Page 56 of The Fated Hunter Wolf

Crux or not Crux, what I scented had nothing to do with wolves. I tightened my grip slightly, feeling the delicate bones of her throat. She should have been trying to get away from the big bad wolf.

Instead, she let out a soft breath that sounded dangerously close to pleasure.

Shit.

Blood rushed south so fast I got lightheaded. This was supposed to be an interrogation, not whatever the hell was happening.

I released her and stepped back before I did something stupid. Like finding out if she made that sound when I pressed my tongue into her mouth.

“We need to move,” I said. “Those vampires weren’t working alone. We’ve got a day’s run ahead of us if we don’t stop,” she said, as I took a tunic and too-tight jeans from one of the vampire ash piles.

“Think you can keep up with me?”

The look she gave me could have withered a flower. “I’m not the one who was used as a vampire juice box.” Fair point. I was still healing from the venom and blood loss, even with whatever magical shit she’d pulled to fix me. My ego wasn’t about to admit weakness. “And we’ll have to go in human form. If we shift, they’ll be all over us before we reach the border.”

I gestured with my arm in the most gentlemanly manner I could. “Let’s go then.”

The moon was completely covered by thick clouds. She led the way through the forest, which would have been near impossible for a wolf shifter to navigate in the dark. Blackwood was a maze of deadfalls and twisted trees, the kind of place where people got lost and never came out.

She moved through it like she owned it. And she was doing it in complete darkness, navigating terrain I could barely see.

After an hour of following her through what felt like an obstacle course designed by sadists, I had to ask, “How can you see where we’re going?”

She glanced back. She was silhouetted in the moonlight, but I felt her looking right at me.

“I’ve had to come through here more times than I would have liked when I was tracking lost Crux shifters. I always had good night vision,” she said.

“How good?”

“Good enough.”

Another non-answer. I was starting to see a pattern with her.

We continued moving, and I kept noticing shit that didn’t add up. She never stumbled over roots. I couldn’t see them until they tried to break my ankles. When I needed to rest, she looked like she could go on for another week.

“You’re not even a little tired,” I said when we stopped beside a stream.

“Neither are you.”

“I’m fucking exhausted.” I splashed water onto my face. “You patched me up enough to travel, but I’m not running on full strength.”

She knelt beside me at the water’s edge. “How do you feel? Really?”

I considered it. My ribs ached from where the vampires had worked me over. The silver burns on my wrists throbbed. Overall…

“Better than I should,” I admitted. “That blood thing you did—what was it exactly?”

“Vampire venom weakens shifters. My blood neutralized it.”

“How?”

She had that careful look again. “Crux magic is different.”

I was getting sick of the evasive bullshit. Before I could push her, she went still, head cocked toward something I couldn’t hear.

“What?”

“Company. Three of them. Following our trail.”