Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Mari?” a man’s voice called out as he rounded the side of the house.
She turned and her face lit up. It was Ashton. She ran toward him, wrapping her arms around him.
“Where is Charlie?”
“He’s upstairs with Gladys,” Mari replied, tears rolling down her face.
“Let’s go get him and find me some clothes,” he said as she held onto him. Like many of the men, Ashton was naked now that the fight was over, having shredded his clothes when he shifted to fight. The couple headed toward the front door, both seeming a bit shell shocked still, but at least they were okay.
Leslie turned her attention to the children crying on the porch. She pushed the triplets’ stroller up the ramp and locked the wheels on it just outside the door, sweeping each of them up into her arms and sitting them inside with her girls. They were crying, scared. None seemed to be harmed, the wolves had not bitten into their skin as they carried them but only held them by their clothes, it seemed.
Tucker was nowhere to be found and, as much as she wanted to go find him, she had to deal with the children first. She pushed inside to the lobby and parked the stroller outside the nursery, sticking her head in for any sign of trouble. It was quiet. She made her way quickly inside and grabbed one of the playpens, shoving it back out the large doors and into the front lobby, she hurriedly placed the children inside. Mari and her husband were walking slowly up the stairs toward the room where they would find Charlie.
“Mari, I know you want to get to Charlie, but can you send Gladys down to watch the other children and the ones still in the nursery? I need to go look for Tucker.”
“Yes,” Mari replied, turning to her husband. “Go on up and get Charlie. Gladys will get you a pair of the leftover work coveralls from the renovations. I will stay here with the other children.”
He nodded and raced toward the steps nearby, making his way to the second floor as Mari took over for Leslie. Thanking her, Leslie raced out to the back yard to look for Tucker. There were bodies everywhere. Some were deceased and some were just recovering from the hard fight. Her heart fell as she spotted Tucker on the ground, not moving. She raced to him and dropped to her knees, only noting the small, thin scar that ran down the side of his neck.
“Marshall,” she said, standing to look around.
Tucker laid nearby, just inside the edge of the wooded area behind the club, still in wolf form. He was badly injured, but he was alive. She moved toward him, lifting his head into her lap and hugging him tightly against her.
“Tucker, can you hear me?” she whispered.
His response came in the form of a low growl, a painful noise that formed deep in his throat.
“You’re bleeding. I’m going to get you some help,” she said, laying his head gently on the ground and making a run for the clubhouse. The doctor was already there, having been called in by someone else to tend the wounded.
“Doc, Tucker is out back. He’s hurt badly and isn’t healing up fast enough. He’s losing blood,” she called out to him upon seeing him.
The doctor followed her out the back door to where Tucker laid, making quick work of dressing his wounds and staunching the flow of blood. He motioned for a few of the pack members to come over.
“Get him up and into a bed somewhere so he can heal properly. Now that the blood flow is staunched, he’ll be just fine.”
Several of the pack members did as he told them, taking him inside and up the stairs to the empty room she had been in with the kids. Gladys was watching over them still in the daycare. Now that the danger had passed, she felt a lot more comfortable with them being separated from her. She’d never imagined the day going like this, with so much carnage and so many deaths. What would come of things now that the truth about her, about her relationship with Tucker, was out in the open?
She pushed it from her mind; instead, tending to him as he laid on the bed. The doctor and the others left her to watch over him while he healed. He had lost a lot of blood and that had taken a lot out of him, but he was healing faster as time passed. Staying in wolf form would vastly accelerate his healing time.
She laid her head on his mighty chest, feeling it heave up and down as he panted. His heartbeat was getting heavier, his pulse stronger. She nuzzled her head against his fur. He was going to make it. She felt a sense of relief flood over her. Even if it cost them the pack, his position, their home, they would be okay. That was all that mattered.