Page 43 of Jasper

“I know, baby, we will.”

Suddenly, she inhaled sharply and pushed Jasper out of the way. He stumbled away from her, cursing as he nearly fell over.

Melody screamed and Jasper spun, finding Ludo with his claws deep in Melody’s side, dark blood pouring from the wound.

No!

Ludo was goingto kill Jasper.

She’d seen it as he rose to his feet with his claws out. So she’d done the only thing she could think of—push Jasper out of the way.

She hadn’t expected Ludo’s claws to be on the downward swing and catch her in the side, but here she was. Bleeding like crazy and in so much pain she couldn’t catch her breath.

Jasper yelled her name and rushed for her, and then she was on the ground and her hearing went tinny and echoing and she thought she was going to throw up. Her shirt was wet with blood, and her body ached in new and terrible ways.

Had she told Jasper she loved him today? She thought she had but she couldn’t remember. It suddenly seemed so very important.

She wanted the last thing she possibly ever said to him to be that she loved him with every fiber of her being, and that she’d keep loving him into eternity.

“I love,” she whispered thickly, and then there was just darkness and nothingness, and words that hadn’t been said.

Jasper shot toward Ludo, but Finn appeared out of nowhere, bloodied from a battle of his own. He took Ludo’s head in his hands and twisted sharply, letting out a howl of triumph as the male fell to the ground, dead.

Jasper collapsed to his knees next to Melody, pulling his shirt off and pressing it to the gaping wound on her side.

“Finn! Help, she’s hurt badly!”

Finn stepped over Ludo’s body and snarled. “Damn it! Pick her up, we’ll get her to the healer.”

“Joss!” Jasper called as he cradled his mate’s limp body in his arms.

“We’ll clean up the mess,” Joss called. “Take care of Melody.”

Jasper would thank his alpha and his friends later, but right now all he cared about was Melody.

She’d lost so much blood! It seemed impossible that she was even still breathing.

As he ran next to Finn, he told him what had happened.

“We got to the prison and it was surrounded by a handful of males. Your friends helped me take them out, but when we got into the prison, there was one male left and he was threatening the mate of one of the high-ranked prisoners. He cut her pretty badly, but we managed to get her free and put him down, then we set the high-ranked males free. They’re combing the woods now to ensure that Ludo hadn’t brought anyone else here.”

“I’m glad you guys are okay,” he said. “And that the threat is put down and the males freed. But damn, I wish Melody hadn’t been hurt. What if she’s…?” He couldn’t bring himself to finish his thought. It was too dark and his wolf howled in rebellion that they could lose her.

Not when they’d just gotten her back.

“She’ll be okay, she’s strong,” Finn said. He opened the door to a small home and called out, “Reese? We need you!”

A female wearing a long apron with dark hair in a long braid over one shoulder appeared in the doorway.

“I heard fighting, so I prepared for anyone with injuries. Bring her in, quickly!”

Jasper followed her through the door and set Melody down on a bed covered with white sheets. Reese lifted Melody’s shirt gently and examined the wound, which was still badly bleeding.

“She can’t shift and heal herself,” Reese said, “so I’ll have to do something else.” She handed Jasper a pair of scissors. “Cut her shirt off, I need full access.”

Jasper looked at Finn and gripped the scissors.

Finn said, “I’m going to get Viola; she’ll want to be here.” He put a hand on Jasper’s shoulder and squeezed. “She’ll be okay.”

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