She had to have gone either across or down the river. Either way, he’d find her.
The hunt was on in earnest now. He was pleased she was giving him a challenge. It proved there was a reason he was attracted to her. She wasn’t like the others he’d killed. She was special and she was his.
Chapter Sixteen
Reece knew something was wrong when he tried to move and couldn’t. A crow cawed raucously off to his right. He forced his eyes open and stared out of what was left of the windshield. The hood of the truck was crumbled beyond repair, and he was sitting in the middle of the front seat. His side of the vehicle had been crushed.
Someone had hit them. He’d managed to keep the vehicle from rolling but they’d hit a tree.
Hannah. He turned his head but the seat beside him was empty. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and flooded his system. The lethargy that cloaked him quickly dissipated. Had she been thrown from the truck on impact?
“Hannah.” He’d meant to yell her name, but it came out more of a whisper.
He inhaled and scented her blood. She’d been hurt.
Part of the front dash was pinning him in place. He put his hand on the mangled plastic and metal and pushed. It groaned and moved slightly but not enough. He tried again, muscles bunching and burning. Sweat beaded his forehead in spite of the cool air rushing through the vehicle.
The metal frame groaned again. This time some of the plastic on the console snapped under the pressure. It moved an inch. Then another. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Reece dragged his feet out from under the twisted frame. When he released his hold, it crumpled once again.
Placing his hands on the seat, he dragged himself forward. He had to find Hannah. She’d been wearing her seatbelt. He remembered her snapping it on as they’d pulled back onto the road after their unscheduled stop. That meant she’d climbed out under her own power.
Had she gone for help?
Her door was pried open, and he half rolled, half fell out of the truck. He looked around but didn’t see Hannah anywhere. What he did see made his blood run cold.
Her knapsack lay on the ground. She wouldn’t willingly have gone anywhere without it. She hadn’t let that bag out of her sight since he’d met her.
He looked around and spied a truck parked up on the side of the road above them. The front was damaged, but not nearly as bad as his truck was. The crash hadn’t been an accident at all. Someone had deliberately hit them and run them off the road.
How in the hell had that happened?
No time to worry about that now. He had to find Hannah.
Reece pushed himself to his feet and lifted his head to sniff the air. His wolf was restless inside him, pacing and growling. He shoved down his growing panic when he finally found Hannah’s scent. She was moving away from the road and heading into the woods.
He stumbled on the uneven ground and blinked when his vision blurred. He rubbed a hand over his face and grimaced when it came away bloody. He used the hem of his shirt to wipe his face. He was bleeding heavily. He knew head wounds bled a lot. It was more of a nuisance than anything.
He stopped by an old walnut tree, leaning against the thick trunk. He sniffed again, sorting out Hannah’s scent from his blood. Beyond the natural aroma of the forest was that of a man. A wolf.
He recognized it from the alleyway where the man had lain in wait to attack Hannah. Her stalker had found her.
He slapped at his pocket but his phone was missing. He didn’t know if he’d lost it in the accident or if Hannah had taken it. Either way, there was no time to waste searching for it.
Reece yanked off his shirt, ignoring the gashes on his forearms and his head wound. He kicked off his sneakers and shoved down his jeans. He started to shift before he was fully naked.
His wolf, as impatient as he was to find Hannah, leapt forward. There was no waiting. No slow shift. He went from man to wolf in a heartbeat. Their mate was out there somewhere running for her life.
The shift kick-started the healing process. He felt the gashes on his body close and begin to knit together. He started to run. Wolf and man were one in their goal. They had to find and protect Hannah. And the only way to do that was to eliminate the threat to her once and for all.
* * * * *
Hannah dragged herself out of the frigid water. She was shivering so hard it made it difficult for her to pull herself over the rocks. The cold had helped to numb her arm. The bleeding had stopped, but she feared she’d broken her arm and her body didn’t have the energy to heal an injury that serious. Not when she was expending so much on running for her life.
She’d picked a spot where there were more rocks and less gravel and started in that direction. The last thing she wanted to do was leave an easy trail for her stalker to follow. She ached everywhere. Knew her body was bruised where she’d slipped and slid down the rushing river, slamming into rocks over and over.
Still, it had taken her farther than she could have made it on her own. She knew she was leaving a wet trail on the rocks, but there was nothing to be done about it. When she reached a large rock, she slid down next to it, using it to hide herself from view.
Icy water ran in rivulets down her back and arms. She hated to take off her coat but knew it was probably worse to leave it on. She gritted her teeth against the pain in her arm as she tugged. She had to rest twice before she finally got it off.
She was so cold. She’d lost almost all feeling in her fingers and it made her clumsy. She studied her arm. There was a lot of bruising and some pain when she flexed her fingers.
She leaned back, rested her head against the rock, and wrapped her arms around her body to conserve heat. Was Reece okay? Had his family arrived yet? She had no idea how much time had passed. She’d lost her watch at some point in her mad ride down the river. She had a vague memory of the strap snagging on something and being yanked away.
Where was her stalker?
She tried to still her ragged breathing and listened intently. The rush of the river drowned out almost all sound, but he was out there. She could almost feel him searching. She prayed his obsession was such that he wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t double back to check on Reece.
Hannah wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. She was so cold and every part of her hurt. But if she stopped, he’d find her.
That was the impetus she needed to get her moving. She braced her good hand on the ground and pushed herself upright. Every muscle in her body protested and her right calf muscle knotted and cramped. She ground her back teeth together to keep from screaming with the pain.
She started walking. It was more a limp at first until she worked out the cramp. She’d been walking for about five minutes when she realized she’d left her jacket behind.
“Shit,” she muttered and then slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized what she’d done. The cold, the trauma, and pure exhaustion was making her loopy. She had to be more careful.
She staggered to the left. She had no idea where she was or even what direction she was going in. All she knew was that she had to keep moving.
She heard a rustling off to her right and froze. Before she could find a place to hide, a large bear lumbered into view. He turned his head and looked at her for a long moment. Then he made a loud grumbling sound and kept going.
Hannah released a sigh and rested her forehead against the scratchy bark of the tree she was leaning on. It was only a bear.
She heard another sound and raised her head. Had the bear come back?
Eyes glittered in the dark and a large wolf stared at her. She swallowed hard and took a step back. The wolf shimmered and began to change. She didn’t wait, but turned and started running. It was more of a fast walk, but it was all she could manage.
“You can’t run forever,” he called. Then he laughed.
The sonofabitch was enjoying himself
. He was enjoying her fear and the hunt.
Hannah stopped and looked around. She found a branch that had broken off a nearby tree. It was about four feet long and had been stripped almost smooth over time. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. The time for running was over. Better to stand and fight than to be taken down from behind like a wounded deer.
The wolf bounded to a stop about fifteen feet away. She held the branch in front of her but kept it low and in front of her body.
He shifted again and this time she watched as he morphed from large wolf into a man. “Done with running?” His tone was conversational, but there was no disguising the glowing pleasure in his eyes.
“Who are you?” It seemed crazy that someone she didn’t even know had completely changed her life.
He tilted his head to one side and studied her. “You’re the first one who has ever asked my name,” he murmured.
His voice was low and calm. Nothing to betray the fact the man was a crazy, murdering lunatic. “It only seems fair.”
“Fair?” His smile sent a shiver down her spine. “Life isn’t fair or your kind would never exist.”
“I could say the same about you,” she pointed out. Maybe it was stupid to bait him but, at this point, she had nothing to lose.
He frowned and growled. “My kind is far superior to humans and half-breeds.”
“Is that why you’re after me? Because I’m only half werewolf?” She’d known it all along, but figured if he was talking, he wasn’t actively trying to kill her. She needed some time to gather her strength for the final showdown.
“That’s why I started.” He began to slowly circle. She turned with him, needing to keep him in sight at all times. She knew he was toying with her.
“Now, I don’t want to kill you,” he continued. “At least not right away. You’re a very beautiful woman.” He looked her over from head to toe. She could taste fear on her tongue.
He was aroused and doing nothing to hide it.
No way was she letting him rape her. She’d make him kill her first. She closed her fingers around the branch and prayed for a miracle.
* * * * *
Reece picked up speed as he ran. His wolf was strong and highly motivated. He’d stopped trying to follow Hannah’s scent and focused on her attacker’s scent instead. The first thing he’d stumbled over was a neat pile of male clothing. That meant her attacker was in wolf form.
His wolf wanted to piss on the clothes, but Reece yanked him back to the task at hand. This was no time for dominance games. Hannah was out there somewhere alone with a wolf on her trail.
He followed the unknown male wolf’s trail several miles down the side of a river. When he lost it, he knew the male had crossed. He jumped to several rocks and barely got wet before he gained the other bank. He had to walk up and down the area for several minutes to find the trail again, wasting precious time.
When he caught it again, he picked up speed. He didn’t know how Hannah had managed to evade the man for so long. Luck, skill, and pure guts had to be driving her. But her luck couldn’t last forever. Not against a full-blooded werewolf.
He lengthened his stride, slowing only when necessary to pick up the trail again. Then he caught the scent of blood and sweat and fear—Hannah. He put his head down and ran.
* * * * *
Sage saw an unfamiliar truck sitting empty on the side of the road. He pulled his truck to a stop opposite it and jumped out. He crossed the asphalt and peered down the embankment.
His blood ran cold when he saw the swath of destruction his brother’s truck had made when it had crashed down the steep drop-off. He was halfway down the small gorge before he heard the others pull up. Mikhail was right behind him.
The truck was a total write-off. The front resembled an accordion, the metal all pushed together. The driver’s side was smashed in.
Sage was finding it difficult to breathe. He knew his brother was alive. He’d feel an aching emptiness inside him if Reece were dead. Still, he wouldn’t relax until he saw him with his own two eyes.
He found his footing and raced to the truck. It was empty.
Sage stared inside in disbelief. There was barely room enough in the cab for one person, let alone two, it was so badly damaged. He could smell blood—his brother’s and another’s.
“Sage.” He turned when Mikhail called to him.
“What have you got?”
“Clothes. And from the looks of things, he was in a hurry.” Mikhail looked back as Jacque and the others joined them. “Reece has gone after them.”
“Let’s do this smart.” Jacque automatically took charge, but suddenly stopped and turned to Sage. “How do you want to handle this?”
Both the alpha and his Uncle Elias, along with the three other men, all waited for his decision. As much as it killed him, he had to let his uncle take the lead. “I can’t shift. You all can. We need to find them.”
His uncle stepped forward. “Can you connect with him?”
Sage tried and then shook his head. “I can feel him.” He rubbed his chest. “But he’s in his wolf form and that makes it harder for me to access the link we normally share.” Sage pointed off to the west. “He’s that way.”
While he and his uncle had been talking, the others had shifted. Now Jacque, Mikhail, Cole, and Gator were all in their wolf forms and they were ready to hunt. Sage was done talking. He might not be able to shift, but he could run. And he might not be able to connect directly with his twin, but he knew how to find him.
Sage took off running. Elias, rather than shift, ran alongside him. The others raced ahead with Jacque in the lead.
* * * * *
Hannah’s hands trembled so hard it was difficult to hold on to her makeshift weapon, but she tightened her grip and held on. The bastard was enjoying himself. He was smiling. She wanted to swing her stick and knock the smile right off his smug face.
“You wanted to know my name?”
She nodded even though she didn’t really care. What she wanted to do was keep him talking. “Yes.”
“Edgar Treadmont.” He said it as though it should mean something to her. The man obviously had an over inflated ego.
“Where you from, Ed?” Probably wasn’t smart to taunt him, but maybe if he got angry enough he might make a mistake. Or maybe he’d just kill her outright. It was a risk she was willing to take.
He growled and his fingers curled into fists. “Edgar. An uneducated, unthinking beast is called Ed. I am Edgar.”
“Oookay.” She drew out the word. “Who are you, Edgar?” she emphasized his name. “Because I’ve never heard of you.”
“Of course you haven’t.” He pointed to his chest. “Most people see the man in the fine suit and not the predator beneath. Not until it’s too late.”
“Don’t you have a pack?” The branch was getting heavy but she ignored the strain on her biceps and the pain radiating up from her right arm.
“Of course I have a pack. I’m a pure werewolf. I can trace my family legacy back for generations.”
She didn’t understand. Most werewolves stayed around pack land. “What were you doing in Chicago?”
He laughed. “Indulging my little hobby.” He crossed his arms over his large chest. “I handle much of the pack’s business, which means I travel a lot. It’s easy to watch the news and discover wolf sightings, or to hear gossip about a wolf who had a child with a human woman. There is always gossip.”
“You investigate them.”
He looked like a pleased teacher with a prized student. “Exactly. I’ve removed a dozen abominations from the world over the past decade. Usually one a year. I like to take my time and plan things well. I have to make sure that the authorities never suspect what I am.”
He moved suddenly, and she jerked to the side, almost stumbling. He laughed again. “You really d
on’t think that little stick you’re holding can stop me, do you?”
“It’s better than nothing.” She struck out at his ego once again. “Bet you’ve never tested yourself against a real werewolf. You think you’re so big and strong taking on half-breed men and women.”
She might be an independent strong woman, but she knew she was no match for a werewolf. Not even if she had been studying martial arts since birth and had a semi-automatic weapon. Those things might buy her some time, but he’d eventually kill her.
“You’ll see just how strong I am before I’m done with you.” His silky tones made her quake but she kept steady, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
He made a shooing motion with his hands. “Run, little girl.”
“No.” He wanted her to run, wanted to chase her down. “You want me. Come and get me.”
He growled and his eyes flashed in the dark. He started toward her, anger in every step. She raised her stick slightly, keeping it close to her body. She’d only get one shot at this.
She suddenly lowered the branch. She’d hit him where he was most vulnerable. Where every man was vulnerable—the family jewels.
He lunged and she swung the bottom of the stick upward. Right on target, she nailed him in the balls. He’d caught her movement at the last second and had lunged back to avoid the full brunt of her strike, but he felt it.
The look on his face gave her a feral pleasure. He cupped himself and fell to his knees. She swung at his head like a batter swinging for the fences, but he rolled away at the last second. The momentum turned her in a circle and she staggered to one side.
Edgar had already recovered and was shifting. She’d only ever seen her father and Reece shift. This was different. This frightened her out of her mind. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but she knew better.
She caught sight of a large tree with several low branches. She dropped her stick, ran, and jumped, gaining the lower branch. Her arm screamed with pain and her fingers threatened to slip. She hung on as if her life depended on it, because it did. She pulled herself up.
Wolf in her Soul: Salvation Pack, Book 8 Page 18
