But my wolf isn't thinking about running wild over the mountains. He's tracking Layne. And he doesn't give a shit about the data drive, either.
I surrender to my animal, loping down the hills, staying in the brush, but keeping the road in sight. I honestly don't know how I track Layne. I don't have her scent but something compels me forward, the image of her in my mind, the memory of her intelligent green eyes, such a surprising pairing with her shiny black hair.
I find the van down in Alpine, tucked in the back of a diner parking lot. I leave the bundle of clothing by the van and crawl forward in the brush, my instincts going haywire. I can't figure out why until I see a car screech up to the front of the diner. Black, unmarked-the sort Data-X security would drive. Layne flies out of the restaurant door like the human assholes getting out are her fucking salvation.
Sure enough, one of the thugs grabs her, pressing a gun to her temple. "Where's the data?"
Her choked gasp scrapes my every nerve.
I might have had more caution in human form, but my wolf goes berserk. I charge, snarling, and launch right onto the top of the car. Surprise works in my favor, and Asshole #1 drops the gun from Layne's head. I seize my chance and hurl myself at him, knocking him to the ground. The gun falls to the ground with a clatter.
My teeth sink into flesh. Not his throat, sadly, just his upper arm.
A gunshot rings out and something stings my shoulder blade. Layne scrambles for the gun on the asphalt. I flip a turn and lunge for Asshole #2, who just put a bullet in me, before he can shoot her.
It gives her the time she needs to get around the corner. I hear her feet pound toward the van.
I take another hit, this time in my shoulder before I disarm Asshole #2. Gawkers from the diner come to the door and Asshole #1 is staggering up, so I streak around the other side of the building to catch up with Layne.
She's just opened the van door when I shove up behind her, trying to scramble in. She shrieks and slams the door shut on my body. It bounces back open and she kicks at me. I shift, already scooping her the rest of the way into the van as I come onto two legs.
Her scream dies on her lips, probably because she stopped breathing. I toss her on the passenger seat, grab my clothes and climb in. Like a repeat of the scene a few hours ago at the lab, I throw the van into gear and reverse, screaming out of the parking lot like a firetruck going to a five alarm flame.
I shove the ball of my clothing over my cock, which unfortunately is flying at full mast thanks to Layne's presence.
"Seatbelt, Layne."
She finally sucks in a breath, hands moving mechanically for the seatbelt. "Y-you're bleeding."
I glance down at my shoulder. "It's fine." I'm actually surprised at the amount of blood still coming out of it. My shifter healing abilities should already be working the bullet out by now.
"Who are you?" she asks.
"Sam. Sam Smith." I have a constant watch on the rearview mirror, but I don't see any sign of the Data-X assholes following us. Maybe they decided fighting a wolf was more than they signed up for.
"I mean what are you?" her voice wobbles, face is pale under her freckles.
"I'm a shifter. You didn't think those regenerating cells came from humans, did you?"
The sound that comes from her lips is one part whimper, one part moan. It does nothing to alleviate my aching boner.
My hands tighten on the wheel as I tear back up the mountainside toward the safe house I secured before I went into Data-X's lab. "How did they find us? You called them?" I'm still half-insulted, half-impressed that she used the tranq gun on me earlier. Which reminds me-I grab it now and hurl it in the back of the van, out of her reach.
She pulls out my burner phone, which she must have taken when she stole the van, and stares at the blank screen. Her hand shakes so badly the phone slips out of it and drops to the floor. She doesn't move to pick it up.
She's in shock.
"Layne?"
"They didn't come to save me." Her voice sounds far away. "They just wanted the data."
I'm annoyed by her continued faith in Data-X. "No shit, sweetheart. Haven't we already had this conversation? They think you're with me. You're expendable. The research is not."
She turns her shocked gaze on me, eyes dropping down to the gunshot wound, then bouncing back to my face. Blood still runs down my side. Too much blood. They must have done something to those bullets to affect my regeneration abilities.
"A shifter." Awe cloaks the words. "A werewolf."
"Yes," I admit. I hadn't planned on the show and tell, but what's done is done. I'll figure out what to do with her and her forbidden knowledge of our kind when this is all over.
"That's why the light spectrum activated the cells."
"What do you mean?" I ask sharply.
"I used a spectrum similar to moonlight and the cells changed."
I make a non-committal sound. She thinks I'm the beast from the movies who can't help but change during the full moon. Whatever. I don't need to illuminate her, especially if I'm going to have to get her memories wiped by a leech, anyway.
I cut down a nearly non-existent dirt road that winds around and ends up in front of a mobile home.
I get out and pull on my clothes, angling my back to Layne so she won't see how hard I am for her. I open the door to the back of the van, pulling out a med kit and duct tape. If Layne's going to keep running, I'll have to secure her like a real hostage.