Page 53 of It's Kind of a Bunny Story
So she was a wolf shifter.
“I’m Reese, Monroe’s best friend,” she continued, giving me a friendly smile. “You must be Charlee.”
“Did Monroe send you?” Boone choked out the words.
“No, she didn’t send me, you barbaric, backwoods, brother-banging, black-hearted, boring buffoon of a bunny!” Reese snarled, trying to kick him, but Boone caught her foot at the last minute.
“Hey, that hurts.” He used his free hand to adjust his glasses. “I’m not boring.”
It wasn’t until that moment that it dawned on me that she was butt-naked. Wolves didn’t seem to care much about modesty. Reese yanked her foot free and tackled him, straddling his chest as she prepared to choke the life from him.
“I’m one of the good guys,” Boone protested, trying his best to look anywhere but at Reese’s bare chest, which was practically shoved in his face. “I spoke to Monroe on the phone, and she was going to have someone meet up and drive us to the hospital.”
Reese paused, suspicion written all over her face. “I’ve been running in my wolf form, idiot. How was she supposed to call me? I haven’t exactly been taking phone calls, and I’m too far from the alpha for him to relay a mental message.”
Opening my car door, I staggered to my feet. “We think we have something to help my mates, but we have to get to the hospital. Fast. We can sort this mess out later. Can you drive us there?” Using the car as a support, I made my way around to stand beside them.
“I’m happy to drive you there. But him…” She cocked an eyebrow and jerked her chin down to where Boone lay beneath her on the ground. “I’d rather leave him here.”
“Boone’s a good guy. He saved me, and he wants to help the pack.” My legs trembled. I wasn’t going to be able to stay standing much longer.
“You’re sure you’re not a bad bunny?” Reese leaned down and growled in his face.
Instead of being offended, Boone gave her a dopey smile. “I can be if you want me to be.”
That earned him a genuine laugh from Reese. “You might be alright. Who knows? Maybe I’ll just keep you. Monroe is so adorable, but her mates refuse to let me keep her as a pet.”
“You can keep me as long as you want,” he promised.
I rolled my eyes. Was he seriously going to fall for the first girl he met?
“This has to be the world’s most violent meet-cute ever. I’m going to vomit, and I don’t know if it’s because of the toxin or all the flirting. Right now, I need Reese to focus and get me to my mates.”
“Yes, we need to get you back.” Reese’s glowing eyes searched the road behind us. “Not to mention it’s possible the burrow could’ve already sent people after you. We need to get back to the hospital, where the pack can protect us.”
With that decided, she opened the back seat, grabbed Boone by the collar of his shirt, and tossed him inside. “Let’s go.”
The only reason I’d allowed Charlee to board the helicopter without me was my belief that the critical condition of Linc and Copeland would keep her close to them. But I should’ve known better. Charlee wasn’t one to sit around when something needed to happen, and she’d figured out a way it could be done.
She’d never been the type to jump from one half-baked idea to another. Charlee was far too smart for that. But she had zero problems taking a risk, especially if she’d calculated the odds and felt they were in her favor. That meant that if she’d risked everything to go back to Blackberry Burrow, she believed something there could change the outcome of this tragic situation.
I understood why she couldn’t take any wolves from the pack—not when there was a deadly toxin involved—but I wishedshe would have trusted me to go with her. So why had Charlee decided to go alone? Why hadn’t she at least told someone?
Because she knew we wouldn’t have let her go, or she’d determined success was more likely if she did this herself.
“Shouldn’t they be here by now?” I stared through the glass windows of the emergency room. The dark of night was giving way to the soft blues and purples of a sun that hadn’t risen but was just beginning to wake.
“They’re nearly here.” Monroe stood at my side, looking up at me with a sympathetic smile. “Fletcher, we need you to be prepared. Reese just called, and from what she said, Charlee isn’t doing well.”
Her words caused everything around me to fade away until I no longer heard the beeping of medical machines, the buzzing of fluorescent lights, the crackle of intercom announcements, or the noise of the anxious members of the pack that filled the lobby. The reality that I might lose my mate caused my world to dim. Without her sweetness, my world was bleak and boring.
I’d wanted to give her the world. Since I couldn’t do that, I’d risked everything to give Charlee her freedom. All she’d gotten was just over a week of happiness before it had been taken away from her. If I lost her, I knew I should be thankful and cherish that brief window of heaven, but life would be incredibly bitter after getting a taste of what I could never have again. How would I survive losing her?
Headlights came into view, growing larger as a vehicle sped toward the hospital. Without bothering to slow, the car careened into the parking lot on two wheels and screeched to a halt in front of the glass doors. The driver leaped out of the car, not even bothering to turn off the engine.
“Charlee’s in the passenger seat.” The woman, clad only in a man’s dirty dress shirt, let out a string of curses that could make a sailor blush. “Where’s the medical team?!”
I beat everyone to the passenger side of the car and yanked open the door. Charlee had curled into a ball, her cheek resting on the console between the seats. Her pale face and small size made her appear more like a sleeping doll rather than a living human.
