AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lincoln caught me and pulled me to his chest. “Hey, I got you. Are you okay?”
I fell against him, wound my arms around his neck, and breathed him in. I put my nose against his hairline and closed my eyes, relaxing for only a second. The weight on my chest lifted, and I could breathe easier with him in my arms.
He touched my cheek, gingerly turning my face to look up at him. I blinked as my breath hitched. He closed the distance, capturing my lips for the first time in real life since he’d been captured.
The kiss was slow, sensual. He took his time caressing my mouth and grazing his tongue along my teeth before pulling away.
“I missed you so much.”
He slid his thumb over my cheek and gave me one last nip. “I’m so glad that I didn’t talk you out of coming.”
He rested his forehead against mine, and we took another moment to be in each other’s arms.
Lincoln was the first to pull away. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Come on, sweetheart. We need to keep moving.”
I nodded and let him tug me along. The ground was uneven, and the sticks and leaves made the wet terrain not only a tripping hazard but also slippery. I cast my gaze to my feet, watching my path so I could avoid another near fall.
The heaviness in my chest came back as the full reality of our situation hit me. “What are our plans after the stream?”
Lincoln squeezed my hand tighter. “We will go as far in the water as we can stand. The further downstream we make it, the better. It will throw Mikey and the other enforcers off. There’s a town near the North Dakota border that’s pretty touristy. We might be able to find a cabin or small house to stay in for the evening.”
I pushed some of my hair behind my ear. “How far away?”
Lincoln scrunched his nose as he looked off into the distance. “It’s about twenty-five miles or so.”
It was too far to walk on foot. We would have to transition at some point. I didn’t know how much wolfsbane Mikey had given him, but I hoped it wasn’t so much that it didn’t wear off soon.
Lincoln stumbled over some uneven ground, and I had to yank him toward me to keep him from falling.
He gave me a sheepish look. “Thanks. I swear I’ll be back to myself in no time.”
I frowned and huffed, shaking my head. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Lincoln. You spent the past few days strung up in a barn being tortured. I’m surprised that you’re carrying yourself as well as you are right now.”
Lincoln’s eyes widened, and then he looked away from me. “Not the worst thing I’ve ever been through.”
He swallowed hard and set his jaw as he stared off into the distance.
I licked my lips, my heart pinching. “Sawyer told me a bit about what happened with your mom and sister.”
Lincoln’s jaw worked. “We used to go to the mall all the time. Mom and Hannah enjoyed it. Dad, I think, was always a little… I don’t know what the right word is for it.”
“Paranoid?” I supplied.
Lincoln chuckled and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Yeah, I suppose you could say that. He used to send enforcers with us when we went. They kind of kept their distance like bodyguards, I suppose. That day, he didn’t have anybody to send. He had a meeting that he needed to take them to. Sawyer and I were both supposed to go, but Sawyer was sick. His change was coming, and Dad could sense that, so he made him stay home.”
Lincoln’s eyes narrowed, and he looked away from me. “It was just me, Mom, and Hannah. Everything was going fine until it wasn’t. I’m not sure what my dad ever envisioned might happen when he sent us with protection, but I don’t think it was a gunman trying to get at his ex-girlfriend.”
I held my breath as a lump lodged in my throat. My poor Lincoln.
He closed his eyes and shook his head before opening them again.
“It truly was just the wrong place, wrong time kind of thing. The ex-girlfriend was the cashier at the store we were in. The guy came and just started shooting. All three of us were hit in the initial attack. We didn’t even know it was coming. Why would we? Nobody expects that kind of thing.”
I stared at the ground, watching my steps and waiting for him to continue. The tree roots were extra thick through here, and it’d be really easy for one of us to trip. Lincoln seemed to be doing the same thing, or maybe he was contemplating what to say next. I wasn’t really sure.
He blew out of breath. “There was an off-duty police officer in one of the shops just down the boardwalk, and he tried to subdue the guy and failed. That’s when he took the rest of us hostage. Hannah bled out within a matter of minutes. She’d taken two bullets to the chest, and I think one hit an artery. There was so much blood, and there was nothing I or my mom could do. I took a bullet in the leg. Mom, I didn’t find out until later, had been shot four times.
“She held on for me, and I think she is the reason that I didn’t turn that day. I could feel my wolf brimming below the surface, begging to come out. But she held me, and I don’t know if it’s possible, but I feel like she gave me her strength. She made it until we were rescued before passing out. Swat officers came in through the ceiling and took the guy out with a few shots. It wasn’t until after that they were coming around checking that I realized my mom had passed sometime during the rescue.”
