Thankfully back on two legs, Daisy stood next to Calder as a contingent of fire trucks from neighboring towns rolled to a stop. She was amazed at how much her life had changed in less than twenty-four hours. Not only had she mated a shifter, much to her surprise, she’d become one herself. Talk about some crazy-ass shit! She was a little miffed that neither Gerri nor Calder had given her a heads-up to the possibility that she could end up sprouting fur and a tail, an issue she’d take up with both of them later. Her questions would wait until she was certain all pack members were safe and accounted for.

The sound of howling pulled Daisy from her thoughts. Before she could process what was happening, Calder’s head snapped toward the sound. He took off in a blur—only to come to a dead stop, falling to his knees.

Daisy screamed in horror as she watched her mate collapse, blood pouring from the fresh hole in his chest. Two men she didn’t know tackled the man who had insulted her. A gun fell from his grip and bounced on the ground.

She ran to Calder’s side, assessing his injury. “Can he recover from this?” she shouted in her mind to her wolf.

“Not without intervention. He’s losing too much blood.”

“Can you help him?” the fire chief asked.

“Yes, but I need my bag. It’s on the front seat of his truck,” Daisy said, as she ripped the thin T-shirt from Calder’s body.

“Once the silver bullet is removed, he’ll start to heal.”

“Silver bullet? Who would use such a thing?” Daisy asked in dismay.

“Someone who wanted the Alpha dead. It would be the fastest way to kill him.”

“Fuck!” The sight of the wound was bad, deep and messy, not something any doctor liked to see.

Daisy had no idea if Calder could hear her or not as he lay on the street, but she had to try reaching him. “Hang on, Calder. Just a little bit longer and I’ll be able to get this bullet out of you. My wolf said you could heal, once it’s gone.”

“Here’s your bag, doc.” The chief dropped her bag at her feet.

“Thanks. What’s your name, chief?” Daisy glanced up at the man. If she was going to be the Alpha’s mate, she needed to start learning a few names.

“Jared Jacobson Engle.”

He pronounced Engle in an odd fashion. The g languidly rolling off of his tongue suggesting his name had some special connotation. As the newcomer she had no idea why his name would be a big deal.

“Daisy, run!” Calder shouted in her head.

“Surrender to me, now,” her wolf demanded, snarling in her mind.

Catching a glimpse of the discarded gun out of the corner of her eye, Daisy closed her eyes and listened to her wolf, her intuition telling her the animal would do everything in its power to protect her and their mate.

The wolf didn’t hesitate, not for a second. A bat of an eyelash and a bystander would have missed her ferociousness as the wolf lunged for Jared’s throat, tearing the fleshy chunk of meat from his body and dropping it on the ground.

The man reached for his neck, and gurgling sounds accompanied the sprays of blood that coated her fur. Her wolf—certain that he had no chance for recovery, and that he no longer posed a threat—relinquished her control and Daisy shifted back to her human form.

“Calder!” Daisy dug through her bag as quickly as possible. She’d already wasted too much time in the few seconds it had taken her wolf to deal with the threat.

Finding the case she needed, she spread it out on the ground and grabbed her scalpel. She sliced a small line over the area where the bullet had lodged in Calder’s chest, all the while speaking to him in a calming voice. “I almost have it. Just stay with me another minute and I’ll have that silver out of you.”

Working diligently she separated the skin, then carefully reached in with a pair of tweezers to grab the edge of the silver bullet. She prayed removing the bullet would do the trick and allow his healing to kick in. She had no idea how shifters healed or anything about the majik that flowed through their bodies. She could only go by what her wolf had told her, and she had to trust that the animal knew what she was talking about.

“There we go.” The bullet slid free from Calder’s chest, and she dropped it on the ground.

“Will he be all right, doc?”

For the first time, Daisy looked up, almost horrified by the number of people surrounding her, watching her every move.

Calder coughed and his eyes slowly flickered open. “Daisy.” He tried to yell, but only managed a faint whisper.

“Shhh. I’m here.” She glanced down at the wound, only to see the skin beginning to knit itself back together.

“Yeah,” Daisy said with a smile. “He’ll be just fine.”

Whispers from different people standing around reached her ears. “Did you see how she saved our Alpha?”

“Dude, she took down Jared in two seconds flat.”

Daisy should have been horrified by the conversations about her and the brutality of her actions, but she wasn’t. The man would have killed her and taken away any chance she had at saving Calder. If she had to do it all over again, she couldn’t say that she would have done things any differently.