Her Wild Hero

Damn.

The dark-haired hybrid on the far side of the stream was at least a half foot taller than Declan and a good fifty or sixty pounds heavier. He was more animalistic than the other hybrids, too. His upper fangs were so long they almost hung below his jawline, like some kind of freaking saber-toothed tiger. His claws were just as big, nearly as long as his fingers. But it was the thing’s eyes that were freaky. They didn’t simply glow red. They burned like fire. Hell, they even flickered.

“Where are they?” the monster demanded.

Every hybrid in the clearing ducked his head and stared at the ground—except one. The beast nearest the big guy stepped forward with a quick nod.

“They’ve slipped through our line. We’ve lost them, Marcus.”

The big hybrid—Marcus—turned to scowl at the other creature. But the monster giving the report didn’t back down and instead stood his ground like a man used to delivering bad news. If Declan had to guess, this hybrid was Marcus’s second-in-command.

Marcus looked mad enough to rip off someone’s head, but the second-in-command didn’t say anything else to provoke his boss. One of the men standing behind them wasn’t as wary.

“You didn’t cast the net wide enough to start with, Captain,” he said, taking a step forward. “These agents aren’t morons like the locals around here. They know what they’re up against, and I guarantee they made a beeline for the Panama border the second they got out of that chopper. You’ve let them get a good head start on us. If you would’ve just listened to me—”

The man never finished his thought because Marcus raked his big-ass claws across the man’s neck and upper chest in a strike so fast it was nearly impossible to follow the movement.

Kendra jerked in horror and probably would have lurched out of the mud if Declan hadn’t been holding her.

The captain regarded the man’s lifeless body coldly before turning on his second-in-command with a growl. “Widen the search grid to fifteen miles.”

“Sir, our ranks will be stretched thin if we do that,” the hybrid said. “There will be gaps they could slip through.”

The leader’s eyes narrowed as if he was contemplating whether to kill someone else today. Lucky for the lower-ranking hybrid, he decided against it. “Not if I tell the doctor to accelerate his process on the other men. Send most of the soldiers south. I want that route blocked first. I’ll send reinforcements as soon as they’re ready.”

The hybrids and their human counterparts disappeared into the jungle, leaving the dead man and the hulking hybrid captain behind. The creature scanned the surrounding jungle with his red eyes before looking right at them—or rather the ferns they were hiding underneath.

Kendra’s breath hitched. Declan squeezed her tighter. Shit. What if the monster had an intuitive sense that told him something wasn’t right, like Ivy did?

But after glancing down at the body of the man lying twisted on the ground, the hybrid turned and loped off into the darkness like the predator he was.

Declan didn’t move for a full five minutes, worried the hybrids had tricked them and were still out there waiting. Even though Kendra was shivering, she stayed where she was.

When his ears finally convinced him there wasn’t a hybrid or human within miles, he slowly eased them both out of the mud. The stuff clung to them like a living thing, refusing to let go, and he swore under his breath as he led Kendra upstream. He resisted the urge to take her in his arms and started cleaning his M4 instead. If they got caught with their weapons plugged up with mud, they were screwed. Beside him, Kendra did the same.

As soon as their essential gear was clean enough to function, they started on their rucksacks and clothes, scraping the worst of the gunk off, then using water from the stream to get the rest. On the downside, that made them wetter and colder than they were before. Within a few minutes, Kendra was shaking so badly she could barely control her hands.

“Here,” Declan said. “Let me do that.”

He worked fast, refusing to think too much about where he was putting his hands as he rinsed the mud out of Kendra’s hair and the parts of her clothes she couldn’t reach. Even the darkness couldn’t hide the fact that her lips were turning blue by the time he was done. But she didn’t complain.

“Let’s get away from the stream and find a place to hole up for the night,” he said softly. He didn’t think there were any hybrids nearby, but why chance it?

Kendra shook her head. “No. We need to keep going.”