Microsoft Word - Jacks-Marcy-Hunted-and-on-the-Run.doc (11 page)

“Don’t leave
.
”

Storm looked down at him, and he saw the fear in those golden eyes.

It was oddly comforting to know that he was needed that much.

Storm bent down and placed a gentle kiss on John’s brow, and he stroked his ears. “I’ll come back with something to eat.”

Because he was still in his wolf form, Storm wouldn’t have to worry about starting a fire to cook whatever meat he caught, either.

He could just bring it back and let John take it.

“Just don’t run away,
” John said, and the weakness in his voice made everything inside of Storm lock up in fear.

“I can’t. Life-debt, remember?”

He’d said it only because it was the only excuse he had that John would believe right away. Also because he was starting to doubt if John could even remember that considering how weak his inner voice sounded.

He wouldn’t have left John there by himself anyway. Life-debt or no life-debt.

“Right,”
John said, closing his eyes.

Storm made the shift back into his cougar form and exited the little hut he’d made.

It’s warm in there, and he’ll be safe while I’m gone.
Storm tried to force some courage into himself so he could start hunting already.

The pull he felt to go back in there and lay with the other shifter was strong. It was as though he feared that taking his eyes off of John would make the wolf less safe, simply because Storm wouldn’t be here to see if any predators, human or otherwise, came around the area.

No, Storm shook the thought from his head, forcing himself to step farther and farther away from the den. John wasn’t safe if he was
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starved for the energy his body needed to heal and keep going, and neither was he.

Storm went out to hunt.

He liked to consider himself a proficient hunter, but today, when all he really wanted a quick meal, it seemed to take forever before he finally caught something.

The rabbit wasn’t enough to satisfy one starving wolf, let alone a near-starved cougar as well.

It had to be the water John had given him, Storm thought while clenching his teeth, and not for the first time. It shamed him to no end to know that John had had something that could practically perform miracles, that healed Storm’s wound and kept him up with enough energy to run and hunt even after everything he’d been through, and now there was none left for John when he needed it more than ever.

Wherever this pond was, Storm was going to make sure that John took several-hours-long bath in it once they returned to his pack land.

Within the hour he managed to catch two more hares, as well as a pheasant.

It was not a large catch, but it would put something in John’s belly.

He rushed back to the den he’d built, inwardly sighing with relief at the sight of John still sleeping peacefully within.

“Wake up! I’ve brought something,”
Storm said, dropping his catch onto the ground.

He had to nudge John’s face with his nose before the wolf would move.
“Wake up, I’ve brought you breakfast.”

The wolf’s eyes opened lazily. John looked down at the catch and weakly pulled himself closer to the meat.

Storm grabbed hold of one of the hares and set it down in front of John’s paws. Without any words, the wolf began to eat.

The pheasant was by far the smallest of the catch, so Storm ate that one. The feathers were unpleasant, but he wouldn’t dare complain.

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At first John consumed the meat slowly, ripping off small bits to chew, but as he got his energy back, he gradually ate faster and faster, even consuming most of the bones. Storm had to wonder whether he’d chewed the last rabbit at all. Or hare. He wasn’t sure what the difference was.

John looked at him. He still looked weak, and Storm doubted that such a small catch would be enough to fill him, but his eyes were more alert now, and that was all Storm cared about.

“Where’s yours?”

“Had mine,”
Storm replied, attempting to dig a feather out of his teeth with his tongue.

Now that they were no longer eating raw meat, they both made the shift back into their human forms. Storm could have done it himself, but John insisted on being allowed to help him bury the carcasses of their meals to keep other animals away.

“You should’ve had more to eat than that,” John said.

He knew that, but he wasn’t about to eat any more than he needed to when John was the one who needed food in him more.

“I’ll be fine for now. I have enough in me to keep me going.”

When John looked like he was about to keep arguing, Storm cut him off. “Feel free to hunt for me as often as you like when we get back to your pack if that will make you feel better. Until then, we should conserve our energy and keep moving when possible.”

John nodded, and it seemed Storm did a good job of satisfying the man’s inner wolf with promises that he would allow himself to be taken care of by John.

John sat down in the middle of their den. It was so small, and the makeshift roof was so low that even as they sat it still brushed the top of both of their heads.

John flexed his leg out, hissing as he did so. His bandages had gotten dirty during their last run, and had fallen off when John shifted back into a man, but from the look of it, it was neither infected nor was it bleeding as much as before.

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Maybe the food John consumed was already doing its job of providing his body with energy.

“How do you feel?” Storm asked.

John gingerly set his leg back down. “Throbs like a bitch, but I’ll be ready to travel whenever you are.”

He was trying to allow the both of them to make decisions together. It was against his alpha nature, and Storm wasn’t sure what he thought about it, considering he wasn’t exactly John’s equal. Not with the way his debt to the man worked.

That didn’t stop him from appreciating it. He liked it when his input meant something.

“I get the feeling you would jump up and start running with me if I wanted to go right now, and we can’t do that yet.”

Storm poked his head out of their den to look at the sky, and he guessed the time. It was way too early for them to actually stop for the night.

“Can you tell how far away we are from your pack?”

“I’m not that familiar with this area, but based on how long I was running to catch up with you, and how slow we’re moving now, I’d say another day or two away.”

That was too far.

The look on his face must’ve suggested as much. “We’re obviously too beat up to keep on running like this. After we rest, we should find another motel, and I’ll use their phone to call for help. I won’t bother with howling it out now since we’re too far away for any of my pack mates to hear it anyway.”

That, and it was becoming increasingly apparent to the both of them that they might not make it on their own as well.

The thought of simply calling John’s friends with an actual telephone was so simple it shocked him they hadn’t thought of it.

“Why did you not call them when we were at the last motel?”

John glared at him. “I did call them. When you were in the shower and I’d just ordered pizza, I told James I’d found you and he should
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expect us back soon.”

Storm blushed. “I am sorry I doubted you. I’m just…”

“I know. This sucks,” John said, laying his body flat on the ground. It was cold, but the place Storm had used to make their den was dry, so they didn’t have to worry about that at the very least.

“Because I’d called and said we were fine, no one will come looking for us unless I call again,” John said, each word twisting his lips around as though they tasted foul. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Yes, well, what’s done is done,” Storm said.

“You could at least try defending me from myself, you know,”

John said.

“You would simply brush off my defense and claim I’d only done it to make you feel better, or something equally ridiculous.”

He would’ve defended John whether or not John was right in insulting himself. He just wasn’t planning on letting the man know that.

“The fact of the matter is that you are a young alpha.”

“Not this again,” John said, putting his fists to his eyes.

“Hear me out before you ignore me. You are a young alpha, and you’re eager to prove yourself. You went out on a solo mission to claim your mate on your own, which puzzles me, by the way, and when you checked in with your alpha, you told him everything was all right.”

John’s lips went tight as the list went on, and Storm sighed. “You did not do those things because you are an idiot and wanted to purposely put either of us in harm’s way. You did it because you genuinely believed the situation was under your control, and now you must learn the hard way that you cannot control everything.”

“Kind of like you?”

The response threw Storm for a loop. “What?”

John pulled his fists away from his eyes, but he didn’t so much as blink up at him. “You blame yourself for becoming a hunter, but you even admitted that your honor demanded you follow that other guy,
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be his servant and all that. You couldn’t control your situation either, but you still worry over what my alpha will say to you when he sees you.”

Storm blushed and looked away from those honest eyes. “Yes, well, sometimes I wish I had been more rebellious growing up.

Maybe if I didn’t care about the promises I made, or honoring debts I felt I owed, I could’ve saved more lives.”

“Well, if your honor keeps you with me, then I’m glad,” John said.

“I would stay even had you not saved my life,” Storm admitted.

John smiled up at him. He held out his hands. “Come here.”

Storm did as he was told, allowing John to pull him into the warm embrace. It did not take him long before he sighed and settled in, snuggling against his lover’s chest as John stroked his hair.

“Knew you cared,” John said.

Storm squeezed John a little tighter. Every insecurity he felt bubbled to the surface, and no matter how hard he fought against them, they would not go away.

“Are you sure?” he asked, looking up at John. “Are you sure we are mates? This isn’t just lust on both our parts?”

“No. You’re mine,” John said, then squeezed him back, and Storm could practically hear the smile in his voice. “In lust with me, eh?”

“I think that should be obvious by now,” Storm said.

“Well, since we’re both in lust with each other and trying to share our body heat and all…”

He really was horny all the time, Storm thought. Even when their lives were in danger and they were hiding out from hunters, it seemed John would search for any opportunity to have sex with his mate.

His fingers trailed down along the skin of Storm’s side. It was nice, even if it was a bit ticklish.

“I will accommodate you if you want,” Storm said. “I would be lying to myself if I said I didn’t want you again either, but you need to conserve your energy.”

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John’s fingers suddenly stopped their sensual movements along his skin.

“You know I wouldn’t even make you do anything if you didn’t want to, right?”

Now more than ever, he did know it. “Right. Rest for a little while. I’ll wake you in twenty minutes.”

Storm stayed awake, protecting the man who held him, who actually thought he was worth something, while John drifted off. He would never leave him.

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It seemed only as though John had shut his eyes to rest them before Storm was shaking him awake. John wanted to brush him off and keep sleeping. Better than that would be to just grab Storm around the waist and keep the man down with him. His body heat was so comfortable that John never wanted to separate himself from it, but the other man insisted he get up.

“John, it’s been twenty-five minutes. We need to go, now. The hunters will catch up to us.”

The reminder of hunters had him snapping his eyes open and looking around.

Right. He’d somehow managed to forget where they were.

His body was cold without Storm to hold him, and that only made him irritable. He quickly shifted, his fur coat protecting him from the cold. Storm pulled their bag of supplies over his head and shifted as well.

“There’s nothing we can do about the den. They’ll eventually find
it and know which direction we’ve gone in,”
Storm said.

“Then we should hurry,”
John replied.

His leg was stiff as hell, and it hurt shooting off into an immediate run without stretching it out first, but he eventually overcame that.

Now that he’d eaten and rested, his body was willing to cooperate with him a little more. His tank was still on low, however.

Storm, on the other hand, was still running on fumes, and now John found himself looking behind him, making sure that Storm hadn’t fallen over much the same way John had. He definitely wasn’t running as quickly as yesterday.

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“Do you want me to carry the bag?”
John asked.

Storm shook his head, being stubborn about it.
“I’m good. Let’s
keep going.”

For the sake of peace, John didn’t argue.

They ran as quickly as their aching bodies could take them for the next three hours before they came upon another tiny highway town.

There was a two-story motel, but John didn’t spot any pay phones on the property. There was a pay phone just in front of the McDonald’s however.

Since John was now the one with the most energy, he shifted into his human form, got dressed, and ran over to the phones, leaving Storm to rest his tired paws in the shrubs.

He’d never been happier in his life to hear the voice of his pack alpha.

“We’re in trouble,” he said.

“What kind of trouble?” James asked with no hesitation. Trouble was usually found on the heels of their kind. It was always a simple matter of what kind.