Vegetarian Mate [Pack Law 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (14 page)

“What’s going on, baby?” Jonah asked as he sat next to his mate.

Jarrod slowly realized what might have happened. “Malcolm said she was in the garden.”

Michelle nodded. “She went out there to read this afternoon, on the bench by the back door.”

It was only a theory, but Jarrod’s instincts told him that Rochelle had heard him talking to Brock. If she’d been in the trees, he wouldn’t have seen her. And, distracted as he’d been by what Brock was saying, he wouldn’t have smelled her.

In any case, she was gone. Alone. With that lone wolf James skulking around town.

“Fuck!” Jarrod growled, dread forming in his gut.

Jonah rose to his feet and snarled at Jarrod. “You will not talk to my mate that way.”

Even though his profanity hadn’t been directed at Michelle, Jonah didn’t know that. Jarrod lowered his head in supplication.

“I’m sorry, Michelle, Jonah. I wasn’t swearing at you. Please forgive me.”

“Understood,” Jonah sighed and sat again.

Jarrod sniffed the air after Jonah sat once more. “Do you have any idea why Rochelle was upset, Michelle?”

“No. Maybe she just needed some time alone.”

Jarrod bowed his head to his Alphas once more and turned away. He raced from the room and gestured for his brothers to follow. “
We have to find Rochelle. She’s missing.”

Jarrod picked up her scent and followed it out to the carport. He immediately noticed that Malcolm’s vehicle was missing.

“Where the hell would she go?”
Jarrod snapped
. “Take the truck.
I’ll track her in wolf form.”

He shifted. His senses were more powerful in this form, and as soon as his paws hit the pavement, he could smell lingering traces of exhaust. She couldn’t be far ahead.

Jarrod raced up the drive, hearing his brothers starting the truck behind him.

He ran full tilt up the road, keeping the scent of the truck in his nose. Malcolm and Brax stayed close enough behind so that Malcolm could see him.
“There are more behind us to help search.
Rylan, Tarkyn, and Chevy took over from Justin, Roan, and Chet after Jonah accepted them as Betas, and they began helping with the pack security and the real estate side of things,”
Brax said
.
“They are coming from the other direction. They were just leaving the Aztec Club. If they see her truck, they’ll stop her.”

“Good.”
He wasn’t about to refuse help, but getting Rochelle to stop for them wasn’t what worried him. He feared that she might already have stopped.

His gut was telling him she was in trouble. A rank, rotting odor reached him, and he put on a new burst of speed.

He saw the truck at the same moment that another vehicle pulled off the road beside it. He saw three men burst out, and he recognized the scents of Rylan, Tarkyn, and Chevy. Behind him, Malcolm pulled the truck onto the shoulder. Jarrod didn’t slow down until he reached the trees where the others had gathered, knowing his brothers would be close behind him.

The sight that met his eyes nearly caused his legs to buckle. Rochelle was lying in a pool of blood, the side of her neck was gouged open, and her stomach had bite marks everywhere. He saw red.

Rylan, in wolf form, had cornered Harold James against a tree trunk.
Jarrod didn’t stop to question the fucker.

He had his prey in his sights, and nothing was going to stop him from taking it down.

Stalking forward on all fours, he kept his eyes on James and then leapt. He was so enraged he didn’t even care when claws slashed into his side.
Kill
was the only thing that ran through his mind.

They circled one another. Jarrod waited for an opening. James jumped at him first. His claws slashed at Jarrod’s side, and his teeth bit and tore at the scruff of Jarrod’s neck.

Jarrod broke free. Rylan snarled and paced forward as if to join the fray, but Jarrod snapped his jaws at him.

“He’s mine
.”

He had to keep his head in this fight. He wouldn’t let memories of the other fight, the one that had nearly killed him and left him with his scar, intrude on his thoughts now. Not when his mate needed him.

Jarrod ignored the pain in his neck and circled his opponent again. James’s attack was disorganized. This was a wolf who wasn’t accustomed to fighting his own. But Jarrod was.

He darted close and grabbed hold of James’s hind leg and crunched down hard. James howled with pain as the bone snapped.

Jarrod released James’s leg. The injured wolf turned, hobbling. His eyes flashed gold, utterly empty of all emotion except for rage. He leapt at Jarrod, but he was weakened and thrown off balance by his injury, and Jarrod was ready for him.

With a lightning-fast move, he side-stepped James’s blow and then went in for the kill. His teeth sank into his opponent’s neck, and he clamped his jaw together. Shaking his head back and forth, he growled and snarled until he tasted victory.

Finally he let James go and spat blood from his mouth. James was dead. He would never be a threat to his woman again.

Jarrod changed back into human form. Heedless of his nudity, he ran to where his brothers were trying to stop the blood from seeping out of his mate. She was so pale and lifeless that he feared they were too late.

“She’s got a pulse. It’s weak and thready, but it’s there. Blayk is on his way with his van,” Brax whispered.

Jarrod knelt down. His fingers couldn’t find a pulse, but using his wolf senses, he could hear her heart stutter. She wasn’t going to make it. Looking up at Rylan, who was standing a few feet off to the side, still in wolf form, he pleaded to him with his eyes.

“Rylan, you have to change her. She’s dying.”

Rylan whined and took a step forward. He sniffed Jarrod’s mate and angled his head as if he, too, was listening to Rochelle’s stuttering heartbeat.

“Please?”

“I want you and your brothers to back away from your mate.”
Rylan licked Rochelle’s cheek as if trying to get her to wake, but there was no response.

“How long before Blayk gets here?”

“He’s here, and so are the Alphas,” Malcolm replied.

Jarrod looked up as Jonah, Mikhail, Brock, Blayk, Chris, James, Tarkyn, and Chevy entered the trees. The three Alphas immediately stepped forward. Chris took hold of Jarrod’s other arm as Tarkyn helped to hold back Malcolm and Chevy helped with Brax. They were going to have to restrain them so Rylan could turn their mate.

As soon as Jarrod and his brothers were restrained, Rylan struck. He growled and snarled as he ripped into Rochelle’s stomach, going deep into her organs. Her body convulsed, and Jarrod howled as he tried to control his wolf. The howls of his brothers joined his. He tried to snap at Jonah, but his Alpha just shoved his arm further up his back, asserting his dominance as Jarrod tried to pull away and go to his mate’s aid. Claws erupted from his fingertips, and he could feel fur beginning to sprout from his skin.

“Jarrod, Malcolm, Braxton, control your beasts,” Jonah said in a deep voice full of compulsion.

Jarrod immediately felt his beast quiver and shake as his Alpha’s powerful voice washed over him. Not once had he taken his eyes from his mate, and he snarled one last time as Rylan stepped away from Rochelle, allowing Blayk to get to work.

When he had his wolf under control, he nodded to Jonah and Chris and watched Blayk intently.

“She’s lost a lot of blood. I’m hooking her up to saline, and I’m also going to give her a pint each of your blood. As soon as I have her stabilized, we’ll get her into the van and head home.”

Once Blayk had the IVs in her hand and arm, he attached heart monitors and hooked her up to an ECG.

“Her heart’s weak, but she’s holding her own. Let’s get her onto the stretcher and head home.” Blayk gently pushed a back board under Rochelle. With Chris’s help, they got her onto a portable stretcher and into the back of a van they used for emergency situations. “There’s only enough room for one of you.”

“Go,” Malcolm and Brax urged him. He gave his brothers a nod of thanks and followed Blayk into the van. They were heading home moments later.

Jarrod took hold of Rochelle’s hand and sat up near her head so he wouldn’t be in Blayk’s way. He watched as his cousin gave her a shot of painkillers as well as antibiotics and then began to clean her wounds with saline and antiseptic. James was driving the van, and even though he was speeding he kept the van from jolting too much. It was the longest ride of Jarrod’s life.

Just as the van slowed and turned into the driveway of the pack house, Rochelle moaned, and then her body began to convulse. Jarrod had never been so scared in his life and began to pray. He didn’t even realize he was crying until one of his tears fell onto his hand and rolled onto Rochelle’s.

“This is normal, Jarrod,” Blayk said. “Don’t give up yet.”

Taking a deep breath, Jarrod tried to push his emotions back and concentrated on his injured mate. The van stopped right outside the clinic at the back of the house, and with Chris’s help they wheeled Rochelle into the office. All the time he pulled the stretcher, he had a hand on her shoulder so she wouldn’t fall off as her body tried to accept the wolf DNA into her system. It took another ten minutes before her body stopped convulsing.

Blayk gave Rochelle another three pints of blood and more painkillers, and finally his mate’s body began to heal. He could see the wounds closing right before his eyes, and he knew in that instant that she was going to be all right. Movement in his peripheral vision prompted him to lift his head, and he saw his brothers’ pale faces. How long they had been in the room he had no idea. But when he saw them take a deep breath, he knew they had to have seen her struggle for life, too.

“Your mate is going to be just fine.” Blayk confirmed Rochelle’s condition. “Why don’t you all pull up a chair and talk to her. I believe Keira said she heard every word her mates spoke to her when she was going through the change.”

Jarrod was grateful to be able to sit down. His legs felt weak and shaky, and he knew he was in a bit of shock. He hoped to never have to see his mate in such pain again. Being careful not to jolt the needle in the back of her hand, he wrapped his fingers around hers and squeezed lightly. As he sat there trying to ascertain why she had left the den, he kept coming back to thinking she must have heard him and Brock talking about her craving meat if she became pregnant. At least that was the only scenario he could come up with for why she may have been upset enough to leave.

“Rochelle, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you that you would crave meat if you got pregnant. I didn’t mean to keep such a thing from you, it just never entered my mind. I have been a wolf my whole life, and since I’ve never had a mate before, I forgot to tell you something important. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”

Using his free hand he smoothed the hair back from her face and bent down close to her ear.

“I love you, baby. Please, get better soon. I can’t live without you, Rochelle. I was so lonely before you came charging into our lives. You are my heart and soul, and I will never let anyone hurt you ever again. If you can hear me and forgive me, please give me a sign.”

Jarrod gasped when he felt one of her fingers twitch on his skin. He looked down at their joined hands and then back to her face.

“You can do it, baby. Come on, Rochelle, squeeze my fingers.”

A slight pressure gripped his fingers for less than a second, but he knew that she forgave him. Tears of joy ran down his face, and he didn’t care who saw him falling apart. Nothing mattered to him more than his mate.

Malcolm, who was sitting on the other side of Rochelle, moved his chair in closer to her and leaned over to kiss her cheek.

“I love you, sweetness. I’m sorry for our oversight, too. We didn’t mean to forget. We are just so set in our ways that I guess we made some mistakes.”

Malcolm looked up at Jarrod and then Braxton, and a slow smile spread across his face. “She squeezed my hand. You’re going to be just fine, sweetheart. We’re going to take good care of you.”

Braxton moved from his place at the end of the bed and nudged Jarrod from his chair so he could get closer to their mate. He wrapped an arm around the top of Rochelle’s head and leaned down to kiss her on the lips.

“You just rest, darlin’,” Braxton said quietly. “We want you to take all the time you need to get well again. And when we have the all clear from Blayk we are gonna spend a whole weekend loving on you. You’ve filled up the emptiness that was in my heart, darlin’. You are the most precious thing in my life. I love you, Rochelle.”

Rochelle moaned slightly and licked her lips, but her eyes remained closed. Jarrod had never heard a sweeter sound. He looked over to Blayk and watched as his doctor cousin checked his mate’s wounds.

“Her wounds should be fully closed in another hour or so,” Blayk explained. “She will sleep a lot, so don’t get upset if she doesn’t wake up until tomorrow or the day after. It will take a full week before she is feeling normal again. I will keep her hooked up to the saline until she is awake. We don’t want her dehydrating.”