Page 5 of Blade's Battle
He carried her over to a small patch of grass where he set her down and began inspecting her feet. She sucked in air when he touched one particularly painful spot in her heel. As slowly and carefully as one might pick up a bird with a broken wing, her shifter lifted her again, cradling her against that hard-muscled chest of his.
For the first time in weeks, maybe months, Anna felt as if she could breathe.
This shifter hadfoughtfor her. This shifter that she didn’t know, this tower of muscle, had risked himself to protect her.
“Who?” she asked, still unable to speak more than a word or two at a time.
“A guard from Drake’s pack,” he said, not trying to hide the facts from her. She liked that. Despite how scary the truth was, she wanted to know what was going on.
“More?”
He hesitated, then said. “I crossed two other scent trails. They’re going the wrong direction, but they could turn back at any time. We’re changing plans, Angel. We’re not going to make it back to my pack, at least not from this direction.”
She should be terrified at his words, but she wasn’t. Whether it was the confidence in his voice or the way he held her as if she were as light as a feather—a testament to his own strength and not her smaller stature—she couldn’t say, but she was starting to believe him. If anyone could get her out of these woods, it was Blade.
Letting her head fall against his shoulder hadn’t been something she planned, but it felt right, and he didn’t object. Whether it was the rocking motion, Blade’s calming smell that hinted of berries, or her body telling her she needed to rest, Anna started drifting to sleep in his arms.
Normally she would have pinched herself or dug her nails into her palms to stay awake in a situation where she was alone with a male she really didn’t know, but Blade wouldn’t harm her. She didn’t know how she knew that; she just did.
* * *
Refreshingly cold water trickled over Anna’s feet, waking her. Blade had set her down on a hilltop overlooking a lake. The cool water felt nice against her skin, not as nice as being held by him, but still nice. More importantly, she could see better now. The sun had risen, lighting the forest with a soft, warm light. In the far distance, sparkling lake water turned the dark and depressing woods of last night into a distant memory. Droplets of water clinging to the blades of grass nearby made her smile as fresh air rushed into her lungs with each deep breath. She was nowhere near Drake and his cursed pack. From the birds chirping to the wind swirling dried leaves on the ground, the forest suddenly felt alive.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Five, six hours.”
He had laid her down at the base of a tree. Once she pulled herself into a sitting position, she couldn’t help but stare at that lake in the valley below. She longed for a chance to bathe.
Blade covered the wounds on the bottom of her feet with several velvety leaves before tying them in place.
“Mullein leaves,” he explained as he took another leaf from the pile he had gathered and scooped up water from the stream a few feet away. He held the cupped leaf for her to drink.
“The leaves are antibacterial and often used for tea. As for the water, it’s as clean as we’ll get out here.”
Anna gulped down the water. Blade returned to the stream several times, bringing back more water for her.
“I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
“You’ve had a rough time of it. I wish I could say we’re close to my pack, but we’re not.”
“I’m out of that damn cave and away from Drake and his perverted shifters. I’ll drink mud if it means not going back there.”
He looked so pleased for some odd reason.
“Why are you smiling? Do you think this is funny?” she snapped at him.
“Hardly. I’m glad to see you fighting. It means Drake didn’t crush your spirit.”
“Drake is a sick bastard, but his pack. . .” She shivered again, trying to forget the hell his shifters had put her through. Several of them had lost family to the virus. Once they found out about her connection to the WSSO, they had taken out their anger on her.
“White wolves. That’s what we call his pack. They’ve never been a very sane bunch from what I’ve heard.” Blade’s expression turned dark. “If I ever get the chance, I’ll put Drake down myself for what he put you through.”
“How long have we been here?” Anna asked, changing the topic. She didn’t want to think about Drake, of how he’d left her naked, telling her that if she was cold, then she should shift and she’d have her fur to warm her. Over and over, he tried to force her to shift. Every time she told him—yelled, begged, pleaded for him to listen to her. She wasn’t a shifter.
“Just a few minutes. I needed a break,” he said, sitting next to her as she drank the last leaf full of water he’d brought.
He couldn’t have carried her through the night, could he? She traced her hand along his jaw, where there had been a gash last night. The skin was completely healed over. That explained his confidence. Blade was a strong shifter, in every sense of the word.
