“Well, you did a hell of a job,” I praised, as I slowly made my transformation back to my human form. My white shirt was soaked through with my blood and the gash to my side was one of the most painful injuries I had ever sustained. “And what do these guys have? Poisonous claws or something?”
“You were careless,” reprimanded Landon. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“Yeah. But I didn’t and that’s all that matters, right?”
Landon shook his giant wolf head before, he too, joined me in human form.
Before us, Jane was staring like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes were so wide that I feared they would pop right out of her head.
“Okay. I have questions. Lots of them,” she said, after finally snapping out of her daze. “First of all, when you told me you were a werewolf —”
“Shifter,” I corrected. “I’ve already explained the difference, Jane.”
“Whatever!” She threw up her arms, exasperated by my technicalities. “Shifter. Happy?”
“Well, I’d be happier if we got somewhere, where I could treat myself.” I gestured down at the ever-growing blossom of red.
She gasped. “Oh God! That’s right… You were hurt during the battle.” She was immediately by my side. “May I?” she asked, in the softest of whispers, like she was afraid of voicing the question.
I nodded. “Go ahead.”
Gently, she lifted my shirt. As the fabric peeled away from my flesh, it added even more pain to my already agonized midsection.
“Roman…” she cried. “This is bad.”
“I’ll be… fine.” I held back a grimace, as a particularly deep breath sent a spasm of renewed pain to my every nerve ending.
“We’ll head to the bunker. It is not far from here.” It was the first time that Landon had spoken. He seemed different somehow — I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but there seemed to be a bit more depth to his eyes, like he understood the world a little bit better than I ever would.
“The bunker, huh?” I asked. “We haven’t been there in a while.”
“It should have the supplies we’ll need, should an extended stay be in order.”
I nodded my agreement.
“I’d say you could ride with me but I can’t have your arms around my midsection right now so I guess you’re stuck with Landon.” I tried to make light of the situation but Jane’s expression of distress only deepened.
“Are you going to be able to ride in your current condition? I mean, I can call you an ambulance or something.”
I shook my head. “If you bring me to a hospital, I’ll be locked away in area 51 faster than you can say ‘hot rod.’ Generally, not a good idea.”
“Right. I bet your DNA is pretty different.”
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Are we going to stand and chit-chat all night or do we intend to ride any time soon?” asked Landon. That man always had some kind of agenda but, then again, I was probably dying and the longer that I waited, the likelier it became that I would bleed out. It also probably wasn’t a very good thing that I was starting to feel light headed.
“You’re right. Let’s go before I faint.”
Jane frowned but she didn’t have much time to worry because Landon had already towed her towards his motorcycle. I limped over to mine, trying not to breathe too hard.
I turned it on and the vibrations were like literal torture. I had to take a minute to get used to it before I was able to follow Landon towards the bunker. Thankfully, we didn’t have very far to go and in about five minutes’ time, we reached our destination.
Landon took care of hiding our rides, while I fumbled with the old combination lock. After being exposed to the elements, it had rusted a bit. That’s what happens when you trust human invention — more often than not it fails. Unless of course, we’re talking Harley Davidsons. Those things are made to last, which was why the pack had invested in purchasing a few for high ranking individuals. Landon and I had been two of the lucky few, with Landon being the leader’s son and all that.
“What are we going to do about your injury?” Jane asked, almost as soon as we stepped inside. “We can’t just leave it unattended or you’re going to…” she trailed off, unable to continue.
“I’m not going to die,” I said. “There’s a lot more in life that I still have to do, so if you’re gunning to get rid of me, let me just tell you: that’s not happening any time soon.”