The Sweetest Mercy (Sexy Shifter Shorts) Page 3

  The full moon gave her enough light to see the path up ahead, but she might as well be running blind. Miles from civilization, without a sense of location or direction, the chances that she’d wind up further from help rather than closer was a very real possibility. Still, she had to try. At this point she had to assume that Carter and what’s his name… Reece, that piece of shit, were working for this Logan if he was in fact the alpha like Carter said. Which meant Erica was probably in even deeper trouble than she was and Kiera would not let her sister be used by a bunch of horny mountain cats.

  Carter had said that Logan’s compound was ten miles east. Kiera looked to the sky, noting the barest lightening of the horizon to her right. She changed course and ran like hell, jumping over a fallen log and a couple of bushes. Her powers of influence might not have worked on the mangy cats, but that didn’t matter. She’d raise an army of humans to fight her battle if she had to. Nymphs could be very persuasive when they put their minds—and voices—to something.

  Chapter Five

  CARTER’S BEAST RAGED within his psyche, the cacophony blocking any sort of coherent thought as he slung his pack over his shoulder and retrieved his rifle. What an idiot! Of course Kiera would have known what Reece was and once Carter confirmed his own creed to her, she must have assumed they were all in league with one another. Way to instill confidence in the traumatized kidnapping victim, asshole.

  Not that his inability to give the appropriate amount of information was his worst faux pas of the night. He’d reserve thinking about his other douchebag move—taking advantage of a woman clearly not in her right mind—for later.

  His skin burned with the need to shift, his lion jockeying for control. And whereas he’d be faster, his senses sharper in his animal form, Carter knew that it would only frighten Kiera more. Not to mention the fact that his beast would enjoy the chase, and since his lion already thought of Kiera as theirs, he knew his lion would stop at nothing to catch her and claim her once again.

  Not gonna happen.

  He’d been weak before. A near century of celibacy might not have been a good idea. Because all it had taken to bring him to his knees was the scent of that female and her voice, thick with desire. Fuck me hard. Carter shivered at the memory. The way her pussy clung to him as he pumped into her. Gods, what was wrong with him? Thinking about what had just happened with the sultry female wasn’t going to do anything for his control.

  Kiera had obviously paid attention to his words and stayed downwind. Try as he might, he couldn’t find her scent, and so he took off toward the east, certain she’d head toward Logan’s compound in search of Erica. As he followed the trail, Carter realized that even though he hadn’t allowed his lion to take control he was still, in fact, chasing her. He changed his course, heading north-east in an effort to head her off at the top of the summit. The brush was thicker here, and the trees closer together, but Carter negotiated the terrain with ease. Even with her head start and the rougher route to travel, he was still faster than she would be and he was confident he’d make it to the summit a good five minutes before she did.

  The ground gave way under Carter’s next step, followed by the sound of metal grating on metal. A sharp pain bit into his calf and he tripped, tumbling face-first to the ground. His apparent immobilization was the least of his concerns as a white hot pain shot up his leg like flames licking at his skin. Lights swam at the periphery of his vision and for a second, Carter worried that he might pass out. Weak and shaky, he pushed himself over on his back and hauled himself up to a sitting position. That motherfucker, Reece, had set the area with booby traps and Carter had been fortunate enough to step right in the center of a nasty jaw trap. The sharp teeth bit into his flesh, which wouldn’t have been quite so disconcerting if the teeth hadn’t been coated in silver.

  Too weak to shift, he tried to pull the trap free. The teeth scraped bone and Carter shouted a string of profanity—curses against Reece and his entire family line—that should have alerted half of Montana to his location. Not that Carter gave a shit about being found. If Reece was in the area, it would take his attention away from searching for Kiera and she’d be able to put distance between them. If she stayed east, she’d eventually find Logan’s compound and her sister. Carter’s beast let out an enraged snarl in his mind, railing against its helplessness. Because that’s what they were. Dead in the fucking water. The silver had weakened him to the point that he couldn’t budge the trap free. He was no good to Kiera or anyone else at this point.

  Whether Reece found him first or vice-versa, Carter would use every last store of energy to take the son of a bitch out. And then he’d beg Logan for the privilege of killing the bastard if that’s what it took.

  Kiera stopped dead in her tracks. Though she was scared shitless, her mind hadn’t been so clear in days. And she was certain that the tortured shouts she heard from over the next ridge belonged to Carter. Slowing her pace, Kiera continued on the path, but her mind returned to those pained shouts. Maybe he’d slipped and impaled himself on a branch. Or it could be that the oh-so-tough mountain lion had crossed a bear or a wolf and had his ass handed to him by a bigger, tougher animal. She thought of his muscular body motionless on the ground. That smooth flesh torn by powerful claws and gushing blood.

  Her step faltered. She’d made assumptions about Carter’s intentions but he’d never tried to hurt her. Reece, that slimy son of a bitch, hadn’t hesitated to cut her, make her bleed. When she didn’t cooperate, he backhanded her. And the bastard hadn’t even flinched. Even when she’d commanded Carter to take her hard and not hold back he’d been gentle with her. His hands firm on her flesh but not bruising. He could have crushed her bones as easily as squeezing an orange. And yet, Carter handled her with care.

  She couldn’t just leave him out in the middle of the forest injured, or worse without at least giving him the chance to explain himself first. She changed course, backtracking until she found a spot where the brush wasn’t so thick. Ribbons of moonlight filtered down through the tree branches, casting eerie shadows like sinister hands reaching out to claim her. Kiera hopped a tree stump and jogged fifty yards to where the slope descended into a shallow draw. She slid the last several feet on her butt, cursing the fact that she’d left her underwear in the cave. The uphill climb to the other side of the draw was a bit more daunting and she had to use the taller grass and a couple of bushes as handholds as she worked her way to the next ridge. Unfortunately, the undergrowth was even thicker on this side of the draw and bare tree limbs raked at her skin, scratching and abrading as she fought her way closer to the sound of Carter’s moans. Gods, she hoped there wasn’t any poison ivy in this area. Because with her short skirt—not to mention her current lack of underwear situation—the local flora wasn’t something she was anxious to get up close and personal with.

  A dark shape stood out in stark relief against the moonlight. Too solid to be anything but a body and Kiera’s breath caught in her chest. No movement, no sounds to indicate that he was even still alive, but deep down, Kiera’s intuition—an intuition that rarely steered her wrong—assured her that life stirred within him. And why did that cause her to feel such a strong sense of relief?

  “Carter?”

  He stirred, though the movement was barely discernible. As she crept closer, a silver glint of light winked through the darkness from near Carter’s ankle. She knelt beside his listless form and brought her hands to her mouth as she stifled the gasp that burst from her lips. A huge ass trap was locked around Carter’s calf and his pants were soaked with blood.

  “Oh my gods,” Kiera whispered as she grabbed the trap and yanked with all of her strength. Carter moaned, the sound so like an injured animal that it sent chills down her spine. The spring mechanism was tight, her own slightly enhanced strength no match for the powerful trap. “Carter?” She abandoned the trap and gave his shoulders a rough shake. “Carter! Can you hear me? Wake up!”

  “Kiera.” His voice was nothing more
than a whisper and she had to lower her ear to his mouth to hear him. “Reece… set traps. Teeth …coated with …silver. Too weak to remove. I need leverage.”

  Leverage? “Okay,” Kiera replied, brushing his dark hair from his forehead. Her fingers lingered on the scar at his temple and she traced the jagged line. What had happened to him? “I’m going to go look for a stick—”

  “No,” Carter murmured. His forehead was beaded with sweat, and Kiera detected a building fever. Apparently silver was uber bad for a shifter. Like poison. Fast acting poison. “Need something stronger. Clamps. Have to get to my cabin…”

  As if finishing his sentence took too much strength, Carter grew silent, sending icy shards of fear into Kiera’s chest. She wracked her brain, desperate to remember what he told her in the cave. He’d said his cabin was somewhere between here and the compound where Erica was. “Carter, can you walk?” If he couldn’t there was no way she could carry him. She was stronger than a human, but it still wasn’t strong enough to carry him. “I’ll help you. But you’ve got to try and stand. Can you do that for me?”

  Carter’s head turned toward her and his eyes cracked open. His irises glowed with that strange amber light and she assumed it was the animal part of his nature fighting for a way out. When Reece’s eyes had flashed with emotion, it had frightened Kiera. Mostly because he liked to follow up with a right hook. But that feral gleam in Carter’s eyes didn’t scare her. Instead, she felt strangely drawn to him. Comforted by what she saw behind his gaze. As though Carter had retreated to the back of his mind and something else stared out at her. Something powerful, and yet—

  “I can stand. But I need you to pull the spike out of the ground that’s holding the trap in place.”

  The words came distorted with pain, fatigue, and a dark edge that caused an anxious shiver to ripple across Kiera’s skin. She had a feeling that if he wasn’t weakened by the silver, Carter would be very dangerous in his current state. From where the trap gripped his calf, she followed a length of chain to a large iron spike buried in the ground to keep it secured in place. Kiera worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to move the spike. It had to be embedded a good foot into the ground; she could barely budge it. A wood nymph heritage gave her the upper hand in many things: persuasion, intuition that was almost a sixth sense, and a killer singing voice. But it didn’t give her enough in the supernatural strength department.

  “Kick…it,” Carter panted through gritted teeth. “Use your foot, kick it from side to side to loosen it and then pull it straight up out of the ground.” As if the effort of the last sentence was too much, his head dropped to the ground and he panted in earnest.

  Kick it. Okay, easy enough.

  Chapter Six

  CARTER’S LION CHOSE the wrong moment to retreat into his psyche. Kiera gave the stake a solid kick, pulling the chain—and the trap—right along with it. The teeth bit into his flesh and another fresh wave of pain shot up his leg. He clamped his jaw down, tight, unwilling for Kiera to know that she caused him pain.

  Had she simply stumbled upon him in her haste to escape, or had she heard him shout and come to find him? Either way, she’d saved his ass. It shouldn’t matter how she’d found him, but it did. For some crazy reason, Carter wanted to believe that she’d heard him and came to find him. That she’d… cared for him. Gods, how could he possibly think this way? He’d just met her. Met her and fucked her for all he was worth on the dirt floor of a cave. Yeah, he was such a romantic. Kiera kicked at the stake again, the tug of the trap tearing his flesh. Fuuuuuuck. That one hurt like a sonofabitch.

  Kiera turned, the look on her face one of indecision. She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth and despite the blinding pain, Carter couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to take that full lip in his own mouth and suck. He was damned near dying of silver poisoning, but his cock didn’t seem to notice. Go figure.

  “Carter,” Kiera said quietly. “This chain isn’t very long. When I pull it out of the ground—”

  “Just do it.” Carter cut her off and infused his own voice with the same strength she’d shown him. “Like a Band-Aid. Quick.”

  Her jaw took on a determined set and Kiera nodded, once. With a single deep breath, she wrapped her hands around the stake and yanked. The chain pulled and the metal teeth scraped against bone, vibrating up Carter’s leg and the length of his spine. “Fuck!” he shouted as he shook his head from side to side in an effort to keep unconsciousness at bay. He wouldn’t be worth a damn to Kiera passed out. He’d assured her he could stand, and damn it, he’d do just that.

  “Can you help me up?” His beast rumbled in his mind, obviously unhappy that they had to ask for help. Well, that was too gods damned bad, wasn’t it? Thanks to Reece and his motherfucking silver trap, they were as weak as a newborn foal.

  “How far is your cabin from here?” Kiera asked as she retrieved his rifle and tucked her body under his arm. She placed her right palm on his chest which sent his heart beating faster and he took a steadying breath.

  “A couple of miles, give or take.” He stripped his pack, dropped it to the ground, and brought his left leg up, digging his heel into the dirt. “Ready?” he asked.

  “Ready.”

  Kiera braced herself as he pushed with his good leg, propelling them to a standing position. She wobbled under his weight, but regained her footing soon enough and Carter was thankful for a few moments to gather his own strength as well. This was going to be an agonizingly slow two miles, and besides his doubts over making it to his cabin before he blacked out, he was worried that Reece was already out searching for them.

  He wouldn’t be worth a shit until he got the silver out of his skin. There were a couple of C clamps at his cabin that they could use to leverage the trap open. But if they were attacked between now and then, they were both as good as fucked. “We’ll head up to the top of the draw,” Carter said, pointing up ahead. “And then we’ll cut down to the next ridge. My cabin is just over the ridge. Logan’s compound is five miles straight east from here,” he continued, pointing out the direction. “If I lose consciousness or anything happens before we make it to my place, I want you to head straight to Logan’s. Do you understand me?”

  Kiera nodded, but the fierce look of determination on her face told Carter that she had no intentions of going anywhere without him. His beast purred in his psyche, pleased at the strength of this female. On this, Carter and his lion were in agreement.

  “Let’s get going,” she said, turning them uphill. “If I’m going too fast for you, let me know.”

  “I can keep up,” Carter said, hoping his words were true. “Just don’t stop.”

  IF KIERA EVER wondered what it would be like to haul around a couple hundred pounds of solid muscle, she knew now. Carter was maintaining pretty well, despite the extremity of his injured leg, but still, Kiera wobbled under his weight. With a good foot on her in height, it made supporting him a bit of a struggle. Once, she actually almost suggested he just use her head as an arm rest, but reconsidered when she pictured her neck snapping under his immense weight like a twig.

  The first mile wasn’t so bad, the ground was fairly level and the brush gave way to shorter grass. But the second mile had her panting with exertion and Carter’s meager strength had begun to flag as well. His body burned with fever, sweat dripping down his face and soaking through his shirt. But despite how he suffered, Kiera marveled at how Carter soldiered on, dragging his injured leg behind him as he limped and leaning away from her as much as he dared, as though afraid of placing too great a burden on her.

  When they neared the ridge, Kiera estimated the hike to the summit to be close to a half-mile. Under normal circumstances the forty-five degree climb would have been a pain in the ass, but with Carter using her as a living crutch, they’d both be lucky to reach his cabin alive. “Carter, we’re almost there. Have you got one more climb in you?”

  “I’d do anything for you, Aurielle. You know tha
t,” he said with intensity.

  Aurielle? In his fevered state he’d mistaken her for another woman. A woman he obviously cared a great deal for. Hot spikes of jealousy seared Kiera’s chest. She had no right to feel this way, Carter wasn’t hers to claim. But the pain was real, as were the emotions that she shouldn’t be feeling for a man she’d just met. “Carter, my name’s Kiera. Remember? We have to hike up this embankment and then you can rest.”

  He turned and seized her face in his hands. The fevered heat of his palms burned her cool flesh and his dark eyes were glazed and wild as he stared intently at her. “Don’t leave me again, Aurielle.” He stroked a thumb across her bottom lip. “Please, love, don’t leave me.”

  Kiera swallowed down the lump that rose in her throat. She’d never been anything more than a casual fling for any man, and hearing such words of love and devotion tore at her composure. She could only imagine what it would feel like to be loved in such a way. Any woman would be lucky to have Carter as a mate. He was strong, determined, and fierce, with the body of a god and the sexual prowess to back it up. And now she could add loyal and devotion to the list. A more perfect male she’d never met. She was a fool to think someone so perfect would want a broken thing like her.

  “I love you, Aurielle. Always.”

  Carter lowered his mouth to hers, and though Kiera knew he was delirious with fever, she didn’t stop him. His mouth was soft on hers, seeking, tasting, tempting. He took her bottom lip between his teeth and nibbled gently before sucking and Kiera couldn’t help the moan that worked its way up her throat. He’d brought her back from the brink of insanity, sated her more than any man before him, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her. She wanted more. Her body coiled tight, desire slick and hot between her thighs. Carter’s tongue slid against hers and she kissed him back with equal fervor, slanting her mouth across his and deepening the kiss.