Page 44 of Shadow Bound

“What?”

I’m already unbuckling my seat belt and reaching for the door handle. “Pull the hell over, Ransom!” I order.

The truck isn’t even stopped when I’m jumping from the lifted seat, my boots landing roughly on the poorly maintained road. The sound of Ransom’s door opening and slamming shut tells me he’s following me. Without looking back at him, I run across the two lanes of traffic, luckily there aren’t many cars out here right now. At the guardrail that separates the pavement from the steep hill that leads into the ravine below, I leap over it, easily clearing it with little effort thanks to all the blood I’ve consumed today.

I don’t wait for Ransom to catch up, once I’m halfway down the rocky gorge, I pick up speed, knowing I’m out of sight from inquisitive human eyes. My feet barely feel like they touch the ground as I run, rocks and other debris fall down the ravine with me, but I still don’t slow down, the blood is close, and I want to find the source.

Ransom lets out a harsh curse, the sound of him almost losing his balance as he tries to keep up with me echoes behind me. Shifters are strong and agile, but he’ll never be as swift as me. It’s just not in his makeup—just like I’ll never be able to shift into a wolf.

At the base of the ravine is a stream. From all the surveying I’d done of the area, I know it leads to the river close by that’s started to freeze over from the cold weather here lately.

“Beau!” Ransom hollers after me. “Stop!” Not wanting to leave him too far behind, I slow down and wait for him to catch up. He looks surprised that I stopped. “What are you doing?”

I point over my shoulder with my thumb. “There’s fresh blood close by, a lot of it. And it’s shifter blood.”

I’m confused by the look of relief on Ransom’s face. I just told him someone is dead or bleeding out, and he looks relieved? His hands run aggressively through his hair as he lets out a drawn-out breath. “Jesus, you can’t do that shit. I thought you were running—” He stops mid-sentence, running his eyes slowly over my body.

“Wait? You thought I was running?” I repeat, frowning, not understanding. “I was running…” I say slowly.

His big hands leave his hair, dropping to his side. “I thought you were running fromme.” Ransom’s expression looks pained as he admits this to me. “Next time wait for me to actually stop the car before you jump out like that. Gave me a heart attack. You could have gotten hurt.”

A part of me wants there to be deceitfulness in his tone, because it would be easier to believe that he’s faking his concern for me, but there is none. Ransom truly cares about… me. He actually cares whether or not I get hurt and I don’t know what to do with that information. I’ve only ever been a pawn—a piece that Sterling or Nessa could use to get what they wanted. They never gave a shit if I got hurt doing their little missions. Alex stopped caring if I lived or died a long time ago.

What’s even more shocking, is I care enough about Ransom to not want him to get hurt. The only person I ever cared about like that was Alex and toward the end of his life, it got really hard to care because the person I originally cared about wasn’t really there anymore.

Fuck.

My teeth bite into my bottom lip as I struggle to find the right words. I can’t admit to him that I care, because the conditioning I’ve been put through all my life makes it borderline impossible. Instead I say, “Ransom, I promised to help you find the rogue, I won’t run away untilafterwe do.”

Oh yeah, I’m not planning on sticking around long after we do. Once I have whatever information I can get from the rogue on Nessa, I’m out. Nessa needs to be taken care of if I’m going to get anywhere near Kaius and Sterling.

Ransom looks like he wants to comment further, but instead he just nods. “Okay.”

“Besides, I’m not going anywhere until I talk to that rogue.” I nod over my shoulder. “You good? The source of the blood is close by, we need to get moving.”

“Lead the way, Tink.”

Turning from him, I bite back a growl of frustration. Not because I don’t like the nickname, but because it’s starting to grow on me. Ransom is slowly but surely breaking down the walls I’ve built around myself. He’s basically already removed the barbed wire and thorns they were wrapped in.

We run through the snow, weaving through the trees. I don’t run as fast as I know I’m capable of, so Ransom is able to keep up. He’s actually a lot faster than I originally thought he was—I didn’t give him enough credit.

The scent grows stronger as we follow the half-frozen stream. It leads us through the ravine, away from the road. When the sound of an animalistic rumble comes from behind me, I know Ransom can finally smell the fresh blood.

We both pick up speed, flying through the trees until we come to the river. It sits between two mountains. For the most part, it looks like it’s already frozen over, but I wouldn’t trust the iced over layer to hold our weight. Definitely not Ransom’s; he’s well over two hundred pounds of pure muscle.

I don’t have much time to take in the scenery because off to the side lies a girl, the snow around her bright crimson. Her heart is still beating but it’s weak. Before I move to her, my eyes scan the surroundings, the scent of a wolf is still strong in the air. This whole situation would be the perfect trap for Nessa to set up. Lure me in by the dying girl, only to attack when we are close enough.

While I hesitate, Ransom has already spotted her and is sprinting in her direction. He’s too far away before I can stop him. Cursing under my breath, I follow close behind him, keeping my guard up.

The girl is young, can’t be more than twenty years old, her light brown hair is matted with blood and wet from the snow. One side of her once pretty face has claw marks down it, the eye on that side is swollen shut. I’m not even sure the eyeball is still there, given how deep the claw marks are. The real damage is on her throat, deep wounds sit there, blood pouring out into the snow. Her pale blue jacket is ripped to shreds and her bloodied hands are torn up from defensive marks.

She tried to fight.Good girl.

Ransom jumps into action, pressing his hands to her throat to try in vain to stop the bleeding. His blue eyes peer down at the girl, a reassuring look on his face.

Tears well in her open eye before pouring out, leaving a streak through the blood on her cheek.

“Shh…” Ransom soothes. “It’s going to be okay; I’ve got you.”

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