Chapter Sixteen
Alex stared in horror at the large arrow protruding from Joshua’s body. He seemed oblivious to it as he drew his gun with his other hand and crouched beside her. She tried to scramble to her knees, but he knocked her back down with his shoulder. “Stay down,” he hissed. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead, but in no other way did he give any indication he was in any pain at all.
The man was unbelievable.
Reaching behind her back, she pulled out her gun. The weight felt solid in her hand. “How did they find us so quickly?” She’d thought that with Joshua’s skills in the woods the hunters would have a harder time finding them. Which was a stupid assumption when she really thought about it. If these were professional bounty hunters they would be skilled trackers. She excused her brief mental lapse, telling herself the blow to her head from the accident had momentarily scrambled her brains.
“We’ve got to move.” His eyes scanned the woods around them. “The two hunters are coming from the east, but they’ve got company. Keep low.”
She scrabbled to her feet, but kept her head and body as low to the ground as possible as she followed him behind some heavy brush. She could hear a shout in the distance but couldn’t make out what was said. “More hunters?” Her voice was hushed, but it still sounded incredibly loud. She knew she shouldn’t be talking, but she had to know what was going on.
“Werewolves,” he growled, disgust dripping from that single word. Betrayal. He didn’t say it, but Alex could all but hear it. The fact that a werewolf would join forces with bounty hunters to destroy another of their kind was an abomination. These hunters routinely killed women and children in their efforts to destroy the species.
Alex didn’t speak after that, but concentrated on putting one foot carefully in front of the other. She tried to match Joshua’s steps. He was absolutely silent as he moved fluidly and quickly through the forest. He didn’t lead her in a straight line, but had her moving over rocks and fallen logs, zigzagging their path. He always seemed to know where to step to avoid making any sound. It seemed as instinctive to him as breathing. This was the wolf inside him, she realized. This was the predator, at home in the woods.
It occurred to her that if she weren’t with him, he’d be stalking those hunters and rogue werewolves instead of running from them, wound or no wound. Her fingers tightened around her weapon. He stopped behind a large boulder and pulled her down beside him.
“The arrow has got to come out. It’s getting in my way.”
Of course it was. Not that it hurt him in any way. It was just getting in his way. She was filled with the totally unreasonable urge to yell at him. Instead, she pushed back her anger. “What do you want me to do?”
He gave a single nod of approval as if he’d expected nothing less from her. “You’ll have to break the end off the bolt. It’s tipped in silver and is too big to pull back out without causing more damage.” Reaching down into his boot, he withdrew a wickedly sharp hunting knife. “If you can’t crack it off, cut it with this.”
Laying the gun down on the ground next to them, she stared at the arrow protruding from his body, trying to figure out the best angle of approach.
“Just do it. We don’t have time to waste.” He braced himself against the rock, the muscles of his good arm tensing as he waited.
She wasn’t trying to waste time. She was trying to build up enough courage to do this. Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her hands around the top of the shaft just below the tip and put all her strength into the task at hand. Doing her best not to jolt him, she cracked off the deadly silver end and tossed it to the ground.
Joshua was breathing heavily now, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “Good. That’s very good. Now come around to my front, brace your hand on my chest and pull the rest of the arrow out.”
Alex swallowed hard, but did as he instructed. His body was warm beneath her hand, his heart beating steadily beneath her palm. There was no give in the wide expanse of muscle that banded across his chest. She gripped the shaft with her other hand, took a deep breath and pulled in one hard motion, much like ripping off an adhesive bandage.
He sucked in a breath between his clenched teeth, but other than that he gave no sign she’d hurt him at all. His body was rock steady, but she was feeling a bit wobbly. Kneeling in the dirt, she wiped a hand over her damp forehead. Blood welled from the hole. “That needs to be cleaned so it doesn’t get infected.”
“Later.” He glanced back toward the direction they’d come from, his eyes narrowing. “Help me get my shirt off. I need to wrap something around this to stop the bleeding.”
God. She’d been sitting here just watching him bleed. Her head must be more muddled from the crash than she’d thought. Galvanized into action, she shucked her jacket and tore her own shirt over her head. Using the knife he’d handed her, she cut it into strips. She had a momentary pang over destroying the shirt because he’d given it to her. Which was actually quite a silly sentiment at a time like this.
She also wished she had her grimy sweatshirt to pull on. But that was back in the wrecked truck, rolled up in a paper bag with the rest of their belongings. She hadn’t even noticed the bag when she’d crawled out of the truck. Obviously, it had gotten tossed somewhere during the accident. No matter where it was, there was no going back for it now.
Alex ignored his questioning stare as she carefully cut away the short sleeve of his shirt. She folded several of the strips she’d cut in to thick pads, placing one at the entry point of the wound and the other at the exit. She then used several more strips to wrap his shoulder, hoping this would stem, if not stop the bleeding. When she was done, she hauled her leather jacket on over her bra. “You should wear your jacket.”
He shook his head as he used the windbreaker to clean most of the blood from his arm. “I’m going to use it to try to lead them away from us.” His eyes softened as he cupped her jaw in his hand. “Thank you, Alex.” His thumb stroked her bottom lip before he pulled away and gathered his hunting knife, placing it safely back into his boot. He picked up his handgun and nodded. He was ready to go.
Alex grabbed her gun and checked her knives, which were still safely tucked in her boots. Joshua was already moving, but she stared down at the long broken arrow that lay discarded on the ground. The arrow was tipped in silver, which was deathly poison to werewolves. They’d meant to kill him and had come close. She could not allow that to happen. Tightening her grip on the cold metal in her hand, she decided then and there she would have to be more vigilant. He was prepared to protect her with his life. She could do no less for him.
They walked for about fifteen minutes, when he stopped and crouched beside a birch tree that had fallen in some storm. Using his hand, he scooped away some of the soft ground around the base and partially buried his windbreaker. As he stood, he swiped his dirty hand over the leg of his jeans. Then he had them backtrack for several yards before he led her off in another direction, telling her to make her steps as far apart as possible.
Time moved onward. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been walking, but it must have been at least an hour. Joshua was very careful. Every now and then he’d stop and listen. Neither of them spoke, both of them conserving their energy in case they had to run or fight. She ignored the worried glances that Joshua kept giving her and tried to look energetic and alert whenever she felt his eyes on her. But it wasn’t easy.