Free Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5) by Natalie Kristen Page A

now.
    He loved Jade as his mate.
And he loved Luke as a brother.
    Dylan heard a terrible roar
and opened his eyes to see Luke tear out Rickson's throat with his
claws
    Dylan's hand dropped to his
chest and his fingers closed around the hilt of the dagger.
    Gritting his teeth, he
wrenched the silver blade out of his body and let the bloody dagger
clatter to the ground.
    Dylan closed his eyes and
listened to the muffled, gurgling sounds around him. It was no use
trying to talk. He couldn't even let out a feeble groan.
    He heard what sounded like
the screech of tires and pounding footsteps. There were voices, an
endless torrent of garbled, meaningless words. He thought he
recognized some of the voices but he couldn't be sure. Caleb? Thor?
Bax? Luke? They were beginning to sound alike.
    Then he heard someone crying.
And he heard her call his name.
    He knew that voice. He would
know her voice anywhere.
    With his failing strength,
Dylan tried to reach for her.
    Jade...my brave, beautiful
Jade.
    Please d on't
cry.
    He wanted to touch her face
and dry her tears.
    But he couldn't feel his
hand, his arm, any part of himself. He was fading away.
    Don't cry, Jade. Don't
cry.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

    Jade shook her head and
refused to let go of Dylan's hand. “No, I'm not hungry. I'm
not leaving him!” she said angrily.
    Aubrey sighed and stepped
back. She wrung her hands before smoothing them over her nurse's
uniform and looked worriedly over her shoulder at Cora, Prisha and
Lindy.
    Cora stepped forward and
repeated gently, “Jade, you have to eat. And you have to rest.
You've been at his bedside for days...”
    Jade didn't seem to hear her.
She just kept staring at Dylan's face and pressing his palm to her
lips as she murmured to him, begging him to wake up.
    “We have very good
doctors here,” Aubrey said. “All the nurses here will
take good care of Dylan. I'll watch him and I'll call you as soon as
he wakes up, okay?”
    Lindy and Prisha tried to
help Jade up, but she snarled at them and shook their hands away.
    Cora motioned the others to
the door. “We'll leave now, but we'll be back with a sandwich
and a pack of milk, okay?”
    The girls left quietly and
Jade heard the door close behind them. She didn't turn around. She
knew they meant well, and they were only trying to help, but no one
could help her right now.
    Not the girls, not the clan,
not even her brother.
    Luke had been hovering over
Dylan's hospital bed and over her shoulder, urging her to go home and
rest. She knew he was worried about Dylan as well, but she just
didn't want anyone else near Dylan right now. Sure, she would step
aside for the doctors, but once the doctors finished examining him,
she would swoop in and hold Dylan's hand again.
    He was hers. No one else
would touch him.
    Dylan had protected her
brother. She had seen from the window what he did. Rickson had been
gunning for Luke, but Dylan had shielded Luke. He had protected her
brother with his life.
    “Dylan,” Jade
whispered. “Please wake up. Please...stay with me. I…I
need you, Dylan.”
    The Black Bears had all come
and left quietly. She ignored all their well-meaning advice, and
simply pushed them away. Their alpha and beta, Ethan and Caleb, were
the only ones who didn't try to get her to leave Dylan's bedside.
Instead, she'd heard them telling the Black Bears to leave Dylan and
Jade alone. Ethan and Caleb had offered her words of encouragement,
and they seemed to understand and appreciate her stubborn refusal to
leave Dylan's side.
    Jade laid her cheek on
Dylan's large palm and closed her eyes. His injuries were serious.
The silver blade had missed his heart by inches, but the silver had
inflicted grievous damage to his muscles and internal organs.
    The doctors all said that he
was out of danger. But—why wouldn't he wake up?
    Why wouldn't he open his
eyes? She wanted to see his beautiful, warm, intelligent eyes. She
missed the way he looked at her. She missed his smile, his