Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,86

with calm. She didn’t want to die, but if that’s the way this was going to go, she would meet her fate with dignity. She had few regrets, but not getting to spend any more time with Jim was right at the top of her list.

She couldn’t even look at him. The sorceress took up all her vision, and she didn’t even know where he was. A single tear leaked from the side of her eye that she couldn’t control, and she saw Maura’s expression fill with hateful glee.

And then…

Her head exploded.

Helen registered a very loud bang and realized the sorceress had forgotten one very important element to this scenario. Jim wasn’t just a werewolf. He was also a Navy SEAL, familiar with weapons of every sort. Somehow, at some point, he’d armed himself with something that could literally blow someone away.

Helen sagged in relief as Maura’s body slid to the side and collapsed, lifeless. Thanks be to the Mother of All, and the U.S. Navy’s finest.

Jim was there the next moment, holding her with gentle hands. “Are you all right, baby?” He looked worried, but she found it hard to articulate everything that was running through her mind. She also felt unaccountably weak. Whether from blood loss or the magical drain, or both, she didn’t know, but she was viewing the world through a gray haze.

“I love you,” she told him, wanting him to know, just in case this was the end for her. “I’ve loved spending time with you,” she went on when his face paled. “Thank you for some of the best adventures of my life,” she finished her thought, unable to say more. She just didn’t have the strength.

“Helen! Don’t you leave me, now,” he told her in a commanding, pained voice. “I need you to stay awake, sweetheart. Help is on the way, but you need to stay awake.”

Helen thought she heard motorcycle engines—a lot of them—as she faded into unconsciousness, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.

Chapter Twenty

Helen woke someplace else. She was in a hospital bed, in a strange room with monitors and other medical equipment. A hospital? No, it felt more intimate than that, and she had the room all to herself. A strange man walked in. He was tall and blond, and he bristled with magical power. Shifter power.

“Where am I?” she asked, feeling blurry, blinking her gummy eyes.

“Grizzly Cove Clinic,” the man replied with a smile. “I’m Doctor Olafsson, and you’ve been unconscious for about twenty-four hours.” He came over to her, checking the monitors. “Welcome back to the waking world. You had my buddy, Jim, very worried. He’s barely left your side, but Big John made him take a break so he could brief the Town Council on what went down in Texas and explain a bit more about the documents and the run-in you had on the road.”

Helen remembered, now. “An evil sorceress calling herself Maura Dunlevy. Claimed she was the sister of Otalla, who I ended in Texas.”

“Wait. You ended her?” The doctor seemed surprised.

Had Jim not filled them all in on events to this point yet? Or was he withholding the fact that she’d killed someone for a particular reason? She wasn’t ashamed of her actions. She knew, in her heart, they were sanctioned by the Mother of All.

“It had to be done, and the Goddess gave me the strength to do it, so I did.” Helen shrugged. “I’ve never done that sort of thing before, but it was okay.”

“Some people don’t understand how I can be a bear, who kills, and also a doctor,” he said, his expression going solemn. “I probably understand, better than most.” His expression lightened as he went on. “As my mate would probably say, we tend to be a bunch of chauvinists in this town, even though we have plenty of evidence that our females can be just as fierce as us, whether they have claws, magic, or no special abilities, at all.” He grinned at her, and she smiled back.

“Thank you for looking after me,” she told him, not sure what would come next. She really wanted to see Jim, but it sounded like he was closeted with the men in power in this town, and she probably couldn’t bust in on that sort of meeting.

“I texted Jim, as he made me promise to do, and he should be here—” The sound of a door slamming in the other room made the doctor look up and grin. “I suspect