Free Beast of Burden by Marie Harte

move you. I need to get you back to the house so I can call a Healer.” He didn’t answered, and his eyes started to close. “Damian. Stay with me. Do you hear me?”
    She tapped his cheek, and he opened his eyes. “I’m —”
    He coughed again, and she shook her head and lifted him to a sitting position so she could get her shoulder under his arm. Damian was a good seven inches taller than she and weighed over two hundred pounds, most of it muscle. So she needed him conscious if they were to make it to her house. Even with her added strength from being a shifter, she wouldn’t be able to carry the male on her own.
    It took about twenty slow minutes to reach her cabin. Once inside, she directed him to the bedroom and helped him lie down. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he passed out. With a sigh and a heavy heart, she picked up her cell phone from the nightstand where she left it earlier and called Danica Welsh-Mathews, her daughter-in-law and the Ashwood Falls’ leopard Healer.
     
     
    ****
     
    Damian opened his eyes and cautiously looked around the room, not sure where the hell he was. The room held a warmth to it. The single window was covered with red and gold curtains. The walls were a soft cream color. The whole room reminded him of something. No, someone. Then memories of the fight with the rebel human and Sarah…
    Fuck.
    He’d come here to protect her. Instead he gotten his ass shot, and she’d ended up protecting him. Way to go, Damian.
    You’re such an ass .
    He sat up and sucked in a sharp breath as pain shot across his ribs. Peering down at his chest, he frowned and touched the red spot just below his heart. He let out a sigh and pushed to a stand, slower this time. He should consider himself lucky that Sarah had been there and the bullet hadn’t hit his heart. By the look of the healing wound, Sarah must had called a Healer, but from where?
    As he got closer to the door, he heard voices coming from the living room. They were speaking low, but Damian could sense the tension in each syllable. A few of the voices were male and made Damian’s puma growl and claw at him from under his skin. Opening the door, he took slow steps down the hall and stopped at the sight of Sarah sitting on the arm of a recliner with her arms crossed over her chest. Her blond hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves, framing her slightly rounded face. A face that held a mother’s scowl, which did nothing to take away from her beauty.
    Following her line of sight, Damian saw one of her sons, Graham, sitting on the couch, head in his hands.
    Graham let out a sigh and said, “Mom, please. It is much safer for you at Ashwood. Plus you’ll be closer to Nev and me and the kids.”
    Sarah snorted in an unamused way that made Damian smile. She was so beautiful. “You mean so you can keep an eye on me.”
    Graham sat back on the couch and shrugged. “We can’t help it that we love you and want you safe.”
    Nevan stepped out of the kitchen with a very attractive redheaded leopard shifter by his side and stopped to stand next to his stepmother. The female leopard wrapped her arms around Nevan from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder.
    The love that radiated from the couple caused a dull ache in Damian’s chest. Too long he’d watched Walt and Sarah share the same love, the same connection. He’d been happy for them. They were his best friends, but it hurt to be around them because Sarah was also his potential mate.
    “I’m not leaving my home, and that’s final.”
    Sarah’s stern outburst brought Damian out of his thoughts and drew his attention to the only female he’d ever loved. Shaking his head to clear the fog caused by blood loss, he stepped into the living room and said, “I’ll have to agree with your sons.”
    Everyone in the room turned to him. Now that he was fully inside the living room instead of hiding in the hallway, he saw the other two shifters in the room. A male and female stood