“Yes, now hurry. Put me down so I can go see to him.” I sigh, not sure if it’s relief that she will try to help Gunner, or that my woman is as bull-headed as all of us here.
“Where is he?” I ask.
“Bar.” That means that he was in the club area. Maybe those assholes didn’t make it to the back where we have our comms room. I tighten my arms around Dakota as she starts to try to lower herself to the floor, and hurry after Goliath, who is already rushing there.
“Oh, fuck,” I mutter when I enter the bar and find Gunner lying in a puddle of his own blood. King is leaning over him, trying to stop the bleeding from one of his wounds on his chest. I wish I didn’t have to bring my woman to this, but she might be the only one who can help him at the moment. As soon as I let her down, she is next to Gunner, her hands moving over his body, looking for injuries.
My mate might not be a doctor, but she has learnt well from her past. “He’s losing too much blood,” she mutters as she looks at another gunshot that he sustained to his stomach.
“Shit,” Frost mutters as he walks into the bar area. Looking over at him, I only now notice Trent lying on the ground, a blank look in his eyes as he lies dead, a hole in his temple from where the bullet that killed him entered.
“Gunner, stay with us,” I hear Dakota say, a note of panic to her voice. “Please, just hang on.” She looks around until she finds me. “Give me your T-shirt.” I rip the kutte off and then pull my T-shirt over my head and hand it to her, but she shakes her head and nods to where both her hands are pressing down on his wound. “Place it here so it can stop the bleeding. I need another one for King’s wound.” I squat down next to her. Rolling my T-shirt into a ball, I place it where her hands are applying pressure to the wound.
I see Goliath placing his T-shirt on the wound by Gunner’s chest where King is applying pressure. “Where is the doctor?” Dakota asks just as I hear running footsteps.
“He’s just arrived, baby,” I say, and her eyes fill with tears as she nods.
“Shit, what happened here?” the doctor asks as he rushes towards Gunner. “Damn, this isn’t good.” He starts to examine Gunner, and then it’s a race against time. I can see the tension in everyone as we stand around helplessly, looking at Gunner fight for his life.
“No, no, no, not on my watch,” the doctor suddenly says, and then he’s trying to resuscitate Gunner, whose heart has just stopped. This can’t be happening. We all know that this can and might happen with the life that we lead, but now that it’s happening, we are all frozen in helplessness as we see one of our brothers lying here on the ground. This can’t be happening. We can’t be losing him. Seconds feel like hours as the doctor fights to bring him back. I can feel the knot in my throat growing as I see my brother’s lifeless body.
“Okay, there you are,” the doctor suddenly says as he stops his compressions. “Call an ambulance. He needs to be operated on or he won’t make it through the day. Next time, I might not be able to bring him back.” The doctor looks at King. We don’t ever go to hospitals because of the speed with which we heal, and because if they get our blood, they will be wondering what the hell they just got.
King looks up at Fang, who is standing behind the doctor, and nods. Fang pulls out his phone and dials. “Take our dead,” King orders, which has us all coming out of our shock to go do his bidding. I walk over to Trent; Frost is already picking up his shoulders, so I move to his feet and pick them up. We carry him out through the back door towards the woods until we can bury him in honour. As we reach the woods, I see Blue and Hawk coming around the house with the other prospect who also fell in this barbaric attack.
“These fuckers are showing us that they’re not scared,” Frost mutters as we place Trent gently on the ground. Just as Hawk and Blue lay our other man down, we hear the ambulance approaching. “This is fucked up.” Frost shakes his head as we make our way back to the front of the house. Looking at where the prospect was killed, I see that Dash has parked one of our cars there to hide the blood. Dixon must have somehow covered the blood from Trent, too, before the EMTs arrived.
This is our war; we will not let anyone else get involved. As Wolverines, we cannot let our men be examined, and now with Gunner, we will need to be very careful of what will be done to him, as we cannot afford for anyone to find out what we are. Now more than ever, we need to protect our secret. I will not let Dakota suffer for something that isn’t her fault.
We all wait outside, as we can hear the EMTs inside, working together with the doctor to stabilize Gunner. As soon as they are happy to move him, they carry him outside and into the ambulance. “I’m going with him,” King states as he follows them to the ambulance and then enters. I look back at the entrance and see Dakota standing there. Her hands are stained with blood and shaking, her eyes red from the tears that she has been spilling, but she stands there erect like a queen. I turn and walk towards her. Taking her into my arms, I hug her close.
“Come on, baby, let’s go wash your hands, and then we will follow them to the hospital.” She doesn’t reply but nods as she steps back and hurries towards the bathroom. Looking back over my shoulder, I see the others walking towards the garage and know that we will all be there; Gunner will be fighting for his life, but we will be right there with him.
“I’m ready,” Dakota says as she joins me again.
“Let’s go.” I take her hand and guide her toward the garage and my bike. Handing her a helmet, I help her tighten the strap before getting on the bike and waiting for her to tighten her arms around my waist before I start my bike and follow the others towards the hospital.
Today has turned out very different from what any of us could ever have imagined, but we will fight this, and we will conquer. I can sense the great sadness that has engulfed my woman, sadness that shouldn’t be there but that my world has brought to her. We travel to the hospital in a group. Arriving there, everyone looks at us in fear. I don’t blame them, because everyone is ready to kill. My brothers, like me, will stand together and protect our pack. We have been attacked. We have been injured, but we will hunt, and we will destroy every single person who wants us harm.
We are led to a waiting room while we await news about Gunner. King is already there, standing against the wall, his stance indicative of someone on his guard.
“What happened, Dakota?” he asks once we are sitting and I have my arm around my woman. Dakota looks up at him, her eyes sad.
“I went into the woods to pick some flowers. I wanted to make an arrangement for each of the women at the house, but I had just started to pick flowers when I heard the bikes.” She lifts her hand and rubs at her forehead.
“Is your head sore?” I ask, worried that the pain has come back. After Jason’s attack, she couldn’t lift her head from the pillow for a couple days without it paining her.
“Just a slight headache. It’s fine,” she murmurs as she moves her hand to where mine is over her shoulder and entwines her fingers with mine.
“Maybe we should wait with the questioning,” I state as I bring my other hand and start to rub her head gently. She loves her head massages. After her attack, I learnt that my woman loves her head being rubbed.
“No, it’s okay,” she murmurs. Looking back at King, she continues. “I left the flowers and walked back. I thought it was Hunter coming back, but when I broke through the clearing, I heard the shots and then the voices. I didn’t know any of those voices, so I stepped back behind a tree and waited.” She takes in a deep breath. “I could just make out the entrance when I saw one of your prospects running towards them from the woods, but one of the attackers just started shooting. Your guy didn’t have a chance. Even when he was already down, one of the men who attacked went right up to him and shot him point blank.” A tear has escaped her closed eyes and is now streaking down her cheek. Leaning forward, I kiss it away.
“It’s okay, baby,” I murmur, my heart breaking at seeing my woman so distraught.
“No, it’s not. I saw them taking the women with them. What are they going to do to them?” I look over at King and see him rubbing his jaw in anger. Knowing the Hades, they more than likely will have them killed just to send a message. We know that this wasn’t random and that they specifically targeted us. I am lucky that Dakota was in the woods, or she would have been one of those women or killed while still in the house.
“They have all been with the Hades before. They know how to handle themselves,” Dash says from where he is sitting across from us.