and her ears prone to hear any sign in his breath or heartbeat. She had no idea what she was listening for. All she knew was that he wasn’t getting any worse, and that was a small victory.
Bennett’s legs and arms suddenly began to twitch and flail. Dakota jumped off the bed, not knowing what to do. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
Where the fuck were the three amigos? They were doctors. Hadn’t they taken her seriously?
She was going to rip them a new kind of hole if they didn’t get there soon.
On the bed, a feverish Ben moaned in pain. She was just about to rush to his side when the doorbell rang.
Chapter Thirteen
Dakota
Dakota all but ripped the front door off of its hinges to let Vance, Corey, and Stuart into the house. She didn’t say anything, only rushed back to the bedroom. The three men followed her, trailing a series of questions Dakota didn’t know how to answer.
They all got very quiet when they saw the bandaged Bennett lying on the bed with four deadly wounds in his abdomen. They had stopped bleeding, but the skin around the entry wounds was jagged and angry red.
“He was shot,” she needlessly explained. “Some bad guys came in, and they tried to steal something Gray was working on.”
“Why didn’t you call an ambulance? Because of Gray’s work?” Vance asked with an edge of accusation.
Dakota bit down on her lip and considered what she should or shouldn’t say by way of answer. She knew Bennett trusted Vance and his other two friends. She was also aware that they were intelligent men who wouldn’t easily be fooled.
She had only once choice.
She had to come clean. About everything.
She told Vance, Stuart, and Corey every single detail. From shifters, to the serum, to the attack, to Bennett’s attack. All the way to the moment where she decided to inject him with the shifter serum.
“So, you injected him?” Vance asked.
Dakota nodded.
“With serum of dubious results?” Corey pressed.
Again, she nodded, but with more defiance this time.
“And now he might die,” Stuart added, his eyes glazed over with horror.
Dakota took a deep breath. It shook on its way out of her as she tried to stop herself from crying. She didn’t like the implication that she was to be responsible if Bennett died.
“He can’t die,” she snapped. “Do you hear me?” She took Bennett’s hand in hers. It was cold, but it also felt different than it had before. Heavier. More defined.
“Shifters,” she began, “we have mates. The animal part of us can sense who we are meant to be with. That’s who Ben is to me.”
Her breath sputtered out of her. “He can’t die. I can’t have that.”
All three men exchanged a look. For a terrible second, Dakota thought they were going to call her crazy and leave.
They didn’t.
They exploded in a flurry of activity. Stuart pulled a machine from one of the large duffel bags. Corey was busy taking Ben’s vitals. Vance turned toward her.
“You’re covered in blood, Dakota. Go take a shower, and then we’ll take a look at your wounds.”
“I am not leaving his side.”
“You have to. If he does turn, we are going to need you. Imagine all of his senses being flooded by the smell of blood. That wouldn’t be good for a new shifter, I’m guessing.”
Dakota hated to admit it, but the man was right.
“Fine. But the second there’s any changes, one of you has to come to get me. Understood?”
Vance shot her a thumbs up before waving her away. Dakota bristled, but the longer she took, the more time she’d be away from Bennett. She knew she had to make it snappy.
Dakota ran to her bedroom and stepped into the shower before letting the water warm. There was no time to be a princess about it. Her tigress was pacing the edges of her mind, growling at her for actually stepping away from Bennett.
If he died, and she wasn’t there to hold his hand, she would never forgive herself.
Dakota made quick work of washing the blood off of her. It stung her healing wounds, but she ignored it. What was a little flare of pain compared to the very real possibility that she could lose her mate?
There was more blood on her than she had initially thought, but as soon as the water was no longer turning pink, Dakota jumped out of the shower. She quickly ran a brush through her wet hair and braided it away from her face.