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“Jess.” A hand clamped over her mouth and strong arms jerked her behind the rocks as another shot struck beside her shoulder.
Heated, hard and male, the large body she was suddenly cushioned against was a welcome relief, a place of security as she recognized the voice at her ear.
Hawke Esteban.
Relief poured through her system with enough force to leave her dizzy. One arm curled around her waist, dragging her backward to the security of another outcropping of the large rocks she had been using for protection.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he hissed in her ear, his dark, brooding voice sizzling with anger.
She tried to shake her head. How the hell was she supposed to talk with his calloused palm clapped over her lips?
“Stay still,” he ordered as she struggled against him. “Mordecai and Rule are moving in on the shooter.”
Mordecai, the cold, steel-hard Coyote assigned to Haven from the Coyote pack in the cliffs above, and Rule, the Lion Breed who normally worked as personal security for the Director of Breed Affairs, Jonas Wyatt.
Both men were killers, true stone-cold Breeds bred to shed blood.
“Let’s get you out of here.” His hand slid away from her mouth. “Stay behind me. We’ll work our way back to the cabin and let them take care of business here.”
awke could feel fear crawling through his system as he gripped Jessica’s hand, and following Rule’s directions, began to lead her along the most secure path back to the cabin she had been assigned.
Fear was an unknown emotion to him, until now. Until he had faced the realization that someone was shooting at his mate. That he could lose her. That everything he had fought for over the past year could end in her death.
He couldn’t face it, he realized in the moments that he, Mordecai and Rule had raced to her rescue. He couldn’t face Jess’s death. In the past year she had already faced more than any woman should have had to endure; to lose her this way was more than he could contemplate.
Lifting his head, he p
ulled the scents of the forests into his nostrils, drawing farther away from the sharp tang of evil and gunfire. He could literally smell the intent of the man stalking Jess. The murderous anger; the determination to kill her.
“He’s drawing away, Hawke.” Mordecai’s voice came over the communication link. “We don’t have an ID yet, just scent. Rule is moving in place to capture.”
“Capture, don’t kill,” Hawke warned the Coyote Breed, his voice hard. “I want enough left to question.”
“If I have to,” Mordecai drawled.
“You’re dragging me, Hawke,” Jess protested behind him.
He was dragging her. He was pulling her through the forests at a quick pace, forcing her to keep up with him as he rushed her back to safety.
There had been no report that she had left her cabin, though there were strict orders that he was to know each time she so much as stepped out on the porch.
“We have to get back to the cabin.” He slowed his steps marginally though, knowing she didn’t have the endurance that he himself had. “Did you let anyone know you were leaving the cabin?”
“No,” she stated mutinously behind him. “I didn’t want company.”
“Well, you had company anyway,” he growled. “The wrong sort.”
“Story of my life,” she muttered.
He glared back at her before jerking his head forward again and concentrating on getting her to safety.
He should have known better than to look back at her. Each time he looked at her he was struck by a rush of arousal that bordered on painful, just as he had been the first time he saw her two years ago.
With her red-gold hair falling behind her shoulders in heavy, ribbon-straight curtains, her wide blue eyes and porcelain perfect skin, she was like a vision of angelic innocence. Cupid’s bow lips, finely arched brows, high cheekbones. Her slender body was sleek and compact; at five feet and six inches, a little on the short side compared to Breeds, but with generous breasts and tempting hips.
She made a man think of all the nasty things he could do to that perfect body even as he felt like a perverted monster whenever he looked into her innocent face.
The innocence was real. Jessica Raines was still a virgin, as medical reports attested. And she was his mate.
