Page 3 of Corbin
“Roger that,” Corbin muttered, fingers and arm muscles burning from gripping the rope for so long. He slowed his erratic pace and began a more controlled descent to avoid getting tangled up in tree branches with a backpack adding to the size of his upper body.
Stupid idea to climb mountains, Ares pointed out, since his wolf had nothing better to do than provide commentary.
I’m not getting into this argument again, Corbin sent back. Trying to calm his chaotic pulse, he pulled in deep breaths of crisp air filled with the fresh scent of pines.
Undeterred, his wolf argued,I can sneak up on any bear. Not very smart shifter. Easy to kill.
What an asshole. Corbin wished counting to ten, or even a hundred, would help.You think everything is easy to kill. I’m sick of killing unless we’re trying to survive.
Must kill to survive.Ares lived to get the last word.
Corbin’s back ran up against a bushy branch. He stopped and felt behind him with his boots for a branch that would hold his weight. Nope. No way past these trees unless he could fly twenty feet to either side.
Hanging on tight as he let out rope, he lowered one foot at a time through a mass of branches and searched blindly for a thick limb. He began squeezing his body through the crisscross of branches while death-gripping the ropes. Leaves smothered him in darkness when he sank lower.
His boot thumped against skinny branches that rattled.
Finally, his knee whacked one solid enough to not move. Shit! That hurt.
Ares snarled,Stupid!
Just once, Corbin would like to get his hands on that wolf’s throat and shake some sense into him. Moving his arms through this living gauntlet took all his effort. Bending his knee, he lowered himself to sit on the branch and shook out one cramped hand at a time.
A couple of deep breaths, and he was back in his element.
With a new surge of energy, he tested the branch before creating slack in the rope. No sound of cracking. He made fast work of shedding his climbing gear, then dropped it to the ground before lowering himself all the way until he touched solid ground. He tied his gear as high as he could on the trailing rope.
For the first time since getting on the back side of this mountain, something felt natural.
Even in the dark, he made it down the tree with ease and leaped to the uneven ground.
His wolf growled and pulsed angry energy through his body.
Corbin pulled the vinyl cover off the face of his digital watch. Thirty-eight minutes left. He should be able to reach the cabin in twenty to twenty-five minutes, right? He pressed the flap back in place.
Adrian and Jaz had given them great equipment.
Shrugging off the comfortable backpack that Jaz had stocked for each of them, Corbin checked the contents. She’d sent a lightweight tranquilizer pistol to stop the bear, and a change of clothes should theirs get shredded. Where had their people gotten tranqs that packed enough punch to stop a bear? Having to be within seventy feet to discharge the tranq dart left little room for mistakes.
Flexible metal rods had been built into the looped straps of the backpack for holding it off the ground so a wolf could step through the opening and wear the pack.
That had been an irritating negotiation with Ares.
Corbin got what he wanted in the end, having only surrendered one token agreement he hoped not to regret.
Give me body!Ares shouted.
Corbin grabbed his aching head.Stop yelling. I’m almost ready.
Too slow.
Ignoring that, Corbin reminded Ares,We have an agreement. Wait for my directions and for me to approve any killing.
Keep talking and there will be no one to kill.
That had been the one concession Corbin had made. Ares could kill the bear shifter if Corbin’s team failed to contain the kidnapper. Adrian wanted to keep the kidnapper alive, if possible, to find out who else might be involved.
Corbin should be able to make that happen with the dart gun. Adrian and his people were hoping the undependable cell reception in this area meant a shifter holed up this deep in the woods would be delayed in learning from a partner if the money got dropped. Unless the kidnapper waiting with the woman had a satellite phone like Adrian’s, the odds were good they’d reach the cabin before he found out he’d been screwed.
