Page 34 of Starting Over

“Fuck!” Jude snapped, snagging the table they’d been sitting at and pulling so it fell sideways, “Stay down and crawl so the table is blocking us. The guys…”

Again Jude didn’t get to finish his thoughts when the glass door was slammed open and the group of men came out shooting.

Rain covered his ears from the sound of gunfire as a wisp of smoke surrounded them. Rain couldn’t remember being so scared in all his life. What the fuck had his life come down to?

Okay, so he’d been a witness to a mass shooting and seen things he’d wished never to see again, but he’d changed his name… started making a life for himself… and now he was lying on the ground, hiding behind a fucking table, praying he wouldn’t get shot while bullets flew all around him.

What the actual fuck?

Rain was so freaked out he could hear his heartbeat in his ears, and it was so fucking loud he stopped hearing any and everything around him. His breathing was coming so fast he knew he was on the brink of passing out from hyperventilating,and every part of him almost wished he would… and when another bullet hit the table his head was hiding behind, he did the only thing his brain knew to do… he shifted… and ran.

“Rain!” Jude shouted.

However, Rain wasn’t stopping… not because he didn’t want to stop, but because his animal was on survival mode and that meant hide! He had to get away from everyone…

Hide!

Be safe!

That was all his animal was saying, and so he ran.

Since an elephant shrew could run close to twenty miles an hour, when his brain registered he wasn’t hearing gunshots anymore, he finally stopped and realized he had no clue where the fuck he was.

Or what happened to his mate… Jude… all the men… everyone.

Oh gods… he had left his mate… left his mate to die! What kind of a mate was he? The worst kind of mate. The most horrible of mates.

What would Wyatt think about him now?

His job, as Wyatt’s mate was to keep him safe and he’d done the worst thing a mate could do.

He’d run.

Rain wanted to go back, but he felt the shame… so much shame. How could he go back to Wyatt now knowing he’d left him there… left him to die.

The answer was clear.

He couldn’t go back. He couldn’t face any of them… if they were even still alive.

CHAPTER 13

Wyatt couldn’t believe what the hell was going on. He and his men had been in a meeting going over what Pit needed in Drago and how he wanted Wyatt and his team to work.

They’d just decided that Ennyd would be the one to focus on what they would need to start working in Drago when Casper had jumped up from his seat, shouting, “Shooters!”

Wyatt didn’t question it. His mate was outside and if someone was shooting, he had to get his mate to safety and then kill whoever the fuck dared threaten his mate.

The great thing was his thunder didn’t question it either.

All of them were up and had just gotten to the door, when Wyatt saw bullets hitting close to where Rain and Jude were with only a damn patio table for cover.

Wyatt didn’t think as he started shooting in the direction the shots were coming from, all the while fighting his dragon from coming out and going for the fuckers that dared threaten his mate. However, as a shifter, it was not a good idea to allow humans to know of their existence, and therefore, shifting was not an option at the moment, but if his mate looked as if he might be harmed, Wyatt didn’t give a shit, he’d shift because none of the fuckers shooting his mate’s way would live long enough to talk.

A billow of smoke suddenly flashed past them and his view of Rain was gone… surrounded by a dark grey cloud that got bigger and bigger until there was nothing left for any of them to see.

Turning to Ryan, Wyatt snapped, “You, Omar and River head to the right.” Looking to Ennyd, he ordered, “You, Aron and Tandris take the left.”

Asod rushed to Wyatt, “Augus and Orca are going with me. We’re going to see if we can get behind the shooter.”