“Don’t—” The man’s words cut off when he coughed. “Don’t leave me…”
“I’m not,” I assured, “but they can’t find me here or I won’t be able to save you.”
His grip loosened, but the torture in his eyes said that letting me go had cost him everything.
Steps grew louder as Kellan walked to the cabin and I rushed to the only place where I could hide, behind the door. A single finger rose to my lips, signaling to the human to please stay silent for both our sakes.
The second Kellan’s hand turned the knob, the man closed his eyes, his head bobbing away from me as he pretended to still be unconscious. My back pressed tightly to the wall, feeling something poke my thigh. Glancing down, I found an old andrusted shovel, then my head snapped up as Kellan walked inside the room.
“How are doing, you piece of shit?” he snarled, kicking the human’s leg through the iron bars, then laughing when a moan of agony escaped the man. “He’s still passed out!” Kellan called back to Barret, then kicked the man again, as though it was fun.
Watching him in disgust, I found it hard to believe that our Alpha and Ryker would allow something like this to happen. Barret and Kellan were idiots, so they would totally do something like this, but Ryker and my uncle couldn’t possibly know what was happening here, could they? Our race was created to protect humans, were they truly capable of such cruelty?
The muscles of my jaw viciously clenched when Kellan kicked the man yet again, reopening the wounds that had slightly begun to heal, and drawing more blood. His boot slipped through the bars once more, but before it could stomp his chest, the man’s hand snapped up, grasping Kellan’s heel with whatever strength he had left.
That was my cue.
Before I could even think, my fingers wrapped around the shovel, and I swung it at Kellan’s head with all my might. The rusted metal exploded as it struck the side of his face, not doing as much damage as it should have. Kellan whirled around with a snarl. Unfortunately for him, I had already twirled the shovel around, and swung its wooden handle at his temple the next second, knocking him unconscious from the strike. His massive body crumbled toward the corner, crashing on top of a few tin buckets.
Pure shock struck the human’s face as he glanced up at me, clearly not expecting me to attack one of my own.
“Not going to lie, I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”
A cheeky grin lifted the corner of his lips, unveiling the cutest dimple on his chin, but I had no time to ogle the sexy human, Barret was already on the move with the ruckus Kellan caused.
Wait, did I just call him sexy?My wolf stirred, agreeing wholeheartedly.
“What’s going on in there?!”
As the door swung open, I jumped and scissor-kicked Barret in the chin, snapping his head back with its force. I side-kicked him in the chest next, sending him flying back onto the rocks outside. Rushing after him, I spun and swung the shovel’s handle at his head before he could even jump to his feet. The growl died in his throat mid-shift as he too dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Shit. Shit. Shit! What the heck have I done?
Nobody cared, there was no time for that.
Throwing the shovel away, I ran back into the cabin, finding the man dragging himself up by the iron bars.
“I may not be allowed in their stupid Hunters pack, but I can sure as hell defend a human!” I growled and dropped next to Kellan, searching his pants for the cage’s key.
“You sure can,Meu coração,” the man replied in a language I had never heard, his accent making the words sing with sensuality.
I had no idea what he’d said, but my cheeks flushed all the same. Shaking myself, I yanked the key free from Kellan’s belt, and whirled on my knees, unlocking the cage’s door.
Once I was inside, I carefully but urgently pulled one of the man’s arms around my shoulders and curled mine around his torso. “Can you walk?”
“I guess we are about to find out.” His knees partially gave out the moment we stood, but he forced himself to keep going, and I was proud of him for that.
The crisp night air hit his body harshly the moment we stepped out, especially with all the wounds he’d suffered, but even though his muscles shook, he kept going. We stepped around Barret’s form, and headed for the forest, yet before we could make it out of there, the sound of rustling and grunts came from inside the raggedy cabin. Kellan was waking up.
If he shifted and came after us, we were toast, because there was only so much hand-to-hand combat one could do with a Wolf Shifter, let alone a freaking Hunter. Isis had trained me to fight, but she couldn’t perform miracles.
Urgency squeezing my lungs, I urged the man forward as fast as he could humanly walk, but his injuries were severe, and he had lost too much energy. He was too weak.
Goddess, please help me…
Knowing how much was at risk, my wolf pushed with urgency against my skin. This was her purpose, our purpose, protecting humans was the only reason we even existed. We could not fail him—we would not.
“We can do this, girl,”I assured her.
