Page 37 of Corbin (Wild Wolf Pack from the world of Gallize Shifters #2)

She could tell they were going up gradually, but there was not enough elevation change to cause her ears to pop.

An average number of cars and trucks passed them heading south.

No one had gawked as if they’d heard about two shifters riding a motorcycle who were being hunted like vicious predators.

Had Leszek and law enforcement kept her identity and Corbin’s description out of the news to lull her into thinking they were safe so long as they avoided SCIS or cops?

She wished she could guess what game Leszek played. He would not have sent SCIS after her unless he’d decided she no longer had value. Since he’d spent years getting his hands on the strings to her life and money, that didn’t make sense.

He could be trying to destroy Corbin to make her heel at his side.

No more.

She had finally broken out of the emotional and mental chains Leszek had wrapped around her. She’d worry about the financial ones later.

Corbin had taken a wide curve to the left when he called back to her. “I’m seeing traffic slow to a stop up ahead. Could be a roadblock. I’m getting off this highway.”

She took note of them turning onto Highway 23. “Good idea.” No point in sharing her worry that they might find SCIS and possibly police waiting for them on the new highway.

Riding for another twenty minutes with heavier traffic, she could see how Tallulah State Park drew so many visitors.

The area was as soothing for the soul as the landscape was gorgeous for the eyes, or it would have been if not for her realizing cars were slowing to a stop yet again. She saw no safe exit point.

If they turned around near a roadblock, that would be a red flag to send law enforcement after them.

Before she could ask Corbin what he thought, he showed her. With the traffic ahead of them becoming bumper-to-bumper, he kept the bike upright until he dropped out of the sluggish traffic to take a dirt road off to the right that ran between two wooden posts.

Brilliant. He’d made that change so subtly, the drivers behind them probably thought this had been their destination all along.

Still, she held onto his hips and twisted to see if anyone had caught their deviation from Highway 23. Not yet, but at the roadblock, some of those drivers might volunteer that they saw a motorcycle with a couple leave the main road.

She hoped by the time anyone could alert police to seeing them, they’d have a decent head start.

Moving adroitly as when he’d woven their way through traffic on paved highways, when the dirt road ran out, Corbin began maneuvering around saplings and larger trees. Her fingers might not open after clenching them so hard to hold on and not disturb the balance for him.

It wasn’t long before Corbin broke free of the woods to cross an undulating open space.

She slipped into a mindless time when she could do nothing to help and allowed the landscape to fill her thoughts. She’d dropped her head against his back and had almost fallen asleep when he patted her leg.

Shaking off the drowsiness, she watched as he rode the bike through thinning trees and the land climbed slowly. When he reached a small open area, he stopped. “Let’s get off and take a break.”

She stood on the back highway pegs, proud to remember what they were called, and clutched his shoulders as she stepped down. Her legs ached from being bent so long. Taking the helmet off again, she held it by the strap.

Corbin unzipped his tank bag and pulled out a black plastic disk six inches in diameter. He rolled the bike forward to a more level spot and leaned over to toss the disk on the ground where the kickstand hit.

Oh. That would keep the bike stand from sinking into the ground and the bike from falling.

He walked over to her with a stiff gait and pulled her to him, smothering his face in her hair. “I love your helmet hair.”

She expected anything but that and started laughing. “Don’t waste your time trying to convince me I’m hot with helmet hair.”

Lifting his head, he smiled. “But you are.”

He sounded so tired. It wasn’t riding the bike. Corbin had a body built to go hard for long periods.

The strain of trying to keep them safe was weighing on him. She went along to keep from adding to his worry. “Want a picnic?”

“Great idea.” He sounded excited when he knew they had almost nothing left for food.

While she dug out two bars for each of them, Corbin walked farther up the slight incline. Over the years, weather had worn dirt off the boulders.

Pixie had been quiet for a long time but came to life with a tingle of energy. Ohhh, water. We should take a swim.

Eirene listened. Water moved not far from them. She told Pixie, There could be more jackals like Ares fought last night chasing us. May not be able to swim right now.

I see , her wolf sighed, then went silent.

Finished pulling out what she and Corbin needed, she grabbed a bath towel that would have to do for a tablecloth. Not that they cared about getting dirty, but she wanted to treat Corbin and take his mind off everything for a while.

She followed where he’d hiked and found him standing next to a tree with six feet of land between him and a drop-off. Now she heard the roaring water. Looking over the cliff, she found white water rushing down below the way it had for probably centuries, wearing down the rock and dirt of a gorge.

“Pixie loves water. It’s hard to keep her out of it.

She’d dive in from here if we weren’t running for our lives.

” Would this be near Tallulah Gorge? Wasn’t it a series of waterfalls?

She’d heard snippets about this area and had thought Tallulah River was more of a stream, but that rolling water appeared sort of deep.

“Ares hates water,” Corbin admitted. “He’d face another bear rather than walk into a stream.”

She found that almost amusing when considering what a beast Ares was but didn’t comment. Everyone had fears. She’d never make light of his.

Leaving the relaxing scene to avoid teasing Pixie when they couldn’t swim, Eirene found a pretty spot in the shade. She spread out the towel and put the snack bars in the middle with one bottle of water. They only had one more bottle left and had to be conservative.

Sitting cross-legged, she looked up to find Corbin headed her way with his everything-will-be-okay smile.

He dropped down next to her, pulled his boots off, and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Should I expect fine dining like this all the time?”

“Probably since I’m not the best cook.” She opened her eyes wide in challenge.

“I’m pretty decent with a grill. We won’t starve.”

She loved it when he talked like they were going to be together forever, but now was not the time to add anything new to his burden. She could be like Pixie and go along to get along until the time was right to talk about the future.

Placing her fingers on his cheek, she held them there. “I have never thought farther ahead than the day I woke up, but I would enjoy figuring out recipes. I would love to wake up with the windows open and chimes singing. I would love spending time together watching movies and reading.”

He toyed with a lock of her hair that would probably never return to any civilized look and spun it around his finger.

“I want to see you happy, morning, noon, and night. I want to feel you near me every minute we can steal and hold you close after we make love. I would love a life in a simple home with you, something I’ve never had. ”

“That’s a pretty picture.” She noticed he watched her closely as if wondering if that suited her or not. She held firm to her decision to let him set the pace. If he left it up to her, she would have him married, mated, whatever, so long as she could keep him.

Tearing the first bar open and handing it to him, she shuffled the conversation.

“Just don’t think I’m a princess. I did grow up in luxury, but all I wanted was to be free to do what other girls did.

I couldn’t date. My father feared some guy trying to take advantage of me and how I would react even after I assured him Pixie and I were not dominant.

I had never been so excited as when you reached out to me.

I’d scented you in the two classes we shared but feared speaking first because of my bodyguards. ”

He chewed the last of his first bar and took a gulp of water. “I was so shy it took me a month to get up the nerve to write the note once I carved the wolf.”

She hoped Leszek would not bring someone into her apartment and take her things, but the one item she would fight him for was in a safe. “We never got to talk back then. What was your life like?”

“Not quite as cherry as yours. My dad married my mother with no idea she was pregnant, but he loved her and said he’d accept the child even if it was not his. He never thought he’d have to raise a shifter’s pup.”

“What about your real father?”

“By the time I could walk, I figured out my mother was mentally off. Crazy. She never said anything about my blood father. When she died, her husband who I claimed as my father, got drunk one night and ranted about the slut he married who had been a shifter groupie.”

That was a horrible life. Eirene had an urge to hug him, but she wanted him to keep talking while she ate her bar. “What happened to your mother?”

Corbin had stopped eating the second bar in his hand and dropped it back on the towel. He stared down so long that Eirene thought she’d pushed too hard for more from him.

Washing a hand over his face, he said, “When I was two, she tried to kill my wolf. Ares had become a large pup, but he’d stepped into the tub filled with water thinking she was going to wash him like she had one time before.

She leaned in, gripped his head with one hand, and flattened her other hand on his back, shoving him down beneath a foot of water.

She had caught him by surprise with no time to suck in a breath.

He screamed in my head. I panicked. Think I told him to shift.

I’m not sure, but we did and squirmed out of her grasp when she had no fur to grip.

” He breathed deeply. “I screamed for my father. She jumped up and ran away. My father was appalled and dried me off, then put me next to his chair where he could watch me.”

There had to be more. Eirene couldn’t absorb the words he’d spoken. What mother would drown a child? Even a pup? No wonder Ares wanted nothing to do with water.

“When bedtime came, he went out to our old rickety garage and found her hanging from the center beam.”

Eirene covered her mouth with her hand.

His sad eyes drifted to hers. “It was a long time ago. Other than Ares fearing water, we learned to live with it.”

He could say that all he wanted, but no one gets over being almost killed by the one person meant to protect him.

“What happened to your mother?” Corbin asked, effectively shifting the attention to her.

“She died from complications during childbirth. My father had the best physician on standby, but she had a stroke during delivery. They almost lost me. Had I not been a shifter, they might have. She lived for two days. I grew up without her and felt bad for my dad who had lost the woman he loved.”

Corbin tensed. He stood up.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Ares said he caught the faint scent of a shifter on the wind.” She got to her knees and rolled their trash and empty bottle into the towel, then walked over to stuff it back into an open saddlebag.

“Eirene, come here.”

She dropped the towel in the bag and swung around. “What’s up?”

“Just come here now.” Corbin wasn’t speaking loudly.

Rushing forward, she kept her gaze on Corbin. He headed for her and dove at her as an explosion blasted. Rocks and metal hit her back.