Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

looking.
    He held up his hands in a defensive motion as he knelt down. “I’m not going to hurt you. We’re here to save you.”
    “She’s not going to make it to a hospital,” the redhead murmured.
    One look at the other shifter’s face and Kat knew she’d been right. She was dead. “Where’s Jayce?” Maybe she could at least say good-bye to him.
    “Out looking for you,” the woman said soothingly.
    So he wasn’t there. And she wouldn’t get to say anything to him. Hot, burning tears sprang up and rolled down her cheeks, mixing with blood and dirt. A sob wanted to break free, but even that small action hurt. But she was powerless to stop them.
    The sound of pounding footsteps, then a gasp, greeted her ears. Through her hazy vision she saw December bending toward her. Kat couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like her friend was crying too.
    December slid a hand under her head and gripped one of her hands. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered as she tightened her grip on Kat.
    It wasn’t, but Kat appreciated the lie.
    The man said something to the redhead, but Kat couldn’t understand him. Her vision was getting darker as the seconds ticked by. Too many memories rushed through her mind and she really wished she’d gotten to say good-bye to her father. They might live by different moral compasses, but he was still her dad and he’d always loved her. And she really wanted to say good-bye to Jayce. The image of him wouldn’t leave her alone,even as she was dying. She used to love running her fingers over his shaved head and even his scarred cheek. He never let anyone touch her the way he’d let her. She’d been free to do whatever she wanted because he’d been hers. Just for a little while. Everyone had always been so afraid of him, but with her he’d always been gentle. Even if he hadn’t wanted to bond with her, he’d shown her a softer side she knew no one else had seen. She’d take that small knowledge to her grave and savor it.
    “Just do it!” December shouted at the man. The other redhead began yelling at him too with the same intensity as her friend.
    Kat tried to block them all out. She didn’t understand what was going on and she didn’t care. Whatever they were fighting about wouldn’t matter soon. She just wanted the pain to stop.
    Suddenly her world rocked on its axis and she stared in confusion as the male shifter leaned toward her. “I’m sorry. If I don’t at least
try
this, Jayce will kill me.” Before she could even think about what he meant, his canines protracted and he sank his teeth into her neck. The pain was sharp and acute and it extended from his bite to all her nerve endings.
    It was as if her bones were shattering, then slowly being pieced back together. A sudden, hot burning sensation surged through her and a harsh screaming filled the air. It took a moment for her to realize she was the one screaming.
    Her back arched and she shoved off the ground as the pain dulled and a new sense of life and energy flowed through her. Trying to catch her breath, she sat up, still clutching the jacket to cover her body. Blinking rapidly, she looked at the three of them.
    “What did you do?” Her voice sounded normal, nothoarse and scratchy. And…she moved both her legs against the dirt. They both worked. Gingerly, she pressed a hand to her ribs. No pain. No trouble breathing.
    “You were going to die. I know I had no right, but…I bit you.” The huge male looked stricken as he stared at her.
    “He saved your life,” December said softly.
    She frowned as reality began to set in. A lupine shifter had
bitten
her. Since she wasn’t dead and she wasn’t a feral wolf, that meant only one thing. She was now a shifter. “I thought there was only a one percent chance the change would work if we aren’t bondmates. And I thought I could turn feral or something if it didn’t work.”
    The man nodded. “We had nothing to lose. You were dead either way. If you’d turned feral…I’d have had to kill you.”
    Kat looked down at herself and stared blindly. She couldn’t believe she’d survived his bite. She had more knowledge of shifters than most, so she understood the chance of her successfully changing after a shifter bite was very small. That was why they didn’t go around turning humans. The chance of death or turning mad was too great to risk. She briefly wondered if the fact that she was a seer with naturally higher psychic abilities had made a