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Her heart beating furiously, Tessa lay next to the tree, her face bruised, her ski hat snagged on a branch several feet up the hill Icy snow filled her boots and gloves and clung to her hair She couldn’t stop shaking, wishing she’d had a fur coat and wicked teeth to deal with the brothers herself

Three wolves peered down the hill at her fro foolish to be talking to wolves, yet immensely relieved to see they were unharmed

Two tore off down the incline toward Rourke’s truck that was even deeper in the ravine than she had envisioned Trees blocked her view of the truck The biggest wolf of the three, a beautiful gray, his faceto her And she wanted so to give hi and kiss

He nuzzled her hand and then her face where she hadn’t been hurt But she couldn’t get over the fact that this big furry beast was a god in the flesh when he wasn’t in his wolf suit

"I’ht What about the others?" As if he could say anything h she was da a hard ti Hunter and the ere one

She tried to pull herself up, but as soon as she put weight on her right ankle, pain shot through it She gritted her teeth and forced herself up "Go Help the others I’ll be fine" As long as she hadn’t broken anything But she wasn’t going to be a burden to them Not when two of theined they had been badly hurt

Hunter watched her struggle as she grasped at tree branches, trying not to put any weight on her ankle She could crawl up the hill if Hunter wasn’t observing her He began to shapeshift, his gorgeous wolf forod she knew best One erously seductive seet frostbite"

Naked, he lifted her in his arht e, possessive, but still, she couldn’t co annoyed with herself for her helpless condition when the others desperately needed Hunter

As soon as he set her on the car seat, he commanded, "Stay And lock the doors"

She didn’t want to delay hiid weather, but she had to know "What happened to the others?"

"Rourke’s unconscious Cara’s hurt We can’t get the doors unjammed I’ll be back soon" He kissed her forehead and locked the door, then shut it Then he stretched, and began to shift, the transforet over how he could be a hue was fluid in its sensual elegance, powerful, seductive, and for askin for fur, brace-straightened s the speed and endurance and strength of a wolf instead of human frailties

God, he was beautiful, no entle, protective

A flash of a thought crossed her ed her? Sedy? Red?

Hunter loped off in his wolf coat and vanished down the hill

Great Just great Here the others needed her and she was totally useless Worse A handicap

She yanked down the visor to look in the mirror and see what aknot on her forehead Runny nose, red as Rudolph’s But her ankle throbbed worst of all Although a pounding headache and aching hip came in for second place Damn the stalker and his brother

She peered out thebadly were Cara and Rourke hurt?

Headlights shone in the side od It couldn’t be

The adrenaline in her syste for Hunter and the others to leave her alone again? Or was it another truck that looked like the stalker’s, pale blue, darkly tinted s, slowlyits approach like before

Chapter 13

SEEING THE BLUE PICKUP APPROACH, TESS A INSTANTLY forgot all her aches and pains Her heart beat with renewed dread as she watched the truck’s progress The driver paused again some distance from the SUV It had to be them She looked in the backseat for a weapon Ashton’s rifle! Relief washed over her

Her hands shaking, she grabbed the weapon and then unlocked the SUV’s passenger door With the greatest care, she ht on her ankle and leaned against the SUV’s icythe rifle at the pickup’s windshield, she hoped they would get the ood, noto fire a shot No way did she want Hunter and the others to co to protect her when they needed to rescue Rourke and Cara

The driver didn’t back off In fact, the truck inched forward She fired a warning round in between the driver and front seat passenger, blasting a hole in the glass, the gunfire reverberating in the woods The rifle butt recoiled against her shoulder blade, bruising it, like the last time she’d shot at the stalker, only in wolf form that time The truck spun around, slid, stopped, and retreated She let out her breath, feeling she’d had a reprieve

"What the hell’s going on?" Ashton hollered, carrying Cara across the road Her head was bleeding, and she looked dazed, her eyes focusing on nothing

"Oh, Cara" Tessa nearly dropped the rifle when she got the door for Ashton and stepped with her full weight on her injured ankle Pain shot all the way up through her thigh, and she gritted her teeth, stifling a pathetic whirouched "I can’t be carrying both of you at the same time"