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Chapter Two
Kade
Kade was so,so close. Standing in the clearing, he could tell that he was on the right track, and he was almost there. He just needed one more moment to follow the scent, and then he’d know.
The click of a rifle behind him ruined it.
His human instinct took over. He ducked and turned, trying to get his huge bear body lower to the ground, even as his ears pricked up, rotating toward the spot where the sound had come from.
It wasn’t far away, maybe fifty yards. He could barely see the top of a head over tree roots, the barrel of a rifle pointed right at him, but there was something else, something that made his blood freeze.
Wolves. That unmistakable unwashed dog scent.
They were right behind the human.
Then everything happened at once. The wolves sprang at the human, growling. Kade was already running toward them when he smelled blood combined with a human’s scent and heard a whimper.
It’s a woman,he realized. Somehow that hadn’t occurred to him, but as he charged up to the wolves, he roared.
He didn’t even slow down to swat away the first wolf, standing over the woman’s prone body. It yelped as it flew backwards, landing on its side and then scrambling up.
The second wolf growled at him, all its teeth bared, but it backed away slowly. Kade growled right back, showing every last one of his own teeth, sinking his back claws into the soft earth so he could get better purchase in case he had to charge.
I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt her, he thought.
Then he thought: What? I don’t even know her.
The wolf knew better, though. While wolves were overly territorial, posturing, aggressive animals, they also weren’t stupid. Two wolves couldn’t take on a single grizzly. Four, maybe. A really even fight was more like six wolves.
Of course, they did travel in packs.
The first wolf was on its feet now, and it snorted at the second wolf. Both of them took one last, long look at Kade, still growling and ready to charge, their yellow eyes unearthly and unnatural.
Then they trotted off into the forest.
Kade looked down at the woman. Her eyelids fluttered once, and then closed. Her face was so pale it was nearly translucent, and the moss underneath her was quickly soaked with her blood.
Without thinking, he shifted back to human. He kneeled next to her frantically, and rolled her over.
Kade gasped when he saw the wounds on her back, long claw sets that wrapped around her ribcage onto her side. Those wolves had almost killed her, and the rage flared up again through him, his bear roaring murderously.
Later, he told himself. Right now you need to get her to safety.
Even though she was about to shoot you?
He looked around for something to wrap her wounds in while he carried her back to the cabin, his gaze finally falling on a pack crammed under a tree root. In seconds, he’d torn into it, yanking out a backpacking towel and a few shirts. He tied them around her as tightly as he could, thankful that she’d already passed out.
If she were conscious, she’d be in a lot of pain, and it was only going to get worse.
Once her makeshift bandages were secure, Kade lifted her to his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and started hiking cross-country as fast as he could. He needed to get her to safety before the wolves came back, because when they did, they’d have reinforcements.
He wished he could shift, but he could never hang onto her in his grizzly form. Maybe if she’d been awake she could have ridden him. Rocks and pine needles scratched at his bare feet, and stray branches scraped his limbs, but he didn’t care.
All that mattered was that this woman was okay.
Kade had no idea what he was doing. He didn’t know why this woman’s life was so important. She’d been about to shoot him, for the love of God, and now he was naked and carrying her through the woods at the possible expense of his own safety.
How many wolves did he think he could fight off for her? Seven? Eight?
