Page 41 of Possessive Mate

No wolf gets left behind, he reminded himself. But as the barn door was pulled open, Hanson felt dread wash over him just as much as elation.

There, standing in the doorway, her hair golden in the last rays of the sun, was Elena.

“Elena!” he croaked, too weak even to be able to raise his voice. “It’s not safe. Get out of here!”

Naked, clearly having shifted recently, she charged forward as if she didn’t much care who saw her. And behind her came Eddie, just as naked. Neither of them paid any attention to his protests as they grabbed some tools from outside the barn and joined him.

“You shouldn’t have brought her here!” he growled at Eddie, glaring at him. He didn’t much care anymore if Eddie was above him in the pack. He was through with his shit, through with his putting his sister in danger like this. If he wasn’t so damn weak from the silver, he would have punched him.

“Don’t look at me,” Eddie snapped back, wielding an axe towards him. Hanson barely had his wits about him enough to duck. The axe hit the pillar and it creaked. “You try keeping her away. She almost bit my head off for suggesting you might already be gone.”

Eddie swung again. Again, the pillar creaked.

Elena dropped down beside Hanson, and even though the silver burned her flesh as she did so, she hooked him up under the arm and hissed into his ear, “Get ready to get up. This whole place might come down the second that pillar breaks.”

Hanson nodded his acknowledgement. Eddie looked down at them both. “I think one last swing should do it.”

He looked at Elena as if to be certain she was ready, then when she gave the nod, he acknowledged it with one final swing.

The pillar splintered in two. No sooner had cracked than Eddie dropped the axe and dropped down on Hanson’s other side, hooking his arm under him and helping Elena haul him to his feet. As they did, the chains fell loose around him, unravelling from his chest and his wrists as if the pillar had been the only thing keeping them taut.

“Come on, quick,” Eddie warned when the barn above their heads began to creak.

The three of them hobbled toward the door, but before they had gone more than five steps, Hanson’s legs went out from under him. Even between them, Eddie and Elena couldn’t hold his huge hulking dead weight, and he fell to the floor.

“Shit, get up Hanson,” Eddie snapped at him, grabbing him again, but Hanson didn’t have the strength.

“Leave him,” Elena snapped, dragging her brother away. “He needs a few minutes to recover his strength.”

She crouched over Hanson, blocking her brother from trying again.

“This whole roof might come down any minute,” Eddie protested.

Elena gestured above their heads without looking and demanded, “Does it look like it's coming down?”

Hanson just managed to lift his head to look. Elena was right. For now, the other pillars in the barn were doing their job. For how long that would continue, though, wasn’t certain.

Hanson, feeling his strength already beginning to return now that the silver had been removed, looked to Eddie over Elena’s head and asked, “Why the fuck are you even here? Why bother?”

He was still angry with him for putting Elena in this kind of trouble. He wasn’t worth it. If he had been, he never would have let her get caught in the first place.

“We may not get on much of the time, but you’re a member of this pack, and no packmate ever gets left behind,” Eddie said, glowering back at him in return. With that, he swooped past Elena, nudged her out of the way, and hauled Hanson back up onto his feet. “That said, stay the fuck away from my sister, or I won’t be so kind.”

Hanson didn’t doubt it, though he couldn’t stop from looking at Elena. The second he did, he wished he hadn’t. There was an uneasy look in her eye that made his stomach ache.

“We should hurry this along,” Elena said, slipping to the barn door to peer out into the yard. The sounds of fighting were growing louder. “It looks like Jack and the others aren’t doing so hot. I just hope reinforcements get here in time.”

A lump formed in Hanson’s throat. “Reinforcements?” he barely managed to say the word, his throat too constricted. He leaned on Eddie, still far too weak. There was no way he could fight yet.

Elena dipped her head and said, “The Pine Valley wolves are on their way.”

Great, Hanson groaned. As if it wasn’t bad enough that his pack were risking their lives for him, the Pine Valley wolves were on their way as well. “You shouldn’t have put so many lives at risk just for my sake.”

Eddie scoffed at that. “You didn’t think this was all just for you, did you?”

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Elena said, slipping under Hanson’s free arm, “Eddie is right. This isn’t just about you. Everyone agreed that Christopher’s pack has caused more than enough trouble. Your being here just gave them the just cause they needed with the higher councils.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hanson asked, furrowing his brow. If it meant what he thought he meant, then hell, he needed to recover fast.

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