Page 6 of Blade's Battle
Before she could ask him about the other wolves he’d scented last night, he scooped her up again, scaring the hell out of her. She tried pushing out of his hold, but his hold tightened.
“Stop squirming, or I’ll drop you.”
She froze, not sure if that was a threat. Had she misjudged him?
“That’s better.” His voice sounded easy-going again and his hold eased up. The tug of a smile on his face surprised her.
“Please put me down.” She hated how her voice shook, but right now, being held made her feel even more vulnerable. She needed to regain some sense of control.
He set her down without delay, but he kept a hand near her waist as if he expected her to buckle the moment her feet touched the ground, which of course she did. Strong arms circled her waist to keep her from falling. Pain in her feet flared, but she forced herself to stand.
“I’m good now. You can let go.” She patted that very muscular arm of his.He got me this far, away from Drake. He’ll get me out of these woods too. I’ll be home soon. In an empty house that still smells of Kurt, of death.
“What if I don’t want to?” Blade asked.
“Pardon?”
“What if I don’t want to let go?” he repeated. He had released her waist, but one hand rested on her hip as a delicious grin softened his expression.
No, she definitely wasn’t doing the flirting thing with him. Not here in these woods, in Drake’s territory. Not so soon after Kurt, with a shifter she didn’tknow. She edged away from him.
“We don’t always get what we want.”
“I know that better than anyone,” he said, that luscious grin of his now gone.
She lowered her eyes for the first time and noticed he was wearing the pants she had tied around her waist earlier.
“They’re not the best fit,” he said, shrugging.
The khakis were tight about his trim hips and large thighs and looked incredibly uncomfortable. A shifter wouldn’t care about walking around naked. Blade had put the pants on for her. That was perhaps the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her.
No, Kurt had done a lot of sweet things, like surprising her at work with lunches and dinners, insisting she take breaks and live a little.
Live a little. . .
She had failed him.
“I’m sorry if I sound ungrateful. I should have said thank you last night, for getting me out of there, not to mention carrying me all morning. And . . . having to kill because of me,” she added, her voice barely a whisper now. She hated that he had killed for her.
“I would have avoided killing them if I’d had a choice. As for carrying you, you’re light, so it wasn’t any trouble.”
Oh, this one was a smooth talker, alright. What girl didn’t like to be told she was light?
Anna turned a full three-sixty, trying to gain her bearings as well as create a reason not to meet Blade’s intense gaze. Trees, trees, and more trees. She’d never find her way out of here on her own. The thought of stepping more than five feet away from Blade, knowing that Drake’s shifters were near, terrified her.
“There’s nothing here. Just you and me,” he said, a note of amusement in his voice as he stepped closer.
“They’ll find us.”
“Drake’s guards? Doubtful. I’m a scout. Tracking and knowing how to hide a trail is my specialty.”
A scout. That was a coveted position among shifters, and a dangerous one too. They entered unknown situations, often alone. A scout knew how to fight if necessary, but it wasn’t what they craved, not from what Kurt had told her.
Blade would keep her alive, safe, for as long as she stuck with him. Then what? Once she returned home, the WSSO would be after her again. It was by some twisted turn of fate that Drake had taken her before the WSSO.
“The wind is our enemy right now. If we linger too long in any one spot, they’ll find us.” He paused as if considering his next words. “I don’t want to lie to you, Anna. Drake’s not one to give up.”
“Where exactly are we? It all looks, the same.”
