Savage Revenge (9 page)

Had he passed through there? So much was a blur. So many patches he might’ve blacked out from exhaustion. From the mix of horror and rage.

Shit. He had to get in touch with someone. He needed help. Needed a way to maybe get a hold of Warrick Donovan. Nathan had no family left, and Donovan was as close to a brother as a guy could have.

But he was also an honorable man. Fiercely loyal to the shifter community and the P.I.A. So the chances that he’d notify the agency of contact was high.

There was a subtle click behind him, and the sound made every muscle in his body clench.

Son of a bitch
.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head, Agent Larson.”

Turning slowly in the chair—because God help him if she was trigger happy—and stared at her.

“Where did you have that little toy hiding?”

And really, it was more of a cute gun than efficient. Who the hell bought a pink gun?

“On the top shelf in the coat closet.”

“I see.”

So somehow she’d bypassed the kitchen and made it to the hall without him realizing it.

Shit. This hunkering down for a few days was going to be so much harder than he’d hoped.

“My brother insisted I own a gun since I live out here alone.”

“Smart brother.”

“Yes. Smart enough to teach me how to use it too.”

Maybe. But the way her hands shook meant the chances of her hitting her target were slim. Unless she was at close range, which he bordered on right now.

She inched toward the phone on the counter and shook her head.

“Was the bulletin true? Did you kill all those people?”

“No.”
Not all of them
.

Distrust flickered in her eyes. “I just don’t know if I can believe you.”

Removing one hand from the gun, she picked up the phone and started to dial.

Her gaze swung to his with shock.

“My line is dead.”

“I cut it last night before I grabbed you.”

“Dammit! Get out of my house, Nate.”

“I’m not leaving.” He didn’t hesitate with the words, just said them with quiet firmness.

He had nowhere else to go. If he left, he was a dead man.

Irritation flashed in her eyes. “If you don’t leave, I’ll shoot you.”

“All right. Then shoot me.”

Her mouth parted and her brows rose. “You don’t mean that.”

“Well, I’d rather you not,” he said dryly. “But I’m not leaving. I need a place to lie low for a while, and I’m sorry I had to take you and your house by force—”

“You’re not sorry!”

“But I’m not walking out that door, Curls. I can’t. And if those are my two options, you may as well shoot me now.”

“You’re unbelievable,” she muttered and took a step toward him. “I didn’t want to do this.”

She wouldn’t. He knew she didn’t have the gonads to pull the trigger. Sage was soft. Probably ran with the anti-violence crowd. He’d seen the flowery “Make Love Not War” framed poster in the living room.

Fear and reluctance now flashed in her eyes as she got closer.

What was she doing? Any closer and she had to know he’d make a grab for the gun. His instincts were sharper and quicker than hers.

“Please. Don’t make me ask you again. Leave my house, Nate.”

“Look, we both know you won’t—”

The report of the gunshot reached his ears only after the burning pain exploded in his shoulder.

“
Fuck
.” His vision blurred for just a moment, and when it cleared he only barely saw Sage flee out the front door.

“Your aim is shit,” he ground out before lurching after her.

Her scream of fear morphed into a howl as she shifted halfway down the steps. Then she was off and he knew he had the disadvantage now. Her wolf form was smaller, quicker, and she knew the area while he was flying blind.

Still, he had to try. He couldn’t allow her to get away and warn anyone.

He shifted quickly, ignoring the blood splattering and sharp stabs of pain in his shoulder. Quick healing or not, a piece of fucking lead shattering his bone was going to slow him down.

And the fact that he wasn’t allowing his body the time to heal might be a problem later, but he couldn’t think about that now.

He kept his attention on the tawny fur darting through trees and over and around boulders. While her house had already been off the beaten path, she seemed to be fleeing deeper into the woods.

Maybe she was hoping to lose him, but she would’ve had a better chance of him falling back if she’d headed toward a major road.

The longer they ran the more he realized her intent
had
been to slow him down by heading toward the uneven, challenging terrain.

This time she’d underestimated him, because he’d been born and bred in the Pacific Northwest—a region with terrain twice as challenging as this.

But the dull ache of the bullet that had passed through his shoulder hadn’t faded, and that was dragging him down more than he’d hoped it would. He was losing more ground on her than he’d expected.

She bounded over a small hill, disappearing from his line of sight momentarily.

The high-pitched feline cry, followed by a yap of pain from Sage made his ears lift and icy dread race through him.

Shit
. It sounded like their little party for two had just been crashed.

He increased his pace—his paws barely touching the earth as he sped over the hill.

When he crested the top dread gathered in a heavy lump in his stomach.

Not even a hundred feet away Sage, still in wolf form, was attempting to fend off an attack by a mountain lion. From the bloody slash marks on her back, it didn’t look like she’d been too successful so far.

Chances were if he didn’t get his ass down there and help, she’d be dead in the next five minutes. Without hesitation, Nathan leapt down the hill with a snarl.

The mountain lion had been so focused on taking out Sage, he didn’t notice Nathan until he was literally right on top of him.

Nathan sent the cat sprawling backward and off Sage, giving her the moment she needed to escape.

And then he couldn’t focus on her anymore, because saving his own life was going to be priority now.

She was free. Oh God.

Sage ran blindly through the trees, panting from exertion as the need to escape rode her hard.

Her paws ate up the earth and for once she appreciated the wolf side of herself more than usual.

Her speed as a wolf was what was saving her life right now.

No. Nate saved your life
.

Guilt slithered through her, so potent, that she stumbled in her escape.

She’d been way over her head fighting a mountain lion. Those were something shifters in the area had always been warned about, but she’d fortunately never had to experience.

The lion had already gotten a good swipe into her spine, and likely would’ve taken a fatal bite if Nate hadn’t come to her defense.

And now she was running off to leave him to fend for himself.

What was she doing? She couldn’t feel bad for him. Couldn’t possibly be contemplating going back to help him.

This was her chance to escape—to get help from her pack and report Nate to the P.I.A.

She slowed her run and glanced over her shoulder. Nate and the lion were out of view, but she could still hear the sounds of their battle.

That bulletin on the website she’d glanced over portrayed him to be a big, dangerous guy. But what he’d just done for her…

You’re a naïve idiot, Sage. Don’t do this.

Ignoring her subconscious, she turned completely around and charged back toward Nate. The sounds of battle died abruptly and fear rushed through her.

She increased her pace, until she could see the two. Both lay on the ground, motionless.

Nate had shifted back to human and his body was streaked with blood and cuts.

Was he dead? Her heart clenched and she shifted back to human as well, closing the remaining distance to him on two legs.

“Nate?” She dropped to her knees beside him, reaching out to feel for a pulse.

Iron strong fingers clamped around her wrist, even as the rest of him didn’t move.

Her gaze flew to his and she saw the pain flickering there.

“Get the hell out of here, Sage,” he snarled.

Blinking in dismay, she shook her head. “You want me to leave you?”

His head fell back and he closed his eyes. “That asshole cat got in some pretty good bites.”

She glanced at the dead mountain lion. “Looks like you got in some of your own.”

His lips twisted with a mix of pain and bitter amusement. “You wanted to escape, so go. Get out of here. I won’t stop you. Don’t you get that?”

The harshness and tone of his words confused her, and had her flinching. She glanced back at the hills and a guaranteed way out of here. Why was he so determined to send her away, when a half hour ago he was doing everything in his power to stop her?

“That mountain lion probably has a friend who’s just out there waiting to finish me off anyway.”

Wait. He thought he was going to die? Talk about ridiculous.

“Oh my God.” She rolled her eyes and slid an arm beneath his shoulders. “You’re fine, it’s just a—”

“
Fuck
.” He gasped in obvious pain and tried to push her away.

Frowning, she swung her gaze to his side and felt the first sense of unease as realization hit that this wasn’t just a scratch. It was a pretty deep bite that was gushing profusely. Even with his shifter genetics that could heal him quickly, the rate he was losing blood meant it might be too late.

And he must’ve known and was trying to avoid her witnessing his death.

“Nate…”

“Go, Sage.” He sounded weaker now.

At a loss, and frozen in shock, it took a moment for her to remember. He didn’t have to die. There
was
a potential way to speed up the healing. She’d seen it done, and knew it could be used when needed, but had never done it herself.

If she used her saliva on the wound, it would add strength to the healing. Combining her quick-healing blood with his. It wasn’t a guarantee, but it gave him a much better chance.

Pushing any thought of how disgusting it was, she crawled closer to him and tried to roll him onto his side.

“What…the hell…are you doing?”

“Move to your side if you can,” she ordered softly.

This time when she pushed with all her strength, he moved with her.

On his side now, his wound was exposed and easy for her to do what she needed to do.

“Sage? You don’t have to…” He broke off with a groan when she wiped away as much blood as she could to expose the wound, and then quickly replaced her hand with her mouth.

She lashed her tongue over the punctures, lapping at the injury until she felt the skin begin to pucker and heal.

When the metallic taste of blood disappeared and all she tasted was the slight saltiness of his muscled flesh, she pulled away from him.

Success
.

She fell back on her bottom, lifted her knees and then placed elbows on them, before burying her face in her hands.

Nate’s ragged breathing began to return to normal, but he stayed silent for a moment. The dirt beneath them rustled as he sat up.

“Sage?” His voice was gravelly. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. I’m just not a vampire,” she muttered. “And that was kind of disgusting.”

He gave a low, husky laugh and she was glad he couldn’t see her true thoughts. Not that she lied. It had been disgusting at first with all the blood, but then when he’d healed it had been almost mildly erotic. She’d become all too aware of him as a man and the fact that she had her tongue all over him.

It freaked her the hell out, actually. She was about as inexperienced sexually as inexperienced girls came, and she’d crossed about five things off her to-do list in the last twenty-four hours.

Though getting tied up wasn’t exactly for the same reason she’d used it in her imagination.

Even though she still wasn’t quite ready to look at him, the choice was taken away when he knelt down beside her.

He caught her chin between his forefinger and thumb and tilted it so she had to meet his gaze.

“Thank you. I know you didn’t make that choice lightly.”

Actually, it had almost been a no brainer. She couldn’t let him die. It had been a gut level, blinding instinct that she do whatever she could to save him.

So. Weird.

His gaze searched hers. “Why did you come back for me?”

Offering a lame shrug, she said, “Because I knew there was a good chance you’d be hurt. Or dead.”

“I’m not sure why that bothers you.” He gave a humorless smile. “You already tried to blow my head off earlier and leave me for dead.”

She thought about that real hard. Thought about how she was going to answer him, even though she wasn’t even sure she knew the reason herself.

“You didn’t have to save me.” When she finally answered, her words were soft, and she met his gaze straight on. “You could’ve let that mountain lion kill me and no one would’ve been the wiser. You’d have had my house for a hideout without complication.”

He didn’t reply, just stared at her with those cold, unreadable green eyes.

“But you didn’t let me die. Instead, you leapt in and basically offered your life to save mine.”

“Do you have a point?”

“My point is…” She swallowed hard. Was she crazy? Well, that was pretty much a given at this rate, but it was too late to turn back now. “I don’t think you’re a bad guy, Nate.”

Surprise flickered in his eyes now, before resignation. He shook his head.

“You have no idea what I am.” He released her and stood up. “Maybe you need to stop believing what you write in your books, because believe me when I say I’m nobody’s hero.”

Ouch
.

She took the hand he offered her and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

“I’m not trying to make you into a hero. But I think I’ve decided… I
am
willing to try and help you.”

His grip tightened around her hand. “Don’t screw with me, Sage.”