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.
Mila reluctantly moved her shaking hands just as his eyelids opened. She bit back a sob of sheer relief and gave Helena a nod of thanks—it was all she could manage while emotion clogged her throat. The healer gave her a gentle smile, and then a brief spurt of Helena’s healing energy jolted through Mila and caused her wounds to knit partially together.
“Too tired to heal you both fully, I’m afraid,” Helena apologized before weakly standing. “Have to help the others.”
Dominic slowly sat upright, chest squeezing at the unshed tears in his