Page 5 of Hayden's Haven
“I wasn’t at the summit, but I heard there were a few hunters that had stumbled across the site and started shooting. Slipped right past the patrols.”
“Our enforcer back then wasn’t exactly on the ball,” Mila said. “Poor management when it came to the guards. He’s since been replaced by an enforcer that. . .”
She shuddered again. Hayden wondered if she was getting sick.
“Never mind,” she said with a wave of her empty hand. “You don’t want to know the gritty details of that train-wreck of a shifter. In any case, I was called in after the massacre.”
He raised a brow. “To treat the humans?”
“No, there was nothing left of them. They hadn’t killed any shifters, but they tried. With six alphas there. . . Let’s just say I couldn’t even be sure how many hunters had been killed. They were beyond shredded.”
“I hadn’t heard that part.”
“Your alpha had gone with two others to run a perimeter when the melee started, to ensure there weren’t any others approaching our pack. It was the white wolf, Drake, that went berserk.” She shivered again.
Ok, then, not sick. It’s just Drake that terrifies her.
“I kept my head down and worked on the two alphas that had been shot. I’m an expert at removing bullets these days.”
“Good, because we’re getting close to Kate, and she likes to shoot me.”
That made her laugh. God help him, Mila’s laugh held such light that Hayden felt invigorated, like he was twenty-three again, before everything went to shit at his birth pack. Eight years he had been with Damien’s pack, and sometimes it felt like decades. Not today, not with Mila.
“I’m serious,” Hayden said, giving her one of his famous grins, the one Tess accused him of using to woo the female shifters back at camp. He suddenly couldn’t even picture any of the girls he had dated in the past year.
Mila suppressed her smile. “You can’t be serious.”
“You can ask Kate yourself, Doc, I mean Mila.” Her name rolled right off his tongue, but using it also seemed too familiar.
He had never had trouble approaching women, flirting, even asking them out on a date after just meeting, but this one, this doctor who was willful at times, she would run from him the second she learned the truth. Staying formal would be the smart thing to do, even if he loved how gentle her voice was or how the waves of her rich, dark hair cascaded over her breasts, tempting him to step forward and ease her hair behind her, maybe even steal a kiss.
He held out his hand again. This time, she accepted without hesitation. Progress. A few minutes later, he stopped and surveyed the area, looking for Kate. The air was thick with her scent, despite the lack of wind. This was definitely the spot he’d left her. She was probably hiding.
“Kate, it’s me. Don’t shoot.”
Kate didn’t answer. “Stay here,” Hayden said, trying to ignore the rising panic within him.
“Mila!” he yelled when he found Kate unconscious behind a felled tree.
Mila raced over, dropped her pack beside him, and bent down. She moved quickly, taking Kate’s vitals and then tearing into her bag as she mumbled to herself, cursing.
“What’s wrong? Why won’t she wake?”
“Shifting strained her, but it’s possible the infection spread.” Mila tore open an IV bag. “I have to start a line. Do we have time?”
The doctor was finally deferring to him. “Do what you need to do. Tie the bag to her to make her mobile. I’ll carry her.” Hayden rooted around in the muddy snow until he found her gun. He brushed it off, ejected the clip and checked the chamber. He wasn’t an expert on guns, but it seemed to be in good shape. He snapped the clip back in place.
“Here’s the safety.” After showing her how to remove the safety, he handed her the gun. “Point, aim, shoot. Don’t worry about hitting your target. Shoot if anyone other than me gets close. I’ll hear it and you’ll scare them off long enough for me to return.”
“You’re leaving?”
Was that a note of worry in her voice? It was nice to think so. He flashed her one of his usual smiles, hoping to keep her calm. Given her wide eyes—beautiful eyes that he could stare at all day—she either saw right through him or she’d picked up on the scent of shifters nearby just as he had.
“I’m going to run a perimeter to find out where those men are, so I can adjust our course. Just make sure everything’s packed and ready to go, especially Kate, in case we have to run. I want to be able to grab her and go. Understood?”
Mila nodded. For the first time since he had met her, she didn’t argue with him. Maybe all hope wasn’t lost. Maybe this one shifter would look past his dark family history and how he had killed to get where he was today.
* * *
