The girl struggled to keep up. She’d been kept shackled and probably unfed. She moved awkwardly, as though her legs were stiff. The hand below the zip tie had been swollen.
I wanted to slice my claws through someone’s belly. No one should ever treat her like that.
First I had to get her out of there. Top priority was her safety. Then they’d pay.
The girl breathed shallowly and tried to step carefully despite the brutal pace I’d set. Smart girl, trying to remain quiet. The wolves should be able to smell us, but she probably didn’t know that.
I shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on their camp either. The fools had all gone off to play in the moonlight. Or they could have been baiting a trap.
It didn’t matter. I couldn’t leave Yvette there a minute longer.
The girl. Not Yvette. I couldn’t call her by her name. It would be too easy to consider her as a person then, and not an objective. To consider her as something more, if my bear had his way. But that’s all she was to me, an objective, a failed task I had to make right.
That’s all she was.
I tugged her along behind me, my senses alert. The wolves were spread out through the forest. Although I’d been able to slip between them on the way in, it was probably too much to hope to have that kind of luck on the way back.
Again I wondered if it was a trap.
A chest-high log barred our path. I put my hands on the girl’s waist. Driven by a sudden impulse, I pulled her soft warm body against mine.
I bent down to speak in her ear. “If we get separated, keep going in this direction until you get to the river. Go downstream. There’s a boat for you tied up on the bank.”
Before she could respond I swung her over the log, and vaulted over it to join her. I recaptured her hand so I could more easily guide her. I had no other reason to hold her hand.
And I wouldn’t be whispering in her ear again. Her delicious scent—the natural fragrance of her skin, the lingering perfume of whatever she used on her hair—was too distracting. There was a whole pack of rogue wolves to be avoided. I couldn’t let her steal my focus.
And she was human. That fact alone should have been like a cold shower.
The wolves kept up their baying while I got the girl out of the tent. The cries rang from first one direction then another, completely at random. When a wolf howled a mere fifty feet away, I scooped up the girl and held her tight to my chest.
My first instinct was to run, to get her out of there as fast as possible. But the howl carried no sound of discovery. The noise of my running would certainly alert them.
With the girl crushed to my chest, her shallow breaths echoing my heartbeat, I made my way as stealthily as I could. The wolf’s howl trailed off, and another one farther away began to howl. I didn’t like not knowing where that first wolf was. It could be coming right toward us. Or another wolf could be.
I struck out through the trees, heading straight for the river. The howls kept popping up from different directions, never in the same place. My back prickled with unease. At any moment we might meet up with a wolf.
Then sound came from the direction of the camp, a wolf clamor with a different urgency. The call was taken up by another wolf, and another. They must have discovered the girl was missing.
They’d be able to scent our trail.
Speed was now more important than stealth. “On my back,” I told the girl, swinging her over my shoulders. Abandoning caution I tore off, the girl clinging to my neck.
My human form was a poor match for wolves. Without the presence of a human, I could have shifted and outrun them. But it was too dangerous to show humans our secret. That truth was so ingrained in me—I was seven years old when I saw what humans did to outed shifters—I never even considered shifting in front of the girl.
I ran.
The wolves one by one joined into the clamor of a hunt. They were on our trail now.
Their cries got closer.
They raced carelessly through the forest, their passage snapping the foliage of ferns and other low-growing plants. Eventually I’d get tired. If I was going to fight them, better to do it while I still had a chance to win.
When I came to a broad stream, I skidded to a halt. I dumped the girl in the water. “Get out of here.” I shoved her downstream. “Keep going until you come to the river. I left a boat for you.”
She set her feet wide, the stubborn foolish girl. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Get out of here!” I growled at her, and gave her another shove. With a splash she fell, landing on her hands and knees.
Turning my back on her, I dropped my carry bag and kicked off my jeans and ran back the way we’d come, shifting as I went.
I burst from behind the dense branches of a pine.
The two wolves in the lead weren’t expecting me. The first one ran right into my claws.
I tossed him aside and dove onto the second one.
The rest of the wolves arrived in ones and twos, panting but energized by the hunt. They circled me, tongues hanging out, eyes gleaming. I slowly rotated while I waited for their attack.
All five of them were intent on me. I roared and lunged at a wolf to my right. The circle reformed around me, another six feet farther from where I’d left the girl.
They might have forgotten about her. I had to make sure of it. I’d hold them off as long as it took. All she had to do was find the boat and leave.
The wolf behind me darted in and snapped at my leg. My claws grazed his fur as he retreated.
They worried at me, front then back, left then right. I swiped at them coolly, not allowing my bear free rein. My goal had to be delay. Give her time to get away. Then I could let my bear completely loose.
The wolves began swooping in on me more frequently, forcing me to whirl and slash at a dizzying pace. My bear was screaming at me to let him at them. Given his way, he’d bowl right through the nearest wolf and get two more chewing the fur of our backside. There might come a time for that but—
One of the wolves raised his head and sniffed.
Fuck. I smelled it too. The girl’s scent on the breeze.
The wolf turned. He was going to go after her.
I set my bear loose.
We threw ourselves at that wolf. He tumbled to the ground, us on top of him. His neck broke with one swipe.
The other wolves were all over us. Only four of them now.
Roaring, we managed to regain our footing. We shook off the wolves, but not without some damage. They’d gotten in some good bites and ripped the fur on our lower back and legs.
Smelling blood, the wolves completely forgot the girl. They pounced and retreated. Too many times they managed to sink their teeth before we beat them off.
The damage to us didn’t matter. We just needed to keep them busy long enough for her to get away.
My bear roared. The girl’s image in our mind, we fought the wolves.
We got in some good blows. We ripped open the hide of one, exposing his rib cage. Another we tossed in the air. He landed a dozen feet away, but limped back snarling.
The wolves were fast.
We were grabbing for one when a different one leaped from behind. We crashed to earth. Instantly the wolves were on us. Teeth bit into legs, arms… We gave a great heave and rolled, crushing the wolf that was going after our neck.
Three wolves left.
The wolves tore at us. We slashed furiously. Rolled. Slashed.
Our fur was slick with blood.
Didn’t matter. We were buying time for Yvette.
Then a scent rose over the sharp smells of blood and wolf.
My bear gave a sharp cry of distress.
Yvette stood not twenty feet away.