Page 47 of Tiger Born

Dame and Mars exchanged a glance. “If you save him, he will find a way to kill you.”

She shrugged. “Then I’ll move away. I’ll keep everything hidden, and you can keep your brother. I have to hurry though. He doesn’t have much time.”

“But your life—”

“Isn’t worth more than his,” she whispered. “His death would be on my hands, and he was right. I’m not a killer. Help me get him inside.”

“Misty, he’s—”

“Let me try,” she said sternly, inviting no more argument.

Mars was already standing. “Where? Barn or house?”

“House. I need good light. Do you have a medical kit?”

Mars nodded and bolted for the path that led back to the house.

Misty knelt beside the tiger to assess the damage. It was so bad. There wasn’t any part of his underbelly that was unmarred. Dame had done the same as Stellan had done to him those weeks ago.

“He can’t Change back,” Dame explained.

“Then I’ll do my best as he is.”

Stellan opened his mouth exposing his long, sharp canines, and Dame flinched and pulled her back. He was just panting though. Already, his eyes were taking on a glossy look.

Mars was back with the truck, and the boys loaded him into the bed while she climbed in the back seat. Mars drove them all back to the house and the guys dragged that enormous tiger inside and laid him down onto the kitchen table. It was large and sat eight people, but Stellan’s limbs still hung off the ends, and his head was hanging off it completely.

She didn’t know how to do this exactly. She was no vet, but she had learned how to speed up the Cat healing from her time sewing up Dame.

Her bedside manner and her instincts kicked in, and she ordered Dame and Mars around and they retrieved everything she needed them to, and if they didn’t have it at the house, they found something that worked. Mars had told her Cat’s didn’t get infections, and well, that made this a hell of a lot easier than it would’ve been.

She turned her mind off and got lost in her work as Dame and Mars stood right beside her, blocking her from Stellan’s paws in case he came to.

And that was how she spent the early morning hours of the worst day of her life, knowing with every cut she healed, Stellan would be that much closer to finishing his hunt. She would always be the Rabbit, but at least she could live with herself, however long that life lasted.

She was going to have to leave here.

She blinked back tears and kept working.

“Babe,” Dame whispered.

“I’m good. I’m good.”

She would have to leave Uncle Tim. Leave the safety of weekends at his house. She would have to leave her job here, and a system she was comfortable in. She would have to go far enough away that she could go into hiding.

She had to pull a bullet from Stellan at the end. It had lodged in his back. The second she removed it, his skin started closing the seam of the injury.

His breathing was steady, and he was tensing as she worked on him.

Dame and Mars didn’t leave her side for even a moment, and she knew they would take the brunt of Stellan’s claws to keep her safe if he came to.

Dammit, why couldn’t she stop crying?

Because she was sealing her fate. She was saving the one who hunted her, and she would never be safe again.

She was trading her life for his. She had to. She couldn’t let Dame’s heart get broken just because she was the stupid Rabbit.

She was going to miss Dame so much.