Page 34 of Starting a New Life

It didn’t work on me. My wolf might be fooled, but I wasn’t.

Not fooled, my wolf insisted, his hackles rising.

I chose to ignore him for now.

“So, what’s his prognosis?”

Jasper smiled, carefully placing a comforter over the wolf’s body.

“It’s good. The mage managed to heal the internal wounds. From what I could see, the bullet hit this one’s lung on the way through. He would’ve drowned in his own blood if the mage hadn’t healed him so quickly. The only thing left to do was for me to clean the wound and sew him up. He should be able to jump back quickly. You know the drill: let him rest and sleep it off, then, once he’s up for it, let him shift so he can heal completely. I’ll swing by at noon to check up on our patients.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Jasper.”

“No problem.” He smiled at me. “And Gray?”

“Yes?”

“Be gentle with them. They’re really young. I think probably about eighteen. Definitely not older than twenty.”

I nodded, pressing my lips into a thin line as I thought about the grown-ass shifters hunting them down with guns. They’d been adults in their thirties and forties hunting teenagers.

My anger rose.

Our mage saved them.

He isn’t our mage.

He was an intruder.

My wolf huffed and turned his back on me as if he were pouting. At me. For not abandoning two potential new pack members when they were severely injured and probably scared shitless.

“Do you want me to check up on the mage too? Angelo said he collapsed when he was healing this one.”

The petty part of my brain wanted to decline the offer. The mage wasn’t our problem.

My wolf growled lowly in my head, his anger rising at my stubbornness.

Jesus. He was out of line. Tomorrow, we’d need to go on a good long run or maybe spar with Rhett to let off a bit of steam.

“Yes, please. I’ll go with you.”

In the end, I wasn’t petty enough to deny anyone medical attention. Especially if he’d sustained injuries while trying to help two prospective pack members. Part of me, the rational part, the one not consumed by rage upon finding out that someone was hiding right under my nose, was aware of the fact that the mage had put himself in danger to help. Mages weren’t immune to gunshots, were they? He’d been there, helping when we’d arrived. He hadn’t stopped, hadn’t stayed back until the threat was eliminated. He’d been kneeling right there in the snow, his black cloak such a stark contrast to his white surroundings; he’d been a prime target.

“If you don’t mind my asking, Gray. Do you know where he came from?”

I let out a humourless laugh as we walked down the hall and down the stairs.

“No. That’s one of the questions I need to ask him.”

There were more.

Tons of them.

How long had he been staying here? Why was he hiding in our territory?

We reached the main floor, where a couple of people were standing around the door leading to the basement.

“Everything okay?” I asked, raising my eyebrows in question.