Page 55 of Wild in the Woods
Rudd grabbed the child’s arm and yanked, his voice a hard hiss. “What did I tell you? Stop lying.”
Jamming a hand into Rudd’s chest, Fox motioned to Luke to come behind his legs with the other. The boy darted for the safety of Fox’s body.
“Take the child to meet the team and notify the parents.”
Fox eviscerated the man with a glare. Ryker put a hand on Fox’s shoulder. “I’m staying with you.”
“Oh, no,” Fox growled. “I don’t need any witnesses.”
Rudd’s face blanched. “Don’t you threaten me.”
“I don’t threaten. Take me to this hole.”
“Absolutely not. I’ve got to call this to my editor.”
Fox’s body began to burn. His lips pulled back, showing his teeth.
“Jett, I swear to God I’m about to shift and I don’t want to scar the child for life. Please, get him out of here.”
“I’m on it.”
Ryker didn’t follow. “I’ll shift, too. Let’s see how this asshole likes two bears on his ass.”
Jett threw something on the ground. “There are clothes in my pack. Go get her, Fox. Hurry up.”
Fox didn’t go slowly this time. He enjoyed the terror on Rudd’s face as he welcomed his body into a shift and burst into a grizzly in front of his eyes. The second he was in his animal, detecting her scent became easier. It was pure and strong to his sensitive nose.
Ryker completed his shift seconds later.
“I’ve got a gun!” Rudd fumbled behind his back. “Get away!”
Seeing red, Fox lunged and grabbed the waist of the man’s pants in his mouth. Rudd flopped like a fish, squirming, and thrashing in Fox’s jaws. He dragged Rudd, head banging on the ground, limbs bouncing off rocks and sticks as he followed Lulu’s scent. For good measure, he shook him like a ragdoll a couple times and enjoyed the sound of creaking bones and pained grunts. The asshole deserved it.
His mate. His one and only. Desperation welled inside him. Her scent drenched the ground at the rim of the hole. His backpack that she’d been carrying sat atop a branch, and her radio was on the ground beside it smashed to pieces.
He smelled blood and fear radiating off Rudd and spit him onto the ground. Ryker put a huge paw on the man’s chest, holding him in place as Fox recalled his shift. It took too long to turn human again. Hurry, hurry!
Her scent was weakening, as if she were very far down or covered in something. Water. He smelled dirty, mud-laced water. As soon as he was in his human form, he grabbed a pair of hiking pants from his pack and jammed them on. Then he gripped the rope she’d tied around the branch and leaned into the hole.
“Lulu?” His desperate cry echoed in the expanse.
Turning furious eyes to Rudd, he held himself back from tearing the man to pieces.
“This is the hole you kicked her into? Is it? IS IT?”
The man blubbered something that Fox couldn’t understand. His face was badly battered from his rocky ride. Ryker nodded his giant head and that was all the confirmation Fox needed.
“Lulu, I’m coming!”
He didn’t wait. Easily bracing himself against the embankment, he lowered into the hole and dropped into water. His eyesight adjusted quickly. It was a small cavern, probably part of a deeper cave system, which meant tunnels could be all over down here. If she were unconscious, her body might float away deep underground.
Fuck, fuck! Not his mate.
He needed her. There, he said it. He wanted her. He did. He wanted to be her mate, to be her family. To take the chance and hold her as long as he could, not worrying about what might be. Mindset, right? He’d set his to loving her for however long that lasted. With work and patience, it would last forever.
Desperate, he searched the area, feeling with his hands. A lump clogged in his throat, panic fluttering just beneath his breastbone.
And then he saw her, floating face up against the far wall. He had to duck to avoid the low earth ceiling to reach her, noticing a tunnel just as he’d suspected. If he hadn’t gotten here, she would have floated away.
