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She intentionally hit her foot against a tree root and went down, landing on her hands and knees. Her gasp of pain wasn’t an act, though, and she gritted her teeth together as the stitches in her back screamed in pain.
The man turned and looked at her, then crouched down next to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Charlie took a few deep breaths before she could answer.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m okay. It’s just my back.”
She looked up into his face. His jaw flexed, and his mouth made a flat line.
Then he stood and extended his hand down, offering it to her. Charlie took it.
“It isn’t much further,” he said. “We’ll slow down. You can hang onto me.”
He cast another look back at the wolf behind them, and then Charlie and the blue-eyed, dark-haired wolf shifter walked slowly to the fire road, her hand gripping his arm tightly.
* * *
When they found the truck,Charlie thought she might cry with relief. The hike had been harder than she’d thought — after all, it hadn’t been very long since she’d lost so much blood.
Be easier on yourself, she thought.
Soon.
The truck entered the ranch through a gate, which slid back in front of them and closed behind them. Charlie noted that there was a fence around the ranch, but it was only a few feet high — for cattle, not people.
Even though the shifter in human form hadn’t talked much, she still liked him better than the wolf, who’d hopped into the truck’s jump seat and then sat there, staring at her.
Finally they pulled up in front of a big farmhouse, in the middle of four or five other outbuildings. Two looked like barracks, one was a barn, and the other two were some sort of farm buildings that Charlie couldn’t identify.
To be honest, she didn’t really care. She was tired, her back hurt something fierce, and it was going to be ages before she saw Kade and Daniel again. She wasn’t even sure which part was the worst.
They got out of the truck, and the wolf trotted away, its tail held out straight behind it. The man watched it go, and then turned his face toward Charlie.
“I’m sorry about all this,” he said.
Charlie frowned.
“Thanks,” she said uncertainly.
“The people in charge don’t speak for all wolves,” he said, his voice tight and angry. “Not all of us take part in stupid pissing contests over territory or think that humans should be used as bargaining chips.”
“I see,” Charlie said.
“Aiden and Dwayne got what they deserved,” he said.
The names sounded familiar, but Charlie couldn’t put her finger on who they were.
“The dead wolves,” the man explained, as they mounted the steps to the big house. Then the man was opening the door, ushering Charlie into the front hallway.
The two of them walked back to the kitchen, where Buck stood along with an older woman, leaning against the counter, holding beers.
When the man and Charlie walked in, the conversation stopped dead. The woman looked from one man to the other and then left without a word.
“It’s the human that the bears were keeping,” the man who’d brought her said.
Buck started at Charlie’s toes and let his gaze sweep upward.
