Page 42 of Wolf Revealed

Lark ignored Mike’s complaints, her heart in her throat as she took up more of his weight. Up close, she could see that his bruises were already starting to heal, thankfully. It was the blood stains on his uniform that worried her more.

“What happened?” she demanded as they headed for the mansion.

“We found the accountant we were looking for,” Mike said softly, sounding just as tired as she’d expected. “Unfortunately, Sentinel must have been following us, because they started shooting the place up as we were bringing Roy out. They destroyed our SUV and fired some kind of rocket into the house. The blood you’re seeing is from shrapnel wounds. They hurt like hell, but I’ll be fine after someone digs the stuff out. Normally, we’d have Trey or one of the other team medics handle this, but none of them are available right now, so someone else will have to do it.”

“I can do it,” Lark said even as her stomach twisted at the thought of digging chunks of metal out of Mike. But the idea of letting anyone else do it bothered her more.

“Then Roman showed up with a couple of his supernaturals,” Xander added. “We managed to fight them off, but none of us came out of it unscathed. Trey was in the best shape of the four of us, so we left him to keep an eye on Roy until headquarters could find a safe house for the guy.”

“So Roman and Sentinel really are working together?” Khaki asked, still helping Xander walk as Carter helped Hale while Connor hurried to open the front door, leading everyone inside.

“I don’t think so,” Mike said. “Roman was definitely there for Roy and me. Sentinel seemed more focused on grabbing Xander.”

“What?” Khaki nearly shouted, turning to stare at her mate in alarm. “I thought they wanted Carter. Why would they come after you?”

Before Xander could answer, Kal came running into the entryway, eyes wide at the sight of his father standing there bruised and bloody.

“Dad! What happened? Are you okay?” Kal asked, practically sliding across the marble floor as he threw himself at Mike, wrapping his arms around him desperately. “I could smell blood and knew it was yours.”

“I’m sorry he got away from me,” Violet said, hurrying in from the living room. “The moment he smelled blood there was no stopping him.”

Lark leaned forward to catch her son’s eyes. “Your dad’s going to be fine, but I need to get him upstairs. Okay?”

Her son seemed to consider that explanation for a moment before nodding. “Okay, but can I come and help?”

Lark opened her mouth to say no, because digging shrapnel out of Mike wasn’t something she wanted Kal watching, but then she relented. Sort of.

“You can come upstairs to help get your dad settled in bed, but then I’m going to need you to leave the room after that, okay?”

“Why?” Kal asked in petulant confusion.

“Because your mom needs to take care of my injuries, and it might be a little scary for you to see,” Mike said gently. “But I promise I’m going to be fine and that you can come right back in as soon as she’s done.”

Lark assumed their son was going to argue—because that’s what he normally would have done—so she was surprised when he nodded and helped his father up the stairs, then left with Carter, but not before glancing back one more time, his expression full of hope and fear.

Lark was torn. The mom in her wanted to go with Kal and comfort him. It was hard letting her child walk out that door knowing how scared he was. But Mike needed her right now, too. So, she was just going to have to trust her pack and Mike’s to look after him.

As Mike began to pull off his bloodied uniform, Lark covered the bed with several large bath towels in case things got messy. By the time she was done, Mike had stripped down to his boxer briefs. He climbed on the bed, lying on his side so his back was fully exposed to her view. If it wasn’t for all the blood and lacerations, she would have appreciated how muscular and sculpted his body was from this angle. Unfortunately, there was no looking past all the damage. Or what she had to do.

Her hand shook a little as her eyes took in the first wound on his lower back, just to the left of his spine. The scar had sealed over and stopped bleeding for the most part, which was kind of surprising. She’d seen wounds like this in her own pack, and they hadn’t closed up this fast. That meant getting the debris out was not going to be pleasant.

Taking a deep breath, Lark determinedly went to work removing the fragments from the wounds, trying not to think about what she was doing. As she moved up his back, she couldn’t miss the series of thin overlapping scars that ran diagonally from his right shoulder to left hip.

“These long scars along your back,” she murmured, running one finger down the raised skin. “Did you get these when that gang cut you with the machete?”

Mike glanced at her over his shoulder. “Yeah. It’s been so long that sometimes I forget about them.”

As Lark gently ran her fingers down a few more of them, he leaned into her touch.

“You’re pretty good at this,” he said softly, under her ministrations.

“My father insisted we all learn how to do things like this in case a hunter ever shot one of our pack. I never thought I’d have to use the training, but now I’m glad he had us do it.”

“I’m glad, too.”

“I think that’s the last of the shrapnel,” she announced a few minutes later.

“Thanks,” Mike said, rolling over and sitting up, then getting to his feet.