The Sixteenth Moon: A Rejected Mates Romance

Chapter 5 (Revised): Beep...Beep

***The following chapter has been revised for plot and continuity.***

The beeping, droning buzzing, and distant squeaking of wheels pulled Kana from the dark. But she couldn't open her eyes. Didn't want to. The pain.... It hurt to breathe, to swallow, to tense even a muscle to move a finger.

What happened? Not for the first time in a year, she desperately wanted her wolf. Her wolf would answer her, would comfort her, and with the wolf's abilities, she could scent where she was, hear the distant voices clearly. But she was alone. Always alone.

Slowly drawing in a breath...she tried to remember.

She'd been chatting with Holly...then...screaming! The rabid male shifter! The children! Running to grab him, to stop him from getting to the kids. Then...the tearing, the biting, the ripping.

He'd gotten a hold of her thigh, snapping her femur, and ripping the flesh from her bone. He'd torn at her chest, trying to get to the meaty organ behind her breast bone.

Sharp, breath-stealing pain shattered her thoughts.

The beeping quickened and the sound of running feet, or a door slamming open....

"Ms. Craig?" a woman's voice called to Kana through the darkness and the agony. "She's tachycardic, and her blood pressure is falling. Losing too much blood! Shit—she's a shifter? Dammit! We need a Healer!"

What...what's happening? No one answered. They couldn't.

"Ms. Craig..." the female said again, her voice gentle but commanding. "You're going to be alright, Ms. Craig. We'll take good care of you...."

But...no one took care of her, she took care of herself. Because she had no one, not even her wolf spirit.

As she slipped into darkness once again, the emptiness where her wolf once waited and watched, echoed with her weakened desperate cries.

"Okami...."