4

That thought vanished when I pulled us into the parking lot five minutes later. There was only one car there, but the front door was standing ajar and light shone out of the bar onto the pavement outside. It looked like all the lights were still on.

“See!” Sebastian shouted. “Told you they’d be open. Drunk food, here we come.”

I frowned, but got out of the SUV with everyone else. Sebastian’s chipper mood evaporated as soon as we were outside. The smell. All of us sniffed at the air. Luis and Felipe growled.

“Oh shit,” Sebastian said. “Do you guys smell that?”

I did. Blood. Not only that, but I smelled humans and shifters. Not the lingering scents of those who’d been gone a while—all three scents were fresh. All three scents were coming from inside the bar. The blood was the prevailing smell, though. Strong, coppery, and thick. I wrinkled my nose at it.

“Should we call the cops?” Luis asked.

“Someone’s hurt in there. Let’s go.” I didn’t tell him that the blood was calling to me. That I couldn’t ignore the pull of it. I had to see where it was coming from. There would be no waiting.

The guys followed me, their buzz drying up as adrenaline sobered them all. I was three steps away from the door when I heard what sounded like a stampede of boots inside. Not hesitating, I broke into a sprint, bursting into the bar. Usually, I had much more self-control. I liked to think I was cautious to a fault. Running headlong into an unknown place? A place that had the smell of blood? It was grade-A horror movie 101. But that scent? It was driving me, almost consuming me.

We plowed through the door and saw…blood. Lots of blood, and what looked like a woman covered in it, unconscious on the floor. I could still hear the sounds of feet sprinting out the back door. I could smell them too. Males. Shifters.

“Go get the fuckers!” I shouted. Sebastian and Felipe bolted for the kitchen door, trying to chase down the guys.

I knelt by the woman, Luis by my side. “Oh damn, Nico. What the hell did they do to her?”

I checked her over. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and she was covered in blood. From what I could see, she had injuries to her sides and her head. Most of the blood seemed to have come from her head wound. I slid my hands gingerly into the hair and the back of her head. There was a massive lump and a large gash, but it wasn’t soft or squishy like a crushed skull. It could have been cracked, but there was still a chance she might be okay.

I pulled my hand away and wiped sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. The blood on my fingers passed by my face. The smell of it made me dizzy. Like…like it was drugging me. I’d never smelled anything like it. It was so damned intoxicating.

I gritted my teeth as my wolf tried to rip free of my skin. I wanted to shift so bad, my whole body ached. What the hell was going on?

Luis was already pulling out his phone. I blinked and shook off the strange feeling. I grabbed his arm before he could dial. “Call the pack doctor.”

Luis frowned at me. “Not the cops? Or an ambulance?”

I couldn’t explain it, but I didn’t want her away from me. The regular authorities would take her to a hospital, and every instinct I had wanted to stay near her. Plus, the pack doc was a real doctor. He’d be as good as an EMT anyway.

“No,” I said. “Call the doc.”

Luis looked down at the bloodied woman and shrugged. “Whatever you say, Nico.”

He was on the phone, relaying what we’d found to the doc when Sebastian and Felipe came running back in from the kitchen. Sebastian stopped mid-stride and looked down, then back at me, his eyebrow raised in a question. Unsure what he was trying to convey, I glanced down. Unconsciously, I’d taken the woman’s hand in mine and was holding it. When the fuck had I done that? Why was I doing that?

“We couldn’t catch them,” Felipe said, breathing heavily. “They had a car out back. They all jumped in and took off. We tried to chase them down on foot, but…” he shrugged. Shifters were fast, but not as fast as a speeding car.

“I only got a good look at one of them. I think he looked familiar. I’m pretty sure those guys were from Javi’s pack,” Sebastian said.

That made even less sense. “What fucking reason would Javi’s guys have for wanting to hurt a human? A woman, no less?” I asked.

The others shook their heads, confused as I was. Luis hung up his phone and turned back to us. “Doc’s coming. He only lives ten minutes away. This late? He’ll probably haul ass and be here in five.”

Luis was accurate in that prediction. We heard the squeal of tires in the parking lot a few minutes later. Doc came jogging into the bar and gasped when he saw the woman. “Holy shit. Is she alive?” he asked.

“For now,” I muttered as I moved out of the way so he could work.

Doc checked her over. Blood pressure, broken bones, pupil dilation. I stood back with the others and watched him go through the process. Though, I stood a lot closer than they did. I couldn’t seem to help it.

Doc pulled his rubber gloves off and sighed. “Well, the good news is she’s not going to die tonight.”

A breath of relief burst out of my mouth. Doc stood to go outside. “We’ll need to get her to the clinic. She’s gonna need quite a few stitches, and she’s had a good bit of blood loss. I’ve got some O-negative blood at the clinic. Should be plenty to help her out.” He nodded at Luis. “Come help me. I don’t have a gurney, but there’s a backboard in my van. We can use that to carry her.”

He and Luis came back in with a seven-foot long board with handholds all along the sides. I’d seen similar things on TV. Doc also had an inflatable neck brace. I sat and helped him put the brace on her neck before we got her onto the board. He said he didn’t think she had any spinal injuries but didn’t want to rule it out before he had a chance to check her thoroughly at the clinic.

I rode in the back of the van with her, letting the guys follow in the SUV. I looked at her face, so covered in blood it was almost impossible to tell what she looked like. I caught myself praying that she’d be okay. Praying wasn’t something I typically did. Why would I be so concerned about her? It was weird, to say the least. When Doc pulled into the clinic, I let out a pent-up breath.

I stayed by her side the entire time. We got her inside and into the exam room. Doc put a bag of blood onto an IV and slid the needle into her arm. While the blood worked its way into her, he started the stitching process. The guys were still there, but I’d almost completely ignored them.

Felipe nudged my arm. “What’s going on with you, man?”

“Huh?”

Sebastian nodded at the girl. “You’ve been hovering like the damned angel of death, dude.”

Thinking back, I knew I’d been acting weird from the moment I smelled the blood. It was like a switch had been flipped in my head. “I can’t explain it. I feel strange, so does my wolf. I just need to make sure she’s all right.”

“Dude,” Sebastian said, frowning deeply. “You’re talking like you found your fated mate or something.”

I looked down and saw that I’d taken her hand again. Even Doc was glancing over at me suspiciously. What Sebastian said couldn’t be true. The woman was human. It wasn’t possible for a shifter to be fated to a human.

I smelled the air again, and there was something else in her blood. Something that wasn’t entirely human. A hint of something else.

Fear and curiosity filled me. I didn’t say anything else. Instead I watched Doc work, and wondered who and what this strange woman was.