“Oh.” Lena cleaned it as best as she could with what little supplies were still intact, and when she pulled the gauze tight around the clean bandage, she felt like grit. Jenner was trying to hide it from her, but he was hurting. Without a word, he turned from the embers and picked up Titus’s back leg, then dragged him off into the woods like the massive grizzly weighed nothing.
Lena stood there in shock as he disappeared into the trees. Jenner was a lot stronger than he’d ever let on, and as she looked down at her hands, sticky with his blood, everything that had happened over the past couple of days crashed over her like a tidal wave.
Losing her virginity, the bears at the river, running from Titus, Jenner’s bite, finding out the man she loved was a freaking bear shifter, and now this? Being attacked by a man-eater that had likely eaten hikers and watching Jenner battle with him. Killing it. Hurting Jenner. She gasped and wiped her hands across her jeans over and over, trying desperately to get the red off her palms. Titus had been hunting them since last night, hell-bent on killing her. She’d almost died just now.
The shaking started in her hands, and a cold tingling sensation traveled up her limbs and landed in her middle. She was going to throw up or pass out, or maybe both. What was that grating sound?
“Lena?” Jenner said, hands out like he was calming a startled colt. Where had he come from?
The sound picked up, and she was truly surprised to find it was coming from her. She was sobbing, shoulders shaking with each pathetic cry that wrenched from her raw throat. Jenner had his jeans on now, and the claw marks on his chest had stopped bleeding. How long had she been like this? Minutes? An hour?
“He…was going…to eat me,” she said, her voice completely unrecognizable and punctuated by hysterical hiccups.
“No, he wouldn’t have because I wouldn’t let that happen. I had you. I heard you call for me, and I was already coming for you.”
“I have blood on my hands,” she said, looking down at the smeared red. Two tears made tiny splats on her palms. “Jenner, I literally have blood on my hands.”
“It’s okay. It’s just mine.” That made it even worse! Jenner hugged her tightly. “Shhh, you’re okay. I’m here. We’re both okay.”
Swallowing down her weakness, she whispered shakily, “I think I’m in shock.”
“I know you are. Your skin is cold as ice.”
He rubbed her arms, but she could barely even feel his touch. Everything seemed so surreal, like she was floating in some dreamscape. Through the trees, the dawn was lightening the sky, but she wasn’t ready for the world to just spin on like she hadn’t almost died in some horrific way.
“Stupid happy sun,” she muttered, glaring at the sunrise.
In a confused tone, Jenner asked, “Do you want to go back to sleep?”
“So I can have nightmares about Titus? Hell no. Where are the horses?” The line they’d been tied to was completely empty.
“Uuuh, probably halfway back to the lodge by now.”
Her voice jacked up an octave. “We’re stranded out here?”
“No. I have a radio up at that hunter’s cabin I was telling you about. It’s about a five mile walk from here, but we can call up to the lodge for help when we get there.”
“Okay, okay,” she chanted, bobbing her head. Jenner had a plan. Good. He was capable and strong, and he was a fucking grizzly bear, so she could do this.
Five miles.
After what she’d endured, this would be a piece of cake.
Chapter Twelve
Lena was so damned beautiful it hurt to look away. Which was why Jenner had been sitting in this old creaky chair for the past half an hour watching her sleep.
One more day.
With a regretful sigh, he leaned back in the chair and stretched out his legs. From here, his boot almost touched the cot Lena was sleeping on. The old abandoned cabin was just one small room, and the window near the door had been broken, letting the critters in. Something had made a nest in the corner, and it smelled like animal urine, but at least Lena was safe, encased in these thick log walls. And after last night, she needed to feel safe again.
Titus’s attack had rattled her badly. Any man with eyes in his head could see she was reeling. And after he’d radioed into the lodge and asked the Dawson cousins to bring them new horses, she’d fallen asleep hard on the cot against the far wall. He didn’t blame her. In fact, her body probably needed the sleep to deal and heal.
He couldn’t ask her to stay, and now the trip would be cut short and his precious time with her had just been ripped in half. Fuck, why did this hurt so much? Just the thought of losing her was enough to double him over, but this was his reality.
They would ride back with Chance and Dalton, and she would go back to her life soon after. He’d seen the pictures she’d taken yesterday, and they were incredible. She’d gotten the river bears and the two running away from Titus. They looked like two grizzlies charging and were likely a cover shot any outdoor magazine would cut off their fingers to own rights to.