She turned away from him and started back.Dropping down from the driver’s side, Aiden rushed around to meether before she could climb out of the ambulance. Maggie’s eyes weredry when they met his.
Aiden wiped off the handles she’d touchedwhen she opened the back doors. Even if they pulled his prints,they weren’t on file. Besides, the police would never be able tolocate or keep him imprisoned for long if they were somehow luckyenough to stumble across him.
“Did you touch anything inside?” heasked.
“No,” she replied. “We have to let someoneknow they’re here. Theycan’tstay in this alley. Theydeserve better,” she said.
He rested his hand on her arm to draw hercloser. “We’ll call someone as soon as we can, but we have togo.”
• • •
Trudging along beside Aiden, Maggie kept herhead down as she tried to process everything that had happenedtonight. Exhaustion tugged at her; her shoulders hunched up as thememory of Glenn and Walt dead in that ambulance flared back tolife.
She’d never lived under the delusion lifewas fair, but sheloathedthat it was sometimes a cruelbitch with razor-sharp claws, who laughed as she sliced youopen.
Maggie could hear the cruel laughter of lifebouncing around her skull now.
“I’m sorry about your friends,” Aidensaid.
When he rested his hand on her shoulder, sheflinched away from him. Aiden buried the stab of hurt the rejectionbrought with it. She had every right to hate him. He didn’t blameher for it, yet if he let her walk out of his life, he would haveto go to Ronan and ask to be destroyed. Yesterday, that prospecthadn’t seemed bleak. Now that he’d met her and glimpsed the promiseof a life without his constant, insidious cravings, death was thelast thing he wanted.
They were only a couple of blocks away fromthe alley when the putrid stench of garbage hit him. Aiden grabbedMaggie’s elbow, halting her as he searched for the enemy he knewwas near. He looked to the doorway beside them as Maggie tuggedangrily on her arm.
“Let go!” she hissed.
“There are Savages near,” he said.
Maggie forgot all about fighting him as sheglanced wildly around. Thosethingswere close! Where werethey supposed to go? Which way was the right way to avoid them?
“Where?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know they’re close?”
“I can smell them. This way.”
He pulled her toward an alley tucked betweentwo brownstone houses. Maggie’s nose wrinkled as the aroma of thegarbage in the dumpsters wafted to her. Aiden’s pace increased; hehurried her forward and turned to the right. Before Maggie couldstop him, he spun her into his arms, lifted her off the ground, andplunged downward.
Maggie gasped, her hands dug into the solidmuscle of his shoulders as he hit the ground. Glancing around her,she realized he hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth but into astaircase leading to a basement.
Cradling her closer against him, Aidencupped her nape as he edged into the shadows until his back came upagainst a metal door. He shifted Maggie and set her down as hegripped the metal handle behind him. If it became necessary, hewould rip the door off and enter into whatever lay beyond, but hewouldn’t alert the Savages to their presence or trigger any alarmsif he didn’t have to.
Maggie’s heart beat rapidly against hischest as her short nails bit into his shoulders. The silken strandsof her hair tickled his hand. He caressed her neck with his thumb,hoping to calm her. If he didn’t have her to worry about, he’d goafter the Savages and hunt them down with or without hisweapons.
However, if something happened to him, therewould be no one to keep her safe from the killers. His family andfriends didn’t know she existed yet, and she wouldn’t know where toturn for help.
Mate or not, her blood was more potent andsweeter than any human blood he’d ever consumed. The Savage whoattacked her still lived, the others had to have smelled her, andthey would all hunt her for her blood. It wouldn’t be difficult forthe Savages to find her either. They knew where she worked andcould easily track her with that knowledge.
Savages may be ruthless killers, but theyweren’t mindless. Many times, they were almost too cunning in theirhunt, and they often liked to play with their food. They woulddestroy her.
His gaze fell to her throat and the woundthe Savage had left in the hollow of where her neck and shouldermet. His blood had healed the wound, as well as the markshe’dleft on her. Blood still stained her shirt, but theodors of the alley should cover it.
Aiden’s muscles rippled against her cheekwhen footsteps rang off the buildings surrounding them. Maggie hadresolved to distance herself from him as soon as she could, but shefound herself pressing closer when the footsteps drew nearer.
She turned her face into his chest, the hairthere tickling her nose. His flesh was warm against hers, and shehad to resist the urge to nuzzle it, or even worse, lick him. Herskin prickled with awareness, her body came alive in a way that wascompletely out of place given their current circumstances. Hismasculine scent filling her nostrils pushed out the lingering odorsof blood and trash as whoever was out there ran past where theystood.
Aiden remained unmoving while he strained tohear more. Maggie’s breath warmed his chest as the rotten scent ofSavage faded away. Briefly, he closed his eyes to relish in thefeel of her lush breasts pressing against him.
