Nell growled and snapped her mouth shut, but at least her terror had left her.
Graham returned with a phone, plus Diego and Xavier. Diego studied Joe without expression. “Miguel, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Wonder why he didn’t take out a bounty on me,” Xavier said, looking a little hurt. “I was there too.”
“You were unconscious, with a broken arm,” Diego said.
“True,” Xavier said. “Now I remember. All the pain, the thirst, the stink. Good times.”
“I should have shot him when I had the chance.” Diego took the phone from Graham. Joe indicated which of the unnamed numbers was Miguel’s, and Diego tapped it.
“Miguel,” Diego said in a cheerful voice when someone clicked on at the other end. “This is Diego Escobar.” He went into a string of Spanish Cormac didn’t understand. Diego was still smiling, but his eyes were hard. Joe must have understood the words, because he winced.
“The easy way would have been to surrender to the Shifters looking for you earlier this year,” Diego said to Miguel, switching to English. “The hard way is going to be me and every Shifter I know coming after you. You’d better keep an eye over your shoulder, day and night, waking and sleeping, because we’ll be right behind you, Miguel. And when we find you this time, we’re not going to be so nice. No, that’s it. You don’t get to talk.” Diego clicked off the phone, tucked it into his leather coat, and kept his smile as he turned to look at Joe.
Joe’s body tightened under Diego’s scrutiny. “Let it be known I was cooperative,” the man said quickly.
“I haven’t decided what to do with you yet,” Diego said. “The human police can be obtuse, which is why I started my private firm. DX Security is more open-minded. I don’t think any of us want a bounty hunter willing to kill Shifters running around loose, do we?”
“Nope,” Graham said. He smiled too, and his smile held evil.
“I could let Graham explain a few things to you,” Diego said to Joe. “He’s thorough. I don’t know Cormac well, but I expect that when he gets a little better, he’ll be just as thorough. But I think I’ll have you talk to Eric. He’ll be nice and let you have a beer, but Eric’s little chat will stick with you. Forever.”
Jace grinned, looking much like Eric at the moment. “Good idea.”
Joe had gone pale. The man still didn’t fear Shifters enough, but Cormac suspected that after today, he’d learn to fear them as he should.
“We done here?” Cormac asked, his voice scraping. “I love a good early morning woodland snowfall, but right now I’d rather have a roof over my head and a mattress under my back. And then a good breakfast. Pancakes. With honey. Lots and lots of honey.”
“Bleh,” Graham said, the big man’s nose wrinkling. “Bears.”
“Brody can cook,” Nell said. She slid down next to Cormac, snuggling up to him, the tension easing from her again. “Take us home, Diego.”
Nell knew that Cormac was worse off than he claimed. When she and Brody got him out of the pickup and into Nell’s house—and onto her bed—he collapsed against the pillows. His eyes half closed, he remained motionless for a long time.
Nell got him undressed—he’d resumed a shirt and jeans in case any humans saw them after the rescue. Exhausted, she sank down onto the bed next to him. She still wore the black party dress, now torn, burned, and stained with soot and blood.
Cormac had refused to go to a clinic, and said Graham’s patching up would do. The wound had been clean, the bullet exiting without touching anything major, and Shifters were good at healing. Plus his Collar had never gone off, he said, because he hadn’t attacked anyone. He’d have no Collar fatigue to slow down his recovery.
Stupid bear.
Nell closed her eyes, but the image of Cormac leaping inside the burning cabin had seared into her. She’d thought her heart would stop. Then Cormac had found Shane and shoved him out—had done everything to keep Shane safe.
If Cormac hadn’t been there, if he’d never come out to this Shiftertown looking for Nell, he wouldn’t have been in place to save Shane. The enormity of that made Nell open her eyes again, and they stung with tears.
The house was quiet now. Shane had come out of his stupor when they’d returned, annoyed he’d missed everything. He was hurt, but not as bad as everyone had feared, and was already demanding food.
Nell lay down next to Cormac on the small bed and pulled a quilt over them both. She should ask Cassidy or Iona to watch Cormac while she showered and ate breakfast. But she didn’t move.
Brody had appointed himself Shane’s caretaker, and Reid had gone to Eric’s to help deal with the bounty hunter. Last Nell understood from Reid, they planned to use the bounty hunter to assist them in finding Miguel. Eric was already scaring Joe into working for them voluntarily.
Eric had said that Nell and Cormac had done enough for now—the hunt for Miguel would go on, and Eric wanted Peigi and Reid to be there to confront Miguel when they found him. Peigi had earned the right to decide what was to be done with Miguel herself.
Now Cormac needed to heal, and Nell had a need not to leave his side. The new bond wouldn’t let her.
“Stupid bear,” she whispered out loud.
Cormac’s eyes opened a slit and blue gleamed out. “Could say the same about you.”
“Don’t start in again that I should have stayed home knitting.”
“I never mentioned knitting. Knitting never came up.” Cormac’s voice sounded terrible, so far from its pleasant rumble that Nell wanted to cry.
“Stayed home cleaning my shotgun then.” She faltered. “Which I’m giving back to Xavier. I never want to see a gun again.”
“I’ll be fine, woman.”
“And stop calling me woman.”
Cormac opened his eyes a little more. They were red from the smoke and exhaustion, but Cormac managed to look bright and alert. “Do you know why I’ll be fine?”
“No, but I know you’re going to tell me.”
Cormac moved his arm over Nell’s abdomen, warm strength. “The touch of a mate. It speeds up the healing.” His voice grew softer. “At least, I’ve always heard that. Never had the chance to try it until now.”
CHAPTER NINE
Nell swallowed on dryness. “Neither have I.”
They lay shoulder to shoulder, faces turned to each other. Cormac caressed her waist. “I’m sorry about Magnus, love.”
“Can we talk about it later?”
“We can talk about anything you want, anytime you want. For the rest of our lives.”
“Stop.” Nell touched his lips. “You made that mate-claim when I couldn’t deny it.”
“Yep,” Cormac said. “No time like the present.”
“I haven’t accepted it yet.”
“I know.”
He didn’t insist, didn’t do the dominant thing and try to beat her down with his stare. Cormac lay quietly and simply watched her, his eyes heartbreakingly blue.
“You can deny it if you want to,” he said.
She clung to that safety line. “I do deny it. I’m not ready yet. Please, don’t rush me.”
Cormac’s eyes darkened to his bear’s color, and his arm tightened around her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Nell was confused, stunned by the events of the day, worried about Shane, and scared to death that she was forming the mate bond in her heart for Cormac.
The mate bond meant they’d be bound together forever, ceremony or no ceremony, and pulling the bond apart would mean unimaginable grief. Nell had already gone through grief, and she’d almost had to go through it again today. She never wanted to know grief again.