“No,” she said. “You’re hurt. You’re--
He slid his wrist to her mouth, knowing the taste of the blood, the need of her body would take over. She hesitated only a second and then grabbed his arm and began to drink. He was weak, injured, and so were both of his brothers. This wasn’t any wolf he’d ever fought before. It was stronger, more agile. He forced himself to move, scooping up Marissa even as she drank. He didn’t want her to stop. Not when his gut said this virus had mutated, and he wasn’t sure what that meant for her, or for their ability to deal with the rogue wolf.
Evan took off running, trying to compel Marissa to stop drinking before he was too weak to get them to safety. She didn’t respond, which meant the blood bond had already made her immune to his commands, or he was already too weak to deliver one. So he let her drink. He couldn’t stop her, without stopping, and he wasn’t stopping. Not until he had her, and his brothers, the hell out of here. The
wolf had fled, and it was wounded too, but that didn’t mean it was going to stay away.
He cleared the woods to find the truck sitting in wait. The back door popped open and he managed to get him and Marissa inside. They were moving before he ever shut the door, which felt about two thousand pounds. Marissa had taken too much of his blood when he was already injured.
“How is he?” Evan asked, eying Aiden in the rear view mirror, and settling Marissa across his lap so that her back was against the door.
“Bad,” Aiden said. “I gave him what blood I could but I’m bleeding like a stuck pig myself. And it doesn’t look like you have a vein to spare. Stop her before she kills you.”
“Enough,” Evan told her softly, pressing his head to the side of hers and then louder when she didn’t respond, “Enough.” Still she didn’t stop. He shoved his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back as gently as he could, the vein in her soft, ivory curved neck pulsed.
“Evan?” she gaped, blood dripping from her lips, disorientation in her now blue eyes.
“Sorry sweetheart, but I have to do this right here and now.” He sunk his teeth in her neck. She gasped again and then moaned, the scent of her instant arousal flaring in his nostrils. The taste of her blood was sweet like honey. He could feel his wounds closing, could feel the power flowing into his veins. He became aware of her fingers stroking his hair, his face. The stronger he became, the more aware he became of the woman in his arms, of her gentle caresses. Of how afraid he’d been that he was going to lose her tonight, when he’d only just begun to discover her. He wasn’t losing her, or his brothers. He tore his mouth from her neck, licked the wound, and then caught Aiden’s gaze in the mirror. “Pull over.”
“Not a chance,” Aiden said. “We’ll be sitting out in the open, wounded ducks waiting for the wolf.”
One look at Troy, who was completely knocked out in the passenger seat, and Evan rejected that answer. “You have to take a vein and give one to Troy. He doesn’t have much time.”
“I can drive,” Marissa said sitting up. “I’m okay. I can drive. Please. Please let me do this to help.”
Again Evan shared a look in the mirror with Aiden who nodded. Evan lifted Marissa over the top of him and settled her by the door, still speaking to Aiden. “Move Troy back here so we only have to stop once.” He focused on Marissa. “I’ll walk you to the door. Don’t move without me.”
She blinked up at him. “I wasn’t planning on it. After what happened tonight, you’re stuck with me until you have to kill me.”
Chapter Nine
Thirty minutes later, with Evan now in the passenger seat, Marissa drove the truck down a dark highway between Temple and the next city south – Waco. The sky was dark with thick storm clouds moving in, rumbles of thunder echoing in their depths. “Pull into that rattrap motel,” Evan told her of the place to her right that fit his description perfectly. “We don’t have any idea where the wolf is and we need to regroup and recover.”
She maneuvered into the lot and parked. Evan gave the place a keen inspection. “It’s a dump but at least we don’t have to walk through a lobby all bloodied up.”
“And it’s near the road if we need to get the heck out of dodge,” Aiden commented from behind them. “Therefore you have my approval.”
“I don’t remember asking for your approval,” Evan said, glancing over his shoulder. “One of you two, toss me a clean shirt. I don’t think the blood I’m sporting is going to earn me any fans in the office.” He tugged his shirt over his head and threw it at his brothers.
Marissa went breathless at the sight of him, of taut tanned skin over rock hard muscle. And blood. Blood stained his skin, his blood and probably some of hers. She could almost taste it, taste him. The velvety, spicy richness of him filling her, his blood, his cock…She stopped herself. Shoving aside the thought she was rattled by the intensity of her thoughts.
Her gaze lifted to find his dark eyes fixed on her, his expression a mirror of everything she was feeling -- lust, passion, hunger. She didn’t know if this burn inside her for Evan was created by their blood bond, or by the wolf growing and taking form inside her. She didn’t care either. She might be dying in thirteen days. She wasn’t going to spend those days analyzing why she wanted Evan. Right then and there, she knew she wasn’t going to spend them in fear either. She’d fight to the end, but she’d face the end if it came.
A shirt flew past the seat and hit Evan in the head, breaking their connection. “Save it for the bedroom,” Aiden quipped. “We’re ready to get out of this backseat.”
Marissa felt her cheeks flush, which considering how wanton she’d suddenly become, seemed ridiculous. Evan tugged the shirt over his head, and used a bottle of water and a napkin to clean the blood off his neck. She turned to face the hotel, not watching. She couldn’t watch and stay in control.
Seconds later, Evan touched her arm to draw her attention back to him. The physical reaction to his touch was instant and shivers rushed over her skin, across her shoulder, fanning her chest. “Lock it,” he ordered softly when she looked at him, his voice gruff, telling her how he was feeling.
For a moment he held her stare, the connection between them, intimate – right, in a way she’d never experienced before. Not another man. Not family. She’d never known her father who had died when she’d barely been walking age. She’d loved, and lost her mother. Enjoyed friends, and even a few steady male companions, but no one that ever made her feel like Evan. Regret filled Marissa, replacing her bravado of living life she’d mentally celebrated only a few minutes before. She was going to die before she had really lived.
“You’re not going to die,” Evan said softly, and then disappeared quickly, slamming the door behind him. She blinked at the door, trying to understand how he’d known what she was thinking. Could he read her mind?
He knocked on the window and pointed at the lock. She jumped and locked it. And then it hit her. She was alone with Aiden and Troy.
Marissa inhaled and turned to the back of the large vehicle and found her gaze locked with a now recovered, but incredibly silent, and frightening, Troy. “How are you?” she asked.
“Better than you I suspect,” he said, inclining his head at her fingers on the seat. “You’re trembling.”