“No!”

As I shouted, Jace looked at me for an instant, then over to the man. He scrambled to his feet and put his hands in the air.

I wasn’t going to let him just surrender like that; to let that man take over the situation and possibly keep Jace and I tied up there with the other women. The man had a gun. Jace usually carried his in his bag, but either he’d forgotten it or hadn’t had the time to get it out. We didn’t need weapons, though.

A gun shot was enough to stop a human, but it had to be positioned just right and had to be a big enough caliber to do real damage to a bear. A little 22 to the arm was not going to stop one of us. Surely, Jace would shift into bear form.

He didn’t shift, but he did not plan to surrender, either. He ducked down, still in his human form, and charged at the man.

Not the best choice, but I was sure he’d considered other options and that charging as a human seemed the best to him. Perhaps he was too worried of scaring the women in their already fragile states if he suddenly grew into a bear. Or perhaps back up would arrive sooner than we thought. I would have shifted and taken my chances, but Jace had always been the more level-headed one between us.

Jace crashed hard into the man and the gun fired. A moment later, Jace screamed and crumbled to the ground.

I felt a rush of shock. I hadn’t just seen Jace get shot. It couldn’t have just happened. But as he moaned in pain, my head cleared.

I knew what I needed to do to save him, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to move right. I was in so much pain; every muscle and bone ached.

But just as I had chosen to shift and run out there to look for Gabby, there was no question in my mind. I had to do another painful motion to save Jace. Maybe I could do it without shifting again, though.

I slid back from Gabby. In one move, I pushed to my feet and rushed forward in a half-crouch. I whimpered as I crashed hard into the man with little regard for where his gun was.

He fell to the ground and I landed on top of him. I got a full whiff of his wretched stench, and it made my stomach turn again.

The man cried out and reached down. I wasn’t sure why; I hadn’t moved yet.

I turned my head and saw Gabby, tears streaming down the vengeful expression on her face. She kicked the man and he groaned again.

I rolled off him and got to my feet. She’d kicked him several more times in the moments it took me to stand up. Gabby was no lightweight. She practiced martial arts and had a strong kick. She had probably broken a rib or two already.

The man was trying to get up, though. I couldn’t have that, so I punched him square in the nose. His eyes rolled back and his head hit the ground.

“Nice punch,” Gabby said.

“You’re not the only badass, you know.” I winked at her.

I wondered if the relief showed on my face. She was back. She was acting like herself again, mostly. Maybe it was seeing the man again. Maybe it was seeing him shoot Jace or me tackling him. Whatever the reason, I was glad to have her up, talking and kicking ass.

“I guess we should bind him before he wakes up,” I said.

Gabby gave me a cold look. She bent over, put one hand on the man’s chin and the other at the back of his head. She jerked her hands and I heard the snap, and she let his head drop hard to the floor.

I held my fingers to his neck. I wasn’t going to take any chance that this scumbag might still be alive. If there was any pulse at all, he would need to be finished off or bound. I felt nothing, however.

“Are there any others?” I asked.

“Not that I’ve seen or smelled.”

I took another deep whiff. With all the human scents, it was hard to tell if there could be someone else hiding in the cabin. But Gabby had been there for days and was well familiar with all the scents. If she hadn’t smelled another person, I trusted her wolf shifter instincts.

With the immediate threat dissolved, I turned my attention back to Jace. I hurried to where he lay on the floor, clutching his leg, bleeding far too much.

I let my mind slip into responder mode; it was the only way I’d be able to get anything done. If I just acted like Kylie, seeing my oldest friend, the man I’d loved for most of my life, bleed out all over the place, I’d freak out and maybe go into shock. I’d be worthless. Sometimes that happened to first responders if the victim was someone too close; they had to step back and let someone else do the work. I didn’t have that option, and Gabby was still a little out of it.

The first thing I had to do was assess him. “I’m going to check for an exit wound.”

He knew the protocol. He might have been in too much pain to think about it all that much, but he knew what was coming and what I had to do. He helped me by bending his leg, but I could tell it was excruciating to him.

I did see an exit wound, though. I looked behind us and saw a small hole in the wooden door where the bullet had hit.

“Okay, this is a good wound,” I told him. “You’re going to be fine.”

“No,” he said. “It’s too high. I’m going to die. All the blood. I already feel cold.”

“Jace.” I put my hands on either side of his face. His warm face. He was starting to lose it. “Look at me.” I waited until he did. “You’re going to be fine. We have to get it tied off.”

He nodded, tears streaming down his face. His pack was still nearby. I grabbed it and rummaged for a moment, but didn’t see any sort of tourniquet. I tore a piece of my shirt off and wrapped it tightly around his leg above the wound. I tore another piece and pressed it firmly against the site. He hollered in pain, but it had to be done, and I needed to use hard pressure to stop the blood flow.

I sighed and sat for a moment as I noticed the gushing begin to subside. Okay. Immediate threat eliminated. Immediate care administered. No one else was in critical condition, so it was time to move on to the next phase.