Alpha Pack 4 - Hunters Heart (25 page)

She stood, fists clenched, holding his gaze. Clearly she

hated backing down.

“I’m proud to have such a brave mate,” he murmured,

curling a hand under her chin. “But it’s not worth the risk.”

“Yes, it is!” Angry, she jerked from his grasp. “Ben is

worth the risk! He’s a good man who doesn’t deserve

what they did to him!”

His gut churned. Ben again. Always that goddamned

Ben Cantrell, standing smack between him and his mate.

Did the man have any idea of the gift he’d so carelessly

lost? Her long raven hair was pulled back into a

serviceable ponytail and hung halfway down her back.

Her large brown eyes were set in a face that would put

any angel from heaven to shame. Tiny laugh lines at the

corners of her lips evidenced a passionate woman who

often found much joy in her world. The coldness in her

stare right now made him loathe the argument that had

recently wounded it.

“You know, Ben is part of your past,” he said stiffly,

striving to keep the hurt and jealousy out of his voice. And

failing. “Keep looking into the past and your future just

might pass you by. Didn’t someone say something similar

to me recently?”

She stilled. “You’re going to throw that in my face

now?”

“Maybe you should figure out once and for all what it is

you want, that’s all. Let’s go.”

God, this was going to be a long hike. He could feel

Daria glaring holes in his back.

Arrogant jackass!

“What did you say?” he called over his shoulder.

“Nothing.” He could practically hear her grit her teeth

in annoyance.

No. He wouldn’t let her anger get to him. Better that she

was mad at him than to have her uncle’s men catch up with

them.

“How far do we have to walk? I assume you’ll do your

Telepath thing and have the team pick us up?”

“Eventually. We’re off the route we took coming in.

From the map, we’ve got thirty miles to go, give or take.”

Daria’s protest was swift. “Thirty miles? That’s sheer

lunacy!”

“What other option do we have? Our wolf forms could

handle the trip better, but we have to forgo that because

we need our supplies. Besides, you’re fit,” he pointed out.

“You spend half your year in the Shoshone doing

research.”

“Yes, but I’m not typically fleeing through it at a

breakneck pace.”

“Need I remind you that you insisted on coming along?”

A huff of annoyance was his only answer. “When we

reach the rendezvous point, I’ll contact the team and

they’ll pick us up. And for the record, I don’t like giving

up any more than you do.”

Silence, thick and heavy.

He wasn’t capable of forcing her to talk any more than

he was able to make her see retreat was for the best. So he

started walking, keeping the pace brisk but making certain

she was close behind. As they went, he reached out to his

commander.

Nick? The op was a bust. We got inside, but somehow

August knew we were there.

You two okay?

Yeah, but it was a close call. We’re using the alternate

escape route, but it will take us a day or more to get to

the rendezvous point.

All right. Let me know when you get close and we’ll be

on our way. And Ryon, be careful.

He smiled at the real concern in Nick’s tone.
Will do.

He wasn’t sure how long they’d been under way, but it

must’ve been hours before her breathless voice cut into his

brooding.

“Can we rest for a minute?”

He stopped and turned to face her, wry amusement

tugging at his lips. “And give August a chance to catch up?

Sure, why not. Maybe he’ll be so overjoyed to see you that

he’ll just kill me and spare you. It’ll be a regular family

reunion.”

Ignoring his teasing, Daria shrugged off her backpack,

snatched her canteen from inside, and took a draw, careful

to conserve the precious water. When finished, she

replaced the cap and squinted up at Ryon, who watched

her without comment.

“Tell me the story of how you and your SEAL team

were turned in Afghanistan,” she said quietly.

He sucked in a breath, wondering if this was some new

strategy to prove her point. But he sensed no deception,

just an honest desire to know his beginnings as a shifter.

“I’m not sure you’re ready to hear—”

“Stop protecting me! Trust me to know when I’m

ready.” Her eyes narrowed, her jaw set.

“All right. When we make camp, I’ll tell you everything

you want to know.”

“Fair enough.”

Ryon tensed, then narrowed his gaze in the direction

from which they’d come. “Break’s over. We’d better get

going.”

The heat and humidity of the day escalated as they

walked until there wasn’t a dry thread left on either of

their bodies, which didn’t do much for their already

touchy dispositions.

Ryon pushed on, indifferent to her temper. They stopped

only once more for a quick drink of water. “You hungry?”

“Unless you have a T-bone steak hidden in your pack,

I’ll pass.”

“Nope. But I have dried beef, MREs, and energy bars.

Or we could always skin a lizard.” He waggled his

brows, and with a snort, she grabbed her pack and started

walking again.

That was the end of the subject of lunch.

Daria was visibly relieved when he announced they’d

better find a place to make camp. His chest swelled with

pride as he studied his brave mate. She was making the

best of an unavoidable—but temporary—situation.

“Right here,” he said, pointing.

Ryon led the way into a gnarled mass of vines and

overgrown foliage. About twenty yards in, he located a

spot where the grasses on the forest floor and the

surrounding plants had formed a bowl-shaped bubble

perfect to hide them.

Leaving the M16 slung across his back, he swung the

large pack to the ground and retrieved a rolled-up piece of

canvas strapped in a side holder. He popped it open with

a snap and in short order had a small tent in place just big

enough for two.

Ryon looked at her and nodded. “It will be hotter than

Hades with the thing zipped up, but we should be

relatively safe from things that walk, crawl, and slither.”

“We could just sleep outside in wolf form,” she noted.

“It would be cooler.”

“It would, but if your uncle’s men catch up we’ll have

to run and leave all of our stuff behind.” He shrugged.

“We could do that, I suppose. We’d just have to drink out

of streams and hunt like real wolves to eat.”

She wrinkled her nose. “As much as that idea pleases

my wolf, the idea of tearing into raw animal flesh doesn’t

do a thing for me.”

“Then we camp like humans.”

She glanced around. “Shouldn’t we start building a fire

before it gets dark? To keep the other critters away.”

“Not unless you want to post a message in neon lights

telling August where to find us.” He gave her a

considering look. “Or maybe you want to have it out with

him.”

“I do, but not out here, like this.”

A flicker of remorse went through him. Heaving a

weary sigh, he strode to his pack without a word. He

fished around and brought forth two silver packets of

MREs, followed by two small metal bowls and spoons

used for camping. Placing the bowls on the ground, he

knelt and tore the tops off both packets, then poured one

into each bowl. Last, he added a bit of water to each and

stirred. Finished, he sat cross-legged and held out one of

the bowls.

“Your dinner awaits, madam.”

Daria walked over and sat beside him. “It only looks

slightly better than freshly slaughtered rabbit.”

“Sorry. The Four Seasons seems to have misplaced my

reservation for this evening.”

Sitting beside him, she laid a hand over his. “I don’t

mean to sound like such a bitch. You’re doing the best you

can under the circumstances and I’ve given you a hard

time. I want you to know that
you
are the most important

thing to me.”

He swallowed hard, trying not to appear as vulnerable

as he suddenly felt. “Am I?”

“Yes.” She paused. “Tell me what happened that day.”

“This is hard for me to talk about.” Encouragement

shone in her whiskey eyes. After a long moment, he began

his story as the shadows lengthened in the forest.

“There were six of us on the SEAL team together—me,

Jax, Aric, Zander, Micah, Phoenix, and Raven. It was so

hot that day, we were about to melt.” He laughed softly,

the pain always there, under the surface.

“Little did we know that more than half of us were

about to die. But not at the hands of any enemy we’d ever

seen in our worst nightmares . . .”

• • •

6 years earlier . . .

“Jesus Christ, I’m rank,” Raven bitched, scratching at his

crotch. “When I finally get to change this underwear, it’ll

probably walk off.”

Micah grinned. “With assistance from the crabs you

caught from that woman in the last village.”

“Shut up, needledick. She did
not
give me crabs.”

A few of the guys chuckled but Ryon wasn’t paying

much attention. He was thinking about his mom and sister,

wondering whether he’d make it out of this godforsaken

hellhole to see them again. Forget sex. Sweet baby Jesus,

what he wouldn’t give for a huge bowl of his mom’s peach

cobbler smothered in vanilla bean ice cream.

Would he be home by Christmas? As they trudged

onward, he dreamed of how great the reunion would be. If

he got leave, he’d surprise them. Just show up at the house

and watch Mom and Lisa screech with joy when he came

through the door. He’d bring lots of presents, champagne,

and—

“Hold up,” Jax whispered, coming to a halt. Tensing, he

studied the mountain forest around them, and frowned.

Somewhere hidden in the greenery, a footstep crunched to

their left. Another to their right. And one from behind.

Ryon and Micah exchanged a fearful look. This area

was supposed to be clear, and they couldn’t have reached

their target’s stronghold already. God, they were

surrounded!

Then, the forest went silent. Those few heartbeats that

followed the utter stillness, those seconds before their

lives changed forever, as he locked gazes one by one with

Aric, Raven, and the others would haunt him forever.

Thud, thud, thud.

The ground trembled and the leaves shook. When a

deep-throated roar split the air, Aric jumped, pointing the

muzzle of his M16 into the trees, hands rock steady, a bead

of sweat dripping off his nose.

“Fuck,” Micah whispered. “What the fuck is that?”

Ryon stared in horror. The thing that broke through the

foliage to their left stood erect on two legs, and was more

than seven feet tall. Covered with a thick mat of grayish

brown fur, it had a long torso, two arms, muscular

shoulders, and a head sporting two upright ears and a long,

snarling snout full of sharp teeth.

It looked like a creature that was half man, half wolf.

He and his team stared, mouths open, fingers frozen on

their triggers.

How things might have been salvaged, disaster averted,

they’d never know. Because their buddy Jones started

screaming, pumping bullets into the beast’s chest. After

that, everything went to shit.

The creature staggered backward and then rallied

quickly, rushing Jones. With a swipe of a paw the size of a

dinner plate, the big bastard ripped out Jones’s throat,

tossing him aside like a twig. Then it pounced on Raven,

biting into the vee of his neck and shoulder as the man

screamed.

They opened fire just as several more of the beasts

emerged from the forest. It quickly became apparent that

while their bullets could wound, it would take something

with far more power to kill them. Aric dropped into a

crouch and desperately palmed a grenade as his friends

fell all around him, waging a battle they couldn’t win. The

one who’d killed Jones shook Raven like a rag doll,

released him, and ran toward Aric, who let a grenade fly.

It hit at the target’s feet and exploded, sending the damned

thing to hell. But it wasn’t enough.

Micah went down, his knife in hand, slitting one’s

throat. But another jumped on him, and his struggle was

short-lived, his scream terrible. Jax fell next, then their

CO Prescott, Zan, Nix, and so many others. All of them,

one by one. Dead or dying.

Unsheathing his own knife, Aric spun to face the beast

coming up on his flank. “Come on, bitch,” he hissed.

“Let’s dance.”

Ryon lost track of the battle around him as one of the

creatures rushed him. Barreled into him like a freight train

and took him to the ground. His M16 was knocked into the

air, raining a spray of bullets into the trees. The weapon

landed several feet away, useless.