N. Walters - Alexandra's Legacy

“No. I’m sure they’ve probably already contacted others spread out along the route. Most likely all of them are converging on this area.”

“Did you recognize the men in the truck?”

He’d gotten a good look at them when they’d come up alongside the truck. “Yeah. One of them was the bounty hunter I saw yesterday. I’m assuming his buddy is one too.” She stumbled over a downed tree and he caught her, holding her for a brief moment. He could hear her heavy breathing and knew she was struggling to keep up with him. It worried him. “How bad is your head?”

She grimaced. “I’d love a hot bath, some pain relievers and a good night’s sleep. Other than that, I’m a bit banged up, but I’ll be all right.”

He noticed then that she still had her gun clasped in her hand. “Why don’t you tuck that away for now.”

She stared down at her hand and almost seemed surprised to still see the gun there. “I’d forgotten I was still holding it.” She finally had to reach down with her free hand to pry her fingers from around the metal. Once she had it tucked into her jeans at the small of her back, she flexed her fingers. “I didn’t want to lose it this time.”

No, he thought. She’d lost her weapon during the fight in the garage and his little warrior wouldn’t want to do that again.

Alex slipped on her leather jacket and he tied the windbreaker around his waist as they hiked onward. It didn’t matter to him what the terrain was. He knew he could take care of both Alex and himself. He was headed in the direction of Wolf Creek and that was all that mattered. Eventually, his brothers would know something had gone wrong and they would come looking.

If he’d been on his own, he would have shed his clothing and shifted. In his wolf form he could have run for hours, outpacing the hunters. But Alex couldn’t change yet and he wouldn’t leave her.

He sniffed the air constantly, testing it for smells that didn’t belong. He ignored the sweet smell of Alex that drifted up to his nostrils. Yes, she was sweaty and dirty and he hated the scent of blood that surrounded her, reminding him of her injuries, but beneath it all was the sweet smell of woman.

A bird flew up from the trees behind them. Joshua whirled around. Instinctively, he leapt at Alex, catching her in his arms as he threw them both to the ground, sheltering her so that his much larger body took the brunt of the fall. He heard the telltale whistle before he felt the pain. A large silver-tipped bolt from a crossbow pierced his left shoulder. If he hadn’t jumped when he had, it would have been buried in his heart.

Alex stared in horror at the large arrow protruding from Joshua’s body. He seemed oblivious to it as he drew his gun with his other hand and crouched beside her. She tried to scramble to her knees, but he knocked her back down with his shoulder. “Stay down,” he hissed. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead, but in no other way did he give any indication he was in any pain at all.

The man was unbelievable.

Reaching behind her back, she pulled out her gun. The weight felt solid in her hand. “How did they find us so quickly?” She’d thought that with Joshua’s skills in the woods the hunters would have a harder time finding them. Which was a stupid assumption when she really thought about it. If these were professional bounty hunters they would be skilled trackers. She excused her brief mental lapse, telling herself the blow to her head from the accident had momentarily scrambled her brains.

“We’ve got to move.” His eyes scanned the woods around them. “The two hunters are coming from the east, but they’ve got company. Keep low.”

She scrabbled to her feet, but kept her head and body as low to the ground as possible as she followed him behind some heavy brush. She could hear a shout in the distance but couldn’t make out what was said. “More hunters?” Her voice was hushed, but it still sounded incredibly loud. She knew she shouldn’t be talking, but she had to know what was going on.

“Werewolves,” he growled, disgust dripping from that single word. Betrayal. He didn’t say it, but Alex could all but hear it. The fact that a werewolf would join forces with bounty hunters to destroy another of their kind was an abomination. These hunters routinely killed women and children in their efforts to destroy the species.

Alex didn’t speak after that, but concentrated on putting one foot carefully in front of the other. She tried to match Joshua’s steps. He was absolutely silent as he moved fluidly and quickly through the forest. He didn’t lead her in a straight line, but had her moving over rocks and fallen logs, zigzagging their path. He always seemed to know where to step to avoid making any sound. It seemed as instinctive to him as breathing. This was the wolf inside him, she realized. This was the predator, at home in the woods.

It occurred to her that if she weren’t with him, he’d be stalking those hunters and rogue werewolves instead of running from them, wound or no wound. Her fingers tightened around her weapon. He stopped behind a large boulder and pulled her down beside him.

“The arrow has got to come out. It’s getting in my way.”

Of course it was. Not that it hurt him in any way. It was just getting in his way. She was filled with the totally unreasonable urge to yell at him. Instead, she pushed back her anger. “What do you want me to do?”

He gave a single nod of approval as if he’d expected nothing less from her. “You’ll have to break the end off the bolt. It’s tipped in silver and is too big to pull back out without causing more damage.” Reaching down into his boot, he withdrew a wickedly sharp hunting knife. “If you can’t crack it off, cut it with this.”

Laying the gun down on the ground next to them, she stared at the arrow protruding from his body, trying to figure out the best angle of approach.

“Just do it. We don’t have time to waste.” He braced himself against the rock, the muscles of his good arm tensing as he waited.

She wasn’t trying to waste time. She was trying to build up enough courage to do this. Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her hands around the top of the shaft just below the tip and put all her strength into the task at hand. Doing her best not to jolt him, she cracked off the deadly silver end and tossed it to the ground.

Joshua was breathing heavily now, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “Good. That’s very good. Now come around to my front, brace your hand on my chest and pull the rest of the arrow out.”

Alex swallowed hard, but did as he instructed. His body was warm beneath her hand, his heart beating steadily beneath her palm. There was no give in the wide expanse of muscle that banded across his chest. She gripped the shaft with her other hand, took a deep breath and pulled in one hard motion, much like ripping off an adhesive bandage.

He sucked in a breath between his clenched teeth, but other than that he gave no sign she’d hurt him at all. His body was rock steady, but she was feeling a bit wobbly. Kneeling in the dirt, she wiped a hand over her damp forehead. Blood welled from the hole. “That needs to be cleaned so it doesn’t get infected.”

“Later.” He glanced back toward the direction they’d come from, his eyes narrowing. “Help me get my shirt off. I need to wrap something around this to stop the bleeding.”

God. She’d been sitting here just watching him bleed. Her head must be more muddled from the crash than she’d thought. Galvanized into action, she shucked her jacket and tore her own shirt over her head. Using the knife he’d handed her, she cut it into strips. She had a momentary pang over destroying the shirt because he’d given it to her. Which was actually quite a silly sentiment at a time like this.