Page 55 of Out of Peril

“Stay with me Lindsey. It's going to be okay. It has to be okay.” I desperately looked around for help. “Help me!”

No one moved.

I could see the life draining out of her.

I'd never been more terrified in all my life.

The kids stood hugging each other nearby, crying. She would never want them to see her like this.

“Help me,” I begged once more. “Goddamn it, someone help me!”

Taylor was the first to my side.

“We have to save her,” I said weakly as unshed tears burned my eyes.

Lindsey's whole body tremored and then she shifted back into my gorgeous mate. Her eyes opened and pierced me straight through the heart. She tried to speak but only a gurgling sound came out.

I grasped her small hand in mine.

“Stay with me, Linds. You cannot leave me like this. I'm so sorry. I swore I'd protect you and I failed you. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault.” I looked around to find mostly Bravo and Delta teams but a few from Charlie, Echo, and even Foxtrot all staring at me in confusion. “Michael, please. Help!” I begged him.

He nodded and motioned to Delta. Suddenly I was surrounded by my team. But they tried to take her from me.

“No! Grant. I need Grant. We have to remove the bullet.”

“She's just a beast, an Experiment created by the Raglan. The panthers have been battling them for a while now. They have no feeling, only bloodlust. We were briefed on the way down,” Michael tried to explain.

“You’re wrong. You don't know shit. She's not a monster. She's my mate.”

I could have heard a pin drop at that moment before chaos erupted once more.

“Shit! That's why she took you?” Taylor asked.

I hadn't even realized she was so close by, but I nodded.

“Grant!”

He appeared seemingly out of nowhere pushing my team to the side as they gawked at me in shock.

“She's losing too much blood, Walker. I don't know if I can save her.”

“You have to try, damnit. You have to.”

The tears I'd been holding in crested and streaked down my cheeks as I sat there holding her and feeling utterly helpless to stop this nightmare while I sobbed openly.

“Do you have any idea what her blood type is? She's going to need a transfusion started if I’m to have a chance at removing this bullet.”

“O positive,” Dante's small voice said. “We're the same.”

I shook my head. “Not him. He shouldn't even be here.”

“I'm not go anywhere,” he said defiantly, then his voice softened as he wiped tears from his face. “Please don't make me leave, Walker.”

“I'm O positive as well. Take my blood. As much as you need. Just save my mate.”

Grant nodded as Colin and Linc dropped to their knees to do exactly as Grant instructed to hook a life transfusion line between me and Lindsey.

Once that was established he said a quick prayer and then got to work to remove the bullet.