Abandoned Treasure

Warrior Trainee Nathan Storm’s POV

Outside Grand Forks, North Dakota

August 6, 2003

I stepped over the body of a young man in the kitchen. A wolf had torn out his throat, and his weakening heart pumped his remaining blood onto the vinyl floor. I nearly slipped and fell on the slippery surface, catching myself on the table. I stood again and headed for the stairway.

“Bring the van and get the first aid kit up here NOW,” the Beta thundered over the link.

“Is it Chad?”

“He’s fucking gone, shotgun to the face. I want the girl saved. She’s bleeding out.”

SHIT! I took a detour into the bathroom, grabbing clean towels and rubbing alcohol out of the cabinets before heading up. Lance was right behind me, carrying the big first aid kit. The Beta and two other wolves were kneeling by the bathroom door, my mate’s pale legs sticking out between them. “Towels,” I said as I rushed forward. “You have to save her, Beta. She’s my MATE.” My wolf was going nuts from the smell.

“Fucking great,” the Beta said. “Tie one around that gash on her leg until I can fix her artery.” Senior warriors got medical training from the Pack Doctor to assist in treating battlefield wounds; they were the equivalent of combat medics. I had First Responder training, one step up from basic First Aid. I moved next to Brent, tying a towel around her wounded calf as he slid his hand out from underneath.

“Retractors and clamps,” the Beta ordered. As Brent leaned back, I got my first look at my mate. She was beautiful, a teenager with curly black hair and the body of a gymnast. She couldn’t be more than five feet tall, with an angelic face now covered with blood. Her left shoulder was torn open to the bone. Edward was applying pressure under her shoulder while the Beta looked for the torn artery. Lance hung an IV bag on her right hand to replace fluids. “Got it,” he said as he got the second vascular clamp in place. Working quickly, he sewed up the torn artery before releasing a clamp and checking for leaks. “Good enough for government work.”

He rinsed the wound clean, then fixed the smaller veins. After stitching the muscle together, he used a surgical stapler to close the skin. “She’s lost a lot of blood,” Edward said.

“No shit. Check the purse. See if there’s a blood type on the driver’s license or something.”

The Beta had me release the soaked towel, and he sutured up the gash while Edward looked around. He was finishing up when Edward tossed the purse on the bed. “Carol Sampson has no blood type listed. She’s nineteen years old and has a student ID from the University of North Dakota.”

“I’m O-negative,” I volunteered. “Universal donor.”

He looked at the other men. “Carry her to the van,” he ordered. I led the way out. Four naked men used a blanket as a makeshift litter to carry her to the waiting van. I reclined the front-row seat, then stepped aside as they set my Carol in place. She was still unconscious, and her heartbeat was weak. The Beta set up the transfusion as the other men sanitized the scene.

Chad was left where he fell outside the room; his family would have to understand. It wasn’t practical to drive eighteen hours with a dead two-hundred-pound wolf in the back. The men poured gasoline and diesel fuel everywhere, including the cars and the barn. My mate’s mother and brother would turn to ash, removing the evidence of our bites and presence.

Brent and Tony were the last to return after lighting the fires. The farmhouse and barn were engulfed by flames when our van lost sight of it on the prairie. “Where to, Beta?”

“Airport,” he replied. We had to wait an hour before the others got in. The three that took down the tow truck driver had to hide his body and bring the car to the off-hours return lot.

I’d completed my transfusion, as had one other wolf. I’d given too much, as I was slightly dizzy. I could tell by the heartbeat that my mate was slowly dying. The Beta shook his head after checking her vitals once we were back on the road. “I can’t do anything else, Nathan.”

“Can you drop the two of us at a hospital? Maybe they can save her.”

He Gibbs-slapped me. “Are you fucking stupid? She’s a ROGUE, boy. She can’t be talking to human police. I’ll sooner put a bullet in both of your fucking heads and bury you in the Badlands.”

“She’s my MATE!”

“That might help,” he said as he sat back. “Mark her. Once your wolves have a connection, you can lend her strength.”

“She’s out of it,” I said. “She can’t agree to the mating or bite me back.”

“Nathan, if your mate doesn’t turn it around soon, she’ll die before we hit Bismarck. You don’t have a choice. You can ask her to forgive you if she survives.” He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezed it, then returned to the shotgun seat.

I looked down at my mate’s face. I’d cleaned the blood from her pale face, and her eyes still hadn’t opened. I only knew her name from her driver’s license. I didn’t know if she was a good person. I didn’t know why her family was rogue. I didn’t know much of anything, but I knew enough.

Luna had paired us together for a reason. I had to trust the Goddess and her judgment.

I let my wolf push forward, shifting my teeth into their wolf form. A claiming bite was different than the fighting bite on her left shoulder. It was all about intent.

I tilted my head and placed my jaws over the junction of her neck and the right shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I thought as I bit down, my wolf surging forward to establish the link between us.

I felt her presence enter my mind. My mate was weak, but she was there. I settled next to her, the skin tingling where we touched, and prayed for her to make it.

I woke two hours later at a truck stop off Interstate 94. “Take a piss and get back out here,” the Beta told us.

“You look weak,” Darrell said as I got out.

“Get yourself a half-gallon of juice and a big meal,” the Beta agreed. “That’s a lot of blood to replace.”

Few things are less trustworthy than a gas station burrito, but that’s what I was choking down when we got back on the road. I washed it down with the orange juice. I was encouraged by Carol’s vitals; her blood pressure, though weak, was starting to recover. The Beta had contacted our Alpha; he and the Pack Doctor were traveling east to meet us and take over care.

Carol didn’t wake as we pulled onto a deserted road outside Billings, Montana. Their vehicle, a cargo van converted to a werewolf ambulance, pulled alongside a few minutes later. James Sterling, our Pack Doctor, took charge of Carol while the Alpha walked off with the Beta. A few minutes later, he’d connected Carol to the machines in the back. “Let’s get going,” Doc said to the driver.

I put my leg up to climb in next to her. “Nathan,” the Alpha barked.

I turned and looked at him, showing my neck in submission. “Yes, Alpha.”

“Go back to your seat. Doc doesn’t need your help.”

My jaw dropped. “The rogue is my mate, Alpha.”

“Go.” I couldn’t fight the command. I closed the door, banging twice on it, then turned back to the waiting passenger van.

Darrell had gathered up the bloody laundry and bagged it; I sat in the seat she’d been in and tried to let her fresh scent relax me. “Da fuck was that,” he sent me privately.

“I don’t think the Alpha is happy with the mating.”

“She’s a rogue who killed a Pack member. You’re lucky no one killed her before you got upstairs.”

That didn’t make me feel any better. I’d calmed myself by the time the Alpha climbed aboard, the Beta now sitting behind him. “Listen up, Bitterroot warriors,” he said as we drove off. “You did well in the raid. We all feel Chad’s loss; he was a good wolf and a loyal Pack member. His death will not go unpunished.”

My stomach dropped out at these words. What was going to happen to my mate? Why had we done so much to save her if he wanted to kill her anyway?

“Alpha?” I looked at him, my eyes pleading for mercy.

“She killed one of ours, Nathan. I cannot look past that because she happens to be your mate. She owes the Bitterroot Pack a life.” He looked over the men, his next words an Alpha command. “Carol Sampson is not and will never be a member of the Bitterroot Pack. She will never be allowed a mate or to live free. Her punishment for Chad’s murder is to live out her life as our slave.”

My wolf howled inside me at the thought.