Monroe, Marla - Their Border Lands Gift [Men of the Border Lands 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (21 page)

They filed outside, and Bruce planted her in a clear spot within sprinting distance of the back door should she need to run for it. The wind was softly blowing the snow around, but it wasn’t nearly as cold as she had worried it would be. She laughed in glee and began to mound up snow to make a snowball so she could make the base for the snowman. Marcus laughed at her attempts to get it rolling, but he and Bruce were taking their job of watching out for danger seriously.

Kate finally got the ball rolling between the two men. She pushed and shoved until she had a two-foot-high base. She patted it down to make a flat area at the top to hold the next ball. By the time she had the second ball situated on top of the first one, she was out of breath and laughing so hard she hurt.

“You about finished, Kate?” Bruce asked.

“Just a minute. I need one more to make the head.”

“Hurry it up, baby. It’s going to be dark soon,” Bruce told her.

Kate worked harder to make the head in record time. She managed to get it on the top and soon had the carrot nose, with a wart on it no less, situated in the middle of the face with potato eyes and cut potato wedges for a mouth.

“What do you think?” she asked.

They both walked over and looked at it with her. Bruce hugged her.

“Baby, you did great. It’s a beaut.”

“I think it looks just like him, honey,” Marcus teased.

“Okay, let’s go inside.” Bruce had her hand, and they walked toward the house.

Marcus yelled
hurry
, but it was too late. The wolves were on them in an instant. Kate curled up in a ball and covered her head with her hands, but they dug at her coat. Then the men were there with the rifles. She heard them calling to her, but she couldn’t move. She was pinned beneath the massive beasts. Pain exploded down her back and through her hands and arms. She screamed over and over, but couldn’t do anything to get them off of her. Finally after what seemed like forever, a rifle report and then another sounded near her ear.

Please don’t let them kill me
.

She didn’t want to be mauled. She couldn’t imagine having a ruined face or body and living with it. Her ears were ringing from the guns, but somewhere she heard the men shouting at her again. Then hands were pulling at her trying to get her to unwind from the ball she’d made herself into.

Then someone picked her up and carried her inside and up the stairs. She felt her clothes tearing as they cut them off of her. She nearly screamed when they pulled them off her back, but instead, she passed out from the pain.

* * * *

“No, no, no,” Marcus was chanting as they slowly removed the clothes they were cutting off of Kate. Her back had deep furrows where the wolves had tried to dig her clothes off of her. The cuts on her back would need stitches.

“Marcus, calm down. She’s alive. We’ve got to keep our wits about us and get her cleaned up and sewn up as fast as we can. Once she wakes up, it will hurt her. I don’t want to hurt her any more than she already is.”

“Okay.” Marcus swallowed.

Bruce had to keep repeating to himself that she was alive. All he could see in his head right then was the wolf’s fangs at her throat. He still didn’t know how bad she was because they hadn’t gotten to her front. Now that she was unconscious they would be able to lay her down. They had her in the bathroom on the counter.

“Okay, let’s roll her over and look to see if she’s hurt around her neck or chest.” Bruce helped his brother roll her over.

They stopped for a second when she moaned. Then they finished rolling her over, and Bruce nearly got sick. She was covered in blood around her face and throat. He quickly cut off her clothes and found that her chest was unharmed, as was her stomach.

“Get some hot water in the tub, Marcus. We’re going to have to use towels to clean her up so we can see where she’s hurt. Right now it looks like her face and neck.”

“Fuck, did they tear her throat out? How is she still alive?” Marcus had tears in his eyes as he filled the bathtub up with water.

They soaked towels and began gently patting around her face until they had the blood off. She had a deep cut on her cheek and under her chin. They began cleaning her upper chest and neck only to find that she had one deep slash across her neck that would need stitches, but that was it. Bruce sighed in relief. She wasn’t safe by any means. They still had to worry about infection as well as shock.

“Let’s finish cleaning her up. All of the blood must have come from her back. It rolled down to her face and neck.” Bruce soaked his cloth and started over cleaning her up.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to get her completely clean. By then she was moaning again. They settled her on the bed on top of several towels and began sewing her back up. She would have some serious scars, but Bruce didn’t care. All he cared about was that she was alive. He hadn’t failed her.

The only problem was that he now knew that he loved her. His heart had nearly broken when he saw the wolf’s fangs going for her throat. He just knew she was about to die. Nothing he did would save her. But something she did had. She’d rolled up in a ball and protected her face and neck and belly. Even her hands hadn’t gotten the damage he would have thought they would have.

They worked on her back then Marcus worked on her hands while Bruce sewed up the cut on her cheek and under her chin.

“Most of what is on her hands are punctures. I can’t sew them up, Bruce. She’ll have to let them heal on their own.”

“We need a couple of bags of snow, Marcus.” Bruce covered Kate up to keep her warm.

“I’ll be right back.” Marcus hurried out of the bedroom.

Bruce knelt on the floor by the bed and smoothed her hair out of her eyes. They had her on her side to keep off her back but still allow her to breathe easy.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I thought we were watching. I swear we were trying to watch for you.” He swallowed around the knot in his throat.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I love you, Kate. I guess I always have. I didn’t want to because it hurts too much to love someone then lose them. I’m sorry, Kate.”

She opened her eyes and looked at him. He couldn’t tell if she really saw him or not. Then she closed them again.

“Here.” Marcus handed him the plastic bags of snow.

Bruce held one under her chin and one on her cheek. He wanted to keep the swelling down as much as possible. Kate moaned and tried to turn over, but Marcus held her still so that she wouldn’t roll over on her torn up back.

“Baby, can you hear me?” Marcus asked. “I love you, baby. You’re going to be fine. Just remember that. You’re going to be fine.”

“Marcus, we did the best we could do. I know we did. Was I wrong to not want her outside?”

“No, but you can’t keep her sequestered inside for the rest of her life. She would grow to hate us if we didn’t let her out at all.”

“I know that, but I thought if she hated me and loved you, everything would work out. She didn’t hate me though. She kept trying to get me to love her. She didn’t know that I already did.”

“She’s going to be okay though, Bruce.” Marcus grabbed his brother’s face and stared him in the eyes. “She’s going to be okay.”

“If we can keep the infection away. I’m going to go fix something for her to drink. You watch her. Don’t let her roll over on her back if you can help it. It will only hurt her more.”

Bruce walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the living room. He had just turned off the stove and poured a glass of water when there was a knock at the door. Bruce sat the glass down and grabbed his gun. He looked out the door and sighed.

Opening the door, he let Joel, Jonathan, and Leigh inside.

“We heard gunshots and came to see if you needed help,” Jonathan said. The men had their rifles with them.

“Wolves attacked Kate,” Bruce said. He had to stop. He was choking up like he was going to cry.

“Is she okay?” Leigh asked.

“It’s bad. She’s alive, though.” Bruce looked off to the side to try and get control again.

“I’m going upstairs to see about her,” Leigh said, looking at Joel.

“Do you want us to go get Brice? He’s a paramedic,” Jonathan said.

“I think we’ve done everything we can do. If she doesn’t get an infection, she should be okay.” He swallowed hard.

Joel clasped him on the shoulder.

“If you could stick with Marcus in case he needs anything, I need to see about the dead wolves,” Bruce finally managed to get out.

“I’ll go up and see about them,” Jonathan said.

“I’ll help you.” Joel headed for the kitchen.

Bruce followed him. He appreciated the help. He would be better able to control himself and take care of the mess with someone else around. Without the help, he would likely be a sitting duck for another wolf. All he wanted to do right then was sit down and cry. He had never cried a day in his life. Not even when he’d lost Irene.

Chapter Seventeen

Kate slowly opened her eyes to find Bruce sitting in a chair by the bed. His eyes were closed. She was on her side, and her back screamed with pain. She felt her face and found a bandage on her cheek. She started to pull it off, but Bruce stopped her.

“Easy, baby. Don’t mess with that. You have a couple of stitches there.”

“My back hurts,” she whispered.

“I know, baby. I don’t have anything to give you. We don’t have any painkillers that aren’t too old.” He leaned forward with a glass of water. “Drink some water for me so you don’t get dehydrated. I’ll fix you some whiskey tea for the pain in a little bit.”

“Where’s Marcus?”

“He’s asleep next to you over there. Only one of us is sleeping at a time right now, because we don’t want to hurt you.”

“What about the animals?” she tried again.

“We’re taking care of them, Kate. Don’t worry about anything. Concentrate on getting well.”

“Why did you save me?”

“What are you talking about?” Bruce looked confused.

“I’m a freak now. I’m going to be all scarred up. You’ll never want to look at me again. Marcus will hate it.”

“I don’t want to hear you talk like that, Kate.” His voice was strained now. There was anger in it.

“You’re not going to want to look at me like this,” she said again with tears falling from her eyes.

“Baby, I love you. I don’t care what you look like. You’re my life, Kate.”

She swallowed around the knot in her throat. It hurt under her chin to do it. She felt like a mess. Now, when she was a disaster, Bruce told her he loved her. How could she believe him when he never told her before?

“What is it, baby?” He smoothed away the tears from her eyes.

“Why are you telling me you love me now? You never have before.”

“I was fooling myself into thinking that I shouldn’t love you, so I could take better care of you. I was wrong. I loved you anyway and still didn’t keep you safe. Nothing I could have done short of not let you out of the house would have prevented what happened. I’m sorry, baby. We tried to keep them off of you.”

“I know. It was my fault for wanting to play like a child. I’m not a child. I’m a grown woman. I should have acted like one and this wouldn’t have happened.” The tears flowed harder now. She hurt all over, and it was all her own fault.