by Dianna Love
The second bullet struck the ground in front of him. Blood leaked into his eyes. He kept going, but something was very wrong. Much more than just getting shot. His vision distorted and his head was on fire, ready to explode.
The wound burned as if they’d stabbed his head with a hot poker, which meant ... titanium bullets.
He was fifteen feet from Eli when she stood up again and started toward him.
“No!” he shouted, but the sound came out raspy. His vision of her warped and vertigo spun his world sideways.
He couldn’t tell if he’d reached her.
His legs gave out.
He hit the ground hard enough to knock him out.
CHAPTER 19
Elianna watched in horror as Justin hobbled toward her.
Blood ran through one eye and over the side of his face. He wanted her to stay down, but he started to crumble to the ground. He was not going to make it.
Ignoring Justin’s orders, she raced over to him as he hit the ground. Catching him under the arms, she lifted and groaned. He weighed more than she had expected.
What made him so fast, so strong and so much heavier compared to other bear shifters she’d known?
It didn’t matter as long as Justin could also heal better.
She hadn’t realized at first that someone was shooting. She’d heard a muffled crack and dismissed it. Who had shot at Justin?
She barely moved him a foot. Desperate, she begged her bear for help. Suddenly, her arms and legs flooded with additional strength she’d never felt in human form. If anyone looked her in the eyes at this moment, she would bet they’d see her bear staring back at them.
After the attack in San Francisco when he bear refused to offer aid, she wasn’t sure her bear would send her help, ever. Elianna sent a thank you.
Her bear growled low, sounding concerned.
Dragging Justin, she pulled him to the bushes next to where she’d originally decided to give up their foot race and claim the win.
She would forfeit all future races if he only lived.
He was breathing in gasps. Blood poured from the gash across his forehead and his shirt was getting soaked. The bullet had been so close to ripping through his skull. And it smelled funny.
Where had she smelled that metallic odor?
Titanium. She had heard about it, but had never encountered the metal until she found a dead Amur leopard in PK and sniffed the foul odor. Later, when she told her ship captain friend about it, he scowled and explained someone had probably mistaken a natural animal for a shifter and used titanium.
If she had lost Justin, she would have unleashed her bear with no rules. Her bear had never fought, but neither had her bear ever claimed a mate.
Had Herc chosen her bear, too?
Elianna would have to ask Justin later.
When she finally had Justin behind cover, she was heaving breaths, shaking with terror over his condition and that she’d be shot any second, too.
But there had been no more shots even when she was exposed.
Why?
Had they only wanted to kill Justin and not her?
If that was so, did these people know she was Alexandre’s daughter and thought to get money? They could not know unless the Boudreaux Clan had told them, which made no sense.
The Boudreaux Clan had gone to a lot of trouble to bring her to this country.
Rolling Justin to his back, she arranged his head in her lap. What she would give for a bottle of water.
She yanked off her shirt and bit an edge to start a tear, then ripped off a strip she used to put against his head.
Had he been hit anywhere else?
She checked as best she could, but saw no other blood.
Using the rest of the material, she wiped the extra blood from his head to give her a better look at the wound.
Ugly, but not as bad as it could be except for the skin around the wound that had begun to turn gray.
That was not normal.
Why hadn’t she studied medical treatments or asked more about titanium?
With trembling hands, she folded a second strip into a bandage and pressed it against his head.
He groaned.
She gave a prayer of thanks for that pained sound. It meant he lived. “Justin, wake up.”
All the time she tended to him, she kept searching the area around them for a threat. She expected armed men to come running out of the trees any minute, but those bullets had probably been shot from far away.
Did those people fear Justin so much they shot him from a distance? They would have to know him ... or maybe these people were connected to the wolf that attacked her.
If so, that would mean the one in San Francisco was not a lone wolf. He had been trying to drag her away. She’d thought he intended to kidnap her at first, then it changed to sound as if he intended to rape and kill her.
Had he been truly kidnapping her instead?
Why would any wolves care about her? Again, why would they even know she was here?
Justin’s hand lifted to his head.
She caught his fingers with her hand. “Do not touch. Need shifter doctor.”
“No.” His voice was rough and dry. “We have to move. Hide.” His eyes opened, but he had to blink a few times. “Help me sit up.”
The blood seeped through both of her rags. “No. Change to bear.”
“Not yet. I can’t talk to you in that form. I need to get you somewhere safe.”
She said, “Not shoot me. Think they want kill you.”
“Agreed.” He growled a sound of pain then took a deep breath. “That means they want you ... but realize they’ll have to kill me to get you. I’ll be okay once I know you’re safe. Let’s go.”
“Wait.”
“Please, Eli, don’t argue now. This is critical.”
“So is wound. Skin gray.”
“That makes sense. Pretty sure they shot me with a titanium-coated bullet to slow my healing. If it hadn’t been so close to my head I could fight past it. They’re probably shifters. The sooner we get to a hiding place, the sooner I can deal with my wound.”
“Yes, okay.”
“Remember, I like those words,” he said, clearly trying to get her to smile.
She gave him a smile in return, but it was weak from fear over his injury. After looking up and around, she said, “Must go more this way.” She pointed in the direction they’d been running.
“You’re right. Let’s move out.”
Helping him sit up, she tried to keep him on the sheltered side of her.
He drew a couple of breaths as if stabilizing himself. “Don’t try to put yourself between me and that rifle.”
She argued, “I told you. Not shoot me.”
Without replying, he pulled her to his other side where he shielded her body with his bigger one.
She grumbled, but hooked her arm around him to share his weight when he hunched over and started forward, keeping step with him.
It seemed to take an hour to reach the next thick copse of trees, because Justin struggled to keep his balance. Between the few trees and spotty bushes along the way, they had a little cover, but she doubted that deterred anyone from shooting.
Her guess? They didn’t want to risk hitting her.
Everything about this was odd, and now she included the wolf attack in San Francisco in that “odd” category, too.
Justin had locked his jaw and breathed through his teeth.
“Few more meters,” she encouraged, hugging him more in an effort to will him her power. She spied a place where he could sit with his back to a wall of rocks. Good spot unless they had to climb those rocks to escape, since she worried he would become dizzy and fall.
Now his face had also turned a pale gray shade.
What could she do? She had no medicine and no phone to call anyone. She said, “You have phone?”
“It’s in the backpack.”
She cursed in Russian.
He squint
ed at her through blood-encrusted eyes. “What’d you just say?”
Her face warmed with embarrassment. “Not nice words.”
“You cursed? In Russian?”
“Yes. Bad to do.”
He grinned in spite of his obvious pain. “I think it’s hot.”
“You think all is hot,” she chided him with an indulgent grin.
“Only all things about you, Eli, babe. You’re hot.” He hissed and touched his head.
“Must clean. Need water.”
He waved off her concern. “It’s in the backpack. I’ll fix my head soon. Looks bad, but I’ll survive.”
She scowled at the way he pretended the pain he had to be in as nothing more than a headache. “Stubborn man.”
“When it comes to protecting you, yes. Get used to it. No one is touching you.” He took the shirt she’d used to wipe his head and handed it back to her. “Put it on.”
“Why? Have bra. You bleed.”
“Much as I love seeing you in fewer clothes, I want your skin protected as we go through those woods. I don’t need any more of your clothes to patch me up. The bandage pad you made from a scrap is sticking to the blood as it dries.”
She marveled at this man who cared only about protecting her.
His words touched an empty place inside her, because no man had helped her when she struggled and none would ever have stepped between her and danger.
Guilt climbed up her back. She had to tell Justin everything about her agreement with Clan Boudreaux and hope he saw the light in all this that she did. Would he consider talking to the alpha and asking her to be his mate? She owed him all the truth about that and Nico. But now was not the time for long conversations when Justin could pass out at any moment.
She announced, “I am bear. I protect us, too.”
“I have no doubt, Eli, babe, but for now please do as I ask. I have been here longer and have been trained to deal with threats like this.”
If he had demanded that she obey him, she would have balked, but he made a logical argument and had requested she work with him.
This was a man worthy of a woman’s love.
Love? She waited for panic to hit her over that thought, but she had never lied to herself. She could no sooner stop herself from loving Justin than she could from loving Nico.
That didn’t mean she deserved someone like Justin, but she would do her best for him.
Men had lied to her many times over and now she felt guilty for not sharing more about her situation. She had not intentionally tried to deceive him.
Had she known what would happen once they came up in the mountains today, she would have told Justin everything first.
If they survived this, she would explain what she had not before.
That she could not stay with him unless they could convince the alpha to allow them to mate.
Her bear roared with fury at Elianna and she felt the same way, but she would not mislead this man who meant so much to her.
CHAPTER 20
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Justin needed to be up and moving. Like right freaking now! He leaned against the rocks and let his silent curse pound mentally at his raging, migraine-level headache and the stomach-churning sensation of constantly feeling off balance.
He had to get control of his body before they took off again, to keep her safe. Dammit, what a time to deal with titanium, but a minute or two now could make the difference in staying upright the harder they ran. Honestly, a triple-fuck didn’t even cover this situation.
He wasn’t going to spew those bad words around Eli.
He did intend to have her teach him Russian cursing, though.
That little rant had sounded cute coming from her.
The bullets shot at him had been specifically intended to kill a shifter. Titanium inside a shifter body worked like a poison, slowly killing cells faster than he could regenerate. If he didn’t get this crap out soon, the skin would start dying around his wound and rot away.
Titanium would do more damage, and faster, this close to his brain, because it would begin to impede his thought process soon.
Very soon. Thinking right now hurt like a mother and he had to fight to stay alert. If he closed his eyes for a minute, they might not ever open again.
He considered the terrain options he had and was glad those bastards hadn’t attacked him in unfamiliar territory, but they had clearly been following him.
That had to have started in San Francisco, which pointed at the damn wolf shifter attack. Not a rogue after all.
The last thing he wanted to do right now was end up lost.
In addition to losing his man card, he’d put Eli in more jeopardy.
A hundred to a hundred and fifty yards from here they should find a stream running down an indentation in the mountain that was decently shielded from view. It might be dry or it could be pouring water. He hoped it was wet, and they had to get to it soon.
Eli still fussed over his head.
If not for the obvious danger they were in, he’d enjoy her attention, because he knew she would not worry over anyone unless they were dear to her.
He liked being in that circle, but he couldn’t take the time to bask in her caring. Whoever had shot him was tracking Eli.
Who was that wolf from San Francisco? Herc had caught a second wolf scent the night she was attacked. Had wolf number two been a sidekick who reported back to base?
Was this a revenge hunt for losing a wolf, or something else? If this was about the dead wolf, Justin would have expected them to shoot at Eli, too.
He was so damned glad they hadn’t.
No time to waste what little mental power he had until they were in a better position for defense. First, he needed to give Eli a way to protect herself in case the next shot hit its mark and took him down.
“Eli, babe, I need you to do something.”
Her face dropped to eye level with his. “Yes, okay.”
He liked the fierce sound of her voice. “Lift my right pant leg. You’ll find a gun strapped to my ankle.”
“Why?”
Cocking an eyebrow at her, which he immediately dropped when it caused new shooting pains in his head, he said, “Because I was sent to be your bodyguard. I carry a weapon all the time. I want you to carry it now.”
“Why?”
“Is that word going to replace no?” he asked, sounding as grumpy as he felt.
“Maybe.” She gave him a serious look, but her voice had betrayed her teasing.
He couldn’t rise to the bait. Trying to think and plan was demanding all he could handle until the titanium was out of his system.
Telling her that he was concerned about being killed and leaving her defenseless would only get her back up more. His woman was a fighter who would face an enemy straight on.
Instead he said, “I might get woozy. If you don’t know about the gun, it is of no use. If you don’t carry it then you have no chance to defend us against a group of humans if that’s who is after us.”
“Ah. I see.” She looked under his pant leg and fished out his Detonics .45 caliber pistol.
He took a moment to explain the gun to her, keeping it simple so that all she had to do was point and shoot.
Now, on to the next step. He nodded in the direction he wanted to go. “If we head that way, we should reach a stream.”
She looked around and frowned. “Much woods.”
“Yep. We may have to knock down some small saplings, but that will slow up whoever is tracking us.” Those shots had come from far below them, so the shooter had to climb to their elevation, but that might only give them a small lead.
Jerking around to stare at the way they had come, she asked, “How long?”
“I don’t know, babe, but we need to keep going.”
She came back to him and held his face in her hands. “Must shift.”
“Not when we can’t talk—”
“No talk. You are strong as bear. You lead. I follow. My plan better.”
He stared into the eyes of a woman who would always have her say around him even if he didn’t like her opinion.
That’s the woman he wanted, one who had a mind of her own.
Not those flirty females he’d been around who cooed at him, saying what they thought he wanted to hear.
This woman would stand next to him and their cubs, ready to take on the world to defend her family. An alpha mate through and through.
How had he gotten so lucky?
He didn’t have her completely yet, but he would. She couldn’t hide how much she cared for him.
They belonged together.
He said, “I will shift, but not here. We need to get past one area where it could be too tight to squeeze through as bears. Once we’re safe to shift, I’ll let you know.”
Sighing and clicking her tongue in thought, she finally said, “Yes, okay. For now.”
Herc said, Kill enemy.
Justin silently told him, I agree, but we have to stay human so I can figure out the best way to reach a safe place.
Then Justin told Eli, “Thank you for dragging me away from the shooters. I have no doubt you could kick their butts, but they aren’t getting close to you. As soon I clean out my head wound, I’ll start to heal.” Not exactly true, because the titanium wouldn’t be entirely out of his system until Rory got his hands on Justin.
He added, “Herc and I will not allow anything to happen to you or your bear. He took to your bear right away.”
“Mine is same. Has affection for Herc.”
Our mate strong, Herc murmured.
Damn right, Justin answered only for his bear. He had to hand it to Herc, who had recognized their mate so soon.
Once Justin was upright again, the throbbing in his head climbed into high gear. He could not waste any time getting to the stream where he could wash out as much of the poison as possible.
The going was difficult and slow for eighty yards, but a narrow opening in the rocks appeared right where he expected it. He said a silent prayer of thanks.
Clouds closing in on this part of the mountain threatened precipitation. There was normally snow at the higher elevations in spring, but he didn’t want more dumping on them.
He welcomed the cool air on his fevered body, but if they didn’t get off the mountain by dark, which wasn’t looking possible, this cold would double down after the sun set.
