Hunter's Heart: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 5) (13 page)

I nodded. “No big thing. You’re just asking me to
leave everything I know behind.”

He kissed my forehead. “Yes, my love. Just that. I’m
asking you to trust me with your life.”

I had an answer for him in the space of a heartbeat.
But, I didn’t have a chance to give voice to it. Instead, a bloodcurdling
scream came from inside the hut.

Grammy.

Chapter Fourteen

Derek burst through the hut doors. When I caught up to
him, his solid back felt like hitting a brick wall. He wouldn’t let me pass.
Instead, he snaked an arm around me and held me close to his body as we
surveyed the scene.

My father stood on one end of the structure with his
rifle trained on the lifeless form of Boyd Jensen. He was half wolf, half
human. His feet and hands had twisted into paws, but faced the wrong direction.
His eyes glowed red, but his focus stayed fixed on the ceiling. And then there
was Grammy. She stood over Boyd holding one of Dad’s AR-15s by the barrel.
Blood dripped from the butt. Boyd’s forehead was caved in.

“He tried to shift,” she said. “I was afraid he’d
call out to the rest of them. They’re headed this way.”

Derek growled. He nodded. “Yes. Boyd’s Alpha will send
reinforcements. Killing him might buy us some time. But not much. I think we
need to leave at first light.”

Grammy nodded and held the rifle out. Derek stepped
forward and took it from her. I went to Grammy’s side. “You okay?” I asked her.

She smoothed a stray hair away from her face and
nodded. “I’m okay, baby girl. I’m okay. It just caught me off guard a little. I
just don’t know what will happen if the Kentucky Alpha gets close to me. I
haven’t felt anyone from that pack in a long, long time. He’s not the one who
did this to me, but he’s kin. His son. Maybe his grandson. Don’t know, don’t
care. I wish I could carve this thing out.” She rubbed the back of her neck
where her Alpha’s mark was. Beneath her fingers, I saw the edges had grown red.

“Can they find her?” I asked Derek. He nodded at the
same time Grammy did. “Isn’t there any way to remove that?”

Derek shook his head. “Not anymore. When it was
fresh, maybe. But I mean to have her and the rest of you far away from here
before any other Alpha has a chance to track her. She did the right thing,
though. We couldn’t leave Boyd alive. Even if he’d wanted to, he wasn’t strong
enough not to answer when the rest of his pack called to him. I hate to say it,
but that was probably a mercy killing anyway. They’re going to know I made him
talk.”

A look passed between Grammy and Dad. I had a lot to
explain to them and not much time to do it. How could I ask them to leave
everything they knew behind? For Grammy, this was her home with my grandfather.
For better or worse, she wouldn’t want to leave him. And my father? I’d have to
ask him to come with me to what just hours ago would have seemed like the belly
of the beast.

“I think we’re safe here, at least for a few more
hours. You’re all on fumes. I am too,” Derek said. “Get comfortable. Get some
sleep. Then we’ll move.”

I thought my father would grumble a protest. But
even he could see how tired Grammy looked. He went to the back of the hut and
opened a trapdoor in the floor. He disappeared into the underground bunker and
came out with camping supplies. Sleeping bags, MREs, water bottles.

“Get comfortable,” he said. “We can sleep in shifts.
I’ll take the first watch.”

“Ugh,” Grammy said, kicking Boyd’s foot. “What about
him?”

“I’ll wrap him up in something and stick him out
back.”

As Derek set himself to the task of removing Boyd’s
body, Dad and Grammy found spots on the floor and began to spread their
sleeping bags. Grammy smiled at me and shot me a wink. Her approval meant
everything to me, and I just hoped my father would come around too.

When Derek came back, he convinced my father to let
him stand guard. He needed less sleep. My father tried to protest, but he was
just as tired of the rest of us and finally settled into his sleeping bag
beside Grammy. I didn’t know how I’d ever be able to close my eyes, but the
instant I curled into my sleeping bag on the other side of Grammy, I was out.

Derek’s eyes flashed in my dreams. He came to me,
holding me close. Kept me safe. I’d only closed my eyes for an instant, but
when something shook me awake, daylight poured through the windows again.

“Time to move!” Derek’s voice boomed through the
hut. Dad was on his feet and ran back to the monitors. Something flashed white
on one of the screens. Dad ran around the table, side-stepping Boyd’s body.
“Son of a bitch, those fuckers.”

White fire blazed, filling the screen of the cameras
facing the south end of the lot.

“We have
no
time,” Derek said. His voice came
out more growl than human. “I can get you all to safety, but we’ve got to move.
Now!”

“Grammy?” I held her hands in mine. “Do you hear
that? We can’t stay here. Let us take you someplace where you’ll be safe.”

She smiled and touched my face. “There’s no place
safe, Jessa. Not for me. Not anymore.”

“Two vehicles,” my father barked out the order.
“Derek’s truck, and the rebuilt Hummer right behind it. They’re the only things
big enough to carry supplies. Mine’s got a full tank of gas. What about yours?”

Derek nodded. “Enough.”

Dad tossed a rifle to me and slung two over his
shoulder. Derek still held the one my grandmother used to bash Boyd’s face in.
Derek gave my father a nod filled with cold purpose. I’d expected him to
protest. But, in the end, my father was practical. He couldn’t fight off that
many wolves himself, and there was no way he’d stick around just to be made a
pawn to the Kentucky pack.

“Fill this, Jessa,” Dad said. “Ammo and vials in the
cabinet by the wall. What we can’t carry, we’ll have to torch. Unless you want
this shit getting into the Kentucky pack’s hands?” He looked over my shoulder
at Derek.

A muscle jumped in his jaw as he held the rifle in
both hands. I sensed at least the direction of this thoughts. Wolfkillers. My
father was suggesting we bring Wolfkiller ammo into Derek’s home. I thought
he’d protest. But, Derek was nothing if not pragmatic. The simple fact was,
even with him, we were vastly outnumbered. As distasteful as it was, we might
need Dad’s inventions to even the odds. I reached up, touched his face, and
went to the cabinet. I filled my backpack with as many magazines as I could
carry. We only had the one vial of antidote. I fingered it, then handed it to
Derek.

“Here,” I said. “If anything happens. If we get
separated. If God forbid, the Harlans figured out a way to arm those assholes
with some of our ammo, you should have this.”

“We won’t” he said, gripping my arm. His fingers
seared me, even now sending a flare of desire through me. “Remember, I’m not
letting you out of my sight.”

I couldn’t help it. We didn’t have time for anything
more, and with an audience to boot, I went up on my tiptoes and planted a kiss
smack on Derek’s lips.

My father broke our embrace by shoving a set of keys
in Derek’s hands. “You take the Hummer. I’ll take yours. Maybe it’ll throw them
off a little. Jessa, you’d better let him drive. I’m gonna take a wild guess
she’s a better shot.”

Derek gave a begrudging nod. “Don’t have much cause
to shoot things when I need to defend myself.”

“Right.” I took the rifle and we headed out into the
yard. Howls seemed to come from all directions. Panic flared inside me; only
Derek’s steady hand kept my feet moving. We piled into the Hummer. Grammy and
Dad got into the pickup parked right behind it. She took the wheel. My father
needed to be able to shoot if he had to, and he had a much steadier hand. She
opened the cab door and Brutus and Sofie hopped in the backseat.

Derek pulled up alongside my father and rolled down
the window. “We need to take different routes. Those wolves can scent Grammy
because of her mark. They can scent me because of what I did to Boyd. Their
instinct is going to be to come after the biggest threat, me.”

Dad nodded. “I agree. Better to try and throw them
off the trail by giving them two of them. We’ll go northwest through Indiana.
You take the direct path.”

Derek reached through the window and they shook
hands. I never would have believed my father could do it if I hadn’t seen it
with my own eyes. “We have friends of the pack that will help us once we cross
the Michigan border. As soon as we do, I don’t think the Kentucky boys will
keep following. It’s just going to be dicey for the next four or five hours.
Don’t stop unless you have to. If you do, make sure it’s somewhere heavily
populated. Is there anything back here you want to do something about?”

Dad gave Grammy a look and shot a grim-faced nod
toward Derek. “No. Everything that really matters to me is in these two
vehicles. You keep my girl safe and you’ll have no trouble from me. Besides, I
suppose they’ve got junkyards up in Michigan too.”

Derek laughed and raised his thumb to my Dad. Dad
drove around and pulled up tight alongside the open door of the Quonset hut. A
lump formed in my throat as I knew his head filled with memories of all the
times he spent there with my grandfather. Then, Dad reached into the backpack
he had on the seat and pulled out a grenade. Pulling the pin, he tossed it into
the open doorway and squealed his tires, putting some distance between the
structure and the pickup. Derek was already on the move.

It took a full ten seconds; we had already cleared
the north gate when the ground shook with the concussion of the blast and orange
flames licked the sky.

“Well, if nothing else, that oughta throw them off
the scent for a while,” Derek said, shaking his head. “You all right?” He put a
hand on my thigh and shot me a quick look before he put his eyes back on the
road.

I couldn’t help it. A genuine laugh bubbled up
inside me. “You know? I can’t explain any of it. But, right now, I think I’m
the happiest I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

Derek brought my hand to his lips and kissed my
knuckles. “I meant what I said. I won’t leave you. I’ll keep you safe. That
means the rest of your family too. With my body. With my life. I will not let
you come to harm.”

Warmth flowed from his lips into my fingers and
flooded through my whole body. My nerve endings seemed to light with fire to
match the tongues of flame in the rear window. The fire quickly spread to the
closest outbuildings. It would burn fast and hot, leaving nothing behind.

“How long will it take?” I asked, taking my eyes off
the flames behind us and focusing on the road ahead.

“Nine hours if we drive straight through. Don’t know
how much gas this thing burns through. I’m hoping we won’t have to stop until
we’re well past the Michigan line.”

“We’re not driving straight through though are we?”
I sensed something in Derek’s voice. He had some other plan.

He shook his head. “No. The packs will expect us to
head straight up 75. I can’t trust they don’t have Ohio State Troopers in their
pocket down here. I know we do.”

“And you didn’t want my father to know exactly where
we’re going.” The reality of that knowledge seeped through me. Derek swore he’d
protect me no matter what. “You’re afraid my father might not make it through.”

“I’m guessing
Tinker can take care of himself,” Derek reassured me. He
squeezed my hand. “I swear to you I wouldn’t have sent him off in the other
direction if I didn’t think so. But, just in case, it’s better if he doesn’t
know what route I’m taking.”

“In case they get to him. You’re afraid they’ll make
him talk.”

“Let’s not worry about that. Trust me, remember?”

Derek pressed his foot to the floor as we hit the
highway. So far, there was nothing behind us or in front of us but open road.
It would be easy to think we’d already made it to safety. There was no way that
pack of wolves could catch up to us on foot. Which meant they never planned to
try. A semi came into view around a hairpin curve. My heart stuttered as its
headlights flooded over us. The truck laid on his horn. Adrenaline shot through
me and I clutched Derek’s hand that much tighter.

“They could be anywhere. Or anyone,” I said.
“They’re never going to let us go, are they?”

Lights exploded in my periphery. My heart exploded
too. The Hummer’s back end fishtailed. Steel on steel. Safety glass showered
over me. Dad was wrong. I should have taken the wheel. Yes, I was a better
shot, but when the other car hit us head on, Derek instantly shifted. His wolf
covered me as the Hummer slid off the road and down into an embankment.

We landed upside down. Derek leaped through the
shattered windshield. My ears rang and thunder filled my senses. I tasted blood
in my mouth. Up was down as I reached for the seatbelt latch.

“Derek!” Coughing, I managed to crawl out the
shattered side window. I was in a deep ditch, with muddy water at the bottom.
Wild grass tickled my nose, but I was whole. I’d bitten my tongue and felt
stiffness over my left eye, but nothing seemed broken.

Derek’s wolf stood at the top of the embankment.
More headlights flashed and the blaring horn of another semi curved its way
around the road, but he didn’t stop. My ankle throbbed as I tried to get my
footing and climb up to Derek’s side. A command flooded through me. Not in
words. But, I understood.

Stay where you are!

I flattened my body to the ground. Derek’s hind legs
were just above me. Another wolf charged him from the left. I saw smoke and
mangled wreckage from where he came. The fucker had plowed into us. Now Derek’s
wolf and the enemy squared off.