Page 17 of Hayden's Haven
He nodded.
“You’re coming back, aren’t you? You’re not going to leave me, I mean us?”
Another nod, and then he shifted and ran with an uneven gait on a wounded foreleg. Mila made her way back to Kate and Callen. Callen was passed out, but already his wounds were healing. His head lay on Kate’s lap and she was stroking his face, neck, and arms like a massage one would give a newborn, gentle and soothing.
“Did you clean his wounds?” Mila asked. Infection in a shifter was rare, but Kate’s own bout with sepsis was a prime reason not to take any chances.
“Yes. Where’s Hayden? He’s alive, isn’t he? Please don’t tell me he’s dead. I don’t think I could take it right now.”
“His front right leg has a deep wound and a few bites, but I expect he’ll be fine, at least physically. He killed two shifters, Kate. He seemed different afterward. Wouldn’t even get close enough for me to check his wounds. He left, said he’d be back and that we should wait here.”
“Then we wait. He won’t leave us here long. You should sleep.”
“And you?”
“My turn to play sentry.” Kate lifted the gun from her pack. “I just want to hold Callen. Besides, I’m too wired to sleep.”
Mila wrapped the foil blanket around her and laid down in a clear spot under a pine where she quickly fell into a restless sleep. Too many images of wolves torn apart, fists moving lightning fast, and blood washing down a drain filled her head.
Then someone was shaking her. She sat up too fast, wincing at the pain in her side and face that accompanied the sudden movement. The snow glistened in the morning sun and Kate was standing over her, trying to wake her, but it was Hayden’s soft voice that caught her attention. He and Callen were standing a few yards away, talking in low whispers. Instantly, the world felt new and whole again. Hayden had returned and looked as healthy as ever, perfect in fact. His movements were fluid and natural as if his wolf had fully healed him.
“Who’d ever thought something so lightweight could be so useful,” Kate said as she folded the mylar blanket.
“I could say the same about you, princess,” Callen said with a smile that caused Kate to beam.
As Callen’s and Kate’s flirting continued, Mila’s eyes ran the length of Hayden. . . just to check him over from a medical standpoint, nothing more. Almost. He was wearing a pair of black pants and a long-sleeve black top, similar to military fatigues, but without any insignia or markings. That’s not the clothing he had stashed in the bag earlier.
The pants hugged his muscular form quite nicely, making her mind wander to places—positions with him—that she had no business imagining. Her skin warmed as his dark eyes found her. He quirked an eyebrow. Was she blushing or making some stupid face? She almost gave in to years of conditioning, and survival which demanded she avert her eyes. Instead, she followed Hayden’s every move, watching how his muscles flexed and moved with quiet power.
Something within her couldn’t look away as he bent down and shouldered the bags. Her wolf. Had to be her damn wolf. No, that couldn’t be, not after the virus.
With a quick bounce of the bag against his shoulder, Hayden appeared to be in top shape and ready to leave. Nothing about the way he moved hinted at any injuries and the scrapes on his face had healed as well in what, mere hours? Callen’s too, for that matter. Aside from Kate who was battling an infection, Mila was the only one healing slowly, but that wasn’t a surprise. These shifters were strong, as strong as any alpha. Strike that. Stronger than Truman, maybe even Vance.
“Let’s go, Dr. Evans,” Hayden said.
Doctor? What happened to ‘Mila’? Or even ‘Doc’?
“I have a car waiting a mile from here.”
So, that’s what he had been doing all night. It made sense. Hayden had intentionally kept them in the woods, to give Callen a chance to track them. Now that Callen had found them, they could afford to travel via car and put miles between the shifters hunting them.
“And here I thought you’d found a better vacation spot than this luxury outdoor adventure Kate and I had dreamed up,” Mila said.
The corner of his mouth quirked ever-so-slightly. The heat that ran through her was most unexpected.
“You okay, Doc?”
She would be better if he went back to calling her ‘Mila’. “I’m fine. Just got distracted for a minute.” There was a lightness to his voice that hadn’t been there yesterday after she had been attacked.
As she rose, she faltered and grabbed outward for a tree branch to steady herself. Instead, she latched onto Hayden’s arm. “I stood up too fast.”
“You’re not healing,” he said, frowning.
She smiled through the pain. “I’m healing, just not as fast as usual. Too much stress over the past few weeks, lack of sleep, the cold. Give me a warm cabin and some hot chocolate with little marshmallows, and I’ll show you a different shifter than the getting-chased-by-crazy shifter version.”
“More than chased. Beat up. Nearly. . .”
He couldn’t say it and it was just as well. She needed happy thoughts, like Hayden smiling at her, or talking to her in that sweet gentle voice she really enjoyed hearing. All he had for her was that frown. Enough was enough already. Mila pushed up on her toes and pressed her lips against Hayden’s.
