Page 60 of Corbin
She hesitated but gave him a sharp nod.
He gave her the hand signal to wait, then moved quietly at first. When he was far enough out from the building, he intentionally rustled the weeds. Any shifter would catch that sound. Looking to his left, he saw silhouettes of both men turn his way from where they stood in front of the headlights. They had likely left the vehicle’s motor running for a fast getaway.
He and Eirene would throw a wrench in that plan by turning this into a chase on foot.
He slowed his pace as he neared the jackals and listened for Eirene to catch up to him.
No special hearing needed.
She ran through the weeds like a wild buffalo pounding the ground. Five steps away from Corbin, she slowed.
Both jackal shifters started in Corbin’s direction. He took off at a steady pace, sure that she could see him in the ambient light. By the time she fell into step with him, he had upped the pace until they were running fast, but not yet at full speed.
The noisy sounds of being followed confirmed that both shifters were on their trail.
Corbin asked her, “Ready?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s kick it up a gear.” He took the lead with her a step behind him. He’d rather have her in front, but he had a feeling she did not have his experience of racing through an unknown area while being chased by someone determined to kill her. Sadly, Corbin and Ares had plenty of experience running for their lives.
Those jackal shifters might stop short of killing them, but Corbin did not want to risk them getting near Eirene. He’d had no chance to celebrate finally talking to her and finding out she had honorable reasons for sneaking around. That time would come.
He was not leaving her again or letting her go for as long as she wanted to be with him.
Ares informed Corbin,They will catch us.
Well, hell.
Pressing his point, Ares said,You will not win in human form.
Corbin argued,You don’t know that.
These shifters have strange scent, Ares sent back.
What do you mean?Now his wolf had him worried.
Smell like the shifters we fought in Yukon.
Corbin’s heart dropped to his knees. He’d thought these might be run-of-the-mill SCIS jackal shifters, but if Ares was correct, these jackals were involved with the Black River wolf pack in some way.
Drugged-up killers.
He slowed enough to run in stride with Eirene, asking her, “Can your wolf fight?”
She frowned. “If she has to, but I told you she’s not dominant.”
“My wolf and I have encountered drugged-up jackals raised by the Black River wolf pack, which were used as assassins. My wolf said these two smell like those. If so, they won’t fight in human form. I can take down a non-juiced wolf or jackal shifter in human form, but we almost died the last time before my wolf escaped a battle with the ones amped up on Jugo Loco.”
She kept pumping her arms and breathing hard but turned to him with a confused look.
He assured her, “I’ll explain it all when we have time, but we have to survive first.”
“Okay. What do you want to do?”
Corbin slapped a branch off a small pine tree out of her way. “We race ahead in a burst of speed. They’ll get cocky because they know we can’t hold that speed for a long time. Once we’re far enough ahead, we’ll shift. When my wolf tells me, we stop and rip our clothes off, then roll up only the clothes we need for shifting again later. Then we immediately shift. All of that has to happen in less than a minute.”
She slanted him a worried look.
