Page 16 of Hayden's Haven
Mila was certainly a challenge. Letting her touch him though, when all he really wanted was to let his hand glide over those sensuous curves of hers, was not a good idea. He wished Callen were here, for more than Kate’s sake. He could use the distraction, the interference.
“I can carry you if you’d like.” And there he went, opening his big mouth and making matters worse. He could have simply let her hold his arm as she had asked, but why leave things simple when he could complicate them?
“I think I can manage—”
Hayden yanked Mila by her arm and thrust her toward Kate. “Get down!” he yelled as he dropped to the ground and shifted.
He hadn’t caught a scent, given the lack of wind, but he had heard the movement of two distinct animals heading their way. Fast, like a wolf or a bear. Either could be trouble, though he’d prefer wolf to bear any day. At least he’d have a chance against two wolves, but two bears, that wouldn’t end well.
A black wolf launched himself through the air, adjusting his angle at the last second to miss Hayden and land somewhere past him. In the split second that the black wolf sailed by, Hayden scented Callen and blood.
Without turning to see how Callen had landed or how injured he was, Hayden charged toward who or whatever was chasing him. The head-on impact with a silver wolf left Hayden sprawled on the ground, dazed. The silver wolf recovered faster and lowered himself into a crouch as Hayden pulled himself up. Hayden bared his teeth, throwing in a deep growl that had just enough power to make the silver hesitate. That was the opening Hayden needed.
Digging his hind feet in for purchase, Hayden sprang at the silver wolf. In a tangle of limbs, the wolves rolled until they crashed into a tree. The silver wolf clamped down high on Hayden’s shoulder, narrowly missing his throat. Hayden raked his claws down the silver’s chest, so deep he had trouble freeing his claws when the silver released his shoulder.
A howl sounded from behind the silver. Hayden rose on his haunches and threw his weight onto the silver wolf’s back. The silver was wiry, but he lacked Hayden’s strength. Hayden wrestled him to the ground. He would have spared the wolf, but he hadn’t heard or seen Callen. With another wolf coming, he couldn’t risk letting the wolf attack him from behind. Hayden ripped out the wolf’s throat and ran further into the woods, away from Callen and the women.
The tan wolf struck Hayden low, clamping onto his front right leg, with nearly enough force to rip his leg off. There wasn’t much Hayden could do except lock his legs around the wolf and take him down with him while trying to free his leg from the wolf’s jaws. Hayden hadn’t survived living in his uncle’s pack without learning a few tricks along the way.
Forget biting into the thick shoulder muscles that were a common target. Hayden bit off the wolf’s right ear. The shock and pain so surprised the wolf that he released his grip on Hayden’s leg. His leg was torn open, but he only needed three to move. In another few seconds, Hayden sank his jaws into the wolf’s throat and held him until he no longer moved.
Blood coated his mouth, the iron taste bringing back too many memories of home, of fighting to defend himself against shifters who decided he’d be good practice as they worked up the courage to challenge Logan or Drake. Those memories killed his wolf’s urge to howl his victory, especially since he had left his packmates behind, in the open and vulnerable.
As Hayden turned, he caught the faintest hint of lilac in the air. There, hiding behind a Norway spruce, stood a wide-eyed Mila. How much she had seen, he couldn’t say, but it wasn’t something he had wanted for her. His wolf’s instinct to kill, to protect her and the others, was too engrained in him for the outcome to have been any different. He could only imagine what his muzzle and white fur looked like to her, stained red with his victims’ blood. Despite what Damien had been telling him for years, Hayden really wasn’t very different from Drake.
* * *
MILA
Mila stood nearly frozen in place as Hayden’s wolf killed the second attacker. She had already found the silver wolf, but that had seemed like a clean, quick kill, a necessity perhaps, not at all like this one. Knowing males often had to fight to the death was one thing. Seeing it was always shocking, not a sight she would ever get used to. What had happened here went against everything she was as a doctor and a shifter.
‘Preserve life, only hunt sick or elderly game, spare the enemy when possible.’ Those were the ideals her father had taught her. ‘Submit, give in, don’t cause trouble.’ those were the ideals her mother had taught her. This violence, thiscarnage, that she had witnessed was as far from what she had been raised to follow and understand as a shifter could get. Yet Hayden had had no choice in the matter. Callen had returned, injured, and his attackers were on his tail. Hayden had done the only thing he could. What toll did that take on the shifter?
“Hayden, you can shift back now,” she said, resisting the urge to run her hand down his back.
His breathing was heavy, his stance guarded. He was staring at her, his eyes darker than death. The flesh of his right foreleg had been torn open. He had to be in pain, yet he didn’t whine or howl. Hayden buried his head in a bank of snow, essentially rubbing what he could of the blood from his thick white fur. Did he think the blood bothered her?
“Shift back, Hayden, so I can check your wound.” How she longed to sift her fingers through the fur at his neck, despite the blood. The need to see that he was okay had become paramount when she had heard the death curdling cries of the fight. She had run toward the fight, which was foolish in hindsight, but she hadn’t considered that there could be other wolves headed their way. She had reacted to the fear that had wrapped around her, strangling her until she could no longer breathe. Finding Hayden alive had been a relief she didn’t want to think about, not until he was healed.
“Why aren’t you shifting back?” she asked his wolf. There was no further threat in the area. Even her limited sense of smell could deduce that now that the wind had picked up.
His wolf limped toward her, favoring his front right leg. The skin had been rent in two, high on the leg, with several bite marks that looked bone-deep. The wound was a common one and would heal, especially for a sifter of his strength. He’d probably be fully healed by morning in fact, long before her bruises and cuts faded.
Mila dropped to her knees, which caused her to wince. She tried not to think of the last time she had been on her knees. She had been forced there, but here it was by choice. “I’ll clean the wound if you let me.”
His head held low, Hayden walked past her, stopping a few feet beyond where she still knelt in the hard snow. That’s when he finally shifted to human form. “I don’t need help, Mila. Just return to Kate.”
With his back to her, Hayden cradled his right arm as he started walking off away from her, away from where he’d left Kate. Then he stopped and asked, “Is Callen okay?”
“Unconscious. Got chewed up pretty bad, but he’ll heal. He needs rest, mostly. We all do.”
Hayden nodded. “Stay with them. No one leaves until I return. Understood?”
“Where are you going?”
The breath he drew was more of a shudder. “Just don’t leave, okay, Mila. Please?”
His voice was soft, wounded, and he had said ‘please’. Deep down she knew this was the Hayden she had glimpsed here and there, the part he had been hiding for some unknown reason. “Be careful, Hayden.”
