Page 9 of Blade's Battle
A pang of regret filled her as his brow furrowed. She had brought this trouble with the WSSO and Drake upon herself. Blade was a good shifter, but this wasn’t his fight. If they didn’t part ways now, she’d only drag him under.
With one hand coiled in the fabric at the bottom of her shirt, Anna forced herself to look Blade straight in the eyes.
“Thank you for everything, Blade, but this is where we go our separate ways.”
Chapter Two
BLADE
Seriously? The woman thought he’d leave her out here, on the fringes of Drake’s territory to wander to the nearest road where she would stand there half-naked and probably be picked up by a human who’d molest her? That was even assuming Drake’s shifters didn’t find her first.
He hadn’t told her the full truth of the shifters hunting them. That first day on the run, he’d taken two down not just a lone tracker, but a pair of guards sent to hunt them. The one wolf had intentionally led him away from Anna, right to the where the second had been lying in wait. Fortunately, his time training with Callen had helped save his life against the two white wolves. Those weren’t the only wolves tracking them. Blade had caught the scent of at least three others. He was downwind of the wolves, and he prayed the wind didn’t shift, not until he and Anna were miles away.
Blade had circled back and disguised his and Anna’s trail, but even without the wind carrying their scent, any shifter lucky enough to cross their trail would pick up Anna’s scent from the forest floor. Her scent was too sweet and stood out in these woods. Aside from the shifters tracking them, her feet were torn up. She wouldn’t make it a half mile let alone ten to the nearest road.
“Time to get moving. Take my hand, Anna.” Before she could protest, he said, “We had to take a detour back there after taking care of those two wolves, and we’re deeper south than I wanted to be.”
Gorgeous blue eyes grew wide. “Two?”
Blade hated that she was so scared, but she needed to know the reality of the situation, that she wasn’t safe and getting away from Drake’s shifters wasn’t going to be easy. He would love nothing more than to sugar-coat it for her since she’d already been through a lot. Right now he needed her to work with him, not fight him.
He held his hand out to her again, hoping she’d take it. Holding her felt so damn right, but she still didn’t trust him.
“I didn’t know,” she said, her face betraying her sorrow.
He’d killed to keep her safe, and the way his wolf was on edge when he smelled those other shifters, ready to attack the next one who crossed his path, Blade knew he’d kill again to protect her.
“Sorry, Angel, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me for a while.”
“Such is my luck lately,” she said, deadpan.
“Ouch!” Blade mockingly clutched at his chest.
Anna smiled. Not a placating type of smile either. A genuine, honest-to-goodness smile. The type one saw on the face of a friend or loved one, the type that said she didn’t fear him, at least no longer. She had only viewed him with suspicion up until that point, and he certainly understood why given the condition she was in.
She looked like some castoff rag-doll that had sunk to the bottom of a pile of garbage. Her hair was dirty as could be, tangled, like rats had been building a nest there, and reached mid-way down her back. He hadn’t realized her skin was so light until he’d washed the blood off her face at the lake while she was passed out.
“You’ve wounded me,” he joked, trying to get her to smile again.
“I shouldn’t have said that. You’re nothing like Drake’s shifters.”
“Got that right.”
She smiled again. His soul felt lighter. As if he’d walked out of the depths of the forest where the trees grew so thick and close together that no light reached the forest floor. All that darkness disappeared when she smiled.
His wolf was quiet, so very quiet around her. She made it easy, really easy, to smile back, to simply take a moment and breathe in the fresh air and once again see the beauty of the woods. He hadn’t done that in a very long time.
There was no way he was letting her go off on her own.
“I’m serious, Angel. I know these woods and I know how Drake operates. I’ll get you out of here. In fact, I’ll make you a promise that I’ll get you back home safe and sound. The original plan was to cross back to my pack’s territory, but we’re too far south for that now. I’m hoping to get us to the interstate. We can hitch a ride from there, get you to Buffalo Hole, and from there you can hop a bus to wherever home is.”
Now he had gone too far, making promises he might not be able to keep, bragging as if he had something to prove to her. He didn’t, and he should keep his mouth shut. Except he would keep his promise. He had to, for her, for that glorious smile of hers.
“You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“I’ll get you home,” he repeated. He wouldn’t fail her. He’d failed enough people in his life, which was why he shouldn’t promise her anything yet at the same time, he had to. She needed to hold on to some sliver of hope, like the thought of escaping these woods, and there was a rising determination in him to make sure she made it out of here, safe and sound.
“Not looking like we do. No one will give us a ride. Except for law enforcement.”
