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“I need you at the fight, Doc. Now.”

Marco hung up before Rafe could ask what was going on, and more importantly, who exactly needed him.

Was it his Adri? Raging fear had him racing out of the clinic without bothering to lock the doors.

Luckily, his last patient had left an hour earlier.

He’d just been cleaning up and restocking before he went home.

At least he didn’t need to ask where he was going.

He made a point to always know where the fights the Lunettis organised were happening ever since that night thirteen years ago when he’d watched his too-young mate walk away from him after telling Rafe that he didn’t need saving and to stay the fuck away.

At the time, he’d thought for sure the jaguar shifter would come around.

Cat shifters might not feel the drive to mate the same way a wolf did, but they felt something .

Years had passed in the blink of an eye, and he’d only been called back to the fighting ring twice in all that time.

Marco’s manager, Vivianna, ran a much tighter ship than her predecessor, and it was rare for a shifter or a vampire to need his healing power even in such a violent occupation.

Each time he’d returned, he’d worried it was Adri who’d been hurt.

Adri almost dying. And each time, he wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or frustrated when his elusive mate was nowhere to be found. Avoiding him.

Police lights flashed in the distance as he pulled up to the warehouse. The stench of fear from whoever had just left was overpowering. It took a lot to scare a shifter. This was bad.

A ragged cry left his lips as he stepped into the building and his greatest nightmare came true. Adri’s jungle scent, his mate’s scent, was thick and heavy enough to drown him. It wasn’t the scent of arousal, frustration, or anger. No. This was blood. Pain. Suffering.

“Pull yourself together or he’s going to be learning to write with his left hand, Doc.” Marco’s voice cut through his panic with Alpha steel, and Rafe snapped into professional mode.

Adri’s whimper of pain had him striding toward the ring.

“I don’t need him,” the jaguar protested, voice weak.

Rafe ignored the words. He was done giving Adri space. Kneeling down beside his beautiful, broken mate, he fought to control his emotions as he took in the mangled mess of his arm.

“I told you I’ll always be here for you. I’ve got you, sweetheart. Whether you want me to or not.”

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