The Hunter

Not Happening

All Mira did for the next half hour was pace in front of the truck. She and Collin had loaded the new Hunter into the backseat of the truck and now they just had to wait for Claude. Thankfully for them—more precisely, her—none of the town’s Hunters had showed up yet.

“Maybe we can give him a few more minutes.” Collin slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist before burying his head in her neck. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’ll be fine.” She rubbed his uninjured forearm. “You need to get moving, though. I don’t want you to get hurt. Well, more hurt.”

“What if he heads back while you are tracking him?” Collin tightened his arms around her. “You two could chase each other in circles until the Hunters catch up with you. I won’t even know if they do catch you. How can I rescue you if I don’t know where you are?”

“I doubt they’ll take me alive even if they manage to trap me.” Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because Collin’s arms tightened around her. His entire body was tense as he pulled her even closer to him.

“I’m not going.” His voice was harder than she’d ever heard. “Don’t even think about trying to make me. It won’t happen.”

After struggling to step out of his arms for a couple minutes, Mira sighed and relaxed against his chest. “I will come to you as soon as I find him. I promise.”

“Still isn’t happening.” His hold on her hadn’t relaxed, and he squeezed the breath out of her with each heavy rise and fall of his chest. “We can figure something out. You got me a small arsenal. I’ll grab the sniper rifle and go high. I can at least take out some of their vehicles before they get here.”

“Collin…”

His hold relaxed only enough for him to spin her around to face him a split second later. Thankfully, her wolfy reflexes kept her from stumbling into him. Right when she opened her mouth to speak again, he kissed her and his hands slipped around to bring her closer to him. After thoroughly silencing her, he pulled his head back while keeping his arms firmly around her.

“Wasn’t it a movie or something that said to stop someone’s mouth with a kiss? Maybe it was a play…” Collin smiled down at her before kissing the tip of her nose.

“It was Shakespeare.” Both Mira and Collin’s heads jerked to the side as Claude stood leaning against a tree at the edge of the forest. “What are you two doing standing around? Don’t we have some place to be?”

“Being completely lazy,” Collin said and his lips twitched upward. “Because we both know how lazy Mira is.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” Claude groaned and shook his head. “We’ll just have to pick up the slack. Don’t see any way around it.”

“And I’m injured.” Collin lifted his arm and Mira took the opportunity to step out of his arms. “Pretty sure I should have fewer responsibilities right now.”

At that, Mira threw her hands up in the air. If they could joke that she was lazy, she was well within her rights to fake being upset with them. As she stomped over to the truck, gravel crunched behind her before Collin wrapped his arms back around her.

“Hey, come back here.” Collin pulled her back against his chest and a sigh escaped her. “Where do you think you are going?”

“To the truck.” She went limp in his arms, but he refused to let her go. “You know, since I’m so lazy and have been holding us up. Let’s not forget about the fact we have Hunters coming after us as well.”

“Fine, fine, you have a point.” Collin sighed. “So which of us drives?”

“I’ll drive.” Claude moved around the truck and got in the front seat.

“I guess I’ll take the back.” Mira once again futilely attempted to escape Collin’s arms, but this time she managed to duck out of them. “It’s safer if no one sees me. I mean, I did just rob an entire town.”

After she winked at him, he chuckled as she slipped into the backseat next to the bound Hunter. Once Collin had gotten into the truck, she shut the door. Somehow with Claude back and the playfulness she felt with Collin, everything seemed okay. And for the first time in three years, she didn’t feel like she was facing the world alone.