Page 108 of The Last True Hero

"Which way?" Colton asked, standing in the middle of the next intersection. Bedraggled washing hung from lines between houses, and there was water—hopefully water—running in a dribble through the middle of road.

Adam caught the edge of Mia's scent. He spun around, staring along the road. She'd been here. And not long ago, not if he could still smell her.

"This way."

He started running, his heart pounding. If he could still smell her, then she was still alive.

And that was when he smelled the rank odor of the warg.

They weren't the only ones tracking her.

Colton smelled it too. "McClain...."

"Shut up." He leapt a pile of rubbish, and skidded to a halt in the next intersection. A scream jerked his head to the left.

And then he was sprinting again.Mia!He could hear her now, hear her gasping.

"Help! Help!" she cried.

Another corner. Something growled and there was a scuffle of dirt, along with a pained yelp.

"Incoming," said a low-voiced woman.

A net or something dropped over him. Adam's feet tangled in the bottom of it, and he narrowly avoided impaling himself on the axe head as he hit the dirt hard. In front of him, he saw the warg he'd been tracking wrapped in what looked like a clothesline. A woman stepped over it and blew its brains out, and then a pair of boots stepped in front of him.

He looked up.

Right into the double barrel of a shotgun.

"McClain?" Mia jerked the shotgun up and gasped.

It was her alright. He'd recognize those long legs anywhere. And far from being the damsel in distress, it looked like she and her companion—was that Zarina Cypher?—had things well and truly in hand.

Colton skidded to a halt behind him. "What the...?" He began laughing, and continued even when Mia turned the shotgun on him.

"Easy," Adam told her, trying to escape the net she'd dropped on him. "He's with me."

"Good thing we rushed down here to save them," Colton drawled.

Adam closed his eyes. One of these days....

Mia yanked the net off him, and he rolled to his knees and dragged himself to his feet.

Then a warm, soft body slammed into his, her arms curling around his neck.

Mia. Oh, God, Mia.

He didn't know what to say. He'd been expecting her to spit on his boot, or turn her back again. Adam swallowed the hard lump in his throat, and slowly, gently closed his arms around her.

It felt like heaven. A part of him had wondered whether he'd ever again get to hold her in his arms. Everything that could have gone wrong had been plaguing him, but to see her here... to hold her... to know that she was safe, and that she'd walked into his arms as if she felt she still belonged there... he hadn't realized how much he'd needed her to do that.

"We were coming to get you," Mia told him, her entire body shaking. "But then all of these reivers started fleeing the arena, and we had to take cover. The next thing we knew there were wargs everywhere."

"Are you crying?" he asked in surprise as he drew back to look at her.

"No." She brushed her eyes dry with a stubborn look on her face.

His heart dropped through his boots. Somehow his hands were on her face, and her cheeks were wet beneath his fingertips. It floored him. Those tears were for him.