Rebecca's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 6) (31 page)

Rebecca sat up straighter, aware of the cool air in the room wafting across her naked chest. She glanced at the clock. Five forty-five.

Twelve hours ago she’d been raging against this hospital, but that wasn’t Marian’s fault. The woman was not the cause of Rebecca’s aggravation or her problems.

Rebecca had a moral compass that set her into action. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

“Bless you, hon.” Marian disconnected before Rebecca could say another word.

“You’re kidding, right?” Miles asked the pillow, barely more awake than one minute ago.

Rebecca climbed over his frame, kissing his back as she went.

Griffen reached out a hand and snagged her ankle. He groaned. “Really, baby?”

“Yep. Who’s taking me?”

They both groaned.

She snickered as she made her way across the room. “No worries. I can drive. I think I still remember how.”

Two seconds later as she flipped on the shower, two men stood in the doorway.

Twenty minutes later both men dropped her off. She rode to the hospital in between them in the front seat of Miles’ truck, and she kissed them both soundly one at a time before she got out. Fuck anyone who had issue with it. Let the hospital fire her.

She walked into the emergency room to find total chaos. It was like a full moon or something.

One thing that helped was that working kept her mind off the race she knew was about to start a few blocks away in downtown Cambridge. It smarted she wasn’t there at the starting line, but she tamped down her frustration and threw herself into her work.

Two hours later, she flinched as the gun went off for the start of the race. She could hear it from the emergency room bay where she was helping unload a stretcher.

And two minutes after that, all hell broke loose.

•●•

Miles groaned when his cell phone rang as he and Griffen returned to the condo. He pulled it out of his back pocket to find an emergency call coming from an elder in his pack, Randal Peaceman. “Shit.”

“Everything okay?” Griffen asked.

Apparently Randal had a horse in labor that wasn’t doing so well.

Miles didn’t know Randal well. The man was older, perhaps in his eighties.

Miles had always found the man to be a bit odd and rather reclusive, but he was raised to respect his elders, and he took that seriously. If the man had an animal in distress, Miles would not leave him high and dry.

With this in mind, Miles pulled up to the condo and faced Griffen. “Gotta go see a man about a horse.” He grinned.

Griffen chuckled. “How often do you use that line?”

“In my job? Nearly every day.”

“Well, check in and let me know if you need anything. Guess I’ll go back to bed.”

Miles glared at Griffen. “Sure, you do that. The rest of us will make the big bucks.”

“Riiight. Talk to me about that in the middle of ski season,” Griffen teased as he exited the truck. “Later.”

Miles headed for the reservation as soon as Griffen shut the door.

The last thing he wanted to do was drive forty-five minutes on not enough sleep, but that was his job.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, he turned up the radio and slapped his knee to the music to keep himself awake and focused as he drove. He tried to dip into Rebecca’s mind a few times, but his mate was obviously swamped because she was not available for idle chitchat.

When he pulled up and parked between Randal’s barn and his dilapidated house, he shut off the engine and watched as the older man emerged from the back of the house.

“Bartel. Thanks for coming.” Peaceman didn’t make eye contact. In fact his brow was furrowed. That wasn’t unusual by itself. After all, the man was worried about his horse, and as far as Miles knew, Randal only had one horse.

Miles approached Peaceman with an outstretched hand the older man ignored as he walked past him. It unnerved Miles a bit, and he pondered why the man had been in the house instead of the barn.

Even more perplexing was the direction Miles’ thoughts went concerning the horse. If the man had only one horse, how did it get pregnant? And if Miles wasn’t mistaken, the horse Randal owned was not female. Plus, the guy lived way out from town, secluded. He didn’t have the personality or the financial wherewithal to arrange for a breeding.

Hell, his house was falling off the frame. Miles twisted his neck to look back over his shoulder as he followed Randal. He cringed. It was a wonder the man had running water and electricity in that house. It was older than dirt. Why wasn’t anyone on the reservation keeping an eye on this man? He clearly needed more assistance than Miles could provide.

Miles followed a silent Randal into the barn and continued at his rear until they reached the last stall. An empty stall.

The barn was as quiet at its owner. There was no evidence of any animals at all.

Miles furrowed his brow and reached one hand up to scratch his head, perplexed. “Randal, where’s your horse? I’m confused.” As he turned to face the older gentleman, he found himself backing up a step at the feral look in the man’s eyes and the growl he emitted.

Then Randal lifted his hand so fast, Miles didn’t have a chance to wrap his brain around Peaceman’s intentions before the old guy jabbed a needle in Miles’ arm.

Miles jerked back, but it was too late. “What the fuck?” Whatever had been in the syringe was already going to work. He lowered himself slowly toward the ground as his mind went blank and his limbs stopped functioning properly. “Shit. Randal? What the fuck?” he repeated, his words slurring.

And then everything went black.

•●•

Rebecca stopped in her tracks as the rumbling started. She knew instantly what was happening. After all, she’d been through two earthquakes already in the last week.

But this was different.

The entire hospital shook as if some giant picked it up from the outside and swung it around and around his head.

She lost her balance and fell to the floor, grabbing onto the edge of the desk as she went down. The computer on the counter above her head slid forward as she watched in horror.

At the last second it careened the other direction and crashed to the ground.

Then there was the screaming. Adults, kids, babies, anyone with a voice box.

The vibrations from the massive earthquake didn’t let up. It seemed like forever while the walls shook, the ceiling tiles fell, and chairs skidded across the room all over the waiting area. It probably lasted less than a minute, but for anyone who’d never been through an earthquake of this magnitude, it was the most frightening experience.

Finally, the earth settled.

The screaming did not.

Rebecca jumped to her feet and took a cursory glance around the room. No one appeared to be pinned or bleeding. Scared, yes, but not dying.

Someone grabbed her arm, and she spun around to see Marian behind her. “I’m heading to the rooms behind me. Can you check the hall to the left?”

Rebecca nodded and took off at a run. So many things raced through her head. The hospital was only two stories. It was a small town, but there were approximately twenty patients in the hall Marian indicated. There were more upstairs, but the nurses up there would be handling that.

She stuck her head into each room. “You okay?” She gave each patient and any family in the room a quick glance and then raced to the next room.

By the time she made it back to the lobby, having determined no one was in imminent danger, the waiting room was packed with people who came in off the street.

The chairs had been set back upright in a random arrangement, and all of them were filled with people holding a broken limb or a gash on their arms, legs, or heads.

Mayhem. Total.

Someone ran into the emergency entrance screaming. At first Rebecca didn’t know what the man was saying, but she stepped closer as she caught the word “race.”

“Please, whoever can help. Hurry.” He pointed back out the door. “Anyone.” He made eye contact with Rebecca. “You. You’re a nurse? Please hurry.”

Marian and Cecelia came up beside Rebecca.

Marian took command. “Rebecca, you go. See what they need at the race. It just started. The participants can’t have gotten too far. Call me when you get a chance. I’ll try to round up more help and send a doctor.”

Rebecca nodded and took off behind the man before skidding to a stop and returning to the nurses’ station.

Supplies.

She glanced around, spotted someone’s duffle bag under the counter, dumped it out, and filled it with gauze, tape, antiseptic ointment, anything she could get her hands on.

And then she was running again, catching up with the man who’d come for help. “This way,” he yelled. “So many people injured. They’re going to need more than just you.”

They rounded the first corner and then the second, the noise level increasing as they reached a spot several blocks from the starting line. She knew the route well. She could have run it in her sleep.

Anyone who lived in or near the town and wasn’t at work this morning would have been at the race cheering. The casualties could be enormous.

She stopped dead as she reached the next bend and stared at the scene in front of her down a slight incline.

Bodies everywhere. The moaning. The screaming. The sounds of death and fear.

An entire building had collapsed right in the path of the race, crashing down around the participants and pinning them in the debris.

A chill like nothing she’d ever experienced raced down her spine as she realized the implications and lifted her face to the sky for a moment to thank the Native American spirit that kept her out of this catastrophe and made it possible for her to be at the scene in a helpful capacity instead of one of the injured…or dead.

She ran again, stopping at the first person she came to who held a severely broken arm and was in shock. “You.” She pointed at a man nearby who held his shirt over a gash in his head. “Come help.”

He looked at her with huge eyes for a moment and then glanced down at the woman. He nodded and scurried toward her.

“Hold her arm like this.” Rebecca showed him. “This is your job. Don’t move. Understand?”

He nodded again, swallowing as he took the arm and held it.