*
Jayna wanted nothing more than to lie there on the floor and hide in the comforting darkness enveloping her, offering a respite from the pain emanating from every part of her body. But the growls and snarls somewhere on the edge of her consciousness wouldn’t let her drift off. Eric was fighting Brandon to protect her, and it sounded like he was fighting for his life. She wouldn’t let him do that alone.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she rolled over and pushed to her knees, fighting the darkness threatening to pull her down again. But even when her vision cleared, it was hard to understand what she was seeing because Eric and Brandon were little more than blurs of ripping claws and flashing fangs.
She flinched and looked away as Brandon shredded Eric’s tactical vest with his vicious claws, drawing more blood. That was when she saw the handgun on a section of the floor that was still intact. She lunged for it, but Brandon must have seen the move because he gave Eric a shove and headed her way with a snarl.
She rolled onto her hip, ready to defend herself when Eric slammed into Brandon and sent him flying. The omega’s claws missed her throat by inches.
Jayna whirled around, expecting them to hit the ground rolling and keep right on fighting, but they both just lay there. Her heart thudded so loudly it echoed in her ears. Why weren’t they moving?
After what seemed like forever, Eric finally rolled away from Brandon, onto his back. Jayna cringed at the rusted piece of rebar poking out of Brandon’s chest. It must have been sticking up from the floor and impaled the omega.
Eric pressed a hand to his ragged tactical vest, his fangs and claws retracting. Blood seeped between his fingers, running down his hand.
Oh God. The rebar that had pierced Brandon’s heart had stabbed Eric too.
Jayna didn’t remember moving, but the next thing she knew, she was kneeling by Eric’s side, gently pulling his hand away to see how bad the wound was. She ignored the bloody slashes that crisscrossed his face and arms, barely even looking at the bullet wound in his shoulder, more concerned about the ragged laceration caused by the rebar.
Her hands shook so badly, she could barely see what she was doing, and she couldn’t understand why. She’d seen him injured before, when she’d dug a bullet out of his chest. But right now, her heart was pounding like nothing she’d ever experienced. She was on the edge of losing it.
She was still trying to control her trembling hands when Eric gently took both of them in his much larger, calloused ones.
“I’m okay, Jayna. It will heal.” He released one hand to tenderly run his fingers over her neck. “That bastard scratched you.”
The careful way he touched her neck, his fingers tracing Brandon’s claw marks as he said the words, it was like they pained him more than the wound in his chest. She was going to cry—she knew it.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time to stop this,” he said brokenly.
While his voice was just as soft, there was fire in his eyes, and she pressed a shaking finger to his lips. The thought that he blamed himself for the minor scratches on her neck was ridiculous and precious at the same time. No one outside her pack had ever cared about her until now. But his concern for her went beyond that of a pack mate. As her heartbeat slowly began to return to normal now that his arms were around her, Jayna admitted that maybe her feelings for him went further than she’d thought.
Eric started to say something else, but she shushed him. “I got scratched, that’s all. And like you said, it will heal. You got here in time. That’s all that matters.”
Leaning forward, she kissed him on the mouth. Eric cupped her face, kissing her back. She gasped a little, startled by how fast the fire kindled in her body at the touch of his lips. There was no way in hell she should have been thinking those thoughts at a time like this, not when Eric had just been shot and stabbed. And definitely not when she should be worrying about her pack mates.
Oh God. She hadn’t even thought to ask about Megan. Was she okay? Had she been arrested?
Jayna pulled back so suddenly Eric almost fell over. His eyes flew open in surprise, revealing beautiful gold irises. She pushed that distracting observation aside and focused on her first priority—her pack.
“Where’s Megan? Is she all right?”
Eric blinked, obviously caught off guard by the question. But then he grinned. “She’s okay. She’s waiting for you downstairs in our operations vehicle.”