Bookstore princess

Chapter 29

Nadia

I didn't see it coming. One moment I was watching two werewolves running towards the bar across the street, and the next moment I had rough hands grabbing me and throwing a black pillowcase over my head, and tied my arms behind my back. I screamed and started trying to fight, but another set of hands grabbed my legs, and the first pair grabbed my shoulders and I was carried and thrown onto a hard surface that felt like metal. I screamed again at the sound of tires screeching on the pavement and I was jostled. I could hear sirens in the distance, and I also could hear a howl.
"He's following," one man said with a note of panic in his voice.
"Shut up, just hit the accelerator" another man's voice said.
"You fucked up" I start kicking out my feet at anything and everything I could. I was trying to get out of the ropes that are holding my hands prisoner. "My boyfriend is going to kick your ass."
"No lady, you fucked up when you opened that stupid store. We wanted that building, and you took it" the first man growled like a wolf, and I know I'm in trouble. All I can do is keep them talking, and hopefully James will have time to catch up.
"That store is everything to me!" I yell, trying to also move to take the pillow case off my head.
"Keep trying to get out of that pillow case, and I'll duct tape it around your neck," the second man's voice said. I hear another howl, and there's other ones joining it. This howl is closer. I know my James is coming, and it sounds like some of his pack mates. Or at least I hope so. There's a loud bang on the side of the vehicle and it moves to the side a bit. I can hear tires squealing again.
"Shit, he caught up to us" the first man said.
"Fine, I'll kill her and throw her out the back" the second man says.
"Wait, kill me?!" I demand with even more panic coming forward. I struggle against the ropes and start screaming even louder. I hear movement of footsteps coming towards me and I strain to see through the pillowcase. A little bit of light shows through, and I can see movement. I throw out my legs and my back hits a wall, while my legs make contact and I hear a yelp of pain. The sound of glass breaking catches me off guard and I scream again, while the first man yells out.
"Throw her out the back!" he screams in terror. I hear a growl and a familiar bark.
"That's my mate" I say with satisfaction.
"Mate huh?" the second man says with a chuckle. "You know exactly what you signed up for then, little Luna," he says and I hear the sound of a gun being loaded. I feel so much adrenaline pumping through my veins that I finally get my right hand out of the ropes. My wrists are raw and bleeding, but I have a quick decision to make. I pull off the pillow case and see it's one of the owners of the bar across the street. The second thing I notice is the gun pointed right at my head. There's another scream from up front and the scent of blood fills the air. The van I'm in swerves to the side of the road, and the driver in the front, also one of the owners across the street, and he's transforming into a brown werewolf. A black furry arm keeps reaching in with elongated claws and slicing him across the face. The man in front of me gets his balance and I move towards the back doors, trying to put some distance between me and the gun.
"I'll kill you, and then I'll kill him after burning your little bookstore down" he says, with a little spittle coming out of his mouth.
"You'll die trying!" I talk big, but I'm terrified. I've made it to the doors and I turn quickly to open the doors. I tuck and roll but I hear the gun fire off. Besides the pain of hitting pavement, it takes another second to feel the massive pain in my shoulder. I screamed and a moment later I heard a crash. I stopped rolling and looked in the direction of the van, and it's on the side of the road and it hit a tree. I can't see my James, and I follow my instincts. I jump to my feet and start running towards the van that looks like it's catching on fire. "JAMES!" I yell and I feel like my heart is in my throat. Nothing else matters except getting to him. I need to make sure he's okay. I just found him, I can't lose him now. Something warm is going down my arm, back and chest when it suddenly hits me that I've been shot right through my shoulder. I pass it a glance and see a lot of blood coming out. I can hear growls and yelps. Out of the back of the van comes a wolf that's a lighter brown than the other werewolf in the van. It stops and looks at me before it starts coming toward me with its teeth bared. Four black and white wolves suddenly pass me from behind and launch themselves towards the wolf. It immediately retreats and goes into the woods with the other four wolves chasing it. I start running again, thinking to myself that adrenaline is great for some things besides panic attacks.
I get closer and I see two werewolves fighting. My James, and the other owner of the bar. The brown werewolf finally jumps away, blood all over it, and runs towards the woods as well.
"James!" I exclaim in relief. He shifts back to his human side and he runs towards me. I feel tears falling down my face, I'm so glad he's okay. He has a few cuts, but I can see them healing already.

James

As soon as Nadia gets close enough, I pull her into my arms. I'm so relieved she's okay. If my pack doesn't kill those rogues, I will. They tried to take what's mine, and that's a death sentence. Nadia's holding me so tight and she seems to be shaking. I look down at her and she seals her lips to mine and I groan. There are so many things I want to do to her.
I feel something warm and sticky and I frown and pull back from the kiss. I smell blood and my eyes go to Nadia's shoulder. She has an obvious bullet hole and is bleeding profusely, scuff marks all over her body, tears in her clothes, and her wrists badly bruised and bleeding.
"Thank God you're okay!" she says, looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes. She's touching me with her left hand on my cheek.
"You're bleeding, little mate" I say to her as I reach down and pick her up as a man would a bride.
"So are you!" she counters with a yelp. "Put me down, I'm heavy!" she exclaims. It's funny, for a woman that seems so quiet all the time, tonight she's been screaming quite a bit. But, it is understandable. I tighten my hold on her and her left arm goes around my shoulder, holding on for dear life.
"You are not heavy enough, my love. We need to get you to a hospital" I say and pick up my pace, my heart in my throat. I know my pack doctors wouldn't have the supplies or equipment needed yet, so I'll have to go to a real hospital. I hate them, but for her I will. She groans in pain, but doesn't say anything else. I put more urgency in my pace and I run.

We get to town, and one of my pack members comes running out of the apartment building.
"Alpha, the humans won't understand why you're naked" he says. His name is Seamus, and he's one of the carpenters in the pack. He hands me a pair of old jeans and I stop for a moment. He has a point, I can see the flashing lights from here. I set Nadia on her feet for a moment and she squeaks a little. I rub the jeans in the dirt for a moment to make them dirty, and then I put them on.
"Thank you Seamus," I say with sincerity.
"You're welcome, Alpha" he says and runs back in the building, seeing as many of the pack members are out already.
"I can walk from here" Nadia starts walking towards the bookstore, but I'm having none of that. I ran to her, sweeping her off of her feet again.
"You're not wearing shoes" I say, and she looks at me like she's going to smack me. "You're injured, and we need to get you to a hospital."
"I will not say no to a hospital right about now" she groans. I start running again, and its only five minutes before we get there. There is a fire truck, and a few cop cars already looking at the crime scene in the front. Sheriff Morgan is there, and he has a worried expression on his face. He looks at us as we get close, and he calls dispatch to send an ambulance.
"Nadia!" he starts making his way over.
"Sheriff Morgan" she says, and groans again. She's wincing so I slow down. "I know who's been vandalizing us," she says.
"Who shot you?" he demands. I get to him and he immediately starts putting pressure on her wound.
"The vandals" she lets out a scream as he presses in on both sides of her collar bone.
"The owners of the bar across the street" I wince at my little mates pain.
"Okay, I'll get the statement later," he says. "Nadia, you need to breathe through the pain" he says in a steady voice. "Tell me what happened," he says with an air of authority.
"My boyfriend and I were upstairs and there was the sound of glass breaking downstairs. The alarms went off and... oh God!" she cries out.
"The alarms went off and we could smell the gasoline, the first guy was holding up a match so I left Nadia, and ran after him. She screamed, and I saw her getting thrown into a black van. I ran after it instead and caught up to them when they crashed. Nadia got out the back, but they shot her. I got into a fight with the driver, but both men got away. Our phones are upstairs, or else we would have called 911" I explain and Sheriff Morgan looks in disbelief.
"It's true," Nadia groans.
"Okay, I'll arrest them, I'll get your official statement after we get you to the city" he says. The ambulance is coming speeding down the road.
"Finally" I give a sigh of relief.
"Don't leave me" Nadia holds me tighter. "I hate hospitals," she proclaims.
"I'm not going anywhere, babydoll," I assure her. I kiss her temple soothingly, wishing I could just take away the pain and the last few hours. Go back to when she was with me on the couch and we were about to embrace our bond.
"You need a doctor too" Sheriff Morgan says and I groan. "Also, I need the evidence" he points at our clothes. He tells the fire department to go down the road for a fire on the side of the road, and sends one deputy with them to close off the crime scene. The EMTs come towards us, their watchful eyes assessing the damage. They are pack wolves, but from the city. They nod to me, already seeming to know who I am. I'm not worried anymore, and thank goodness for the alliance I signed with the neighbouring packs.