"Somebody find a hose," I gritted through my teeth. I wasn't going to think or worry about the filth I’d just walked through or found my mate covered in—no, this wasn’t the time for that. For now, I just needed him clean enough to check for injuries.

"Jonah, we don't have time for—" Ezra stopped mid-sentence when I growled.

"Make time. Boomer won't hit the buttons until we’re all free, you know that as well as I do. We can't check my mate for injuries when we can't even see his skin properly. Hose him off so we can examine him, please."

My attention was so tightly focused on my mate that I barely heard what he was saying as my brother Cain directed the guys to a hose from his seat on the ground where he was resting from his gunshot wound. Even after shifting for a quick heal, our bodies still were always tender after recovering major injuries. It was miraculous that I'd even been able to pick up the sweet jasmine scent of my mate beneath everything that coated his skin. Thank fuck the fates had decided to be kind today.

"You'll need to set him down, Jonah," my brother said quietly. "We can't clean him properly unless you do. I have a high-pressure hose right here. Ezra will begin as soon as you're ready."

I shook my head stubbornly. "Soak us both, I'm not setting him down." My voice caught and the rest came out in a hoarse, ragged whisper. "He's too broken. My mate is hurt, I can't set him down on the hard ground. Please… I can't. Don't ask me to do that. Not to mention the fact that the spray itself could hurt him, depending on the force."

Before I knew what was happening, a blast of cold water sprayed me in the chest, knocking me back a step before splashing back and raining onto my mate—beginning the process of cleaning him. Not that cold water from a filthy hose could be considered sanitary, but at least it would get the worst of it off him. I flinched under the onslaught of frigid water, but didn't fight it. It was best that I took the brunt of the blast so the water hitting my mate was gentler on his lacerated skin.

By the time Ezra was done, we were both completely soaked and my mate was a much lighter complexion than I'd originally assumed. Boomer and Noah pressed in closer while Ezra took care of the water.

"Can you make it to the transport, Jo-Jo? Boomer is ready to blow this compound once we’re all clear. But nothing happens until then. Do you need Zeke to drive the van in here?" Noah knew that what he offered was a risk, but the sincerity shining in his eyes told me that he would do it for my mate.

I shook my head. "No, I can get him to the van. We need our quick getaway, especially with my mate so wounded. I won't be responsible for having us held up."

Noah gave a swift nod. "Then let's shag ass, bud. We need to get gone."

Ezra leaned down to pick up Cain, who growled at him. “You don’t need to carry me, Ezra. I’m fine.” He did let Ezra help him up from his seat on the ground.

I wanted to smack my brother over the head. It was only natural his mate wanted to take care of him. He should relish the fact that Ezra could hold him without worrying about hurting him. That was a luxury not all of us had right now.

Boomer patted my shoulder and smiled sadly at my mate's condition as he went into business mode. While I ran behind Noah toward our waiting transport, Ezra at my side and Cain over his shoulder in fireman’s carry, my brain flashed back over my mate's admission that he was an FBI agent. Was I seriously mated to a feeb? How would that even work? Even crazier than that was the fact that it didn't bother me.

Hugging my mate gently to my chest as I ran, I started to panic about the fact that I wasn't freaking out. Not about the FBI connection, not about all of the filth and germs I’d just been in contact with, not about having found my mate—or for that matter, about any and all of the above. Instead, something had shifted inside me the moment I’d scented him, and he was all that mattered now.

When we reached the transport, the guys held the door open wide and waited while I climbed in with my mate. I settled down on the floor with my back braced against the bench seat and waited while Levi spread an emergency blanket over us. I was only peripherally aware of the massive explosion that shook the ground around us as Boomer turned the cartel's compound into nothing more than a bad memory and a pile of dust.

Now that my mate was cleaner, his jasmine smell was overwhelming me. His heartbeat felt stronger the longer I held him, yet it was still too erratic for my liking.

"Jonah, you need to let me examine him. We have a bit of a journey before we get to the other end and medical attention. I can tell by looking at him that he's severely dehydrated. Look at his sunken eyes and the thready pulse. His neck veins are flat and… well, he doesn't look good. I can administer a saline drip that will help a lot. I can also give him a shot of some pain medication so I can splint that broken arm." Ezra held up a hand when I growled. "Tell your wolf to stand down. Your mate needs my help, Jonah."

Reluctantly, I lowered the blanket so Ezra could examine my mate. I was growing used to his scent—not immune to it, no, never that—but with the worst of the stench gone, my wolf senses just snuggled right into his jasmine scent, accepting it as part of me now, which released my attention for other things. Like the scent of blood that wasn’t my mate’s.

My stomach lurched when I looked up to see that my brother’s leg had been bandaged. Shit. With everything going on, I'd forgotten about my own baby brother and the fact that he’d been shot. How was I going to be a good mate when I was such a shitty brother?

"You're not a shitty brother, Jo-Jo. You just found your mate—your severely wounded mate, at that," Cain said, rolling his eyes. When my jaw dropped open, he chuckled under his breath and shook his head. "Ah, I see you still have that little tic of thinking out loud without realizing it? Yeah. You totally said that and we all heard you, dumbass. And Jonah? You may be a lot of things, but not one of them is shitty."

By the time Ezra had an IV threaded into my mate's arm and the other one splinted, we were arriving at the plane. The rest of the team had been sitting there slack-jawed, staring at us the entire trip until we pulled up on the airstrip and they suddenly came to life, each moving to do their part to get us boarded on that plane. Zeke thumped me on the back of the head before he jumped out of the van. "Don't be an asshole; let me give you a hand. Trust me, your mate will be more comfortable if you let me help you carry him."

I started to growl, but Cain shook his head with a playful wink. "Listen to my mate's evil twin. Let him help you so your mate isn't jostled any more than he needs to be."

My brother’s words reached me where another alpha—even my teammate—couldn’t. I jerked my chin with a quick nod and allowed Zeke to help me carry my mate to the safety of the plane.

The entire flight home was a blur. I wasn't paying attention to the background chatter going on around me; my entire focus was on the russet-haired beauty strapped onto a bodyboard and safely restrained beside me. By the time we landed back in Chicago, I was willing to let the twins carry the bodyboard while I walked beside it, holding my mate's hand, with Cain on the other side offering his moral support.

We may not have even known his name yet, but my mate was already family—part of our team, or pack as it were. As soon as we walked off the plane, Papa P and the bossman were waiting with a private ambulance. I started to shake my head but Papa P strode forward with a don't fuck with me look on his face.

"Hello, boys. Go ahead and slide our guest right into the back so the medics can rush him to the shifter clinic. Jonah, congratulations on finding your mate. Now get your ass in there with him and don't you dare fucking growl at those nice boys while they help him. Ray and I will meet you at the clinic—is there anything you need us to bring? I'm assuming that your mate is going to be kept there for at least a couple days, and I'd be shocked if you left his side."

I sucked in a shuddering breath, my mind racing as I tried to figure out what I might possibly need. "A change of clothes, if you don't mind. And, uh, maybe a razor? I need to shave my head—both of our heads. I'm itching pretty bad already. I think my mate and I might have a lice problem." I wasn't going to blame my mate; it wasn't his fault if he had bugs after being in that trailer.

Papa P had his arms stretched out mid-hug when he quickly stepped back. "I'll just hold off on a welcome hug, then. Ray and I will be there with a razor ASAP." He looked around speculatively at the rest of the guys. "I'm doing head checks on all of you. It's your choice whether I shave you or shampoo you, but we are not going to have a lice outbreak running rampant through our families. Trust me, you do not want to have to pick nits out of a toddler’s hair. If I have to shave every last one of you bald to prevent that shitstorm, I will happily do it." He nodded firmly. "Yes. It's time for a healthy dose of Papa P's lice prevention."

Ezra glanced over at Zeke with a grin as I looked back at them after I’d taken a seat in the ambulance. "Pax is screaming over the comms, which you'd know if you had yours on. He says to tell you that you'd better not show up at home without a shaved head. If you do, he’s shaving it for you—with your knife.”

Cain flashed me a wink as the doors closed between us. I could only imagine the fun that my team was about to go through. Served them right. Maybe they'd actually be perfectly sanitary for once after Papa P got done with his lice prevention.

After my mate was examined and admitted to a room at the hospital, Papa P and Ray were finally able to see us a couple of hours later. Papa P walked in and handed me an electric razor and silently pointed to the bathroom across the hall while he made his way over to the bed.

I made quick work of buzzing my head. When I saw bugs climbing in the hair that had dropped in the sink, I wrinkled my nose and sprayed the fuck out of it with sanitizing spray before using half a dispenser’s worth of paper towels to pick the whole mess up and the resulting throw up that followed. After I was satisfied the sink was clean, I tied off the trash bag and dumped it in the hazardous waste bin before going back into my mate’s room, pausing long enough to hit the Purell dispenser inside the door and clean my hands. I paused for a moment before dumping another pile on my newly bare head and rubbing it from forehead to shoulders.

Papa P had just finished shaving my mate’s head when I walked in. I growled, pissed to see his beautiful curls gone, but the bossman held up a hand.

“Drop the attitude, boy. Your mate isn’t in any condition to have his hair shampooed and the eggs picked out. Justin did what was best. A lice infestation has to be handled right away, you know that.”

Ray and I lifted my mate while Papa P got a nurse to help me change the linens and replace the pillows with bug-free ones. After he was settled, I noted that he was looking a little better. The fluids had already done a lot for him.

After the bossman and Papa P left a while later, I shifted to my wolf form and curled up on the germy floor beside my mate. I couldn’t join him in the bed when he hadn’t yet been aware of my presence, no matter how much I longed to hold him against my heart while we slept—but I would be here, standing guard and watching over him.