A Mother Before A Mate
Chapter 41

The sound of another shot rings through my ears, and I feel a searing pain in my shoulder.

He hit me! f**k! It feels like time almost slows. No matter how much I wanted to stop, I force mysef to keep moving. Each stride of my paws feels so deliberate, and I can see everything around me, but everything is muffled. I can feel the searing hot stabbing pain throbbing through my shoulder. The pain is so bad that I have to slow down a little, but I won't stop. I hear another shot ring through, but this time I didn't feel anything. He missed. I see the guy that was shooting at me, is now being torn apart, by ... by Lev. It was a f*****g silver bullet too, and it's still lodged inside of me. I can feel it burning through my skin. It hurts like a bitch.

The pain is spreading, because of the silver. If the bullet was left there, it would slowly poison my whole body, but there's still plenty of time until that happens. I need to fight through it, now's not the time to piss and moan, or let my guard down. I keep my eyes on the target and continue to charge ahead, and the sounds of snarls, gnashing of teeth and growls sowly start to seep back into my ears.

I catch a movement from the corner of my eye, and see that another wolf is mid-air, ready to attack. I shift directions quickly, and jump up catching his neck before his paws even reached the ground. Just as I slam him to the ground, Tim reaches me. I have blood dripping from my mouth as he tries to lunge at me. I slide out of the way, and I can't help but hiss at the pain the added pressure put on my shoulder with the way I moved. It feels like the bullet is being pushed deeper into my flesh with each movement.

He tries again, and I notice two other wolves are moving in to attack me. Three on one. I'm not in the mood for this s**t right now. I leap out of the way, making Tim and another wolf crash into one another. I moved so quickly, that I'm attacking the third wolf before they even realized. I wasn't able to conect with the neck but my teeth dig into his shoulder, and I pull. I taste blood in my mouth, and I hear the howl from the wolf who lay immobile on the ground in front of me. f**k, almost all of his front leg is ripped off. The injured wolf is between me and the two others.

They're both standing side by side snarling at me, but Tim is filled with so much more rage and hate. I decide to go for the warror first, but out of nowhere one of my warriors pounces on him. I look of panic sets in Tim's eyes, but it only lasted a second. It's one on one again. Then he was charging me again.

This time I don't move out of the way, but I meet him and our bodies collide. He falls back, but I don't lose my footing. He quickly struggles to make it to his feet, and I wait for him. I take the opprtunity to rest my shoulder for a second. It f*****g hurts. He moves in again, and I slam into him again. Only this time, when he falls back, I am ready and quick to jump on him. My teeth grasp onto his neck. I bite down, and I can feel him struggling to get away. With one quick and painful movement on my part, because of my shoulder, I snap his neck.

Alpha Johnson is laying on the ground dead. I let out a loud howl to get everyone's attention. Then I let out another. My entire pack and allies know exactly why I'm doing this, and they follow suit and howl as well. Everyone stops fighting, just as I hoped they would. I shift. I'm a*s naked, but I don't care. I see the blood dripping down my body from my shoulder.

"DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU'RE FIGHTING HERE TODAY?" I yell. Everyone is still in their wolf form and looking at me.

"YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO. I KILLED ALPHA'S SON, DERRICK, BECAUSE HE WAS A PEDOPHILE. LUSTING FOR MY 1 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER." Someone hands me a pair of shorts and I put them on. Everyone is looking at each other, and I can tell they're surprised about the information I just gave them.

"HE CAME INTO MY HOME, EYES BLACK WITH LUST FOR MY CHILD. WHAT WOULD ANY MAN DO?" I holler out. People all around start shifting into their human form. "HOW CAN WE TRUST YOU?" Some man yells to me.

"I called Alpha Tim right after and explained to him. He decided to change the story to manipulate people, so you all could help him exact his revenge. I have never attacked anyone unjustly. There is no reason to believe this. His Beta and Gamma didn't seem to be surprised by the revelation either. I suspect if you dig deeper, you will replace proof to what I'm telling you all," I add loudly, but not as loudly as before. This silver bullet is really draining me, not to mention it's excruciatingly painful.

"Malcolm?" I hear someone call. I search the crowd for where the voice is coming from.

"Malcolm?" A woman says again. I look and I see a woman talking to the other guy that came with Derrick that day, either his Beta or Gamma. "What?" Malcolm finally answers.

"Is this true?" She asks, and she looks mad.

"Jenny, I didn't know for sure!"

"You suspected?" She gapes, disgust all over her face. That woman must be his mate, and she is not happy with him.

"I didn't know for sure. If I knew for sure, we would have left the pack. After he was killed, I figured we'd get a new Alpha, so I didn't need to push the issue any further," he explains. She's shaking her head.

"Then why the hell are we fighting here today?" She growls.

"I tried to talk to Alpha about it, but he wouldn't listen, and he told me to never speak of it again. No one was going to believe me if I told them, because the lies Alpha was spewing. If I would have spoken up, he would have had us both killed. He went after Alpha Lavard's mate. I didn't want him going after you," he explains.

"YOU'VE ALL HEARD THAT!" I yell. I can tell by everyone's body language that they are more relaxed and this fight is over.

"We didn't know, Alpha Lavard," a man approaches me, and says apologetically.

"I know. Your Alpha is responsible for this," I admit.

"We don't have an Alpha now. What do we do?" He asks. Two of my warriors drop large boxes of shorts and extra-large t-shirts and those that are in human form grab what they need to cover themselves.

"Let's get this Alpha business sorted now. You're the strongest in your pack Malcolm?" I ask. He nods.

"What were you? Beta or Gamma?" I ask.

"Gamma."

"DOES ANYONE WANT TO FIGHT MALCOLM FOR ALPHA OF THIS PACK?" I ask.

I feel a mind-link coming in,

-I want to fight for it- Zac says

I would hate to lose Zac because he's my best friend, and he's strong, loyal and he makes my pack stronger, but I won't hold him back. Plus, I know we'd have a strong alliance.

- I'd hate to lose you, but I think you would be a great Alpha- I agree.

"I'll challenge him," Zac says out loud, and it's as if everyone takes a step back. They are too afraid to fight him. That alone shows me Zac deserves this. There is no one here, aside from Jett and I, that I think could beat Zac, not even the other Alpha's that are here. "Okay, let's go," I motion Zac and Malcolm. f**k! My shoulder hurts! I just want Zac to do this, and quickly. I feel a hand on my bareback, and I feel the sparks erupting. I turn around, and see Lexi looking so worried. I pull her into my good side and hug her. "You've been shot!" Her voice cracks, and I see her eyes welling up.

"I'm fine baby, I barely feel it," I lie.

"Let's get you to the hospital," she says.

"I need to see this," I explain, and she frowns.

"It's only going to take a minute, trust me," I assure her, and I bend to kiss her forehead. The fight starts, and just as I predicted, it lasted less than a minute. More like 15 seconds.

"Alpha Zac Slade of Red River," I declare.

"Congratulations! Alpha, I'll let you figure out your Beta and Gamma in the way you see fit," I say to Zac, and then I turn to head to the hospital with Lexi.

***

I spent the last hour in the hospital. They wanted to sedate me, but who knows how long I would have been out for. Lexi was freaking out. I don't want to be unconscious for hours while she's worried sick in the hospital. I don't want her stressed out, especially now that she's pregnant with our pup. I made them just inject me with a bunch of local anesthetics, so I could be conscious the whole time.

I was warned that they probably wouldn't work well, given the effects of the silver bullet, but I insisted. They weren't lying when they said it wouldn't work well. Thank Moon Goddess, they just finished stitching me up. "We'll keep you overnight, just for observation," the doctor states.

"Wait? What? No, I need to get out of here!" I assure him.

"You've been shot with a silver bullet. It's common practice to keep you overnight for observations," he states.

"Observation of what?"

"Infection, for one. I should be checking your vitals, in case we missed some silver," he adds.

"Can you make me a list of things to look out for or something? Things I might feel if my vitals weren't good?" I ask and he looks at me confused.

"It's only one night," he assures me. I lower my voice because for all I know, Lex is just outside my door.

"Listen Doc, my wife, and your Luna is worried sick. She'll want to stay here, and then she'll have to have our daughter watched. I don't want her worried, or sleeping here. She's pregnant with our pup, and I know we'll both feel a lot better if we're at home. Make me a list of what to look out for or something." He pauses to think it over.

"Okay, but I'll be making house calls. I'll be over later today and first thing in the morning to check on you. Check your vitals and dressings." He concedes. Just because he's the doctor, doesn't mean he can boss around his Alpha.

"Deal. Don't tell Luna, you wanted to keep me overnight," I add. He nods hesitantly, and then as soon as he leaves Lexi is rushing in.

Worry is all over her face, and it kills me. "Babe, I'm fine. Stop worrying. It was just my shoulder," I assure her.

"How was it? Did the anesthetics work? You're so stubborn!" She says in a huff.

"They worked, I didn't feel a thing. Stop worrying." I'll lie all day long to her if it means she doesn't worry.

"I'm glad you're okay. I could have lost you today. We all could have," Lexi says through tears.

"Please don't cry, sweetheart," I say while pulling her closer.

"It was Lev that stopped him, did you know that?" I ask her. She smiles and shakes her head.

"No, I didn't see it on the cameras. Must have been a blind spot. I heard gunshots, and then I saw when you shifted, you turned at one point and I saw you were shot, and I couldn't help that I had to get to you. I was so scared," she sniffles. "It's just my shoulder, stop thinking about the things that could have happened."

She gives me a tight smile and nods. She leans down to kiss me. I can tell she was trying to say a lot in that kiss. How much she loves me, how much she needs me, and how grateful she is to be able to kiss me again. That's my woman, so what can I say, I reassured her that I am very much still here, alive, and she still has me. The kiss got heated pretty quickly and I hear someone clear their throat.

Lexi pulls away, and her cheeks are a nice shade of pink. I can't help but smile. "Sorry Doctor," she says with a wince. "I'm not," I say playfully, as I squeeze her hand.

"It's not a problem. I should have knocked. So I have written down just a few things for at-home care," the Doctor says. "At home? He's okay to go home?" Lexi questions.

"Doc said I was fine, and that they need the beds for the injured warriors, so I can go home," I add.

"Oh okay," she gets up to grab the paper from him to scan over it. "Shouldn't I monitor his vitals?" She asks, brows furrowed.

"I've never tended anyone shot with a silver bullet but given the seriousness of this. What if you missed a small shard of the silver?" she asks.

Doc's face brightens, "Do you know how to do that?"

"My mother was a doctor, and I often tagged along," she nods.

"Can you change his bandages? Would you recognize infection?"

"Is there anything different dealing with silver?"

"Nope. If you are capable of checking his vitals, and changing his dressings, I won't need to make house calls," he smiles.

"Anything out of the ordinary pops up, bring him back. I'll get some supplies together for you to take. Bandages, Blood pressure cuff, etcetera." "Thank you, Doctor," Lexi says.