As the Range Rover sailed off the road and plummeted toward the earth.
As trees snapped and broke but didn't hide a crash.
Simon closed his eyes and prayed for the first time since he left the Foreign Legion. Begged whatever deity would listen not to take his mate away so soon after he'd found her.
Simon brought the radio up and struggled for calm as he called to his guys. "She crashed. Get here immediately. The fifth marker. It's — not good."
It fell out of his hand as he went to the edge of the road and steeled himself to look. The Range Rover rested in a heap of broken trees, one switchback down, and smoke rosefrom the engine. Nothing moved. She didn't cry out or beg for help. Just silence.
Silence and his heart pounding.
Simon ran the four wheeler around the switchback to get closer. He barely heard the grumble of the ancient farm trucks approaching from above and below, and all four of his guys stood around him. The color drained from Ethan's face as he looked at the wreck. "What the fuck happened?"
"Deer. She swerved." Simon started toward the car as numbness spread through his chest. Prepared to see her broken body.
Ethan caught his arm, said, "Let me go first, man," and Finn and Noah held him back as Ethan approached the truck. It wobbled in a strong breeze and he muttered under his breath, trying to open the dented driver's side door. He half-leaned through the window, reaching for something, then called to the others. "Bring my medic bag. She's alive. We'll need the backboard and the c-collar."
Simon exhaled a breath he hadn't known he held as Finn retrieved the giant bag of medical supplies from one of the trucks. Cooper carried over a backboard and neck brace. Simon shook himself back to life and concentrated on saving her. He shut off the part of his brain that just wanted to protect her and mourn what they'd lost. She couldn't wait. The golden hour ticked away and he wasted precious seconds.
He started securing the Range Rover so it wouldn't slide any farther down the mountain, and moved to help as Ethan wrenched the driver's door open. Simon held her legs as Ethan affixed the c-collar around her neck, and Zoe cried out. His bear raged, furious that she hurt, but there was nothing to fight. Nothing to kill or maim to make it better, to fix her. He silenced the bear and concentrated on her. Her glasses had disappeared in the wreck, and for a wild second, he wanted to look for them so she could see when she openedher eyes. She would be scared if she opened her eyes and couldn't see.
Ethan started working as soon as they lay her flat on the backboard. Finn pulled out the satellite phone, cool and calm under pressure. "We need the life flight?"
Ethan didn't answer.
Simon stared at her still form. A massive cut flayed her scalp and blood covered her face. At least one of her legs was broken, and several ribs caved in. From the whistle and gasp of her faint breath, one or more punctured her lungs. Eventually her chest cavity would fill with air and compress her heart until it stopped beating. That would kill her faster than the head wound, most likely. She had minutes, maybe seconds.
Ethan sat on his heels next to her, fingers anchored to her pulse, and looked at Simon with a neutral expression. "She won't last long enough for the life flight to arrive."
Simon's emotions drained away until a husk of a man remained. He hadn't felt so empty in six years. Could remember the exact moment, standing in front of a burning village in Africa as gunfire cracked through the air and rockets exploded all around, when he stopped giving a shit about anything. It took six years to get over that, to start caring again, and as he looked at Zoe, he knew he wouldn't recover if he lost her. If his mate died, he might as well walk off the cliff next to them.
"You got the IVs?" Simon started rolling his sleeves up.
Finn put the sat phone away. "Boss, are you —"
"I'm sure. I can't lose her." He didn't blink as Ethan tied a band around his bicep and inserted an IV in the crook of his elbow, the tube connected to the subclavian vein near her throat. Crimson filled the tubing and flooded into her. He watched her face, hoping the gray waxy cast to her skin would warm. "She's my mate."
Ethan looked up sharply, taping the line in place on her clavicle. "What? When did you decide this?"
"When the black bear almost ate her." Simon loosened the rubber from around his bicep and let the blood flow freely to her. She could take as much as she needed. She would wake up a bear — his bear, his mate — and he would have a lot of explaining to do, but she would wake up. "I didn't mean to shift. I meant to scare it away. And the bear came out instead."
Finn let out a low whistle. "What the hell did we miss this morning?"
Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just wait until she's fine."
Noah went to the Range Rover and retrieved her backpack, and found her glasses and a phone on the floorboard. He shoved the glasses and phone into the backpack, then paused and peered into it. "Holy shit, man. This thing is full of cash."
"Yeah." Simon sat next to her, careful not to jostle her, and wished his blood would flow faster. "She's kind of a criminal."
"Kind of?" Noah held up several packs of cash. "Dude, this kind of scratch could —"
"Leave it," Ethan said. He shoved to his feet and looked at Cooper. "Take the four wheeler back up to the house and call the wrecker to get this truck out of the way. We don't want it falling. Noah, take her stuff and the truck back up to the house to set up the infirmary. If the transfusion works, she'll live but she won't be happy. We'll need some place to lock her up. Finn, I need you to drive the other truck after we load her in the back."
The others dispersed and engines roared to life, maneuvering carefully around the wreck and where the girl lay.Ethan glanced at Simon. "If you can stand, we need to get her into the bed of the truck."
He nodded, not trusting his voice, and rose as Ethan and Finn lifted the backboard with the girl on it. He climbed into the bed of the truck as they slid her in as well, careful of the IV that still connected them. The color in her face was a little better, and though it might have been his imagination, he thought the cut on her forehead looked smaller. His shifter blood would save her. It would change her, but it would also heal the grievous injuries that would otherwise steal her away.
Finn got in the driver's seat and began the long, slow trek back up the mountain, avoiding potholes and rough patches, though they bumped along too much for Simon's liking. They were maybe halfway back to the lodge when Ethan reached for the IV in Simon's arm. "That's enough blood. You'll drain yourself dry."
