Chapter 51

Lucas’s POV

“I said they could test out small weapons,” I growl, wincing as Brandon and Mason lift me off the ground. I stagger. The arrow sticking out of my thigh moves, and I dig my nails into their shoulders as the piercing pain in my leg grows. Both of my friends grunt in response.

“Sorry, Alpha. It wasn’t one of our warriors,” Brandon says. When I look at him, he nods at something off to the left.

A little boy, probably no older than ten is peeking out from behind a tree. He ducks behind the trunk when he notices me looking, and I groan.

“Why is a child out here with a bow and arrows?”

“Not sure, but we’ll find out,” Mason says. He makes sure I’m leaning against Brandon before going after the kid who screams and takes off running. I sigh and Brandon chuckles at the sight. No one should be out here with weapons, least of all a child.

He could have seriously hurt someone.

I glance down at my leg. Someone else, I mean.

Reaching down, I wrap a hand around the arrow. I’m about to pull it out when an idea comes to mind.

“Put me back down and call for Harper,” I mutter. Brandon’s head whips around and he looks at me like I’m insane. His eyes then narrow as he stares at me.

“You could just pull it out yourself, bandage it, and give it day to heal,” he says.

“Only if it didn’t hit an artery,” I tell him. Though, that’s not why I want Harper here. Like Brandon said, I could deal with this myself, but if she comes, I get to see her. I could possibly get her to lower her walls and tell me something about who attacked her.

“The kid’s aim isn’t that good, so you should be—”

I glare at my Gamma, a growl leaving me and making him pause.

“Right, I’ll get on that for you.”

Nodding, I lean back against a tree and worry about breathing through the pain. Who knew getting shot with an arrow hurt so much? It also makes me wonder where the kid even got the weapon.

We’re not far from the medical wing, so a few minutes later, Harper’s scent and the scent of one of my warriors fills the air.

A sharp gasp followed by a soft hand on my leg makes me open my eyes.

“What happened?” She demands coldly, looking up at Brandon. She’s so close that her sweet scent sends my wolf into a tailspin. Her touch warms my entire body and sends small sparks through my skin.

“Uh, there was an accident and—”

“Nevermind. It doesn’t matter,” she hisses, turning back to me. Our eyes connect, and I notice the tick in her jaw and the way she instantly drops her eyes to my leg. “Why didn’t you just pull it out yourself?”

Brandon coughs and speaks, “I’m going to help Mason find that kid.”

Then, before I can say anything, he and the warrior that escorted Harper disappear into the trees.

“Stupid men,” Harper mutters under her breath. I smile at her irritation only to shout when she rips the arrow out of my thigh.

“Fuck!”

“Don’t move!” She hisses, pressing her hands over the gaping wound. Blood gushes out of the hole in my thigh, and I groan when she pushes down.

“You could’ve given me some warning!”

She doesn’t respond as I growl and dig my claws into the ground. My vision blurs as pain burns through me, but her touch dulls it. A softer, lighter feeling washes through my leg, pushing away the pain.

It grows numb before I can literally feel the hole slowly closing up beneath her hands. I stare at Harper as she concentrates. Some of her long hair falls in her face, and I can’t stop myself from reaching out and tucking it behind her ear.

She jumps, startled, and pulls her face back.

It causes my fingers to brush across her soft cheek, and I want nothing more than to take her face in my hands and kiss her.

“What are you doing?” She snaps, and I’m forcefully slammed back into reality when she jumps up to her feet and backs away from me. The way she watches me with caution in her eyes makes my chest tighten.

I stand, snagging her by the waist and pulling her to my chest, “Do you hate me so much that you’re in such a hurry to leave?”

Harper pushes at my chest, barking back a sarcastic remark, “Are you trying to turn me into a one-night stand before I leave?”

Tension crackles between us as our bodies press together. Her hands fall to my chest, and she glares up at me, breathing heavily, with those bright and fiery green eyes.

Even when she’s angry, Harper is the single most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

I can’t help myself.

I kiss her.

Harper’s POV

Oh, my Goddess.

I shove at Lucas’s chest, and instantly, he releases me.

His hands fall from my waist, and I do the first thing I can think of. I run.

I don’t know what has gotten into him, but I don’t want any part of it. He has a mate, one who is extremely territorial and who is ready to kill me at any moment. If Sierra finds out that Lucas kissed me, I can only imagine what would happen.

Dodging a low hanging branch, I burst out of the trees and make a beeline for the medical wing. I don’t’ hear Lucas behind me, but I don’t look back either even though I want to.

I want to hate him for kissing me, but something inside me tells me to turn around, to go find him, and to kiss him again.

Clearly, the voice in my head wants to kill me.

Instead, I run to my office, closing the door behind me and leaning against it.

“Um, Harper?”

I jump, opening my eyes to find Jenna sitting in one of my patient chairs. She’s staring at me with a brow raised in question, and I take a second to look at myself. Blood coats my hands and some of my clothes, my hair is falling in my face, and I’m out of breath.

“Are you alright?”

Nodding, I walk to the little bathroom and strip out of my scrubs, “I’m fine. Lucas just needed a healer. It’s his blood.”

I quickly change into a new pair of scrubs before moving to the sink.

“So, I guess you went to save him and return the favor,” she says, appearing in the bathroom doorway. I glance at her.

“What do you mean?”

I scrub at the blood on my hands, watching it swirl down the drain as she laughs. When I look up again, she stops laughing and frowns.

“Wait, you’re serious?” She questions, looking confused. “I thought… You do know he’s the one who found you that night, right? He kicked in your bedroom door and brought you to me when he found you hurt.”

My hand slips off the soap pump and bangs against the faucet.

“What?” Something in my chest clenches at the information, and I suddenly feel awful. “Lucas was the one who saved me? Not Logan?”

“That’s right. He was frantic, running through here in the middle of the night and demanding to know where you were,” she says. “I had no idea what he was talking about, until he came back, carrying your unconscious form.”

The angry and hurt expression on Lucas’s face as I ran pops into my mind, and I sink to the floor. Jenna crouches in front of me, touching my face and saying something, but I don’t hear her.

Lucas found me.

He saved me.

And I treated him like dirt.