Grayslake: More than Mated: Bear Up (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free

wary. Dean recognized the tone. It was the sort people used when someone was on the edge and about to lose it totally. It was the same tone he’d been using with Kait Turner mere minutes ago.
    “Now!”
    “We’re on our way,” Bennett assured him. “Scott went to get a truck…” He paused for a second. “He’s just about here now.”
    “Good. Don’t waste time.” With that last order, Dean cut the connection and looked up at Morgan. He knew his face was pale, the blood draining away in his shock.
    “My mate’s been hurt.”
    It was all he needed to say. All he could say. The thought of anything else was just too much to bear.

Chapter 2
    T he truck pulled up outside the lodge in a screech of tires. Dean and Morgan were already moving before the vehicle had fully come to a stop. Yanking down the tailgate, Dean leaped up into the truck bed.
    The first sight of Kacie, her normally golden skin pale and splattered with blood, several shirts wadded over her stomach, knocked all the breath out of him.
    “Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured, on his knees next to her as he reached out to brush her hair gently back from her face.
    She lay so still. The dark eyes that usually spat fire and quick comments back at him were closed. He mourned their loss, wanting nothing more than to gather her into his arms as if he could make everything better by his touch alone. Hadn’t alphas way back when been able to do that? Heal as well as fight? So the legends said anyway.
    “Morgan…” He looked up at the other man in silent appeal. Dean was an alpha and a soldier. He knew about a hundred different ways to kill a man, but nothing about healing. Luckily, Morgan did.
    “Let’s see what we’ve got. No, don’t move her yet,” the big warlock snapped when two of the younger bears in the truck started to pick up the body board Kacie had been strapped onto. His movements were efficient as he checked her over but, despite his calm expression and manner, Dean had seen enough wounded men to know the signs weren’t good. She was too pale, her skin color was wrong and her breath came in short, sharp pants.
    “Hold on there, babe,” he whispered, unable to stop his fingertips brushing over her cheek. He’d never allowed himself to touch her before, so each stroke of her silken skin was precious.
    “Okay, inside. Lift her carefully,” Morgan ordered, his gaze snapping to Dean. “Your fated mate?”
    There was a collective intake of breath, and all the bears in the truck tried their hardest not to have heard that little nugget of information. Dean sighed. There was no hiding it now even if he’d wanted to, so he nodded.
    “She is.”
    “Good. Then I hope you’re feeling strong, lover boy, because you’re going to be using that bear of yours to power her healing.”
    “To my last breath,” he promised, following the healer and his injured mate as she was carried inside.
    Morgan took over, sweeping everything off the large dining table in the middle of Dean’s quarters to clatter to the floor.
    “On the table. Then get out,” he ordered, already reaching inside his shirt for the leather bag around his neck as the bears rushed to do his bidding.
    Dean blinked in surprise. Battered leather, Morgan had worn the small pouch around his neck for as long as Dean had known him, but he’d never actually seen the warlock open it.
    He did now, chanting as he laid out the items within at intervals around Kacie’s still form on the table. There was a small bundle of hair tied with a pink ribbon, a wolf’s fang, a delicate gold earring, a small vial of something that shimmered gold and silver and, lastly, a man’s silver ring.
    As he placed the ring down, his blue eyes flicked up and speared Dean. “Shirt open.”
    “What? Didn’t think you were inclined that way, bro,” Dean chuckled, already ripping at the buttons to reveal a heavily muscled chest. Shit, Morgan could have told him to dance the fucking hula while wearing nothing but