Chapter 23 Sage’s Fight
The next attack came two days later at the worst possible time.
Sage was at the clinic with Jenny treating a line of patients that had been backed up since the warehouse ambush. Three injured wolves. Two human patients with the flu. One kid with a broken arm.
It was noon, bright daylight. The last time she’d expect trouble.
The door burst open and Beth stumbled in bleeding from a gash across her face.
“They are coming,” Beth gasped. “Hunters, atleast fifteen. Heading this way.”
Sage’s blood went cold. “Jenny, get everyone to the back room. Lock the door.”
“What about you?”
“I will handle this. Go!”
Jenny herded the patients toward the back while Sage helped Beth to a chair. The wound wasn’t deep but it was bleeding heavily.
“Where’s Kade?” Sage asked.
“Other side of the city. Meeting with the council about border security.” Beth wiped blood from her eyes. “They planned it this way. Drew him away so they could hit the clinic.”
“How did they know I would be here?”
“Someone told them. Same spy that has been feeding Marcus information.” Beth tried to stand and winced. “We need to run. Get you somewhere safe.”
“No.” Sage locked the front door. “If we run, they will chase us, hunt us down in the open. Better to make a stand here.”
“You can’t fight fifteen hunters alone.”
“I don’t plan to.” Sage pulled out her phone and called Cole. “I need backup at the clinic. Now.”
“On our way, give us five minutes.”
Five minutes, Sage had to hold them off for five minutes.
She heard vehicles outside, doors slamming, footsteps. Then the front window shattered.
Glass exploded inward. Sage dove behind the reception desk pulling Beth with her.
Hunters poured through the broken window. Armed with guns and silver knives. Faces covered with masks.
“Sage Monroe,” one of them called. “Marcus wants you alive. Come quietly and no one else gets hurt.”
“Go to hell,” Sage shouted back.
Bullets tore through the reception desk. Wood splintered. She and Beth crawled toward the exam rooms staying low.
A hunter came around the corner. Sage grabbed a medical tray and threw it at his face. He stumbled and she shifted partially. She just stretched her hands free and claws extended.
She slashed across his throat, he went down gurgling.
“Move!” She pulled Beth into an exam room and locked the door.
It wouldn’t hold long but it gave them seconds.
Beth was shifting, her wolf breaking through. “I can fight.”
“You are injured. You will slow me down.” Sage looked around the room for medical supplies in cabinets. A window too small to escape through. “Stay here. Protect the others in the back room if they get past me.”
“Sage…”
But Sage was already shifting fully. Her white wolf with black lightning markings. She burst out of the exam room before the hunters could break down the door.
Caught them by surprise.
She took down two before they could react with teeth and claws. Fast and vicious.
The others opened fire. Silver bullets. She dodged. One grazed her shoulder, pain exploded but she kept moving.
Can’t stop, keep moving.
She was smaller than full wolves. Faster even so she used that as an advantage and slipped between them. Targeted legs and throats, weak points.
But there were too many, every one she took down, two more appeared.
She was bleeding now, with multiple wounds and slowing down.
A hunter got behind her and grabbed her scruff, slammed her against the wall. She yelped. Pain shot through her ribs.
He raised a silver knife. Then the front door exploded inward.
Cole and six wolves poured in, already shifted. They tore through the hunters like a storm.
Sage collapsed, her wolf form fading, shifting back hurt worse than the bullets.
Cole was beside her in human form. “We need to get you out of here.”
“The patients. Jenny. Beth.” Sage tried to stand. Her legs gave out.
“Riley’s getting them. Can you walk?”
“No.”
He picked her up. Carried her outside where more wolves had arrived. The hunters were either dead or running.
Kade’s SUV screeched to a stop. He jumped out. Saw Sage bleeding in Cole’s arms.
“What happened?” His voice was deadly quiet.
“Ambush by fifteen hunters, they were after her specifically.” Cole transferred Sage to Kade’s arms. “We got here in time but barely.”
Kade looked down at Sage. The mate bond was screaming. His rage. His fear. His guilt for not being there.
“I’m okay,” she said. Her voice was weak. “Just some bullets, no vitals was shot.”
“You are covered in blood.”
“Most of it is theirs.” She managed a smile. “You should see the other guys.”
He didn’t smile back, instead he carried her to his SUV and laid her in the back seat. He started driving before anyone could argue.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“The den, pack doctor is there. Better equipped than the hospital.” His hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel. “You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You almost did, Cole said you fought fifteen hunters alone.”
“I had Beth. And then backup came.” She touched his shoulder. “I’m fine. Really.”
“You are not fine. You are shot. Multiple times.” He took a corner too fast. “This is my fault, I should have posted guards at the clinic.”
“You can’t guard everywhere. We need an army.”
“Then we get an army.” His voice was hard. “This ends, Marcus wants a war? He’s got one.”
They reached the den. The pack doctor was waiting. An older wolf named Margaret who had been treating pack injuries for thirty years.
She took one look at Sage and shook her head. “Get her inside and someone call Jenny. I will need help with this.”
They carried Sage into the medical room. Margaret worked for two hours extracting silver bullets and stitching wounds. Sage drifted in and out. The pain medication made everything fuzzy.
When she woke up it was dark outside. Kade was beside her bed, he had not moved.
“How long?” she asked.
“Six hours. Margaret said you will be fine. No permanent damage.” He took her hand. “But you need to rest, stay here for a few days.”
“I can’t. The clinic…”
“Jenny and Margaret are handling it, Beth is fine, all the patients are fine.” He leaned closer. “You saved them, all of them. By fighting when you should have run.”
“I’m Alpha female. I don’t run.”
“You are also my mate and I can’t lose you.” His voice cracked. “When Cole called and said you were under attack, when I saw you covered in blood, I thought…”
“I know.” She squeezed his hand. “The bond, I felt it too. Your fear.”
“It wasn’t just fear, it was terror.” He kissed her forehead. “I can’t do this without you, I can’t lead the pack, can’t face Marcus, I can’t breathe if you are not there.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” She meant it this time. No lies. “We are in this together. Whatever comes next.”
He climbed into the bed beside her carefully, he held her without pressing on her injuries.
The mate bond settled. Both of them safe. Both alive.
For now.
But Marcus was still out there. Still planning. Still attacking.
“What do we do?” Sage asked.
“We find him before he finds us again.” Kade’s voice was steel. “And we end this, permanently.”
“How?”
“I’m calling a hunt. Every wolf in the pack. We track Marcus and the Crescent Alpha, we find their base and we finish what should have ended at the challenge.”
“That is a war.”
“I know.” He looked at her. “Are you with me?”
Sage thought about the clinic, the patients, the innocent wolves caught in the crossfire. She thought about Marcus and his willingness to kill anyone who got in his way.
This wouldn’t stop until one side was dead.
“I’m with you,” she said. “Always.”
“Then we prepare. Three days. We gather our forces. And we hunt.”