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brother’s arms.”
    Shane jumped aside and made room for the doctor to examine their wolf. Brayden was comfortably certain that she was being a little dramatic. He’d had part of his attention fixed on his mate’s heartbeat since the moment she appeared in the vampire’s arms. She was stable.
    After the doctor had examined their mate she took a liter of blood from Josh and administered it directly to their mate. She phoned Jason Reed, the doctor in Eminence and, after discussing their mate’s condition with him, repeated the process with a liter of Brayden’s blood.
    “Some of her wounds appear to be healing now,” Charlie said, “but she’s in a much poorer condition than Kaitlyn was when Jason treated her. I think we need to continue the blood transfusions until she regains consciousness.”
    Josh pulled up a chair and pushed Shane into it. Shane rolled up his sleeve and held out his bared arm to the doctor. Despite their posturing, Brayden had noticed that neither of them had taken their eyes off their mate. They were both totally focused on her, waiting for her eyes to open, as was he.
    Brayden knew that this was going to be the easy part in his fight for all of them to happily share a mate. He would need to make her safe from the vampires who had drained and tortured her, help his poor little mate recover from her ordeal, and then convince his brothers to accept that they were worthy of a mate.
    Yes, donating blood is the easy part.
     
    * * * *
     
    Abbie struggled to stay asleep. She didn’t like being awake. It brought her nothing but pain and degradation. If she woke, she may have to fight until they beat her into oblivion again. She shook with an involuntary shudder. The pain of the beatings was still preferable to staying awake when they fed from her. She shuddered again.
    “My name is Doctor Paige,” a woman said. “You’ve been brought to a town in Wyoming called Pine Falls. You’re safe.”
    Abbie was bombarded with a deluge of new sensations, all of which made her aware that at least some of what the female had just said was true. Keeping her eyes closed she let her wolf revel in the unfamiliar sensations of both warmth and joy. For some reason her wolf was extremely happy.
    “Can you open your eyes, little wolf?”
    The deep husky timbre of that voice reverberated through to her bones, leaving her nerve endings alive with pleasure. She inhaled the deep musky scent of male wolf, her male wolf. She growled low in her throat. Her wolf didn’t like another female being around her mate. She wriggled closer to a warm, hard chest, absorbing comfort and warmth from the contact. She’d been so cold, so alone, for such a long time.
    She didn’t know how long she’d been in that cage. The days had run into each other as she was beaten unconscious, only to wake and have it happen again, all with no knowledge of how long she’d been unconscious.
    “She’s waking up,” someone with a deep voice said.
    This voice held a confusing mix of aggression and pain. She wanted to protect her mate, to keep him safe, but as she moved to stand and protect him, she screamed in pain.
    “Don’t move, little wolf. You’ve only just begun to heal from your injuries.”
    “Should I go and get the vampire? He’ll be able to read her thoughts for us.”
    This was another voice, another angry man. Then she realized what he’d said. He was going to get a vampire. Ignoring pain had become easier through her time as a captive, so she pushed down the instinct to remain still and leaped from her imaginary mate’s embrace. She didn’t know why she’d dreamed him up, but he was obviously a figment of her fevered imagination.
    “Stop her,” the woman said.
    They were too late. Abbie opened her eyes and saw a wooden floor. I’m not in the cage. The stupid bastards shouldn’t have let my wolf out.
    Not stopping to look behind her, Abbie ran toward a door she saw opening right in front of her. Freedom. I’m going to