“Shit,” Clayne muttered. He dropped his pack and started digging in it.
“Ivy?” Landon said.
Ivy finally turned her attention to him. “I heard you. And I’d love to take a look at the dead hybrids, but later. Right now, I’m more concerned with the live hybrids coming this way.”
Angelo swore and reloaded his magazines. Butler did the same. On the far side of the clearing Tate and Brent picked up the dead hybrids’ weapons and raided their ammo pouches. Probably not a bad idea.
Beside Angelo, Clayne was reloading his M4 magazines faster than Angelo had ever seen anyone reload. Then he did the same to his .45 clips.
“I swear that if we get out of this alive, Danica can have her wedding in any damn church she likes,” Clayne said. “That includes the Vatican.”
Angelo laughed. “I’m going to tell her you said that. Though I think there might be a long waiting list of people ahead of you.”
Clayne slammed a fresh clip into his .45 with a growl. “I have a way of dealing with waiting lists.”
“Stop wiggling around like such a baby,” Kendra said. “It’s just an antiseptic wipe. Sheesh, I’d have thought someone your size would be tougher.”
Declan chuckled. “It doesn’t hurt. It’s cold.”
“Oh.” She cringed. “Sorry.”
She fell silent as she went back to cleaning the three long, ragged wounds that started at the top of his left shoulder and ran diagonally across his chest. She’d already cleaned the other claw marks on his chest, but the ones on his shoulder concerned her the most. They were deep. She thought about putting on her NVGs so she could see better, but she hated those things—everything looked so green and washed out. She’d do a better job working by feel.
Declan had attempted to tell her he didn’t need her to fuss over him, but she wasn’t putting up with any of that. The moment they’d gotten far enough away from the attack site and found a good hiding place, she’d ordered him to take off his shredded uniform top and T-shirt.
She’d been really worried about his wounds; there’d been a lot of blood on his clothes. She had no idea what kind of nasty jungle crud those hybrids had been carrying under their claws. The last thing she needed was for Declan to get some kind of hybrid-induced infection while they were out here fighting for their lives. And working at the DCO had taught her one thing—shifters healed quickly. She had to get his wounds cleaned before they started closing over and trapped dirt and possible infection inside. Fortunately, after she’d gotten his top off and wiped away the worst of the blood, she realized they weren’t nearly as bad as she’d thought.
“That was a lot of shooting we heard before,” she said as she ran the wipe over his skin. “Was it as close as it sounded?”
Declan growled a little as she hit a tender spot but shook his head when she asked if she should stop. “I’m okay. Keep going. As for the shooting, it might have been only a few miles away, or it could have been fifteen. All the valleys, canyons, and cliffs around here can do crazy things to sound. But I agree with you. There were a lot of people—or hybrids—shooting.”
She’d hoped his shifter hearing would be able to pinpoint the source of the gun battle. But she still had reason to hope the sound might bode well for them. “Do you think it was a rescue party looking for us?”
Declan was silent as he considered that. As she waited for him to answer, she let her fingers trail along his ribs and abs, looking for other damage. She didn’t think he’d gotten scratched anywhere else, but she wanted to check and make sure. The act of slowly and gently cleaning his muscular body, checking for other wounds, running her fingers here and there was extremely mesmerizing for some reason. At first she told herself she was doing it to be thorough, but as she continued to trail her fingers over places she knew the hybrids had never gotten near, she finally admitted she was touching him because she liked it.
She blushed, but she didn’t stop what she was doing. Declan had a really nice body—even with the ragged claw marks. It was dark in the shelter, so she couldn’t see much, but she didn’t need to see his body to enjoy it. The sensation of his warm skin