Making the Rent the Hard Way - 38

It was too dark to see much as the trio moved away from the moonlight coming in through the open door. There was nothing I could do but hug the wall, praying that Luca and the smaller gray would be able to defeat Farnham and survive the wounds I knew he was inflicting on them. Their howls and growls were deafening in the small room. Then there was a piercing yelp, followed by a whimper that faded to nothing, and all was quiet.

Within seconds, the room filled with men and wolves, some bleeding badly, others more or less undamaged. In the midst of them was a small fox who immediately shifted into Orchid.

"Lights," she said sharply.

I ran to turn them on, then dropped to my knees beside the red wolf. My red wolf, Luca. Orchid did the same beside the smaller gray wolf, running her hands over him, and I knew it had to be Rocky.

Luca was bleeding badly, the worst from the wound on his shoulder.   

"He's dead," someone said, and, for a horrible second, I thought they meant Luca. Then someone else said, "And good riddance," so I knew they meant Farnham.

Not that I cared at the moment. All my attention was on Luca. "Help him," I called out desperately. A slender man came to kneel beside me, obviously assessing the damage. "He'll heal. He just needs to sleep in this form, but not here." He glanced over at Orchid, who had Rocky's head in her lap, stroking it. "Him, too, foxy."

She barely smiled at the nickname, nodded, then she and Rocky were gone. The man gently gathered Luca into his arms. "Hold my shoulder," he said, which I did. Then we were in the bedroom of Luca's apartment. The man carefully laid Luca on the bed then turned to me. "He will heal. Believe."

I tried to. I knew shifters healed much faster than humans, but as damaged as Luca was, it was hard to accept that he'd live. I ran my hand softly down Luca's back, looking at the man, the shifter, who'd brought us here, wondering who he was and how he'd known where Luca lived, so I asked.

"I'm Gino, Luca's brother," the man replied. "One of several, actually, but the only one he keeps in touch with. In this case, it's a damned good thing he did."

"If that's so, why haven't you been helping us?"

Gino chuckled. "Who do you think owns the place where he was hiding out? I travel a lot, as part of my job, so I have apartments in several cities, including here. When he called to ask if he could use it and told me why, I knew he needed help. Unfortunately, what I do meant I couldn't drop everything and come out here. But I knew Rocky had his back. Then Rocky got in touch with me to let me know what was going down tonight. So, I came. Damned good thing I did. Farnham's…well, goons for lack of a better word, were out for blood."

I almost smiled. "That's how we thought of them." I realized I had no idea how the battle had gone. "Were you and the rest of the shifters Rocky pulled together able to take them down?"

"Yeah. It was touch and go, but we came out on top and sent them away with their tails between their legs—the ones we didn't kill. We lost one of ours, too, unfortunately, but we all knew that was a possibility."

I nodded, my concentration on Luca, even though I was listening to Gino. Some of Luca's wounds had already healed—the smaller ones—but his shoulder still looked as bad as it had back in the basement. "He should be in the hospital," I said angrily, glancing up at Gino.

"At least you didn't say at the vets," Gino replied with a ghost of a smile. "Trust me. He'll heal without any help. Shifters do." He put one hand on my shoulder. "You should get some sleep while he's healing. We both should. I'll take the spare bedroom."

I took that as I'm sure he meant it. As soon as he left the room, I stripped down to my briefs then carefully slid into bed next to Luca. Sleep was a long time coming. All I could think about was what I'd do if Gino was wrong and Luca died. I kept my hand on his neck, feeling the faint pulse beating under his fur.

"Don't die on me, Luca. I've never loved someone until you. I don't know what I'll do if I lose you, now that I've found you." I whispered that over and over until, finally, I fell asleep.