The Sweetest Mercy (Sexy Shifter Shorts) (5 page)

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 that,” 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.

He pulled her to him, one hand resting on the small of her back, the other reaching down to her skirt. Kiera gasped into his mouth as he reached under the hem, his hand brushing against her core, spreading her as his fingers brushed through her folds. “You’re so wet for me, Aurielle,” Carter moaned against her lips. He circled her clit and Kiera arched into him, pleasure coursing through her body in hot waves. “I can’t wait. I have to have you. Now.”

Gods help her she wanted him, too. But not like this. Not with him injured and confused, and certainly not while he thought she was another woman. She eased his hand away from her, though she didn’t want him to stop. “Carter, it’s Kiera. Not Aurielle. You found me in a cave, remember? You’re supposed to take me to my sister, Erica.”

Carter’s eyes flashed gold and he gave his head a rough shake. “Kiera?”

Unshed tears stung behind Kiera’s eyes, she shouldn’t feel so hurt, but… “Yes,” she said, placing his arm back around her shoulder. “You were caught in a trap and have silver poisoning. We have to climb to the top of the ridge. Can you keep going?”

“Y-yes,” he stammered as he started up the embankment. “I can make it. I… I’m—”

“It’s okay,” Kiera said, cutting him off. “We need to get that trap off of you before you get any sicker. Let me help you, Carter. I’ve got you.”

His brow furrowed as he studied her face, as if seeing her for the first time. He took one faltering step and Kiera braced herself to accept his weight. She refused to let him fall. Damn it, they were going to make it to that damned cabin if it killed her.

Chapter Seven

A FOG SETTLED on Carter’s mind, thick, impossible to penetrate. He dragged his leg behind him, now nearly numb and useless as Kiera supported his weight. The uphill climb was difficult, his footholds were poorly chosen and he grasped at what he thought were bushes or tree limbs only to find that he reached out for nothing but air.

Distance was too complex a concept as he hobbled up the hill. The only thing that mattered was each individual step. Each awkward hop got him closer to his cabin, and if he couldn’t focus on putting one foot in front of the other, he might as well sit down and throw in the towel right here and now.

“Carter, I think I see your cabin!” Kiera said, squeezing his hand in her own. “Just hang on, we’re almost there.”

“Key is in a hollowed out log on the front porch,” he panted. He took one step. And a hop. “C clamps are in a cupboard in the mud room. You’ll need to fasten them to the wings on either side of the trap. That should leverage the jaw open.”

“I can do that.” She took a step up ahead of him and dug her heel into the ground as she helped him up a particularly steep section of hill. “You’re going to be okay, Carter. I’ve got you.”

If she hadn’t been holding him up, Carter would have surely fallen.
I’ve got you
. No one had ever had his back before, not even his sweet Aurielle who’d been so frail and too weak to protect herself let alone anyone else. And when Kiera said that she had him, he believed her.

“Carter!”

Shit. His mind was so foggy, he wouldn’t have even noticed he’d fallen if Kiera hadn’t called out. His face made nice with the cold, damp earth and he was sorely tempted to just stay there on the ground. “Get up, Carter,” Kiera urged, pulling on his arm. “Please, we’re almost there. Just a little further.”

Nah. He was staying put. He didn’t have another step left in him, let alone the energy to push himself up. “Go, Kiera,” he murmured against the dirt. “Go to Logan’s.”

“Fuck that!” Kiera knelt down beside him until her mouth was close to his ear. “Get up, Carter.” Her voice resonated in his mind as it had earlier in the cave. Spiraling into his consciousness like a precision drill and settling there as though she wasn’t speaking to him, but was with him inside his own head. “I said get up, Carter. Now!”

His beast stirred for the first time since going dormant. The lion wouldn’t be coaxed to the forefront of his mind until this female bade him come.
His
female. Carter couldn’t deny that his lion had already claimed Kiera. He’d made it clear when his cock was buried deep inside of her and said to her, “You’re mine.” Seventy fucking years of loneliness and one feisty, stubborn woman had brought both him and his lion back from the land of the dead where they’d mourned the loss of Aurielle for so long.

One last burst of strength was all he had left, but Carter gave it his all. He propelled himself to stand and climbed the last several feet with Kiera’s support. His cabin lay a hundred yards ahead; a modest log structure nestled in a small grove of aspen trees. One step. And another.
You can do this. Move your fucking ass. Go!

The ground tilted at an odd angle and Carter stumbled into Kiera, nearly knocking her off her feet.
Fifty yards to go
. Darkness closed in at the periphery of his vision, his single cabin becoming two separate houses in the distance.
Thirty yards
. Kiera strained under his weight, dragging him more than supporting him at this point. His lion roared in his psyche, the beast no longer able to give them strength.
Twenty-five yards
. Carter’s leg burned, the silver sapping any power he might have had. Logan had trusted him to get this job done. To protect Kiera and bring Reece to justice. No one else in their pride could be trusted.
Twenty yards
. Some expert tracker he’d turned out to be. Undone by a fucking bear trap.
Awesome
.

CARTER COLLAPSED TO the ground like a felled tree. Kiera was actually surprised a cloud of dust didn’t boil up from the impact. She’d forced the last seventy-five yards out of him, afraid that he didn’t have much time left. A rush of adrenaline coursed through her bloodstream, pooling in her stomach. If he’d fallen like a tree, turning Carter to his back was exactly like rolling a massive log. His pallor was ashen, his breathing thin and ragged. She placed her fingers at his throat, his pulse almost too weak to detect.

She took off like a shot, running for the cabin. Clearing the steps in a single leap, she raced to the hollowed-out log where Carter kept his key. Hands shaking, she had to use two hands to steady herself enough to slide the damned thing into the lock. Once inside, she ignored her surroundings as she searched for the mudroom at the rear of the cabin. Kiera fumbled for the light switch, shielding her eyes from the sudden burst of brightness. Cabinet doors flung wide, she tossed their contents this way and that until she found two large clamps. Tearing back through the house and out the door, she skidded to the ground near Carter’s legs, her breath ragged in her chest.

Gods, she didn’t want to hurt him anymore, but she didn’t have time to be gentle. Kiera examined the wings on either side of the trap and unscrewed the clamps to accommodate their girth. She jammed the first clamp over a wing and screwed it down tight, cursing under her breath as it only opened the jaws a few inches. Once she’d tightened the clamp as far as it would go, she set to work on the opposite side, crying out in relief as she watched with each turn of the screw, as the jaw of the trap opened wider and wider.

When the silver-tipped teeth pulled away from Carter’s leg, he groaned as if in relief. Kiera grabbed the awful trap, stained with his blood and gently shimmied it down his leg and tossed it to the side. The eastern sun rose higher in the horizon, streaking the sky with vibrant reds and oranges. Gods, it had been one hell of a night, and they weren’t out of the woods yet.

“Carter?” She couldn’t carry him to the cabin. He’d have to get there on his own steam. The wound on his leg was ugly and raw, still seeping blood, though Kiera had to admit it looked better than it had a few moments ago. “I know you want to rest, but you’ve got to get up. We need to move you to the house so I can take a look at your leg.”