Fighting Heaven for Love (17 page)

“It’s over,”
Aiden said. “
Help is on the way, Prescott.”

“How long has she been in the water now?”

Prescott roared when Caleb answered his question.
“From when you roared and drew the Nephilim away from her.”
He felt Caleb’s guilt and fear drip from every word.

Caleb could beat himself up later over his decision to send Meg into the stream. Right now, Prescott needed to find his mate. He considered going back upstream in case he’d missed her, but decided to trust himself and not give in to the dread and fear that threatened to cripple him.

With each step, he scanned the water, looking for any ripple, any sign that his leopard was hiding below the surface. After another few minutes of slow pacing, he was ready to turn back, certain she couldn’t have travelled so far from her entry point. Then a small white patch below the water ahead caught his eye. The water flowed around it making small eddy’s in the otherwise uninterrupted current of water.

Uncaring of the water’s temperature, he shifted and dived into the stream. He swam underwater toward the obstruction and nearly wept when his hands encountered Meg’s unmistakable soft fur.

He planted his feet and found the water was only chest-high. Meg’s nose was still above the surface, but when he tried lifting her out she failed to move. He dove back under, and found she’d dug her claws into a submerged log. “Clever girl, Meg. But you need to let go now.”

He knew she was unconscious, and the cold would have put her into a coma a long time ago, but talking to her calmed him. It assured him she was alive.

“You found her,” Brody said. “Why can’t you get her out of the water? She’s over here,” Brody then yelled.

“I’m trying, Brody. Come on, baby. Work with me here.” Prescott dived under the water again and let Meg go. He used both hands to painstakingly pry each claw from the wood one at a time.

By the time he’d freed three of her paws, he was able to finally jerk her free. He waded to the stream’s edge where Brody stood wringing his hands, and placed Meg on the cold bank. He quickly pulled himself out and checked her breathing.

“She’s not breathing,” Prescott said. The words choked him and he shivered uncontrollably. His shaking wasn’t caused by the cold. “I don’t know what to do.”

* * * *

Brody was not going to lose the first person who had ever treated him kindly in the whole of his life.

“Well move aside and let me at her until you work your shit out.” He pushed the unresisting man aside and knelt by Meg.

He knew exactly what to do if she were human, so he’d just do that. He opened her mouth and let the water flow out. Then he pushed on her chest where he guessed her heart may be for a minute or so before closing her mouth and breathing into her nose.

He felt the air rush back out, and he did it all over again. On the third cycle, Aiden arrived. The vampire took off his shirt and started to rub Meg’s coat vigorously while Brody was breathing into her little nose.

Caleb and Lachlan arrived moments later and shifted. Brody felt them shift but didn’t spare them a glance. If they were as useless as Prescott then he couldn’t waste the time.

“Should I call forth her shift so you can do that to her while she’s human?” Caleb said.

“You can do that?” Aiden said.

“He’s done it before,” Lachlan said. Caleb knelt beside Aiden and used his hand to massage Meg’s heart.

“Brody, what do you think is best?” Prescott said. He didn’t know when he became the expert, he was just winging it. Landon and Elliot arrived but stayed shifted. The big bears turned and watched the woods for threats as they all focused on saving Meg.
I have awesome mates.

“I’ll call Jason,” Aiden said. Prescott took over rubbing Meg dry while Aiden stepped back. He was talking to this person Jason for only a minute before he closed his phone. Brody and Caleb hadn’t stopped even for a second.

“He says to see if she’s breathing on her own now. If she’s not, he said to make her shift and warm her up as quickly as you can, but to keep doing CPR.”

Brody looked at Caleb and gently rested Meg’s head back on the ground. Caleb removed his hand from her chest and left it hovering there as they all watched and waited. Her chest rose and fell. Brody brought his ear close to her face.

“She’s breathing,” he said, his voice cracking as a sob filled his throat.

“I can hear her heartbeat. It’s slow, but it’s there,” Caleb said. “Brody could you take us back home, I’ll start a fire and we’ll warm her up. I think she’ll be better staying shifted so she can warm up quicker.”

Brody didn’t waste time talking. He took Caleb home first, depositing him in the living room, right in front of the fire. He went straight back for Meg, then took Lachlan. When he went back for Prescott, the big man grabbed him as soon as he appeared.

“Thank you for saving my mate. I’d be honored if you’d be godfather to our first cub.” He put Brody down when Landon and Elliot growled loudly. Prescott was still naked. His mates were understandably annoyed.

He took Prescott home and went back for Landon and Elliot. Aiden had left in the seconds it had taken him to get everyone home. Brody hoped he’d gone to burn the barn. It would be a grizzly sight for someone to unknowingly stumble upon.

He took Elliot first then returned for Landon. “I’ll take us back to Lachlan’s room so you can put some clothes on. That’s where I took Elliot.”

“Why don’t you take us back to my room so I can take your clothes off?” Landon said.

Brody crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot. Landon ran a hand through his thick black hair, and shrugged.

“What can I say? You were amazing today, Brody. You were fearless when you took on those demons, and you made minced meat out of them.” Brody winced at the gory pun. “Then you saved Meg’s life. It was incredibly sexy, little mate.”

“I’ll take you to Lachlan’s room because you’ve forgotten one thing, my big handsome Landon.” Landon raised his eyebrows as he walked forward and pulled Brody against his warm naked body. “I have another mate who should be there the first time we’re naked in your bedroom.”

Landon’s roar shook snow from the trees and Brody shook it from his hair before taking them to see Meg.

Caleb sat with Meg on his lap. Lachlan and Prescott sat on either side of him and they all watched each breath Meg took. Caleb knew he’d never take her respirations for granted again and he doubted his brothers would either.

“I know you’re blaming yourself, Caleb,” Prescott said, “but you shouldn’t. It would have been a completely different scenario in that barn if they already had Meg.”

“They could have taken her anywhere,” Lachlan said. “We might never have found her in time.”

Caleb nodded, he had told himself all of this, but he still felt the weight of his own guilt crushing him. She had still nearly died.

“She trusted you, Caleb, and did exactly what you told her to do,” Prescott said. “It saved her.”

“If you hadn’t found her in time…” Lachlan started. Prescott cut him off with a growl.

“I didn’t know what to do when she wasn’t breathing. I’ve never felt so damned helpless. Brody was the one who saved her life.”

Caleb chuckled. “Are you sure you don’t want to whine about something, too, Lachlan?”

“No, I’m just happy our mate is alive and safe. You two are ruining my joyful mood, so shut the fuck up.”

Prescott laughed, too, and Caleb started to forgive himself. They had all done what was necessary to save Meg.

“Brody is one scary demon,” Caleb said. “I’m just glad he’s on our side.”

“Oh, by the way. I asked him to be godfather to our first cub.” Prescott laughed and ran his hand over Meg’s silky soft coat. “I’m sure Meg won’t mind. She loves the little guy.”

Caleb watched Meg’s slow, steady breathing and wondered if she was already pregnant. He wanted nothing more than to see her grow round with their cubs, but the hypothermia may have harmed the growing fetus. “I’m going to up our offer to Charlie Paige. We need a doctor here and she’s a good one.”

“We can’t kidnap Jason for the whole of Meg’s pregnancy, when she does get pregnant,” Prescott said. “So it’s a good plan.”

“Did you smell Kaitlyn?” Lachlan said. He stroked over Meg’s head and rubbed her ears softly.

“No. Why,” Prescott said.

“She’s pregnant,” Caleb said. “She hasn’t told Meg yet, so I think we should keep quiet and let her share the news herself when she’s ready.”

The fire had warmed the room so much that Caleb was sweating, but he wouldn’t move until Meg woke up and shifted. He closed his eyes but kept his hand resting on her side. The steady rise and fall of her chest made him blissfully happy.

* * * *

Shivers ran through Meg’s body, shaking her from her dream. She’d been warm in her dream, but now she felt cold. Opening her eyes, she saw a blazing fire.
Water. I was in the water.
She shivered again, and warm hands smoothed over her coat.

She looked at her fur covered paws and remembered everything. The man taking her, hiding in the tree then Prescott’s roar and the water.

“We need more wood on the fire,” Lachlan said. “She’s still cold.”
She turned to see the frowning faces of her mates. She was lying across Caleb’s lap with Prescott and Lachlan on either side. They were all here.
Is it over?

As more shivers wracked her body she shifted. “Is it over? Is Lexie safe?”

Caleb wrapped his arms around her. His broad naked chest felt hot against her freezing skin. She pulled her legs up to her chest and put her hands against the warmth of Caleb’s chest.

“Jesus, you’re as cold as ice, baby,” Caleb said. Goose bumps rose on his chest and arms.

“I’ll put more wood on the fire,” Lachlan said, “Prescott, go grab a blanket.”

“Lexie?” Meg said, her teeth chattering loudly.

“No one was hurt,” Caleb said. “The bad guys are all dead.”

Prescott wrapped a soft blanket over her and Caleb then sat down next to her, rubbing over her skin with the blanket. The friction was helping. She felt the warmth of it seep into her frozen skin.

“So cold.” She managed to get the words out as she shook, her teeth loudly knocking together.

“We know, baby,” Prescott said. “You were so brave.” He regarded her with a serious expression, shadows in his eyes making him look haunted. She didn’t like that look. She wanted her Prescott back.

“Tell me,” she said. She couldn’t get the rest of the words to form as her jaw shuddered so badly.

As they told her everything, the shivering finally abated. She snuggled against Caleb’s warm chest and stretched out her hands under the blanket to hold Prescott and Lachlan’s hands.

“Brody not only beat those demons, he saved your life, Meg,” Prescott said. “I didn’t know what to do when you weren’t breathing.”

His pain hit her hard through their bond, and she scented it in the warm air. He felt he’d let her down. “You risked your life drawing those two men away from me. They were right underneath the tree I was hiding in. From what you said, if Aiden hadn’t arrived when he did, you would have been burned, maybe killed.”

“We’ve told him all of this,” Caleb said.

“So the big bad enforcer doesn’t know everything?” Meg said teasingly. “Honestly, who would have thought to do CPR on a leopard? Brody is totally insane. A genius, but insane.”

Prescott’s smile was genuine. “You shouldn’t say that about your child’s godfather.”

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea. I want Kaitlyn to be the godmother, though. I love them both, it’s only right. We should tell that nice doctor you took me to what Brody did. I bet she wouldn’t have thought of that either.”

“I’m going to get that nice doctor to come to Pine Falls and be our town doctor,” Caleb said. “So I’m glad you liked her.”

“Nick is really dead. You saw him dead.” Meg didn’t doubt them, she just needed reassurance that her nightmare was really over. She wanted to be free from looking over her shoulder and worrying he’d appear to take either her or Lexie.

“Actually, we killed him twice,” Lachlan said. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. She reached for him and ran her hands over his muscled shoulders. She shivered as Caleb kissed his mark on her neck.

“I think we need to share a little more body heat with our mate,” Prescott said. He drew the blanket off her and kissed down her back with his warm lips.

Meg knelt on Caleb’s lap and wrapped her arms tighter around Lachlan’s shoulders. She didn’t need any more heat. She was burning for her mates. She pushed all thoughts of evil creatures from her mind and just enjoyed being mated to her three sexy mountain lions.

Caleb tried to hold Meg still as she bounced excitedly on his knee at their wedding party. He swore his cock was going to snap off if she didn’t stop rubbing her sexy ass against it.

“I can’t believe Kaitlyn is pregnant,” Meg said. “I wonder if the baby will be a shifter or a vampire. Not that I care. I’m going to be a godmother.”

“Be still, baby, or everyone here will see the sexy surprise you have for us under this scrap of material you call a wedding dress.” He punctuated his statement by sliding his elongated canines into his mark on Meg’s neck.