Her Wild Hero

“What we need is rest.” He didn’t tell her that hiking through the jungle for another three or four hours would likely kill her. She didn’t need to hear that. “Besides, that’ll give them some time to spread themselves out, so we can escape through those gaps they mentioned.”


When she opened her mouth to protest, Declan took her hand and led her away. She didn’t try to resist or even put on her night vision goggles—NVGs—convincing him more than ever she was starting to show early signs of hypothermia.

He grabbed another handful of orchids as they walked. The flowers were everywhere. After being submerged in mud and water, there wouldn’t be much of the scent left on them.

Declan found a thick cluster of shrubs and brambles growing near a cliff face about a mile from the stream. While Kendra stood guard—she refused to just sit there and rest—he bulled his way into the foliage until he was up against the rock. He ripped a few of the bigger plants out by the roots, then bulldozed with his shoulders until he made a space large enough for the two of them to lie down. When he was done, he looked at the space.

The plants around the makeshift shelter were at least six feet thick in every direction, including over their heads. Someone could walk right by them and never even know they were there. He tossed the orchids on the ground. At least the flowers would cover their scent enough until he could rub them both down again.

Kendra was kneeling where he’d left her, covering the approaches to the area like their lives depended on it. She was shivering like crazy, yet she was still stubbornly holding her weapon up, ready to shoot anything that came at them.

He shook his head as he guided her into the dark hole in the brush. He really had underestimated her. Not only had she moved quickly and quietly the entire day, but she’d also displayed a talent with her M4 that made him think she’d been doing a lot more at the DCO complex than evaluating training. When the sun went down, she’d donned her night vision goggles and kept pace with him. He was impressed she knew how to use her gear.

There wasn’t a lot of space in the little hiding spot, but there was enough room to spread his poncho on the ground. Kendra sank down wordlessly on it. Declan debated whether they should change into something drier, but neither of them had much in the way of dry clothes to change into—four days in the Costa Rican jungle during rainy season had seen to that. Instead, he stretched out beside Kendra and pulled her against his chest, hoping to warm her up with the heat of his body. He might hate the idea of cuddling with her, but if he didn’t do something, she’d freeze to death.

Her icy skin started warming up within minutes. If the situation weren’t so screwed up, he would have laughed. If he’d known that this was all he needed to do to get her hot, he would have done it years ago. Well, without the hybrids.

“I’m sorry.” Kendra’s voice was so soft it was barely audible.

Declan stiffened. “About what?”

“That I’m such a mess. I guess I’m not as good at this field thing as I thought.”

For a moment he thought she was going to apologize for failing to notice he existed for the past seven years. “You’re doing better than I did the first time I was in the field.”

She let out a tiny snort. “I doubt that. An hour ago, I couldn’t stop shivering. I’m just glad I didn’t have to actually shoot anything. I’m not sure my frozen finger could have pulled the trigger.”

“You’ve been running all day without food, it’s rained on us half a dozen times in the last six hours, and we just sat in a freezing-cold swamp for freaking ever,” Declan said. “You got cold. It can happen to anyone.”

She leaned back into the warmth of his body. “You don’t seem that cold.”

“I’m half-bear,” he pointed out. “And I consumed about twenty thousand calories in the days leading up to this exercise. I could go out naked in a snowstorm.”

She laughed. “That’s quite the image.”

Despite his discomfort, Declan chuckled, too.

“I read the profile for Costa Rica before we left, but I never expected it to be this cold,” she said, serious again.

Most people didn’t think about that in the jungle, but with the temperatures in the fifties, the exhaustion, the intermittent rains, and thirty minutes in the icy-cold mud, it was pretty damn easy for the body’s core temperature to sink to dangerous levels.

“The jungle canopy makes it worse. The sun rarely gets a chance to penetrate down to the ground level and heat things up,” he explained. “You feel like eating something?”

She nodded and sat up, putting some blessed distance between them and pushing the hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear. He rummaged in his pack and pulled out an energy bar, then handed it to her.

“Brent and Gavin had the good camp food in their packs, so we’re stuck with the survival stuff we had in ours and whatever we can forage until we get out of here.”

But Kendra didn’t seem to care that the energy bar had the consistency and taste of shoe leather. She tore into it and took a big bite. She chewed, then frowned.