Cherry
One enormous wolf stood apart from the pack in the center of the field. He raised his muzzle skyward and howled out our victory into the night. As he did so, the last of the enemy still within the field bolted across the plain, making for the shelter of the trees in defeat.
My wolfish eyes admired my mate in his hunter’s form, and I married my howl with his. As our tones paired, he came to me, transforming into his human form and throwing his arms around me as I shifted too. I ran my hands over his handsome face, marveling at his strong jaw and lean body around me. There was no shame in our nakedness as the rest of the pack shifted into their human forms too. Yet, I smiled knowingly as Dylan draped his arm around me, shielding as much of my bare form possessively from the rest of the pack. I could tell from his scowl he didn’t like the idea of me being naked around anyone but him. I thought about the other naked shifters, our pack, around us and hoped they didn’t get too close. After all, my possessive mate was in a territorial mood.
My wound stung where the female Bloodmoon wolf had sliced me open, but I knew my shifter powers would heal me soon. The relief and happiness of victory, as well as my mate’s arm and strong body where he’d pinned me to his side, dulled the sting of pain too.
As we approached the pack together, cheers and applause broke out around us.
“All hail our Luna!” The women’s voices in the crowd dominated as they cheered for me. Then the whole pack, deep and high voices blended together as they cheered, “Hail our Alpha and Luna!”
Even as the sight of them gladdened my heart to be accepted by my pack, my eyes couldn’t stray away from Dylan. I looked up at him lovingly and reverently.
“My Alpha, my mate.”
He kissed my temple fiercely. “My Luna, who ensured our pack’s victory.” He grabbed my hand, and I held it tightly as if I would never let it go.
A heady rush of love enveloped me, and I thought my eyes were tearing up with emotion as the night and my handsome mate blurred. But then the pain in my hip flared, and the night pressed in around me.
The last thing I felt as darkness took me were strong arms cradling me.
***********
Dylan
I held Cherry close, my heart thumping frantically as if it meant to punch through my chest.
My voice shook as I demanded, “We need the doctor.”
All eyes darted around the pack, and my own looked through the familiar faces, hoping to find Paul, our pack’s doctor.
“He’s here,” someone called, and my eyes zeroed in on the grey-haired man who was tending to someone who sat on the ground. People around him parted, and the man on the ground urged Paul away from him too. Everyone understood that the pack’s Luna took priority.
Bert and Mike, Cherry’s dad, as well as my own parents, had clustered around Cherry and me, their faces strained and anxious.Quibbles about having anyone look at my mate’s beautiful naked body fell away as the doctor’s eyes and fingers ran over Cherry. He checked her pulse, which I already knew raced too quickly. I knew, too, from my shifter senses as I listened that her heart was racing even more wildly than mine.
Paul pulled back one of her eyelids, only to show that her pupils were too large. They were dilated as if she’d been drugged. The doctor’s fingers settled on her hip, or more specifically, on the gash torn into her flesh there. He pushed a finger into the wound, and I had to fight the urge to defend my mate even as she didn’t stir at all at the movement that should have caused her pain.Paul brought the finger slick with Cherry’s blood up to his nose, then gingerly tasted it. He spat it out immediately, “Wolfsbane,” he growled. “Someone’s poisoned our Luna.”
My face blanched, and I clutched Cherry closer to me. Anger and fear whipped through me. The Bloodmoon Pack had poisoned my mate. I looked up to see the same rage marking my Beta’s face.
“What do we do?” I demanded, looking at the doctor.
Paul’s face was serious. “We need to get the toxins out of her blood.” His gaze swept my mate in my arms gravely. “This will take some time. Get her to your house. Make sure she’s kept warm and comfortable, and I’ll get my kit from home.”
I clenched my jaw and ordered. “Be there as soon as possible.” I rushed to follow the doctor’s orders, too, concerning Cherry’s welfare. I carried her swiftly back to my house and, once there, bundled her into the warmth of the bed. I turned on the heating and then threw on some clothes myself. I paced at the foot of her bed, anxious to do something but unsure that there was anything that I could do.
Bert, my parents, and Cherry’s dad, now dressed, soon returned to be with us too. When the doctor arrived, he administered a drip to Cherry’s arm, which he hung from a hanger by the bed. “This will help keep her hydrated and hopefully clear out some of the toxins,” Paul said. I noticed that his hands shook as he hung the drip up.
“Hopefully?” I growled. “What else can be done?”
Alarm marked the doctor’s face as he admitted, “Without knowing what exactly the poison was or what quantity was given, I can’t do anything more at the moment. I’d need the poison to engineer an antidote. Until I have that, this is the best I can do.”
I clenched my fists, reeling at this news. I whipped around to my Beta. “I want you and Jason and a team to go and capture the Bloodmoon wolves who fled into the woods. Bring them back to the pack prison.” I locked eyes with Bert. “Find out who did this and what they used. Your Luna’s life depends on this.”