now, and we’re going to take care of you and protect you.”

“I don’t understand,” Abbey told him, reaching up to rub her right temple, moaning when she opened up the gash that was crusted over with dried blood. “Who are you?”

“My name is Hunter and his name is Clay,” he told her gently. “We’re your mates.”

Abbey couldn’t prevent the whimper of pain that escaped her as she was jostled from side to side. She was fully aware of where she was. When the EMTs did a quick examination of her before they loaded her into the back of the ambulance she had struggled briefly for freedom, but it was of no use. She was completely exhausted and had no strength in her to argue with them.

She had been careful not to give them her name. She couldn’t risk Peter finding her. She wasn’t far enough away from him. She hadn’t completed her plan to hide from him until she had put her barriers in place and started her slow but thorough elimination of him in her life.

“Blood pressure is low,” the EMT sitting beside her said quietly. “What’s the ETA?”

“We should be at Denver Memorial within twenty-five minutes,” the driver called to them from the front of the cab.

Abbey tried to focus on the man taking her blood pressure. She squinted her eyes, trying to push through the haze of blurriness, and saw the nametag that identified him as C. HUTCHINSON. She had heard the driver call him Carter. He seemed like a nice enough guy but there was no way she could trust him or any other man to protect her.

Closing her eyes, she concentrated instead on the rocking motion of the ambulance and the memory of arms holding her protectively and gently. That was a nice thought. She would go with that.

Twenty-five minutes later, the ambulance pulled up to the emergency entrance of Denver Memorial Hospital. Abbey only knew brief moments of lucidity as she was transferred inside. The sounds and smells of the hospital made her stomach roll. Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she tried to block out the bright lights that bombarded her senses. She heard growling and a scuffle of bodies as she was pushed through the corridor then knew no more as she succumbed to blackness as the trauma team surrounded her. Before she gave over to the relief of unconsciousness, she felt two sets of hands touching her arms and smiled, realizing that the two kind men who had found her were still with her.

“You’ll have to wait out here.”

Hunter and Clay looked at the emergency room doctor, completely torn. They needed to be with their mate, but they knew she had to be examined. They had no claim to her yet—a fact that pissed off their wolves completely.

“We’ll wait,” Hunter conceded. “We’d appreciate an update when you have it.”

“The waiting room is over there,” the doctor told them, pointing to the area to the left of the hallway. “I’ll be out as soon as I’m finished with her examination.”

Clay nodded for both of them. He reached out and touched Hunter’s forearm, feeling the tension in his triad partner building due to their separation from their mate. They both watched in silence as the doctor left them and headed toward the area curtained off in small sections for each patient.

“Clay, she’s ours,” Hunter whispered, turning to look at him with raw need evident on his face.

“She is,” Clay confirmed without hesitation. “And we’ll be sure to claim her as soon as she’s been cleared. We need to explain everything to her, Hunter. She needs to know what’s going on. She needs to understand our triad mating and exactly what that means in our world.”

Hunter barely nodded as he took his place just inside the doorway of the waiting room, crossing his arms across his chest and staring straight ahead to wait for the doctor to emerge from the examination of their woman. The growls that left him were low, constant, and uncontrollable. The very thought of any man touching their mate was almost enough to push his wolf to shift and stand guard. He flexed his muscles continuously as he fought for control.

“I’m having a hard time controlling my wolf,” he told Clay quietly.

The soft growls that came from beside him had him turning his head and observing Clay in the exact same predicament that he was in. Clay looked at him for just a split second, his eyes completely golden as his wolf pushed at his control.

“I need to be with her,” Clay told him softly.

“We will be as soon as the doctor clears her,” Hunter responded, trying to soothe himself just as much as he was trying to soothe his partner. “Then we’re never going to let her out of our sight again.”

Clay chuckled at Hunter’s words. “That might be difficult, Hunter. We have to work and she must have a life, too.”

Hunter’s attention snapped to him immediately. “And what kind of life does she have if we find her collapsed in the forest, with two bags that probably contain everything of value to her? Look at her injuries. Who would cause that much pain to a woman?”

“We’ll find out when she’s ready to tell us,” Clay told him, returning his attention to the curtained off area. “Until then, we’ll watch over her, protect her, and love her.”

“Damn straight,” Hunter muttered, looking at the curtain and watching the flurry of movement that made it billow out every once in a while.

The two EMTs who had pushed the gurney carrying their mate emerged from behind the curtains with the empty gurney. Hunter and Clay were silent as it passed by them, glad when Carter Hutchinson, a member of their pack who was one of the EMTs who had taken care of their mate, stopped beside them.

“She’s being looked at now,” he told them softly. “She’s stable.”

Hunter nodded, looking at the man who was partnered with Drew, their pack doctor, and mated to Susannah. The change in him in just the short time he had been reunited with their mate was astounding. The happiness and contentment practically rolled off the man, filling the room with the joy of a completed triad mating.

“Thanks, Carter,” Clay acknowledged, reaching out to shake his hand. “Can you tell us anything yet?”

“I’ll have a complete report filled out before we leave,” Carter promised. “Did you find an ID on her?”

“No,” Hunter answered for the both of them. “How badly is she injured?”

“Not sure. The doctor is examining her now. Nikki is in there with her, too,” he told them softly. “She’ll keep an eye on her for you.”

Hunter nodded, glad that Alexander and Butler’s mate Nikki was the nurse that would be attending their mate. “Did our injured woman talk to you?”

Carter shook his head. “No. She just kept calling for you and Clay.”

Immediate smiles filled both men’s faces. They looked at each other and then returned their attention back to Carter.

“Looks like you two have been taken down,” Carter told them, laughing softly.

“What do you mean?” Clay asked, still smiling.

“Jane Doe has put her claim on you,” Carter said with certainty. “And it seems as if you’ve done the same to her.”

“She’s ours,” Clay spoke up immediately.

“Thought so,” Carter told them. “Congratulations. I know you’ll be just as happy as Drew and I are with our Suzie. You’ll find that you’ll never understand how you’ve ever lived without her.”

“Thanks, Carter,” Hunter answered, his voice husky with emotion. “We’ve been waiting for her for so long.”

“Well, now you’ve found her. Don’t ever let her go. Don’t lose any time with her like Drew and I did with Suzie. Grab hold of her and hang on tightly.”

Hunter nodded, looking at Clay and seeing his triad partner doing the same. They had seen the way Drew and Carter had suffered over the years from being separated from Suzie. It was good that they were finally a reunited triad. Even though they didn’t know their mate’s name or anything about her, they knew one thing for certain. Neither man was ever going to risk losing their mate.

* * * *

Thirty minutes later, the doctor emerged from behind the curtain with a trauma unit’s nurse. Both men breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Nikki Sinclair. Being part of Beckett’s wolf pack, they knew she would understand the need they had to be with their mate. Both men walked toward her and the doctor, meeting them in the middle of the hallway.

“How is she?” Hunter asked Nikki immediately.

“She’s been sedated,” the doctor told them. “Do we have a next of kin to talk to?”

Hunter shook his head. “We don’t have an ID on her,” he explained tightly. “We found her in the woods. She was barely conscious and refused to give us any information.”

Clay stepped forward and touched the doctor’s shoulder to draw his attention. “Doctor, is she going to be all right?”

“We’ll be able to be more certain in the morning,” he answered carefully. “There is an injury on her right temple that looks like a bullet grazed her. It’s a superficial wound, so I’m not really worried about it. She has injuries and scratches over her entire body. She regained consciousness and was conscious throughout the examination. She was able to tell us that she had fallen from a great height. I’ve ordered X-rays to make sure there aren’t any internal injuries. Her left side is tender, and I know she’s in pain, but she won’t admit to it. She won’t tell us her name or where she fell.”

“She wouldn’t tell us either,” Clay admitted, stepping toward the gurney that was being pushed through the ER to stand beside the young woman. “She’s got her eyes closed. Did she lose consciousness again?”