Chapter 535 Chapter 535
The pain in his shoulder woke him. A stabbing pain? Inhaling, Tripp fought through the fog to wake up. Amari’s scent filled him, making him smile despite the ache in his shoulder. Leaning back from her warm body, he reached to see what was causing the pain. He couldn’t move it any further. Squinting, he turned to see his arm stuck in the sleeve of the red puffy jacket Amari had been given. He smirked, not even wanting to know how that happened. Jerking it out of the sleeve, he moved his hand around until it connected with cold metal. His gun. He pushed it out of the way and then opened his eyes. His bladder was also trying to get his attention. He didn’t want to leave the warmth of her naked flesh pressed against his, but he knew she’d want to go for a run as soon as she was awake, and shifting with a full bladder was a ‘never do that again’ kind of deal.
Tucking the blanket over her, he grabbed his pants and flipped them over twice to find the right way in. Leaning back, he pulled them over his hips and looked around for his boots. He might go out in the snow with no shirt on, but he hated cold feet. Wiping his hand over the window, he checked to see if it was still snowing. He smirked; he’d be okay if it was too bad to drive. They hadn’t discussed the status of being mates or spoke many words at all, just spent hours exploring each other and being close. His cat was more than happy with the outcome—for now.
Crawling carefully, so as to not wake her, he reached for his missing boot at the back of the vehicle. This was going to be a quick in and out bladder drain, his arms were already covered in bumps from the chill. Once Amari was awake, he’d start the SUV and let the heat blast to defrost all the windows. Jumping out the door, he closed it just enough that the cold air wouldn’t filter into her. Snow filled his boots, he looked down at them like they’d just betrayed him.
When he turned to get back in, a movement out of the corner of his eye got his attention, his cat was right there now. There was someone out here, along the snowed-covered road. Getting back in, he shuffled over to his rifle case and popped it open. Grabbing the scope off it without having to look for the slide to release it, he moved to the back window and cleared a small spot to look out it. “Shit.” He jolted back and dove for the front where his phone was.
“Amari, babe, wake up, we’ve got company.” He brought up Kenzo’s number and hit it as he jammed the bud into his ear.
“What?” She groaned sleepily but sat up at the same time.
“Tripp?”
“We’ve got someone coming up behind us, walking.” He told both his boss and the naked woman looking better than anything he’d ever seen in his life. With automated movements, he put his scope back on his rifle and then flipped the blanket out of the way to find his gun.
“Who are they?” Amari sat up completely and leaned toward the back window.
“Maybe they’re stuck in the storm.” Kenzo sounded like he’d been sleeping too.
“One has a rifle,” she sounded annoyed. “I can’t see what’s in the other one’s hand.”
Tripp shuffled to the back and looked out the scope, “tranq gun, it looks like.”
“Not friendlies.” Kenzo’s tone was colder now, more business as usual as opposed to the ‘why am I awake’ one he’d had a few moments ago.
Amari moved past him as he snarled at the offensive people moving toward them. This was not the way he’d planned on starting the day. With slow movements, he flipped the window lock and opened the small window as much as he could. He was not shooting through his damn window, driving with an open window in this weather was not happening.
“Who the fuck are you?” He said quietly as he lined the rifle up out the window. The sound of shattering glass echoed a split second before the pain in his shoulder did.
“What the hell was that?” Kenzo barked.
Tripp dropped down from the view of the window and looked to see blood free flowing from his shoulder down his arm.
Amari was laying belly down looking at him.
“They fucking shattered my back window.” He told his boss.
“Were you hit?” Kenzo hissed into the phone.
Tripp hissed out a breath and forced himself to ignore the pain, “yes. Shoulder.”
“Take them out.” His commander ordered.
Blowing out a breath, Tripp forced his mind back into work mode. “I need a distraction; they’re going to take my face off as soon as I’m visible.”
“I’ve got this,” Amari whispered.
By the time her words registered, he was watching the door close. “Amari.” He growled, but she kept moving away from the vehicle. “Fuck.”
“Tripp?”
He ignored his leader. “Fuck.” He hunkered down, blocking the fact that the smell of his own blood was filling his nostrils, and lined up the rifle with the bottom of where his window used to be. “She’s fucking naked.” He growled and then getting shot or not, he lined his scope up with the males coming toward them. “She just fucking went outside to greet them fucking naked.” He snarled.
“Uh, cover her,” Kenzo answered.
“What the fuck do you think I’m doing? I’m going to kill her,” he clenched his teeth together, forcing his arm to stop shaking, he didn’t care if all the blood drained out of it, his mate was out there. “She’s sashaying through three fucking feet of snow, naked for fuck sake.” Both men were looking at his naked mate like she was something they needed to conquer.
“Tripp.” Kenzo barked.
“What?” He snapped back at him.
“Take the fucking shot.”
A split-second decision had him take out the one with the rifle. A tranq wasn’t lethal to either of them. Tripp winced from the impact of the rifle with his shoulder as the recipient of the bullet landed on the snow-covered ground. By the time he adjusted his sights, Amari was right in the other one’s face, she spun around and that’s when Tripp caught the flash of metal in her hand. When her hand was lowered again, it was painted red in the other one’s blood. She paused and looked down at the body where it dropped in front of her and then spun on her heel and jogged back toward him.
Tripp dropped his rifle and flopped back, relief filling him. Reaching blindly, he grabbed the first material his hand connected with and held it against his shoulder. “Both targets down.” He blew out a breath.
Amari climbed back in and slammed the door shut. Dropping the bloody blade, she crawled over to him and took the material out of his hand, “how bad?” She leaned around him and looked at his back, then turned and looked at the back of the passenger’s seat. “Straight through, a shift should heal it.” She smirked at him, “your seat, not so much.”
“Fuck.” They’d broken his window and shot a hole in his leather seat.
“Did she say straight through?”
Amari leaned down and licked the blood trailing down his arm, a shiver went through Tripp, and it wasn’t from the cold. Lifting her face away, she looked at him with blood-red lips. His cat was almost convulsing with anticipation.
“Tripp?”
He heard his team leader, but when she gently licked over the oozing hole in his shoulder and then pressed her nose into his neck and inhaled a deep breath, he couldn’t have spoken if he tried. Tripp started to lift his hand to hold her, but his cat conveyed that was a bad idea.
“I guess I better take you on, to keep your ass from getting dead.” Her hot breath was against his throat and in the haze of the pain, he realized that was her way of saying she accepted him, he tilted his head to the side. Her hot wet tongue licked over the cord of muscle in his neck and then her sharp feline teeth pierced the skin. Tripp groaned and then grabbed her hair tight in his hand, wanting her to stay there longer.
“Tripp? What the fuck is happening? I thought you said it was your shoulder?”
He closed his eyes, a smirk on his face despite his commander’s voice bellowing in his ear. Amari released his flesh, and he opened his eyes to see her smiling at him, she reached over and plucked the earbud out of his ear.
Licking the blood off her lips, she put it in her ear, “Tripp is busy right now; you’ll have to call back later.” Reaching over, she ran her finger through the blood on his arm and then raised the finger in slow motion and put it in her mouth. When she pulled it back out, she smiled, “We’ll investigate that in a few minutes, Mister Dean, I’m trying to claim a mate here.” Lowering the phone, she tossed it in the direction of the dash. Her gaze moved down his chest, “mmm, might want to send them in on snowmobiles.” Taking the bud out of her ear, she tossed it over her shoulder.
Tripp patted along the side where he was sure he’d dropped his gun, finding it, he looked away from her long enough to set it in the door handle where it could be easily found.
Amari’s expression sobered, “you really should shift and heal that.”
Tripp glanced down at his shoulder, “I’ll live a few more minutes,” he motioned with his finger for her to come over, “come here, first.”
She grinned, “shouldn’t you tag our location so they can find us?” She glanced at the broken window, “we should move the bodies.”
“Fuck it, they can chill out there for a few minutes.”
A serious look filled her eyes. “I didn’t think I’d want this.” She moved closer, “but now, there’s this feeling, I’ve never had.” She licked her sexy mouth, and he had a hard time focusing on her words. “Do you feel it too?”
Fighting through the lust, he nodded, she needed words right now and whatever his mate needed, she would get. “The hollow feeling is gone.”
She stopped, close enough that her breath was on his mouth. “Yeah, that’s it.”
Tripp could see the emotions going through her eyes, questions, and doubts. He reached with the arm blood wasn’t running down and cupped the side of her head. “What’s say we seal the deal, darlin?” He gave her a daring look, “then get back to work and slaughter every last one helping Tomas.”
“Mmm,” she smiled, “you say the sweetest things, mate.”
Later he knew he’d have to contain her, as she wreaked havoc and revenge on all involved in the cruel world they were fighting to clean up, but for now, he planned to tire out his unpredictable, uncontrollable, and slightly violent woman. She bit his lip not gently in any way. She was so perfect for him.