The Alpha's Missing Mate

Chapter 27

27.

Jared let out a primal yell when he heard the second gunshot go off and a searing pain hit him in the chest.

Angel!

He immediately knew his mate had been the one injured.

"Derrick! We need to get in here, now! Angel's been injured," he bellowed, fear or his mate evident in his voice as he began battering at the door even more. He had received Angel's mental image of the door, and had sent for someone who could break it open. But after the first gunshot had went off, he and his mate's father had decided to try to break it down.

Now with the burning pain in his chest, he wanted the door open, NOW.

"Move," a firm voice ordered him, and Jared turned to glare at who ever had dared to order him around. Alyssa, Declan's mate, and Alpha female of her pack, stepped forward, her hand out stretched. Declan stood behind her, and pulled Derrick out of the tiny closet by his shoulders when he refused to move on his own. A frown marring his face, Jared stood and followed the two older wolves out, as well.

Once outside the door, Jared turned and watched as Alyssa gently placed her hands on the surface of the door and closed her eyes in concentration. He heard her murmuring softly, but he could not make out what she was saying. He held his breath as she started to sway slightly, and the door began to glow.

Turning, he glanced at Declan, about to ask the man if he knew what his mate was doing, but the man's gaze was intent upon his wife.

"Tell them to move away from the door," Alyssa said, startling the three men. Her eyes were still closed and her hands were still against the door, but she had a small frown creasing her brow, and it looked like she had tiny beads of sweat gathering there. What ever she's doing must be taking a lot out of her, Jared realized.

He tried to send a quick mental message to Angel, telling her to make sure she and her mother were nowhere near the door, but there was a mental barrier there, and he wasn't sure if she got the message. He glanced at Derrick, trying to catch his eye. When the other man saw him, he shook his head, and Jared realized the other man wasn't sure if he'd reached his mate either.

Worry began to gnaw at him.

His anxiety began to increase when he realized the searing pain he'd been feeling for the last few minutes, pain he assumed was Angel's, coming through their bond, hadn't lessened. It had gradually been increasing. Even worse, now it was beginning to turn into an icy, cold feeling, and he had no idea as to why. Had she been blocking all but the worst of the pain from him? Was the wound worse than he'd previously feared? He didn't know. All he did was that he needed to reach his mate.

Soon.

*

Rebecca watched as Angel slowly sank to her knees, the blood stain on her chest seeming to grow until it covered her daughter's chest. Anger raged through her as she believed that she was watching her only daughter, the daughter she had been so cruelly denied for so many years, slowly die in front of her eyes. Hearing the click of Robert's revolver as he thumbed the hammer back, something within her snapped.

Robert jumped, squeezing the trigger in the process, as the door to the panic room exploded inward at the same time Rebecca lunged at him. The bullet barely missed Rebecca as she shifted in mid lunge, her brown wolf slamming into Robert, sending him to the ground. A scream of pain echoed around the room as people flooded the small space.

Jared barely spared a glance at Rebecca as he raced to Angel's prone figure, laying on the ground. He felt as if his heart stopped as he saw her there, her chest barely rising and falling with each breath.Tears filled his eyes as he began to believe he might end up losing the woman he loved.

"Come on, Angel," he whispered to her, "don't give up on me. Keep fighting, Little One. We're sending for the pack doctor right now, you've only got to hold on just a little longer, baby."

Angel slowly opened her eyes and gazed at her mate. She could see the love and anguish in his blue eyes as he pleaded with her to fight. She felt the silver of Robert's bullet burning in her chest, and knew with their connection, so could Jared. She didn't want him to hurt along with her, so she did her best to shield him from the agony coursing through her body. 'Gods,' she thought to herself, 'why did it have to be silver? Any other bullet, and I could just heal myself!'

She watched as a look of relief crossed Jared's face when he looked up at someone approaching them.

"Alyssa!" He shouted, causing Angel to wince and pain to shoot through her. "Can you help her? She's been shot, and I'm not feeling as much pain as before coming from her. I don't know how long it'll take for the doctor to get here."

Angel heard a feminine voice reply to him, but she couldn't make out what she said. She could only focus on Jared, and pray that someone would be able to stop the pain soon. She felt herself weakening, and didn't want to lose her mate to the cold embrace of death, but she could feel the darkness of oblivion closing in on her as her vision turned blurry, and Jared's voice sounded like it was coming down a long tunnel.