got it into his head, the one he thinks with most of the time, that I deserve better and what's between us is a nice distraction for the next couple of days." And that pushed buttons with her. She'd never been someone to treat intimacy lightly, especially not when something between them burned so hot or so deep.
"And is a couple of days what you want?" Jenna spoke slowly, making Carri pause and think too.
"It's what neither of us wants, Jenna. He's a bad actor. I don't think this is a little fling for either of us."
"Good." Jenna sounded satisfied. "Not that you needed it, but I'll confirm for you he's serious. Bradley challenged him yesterday."
"I know."
"Your Jason sent Bradley back bleeding and broken in a few places. I'd say Jason is more than serious about his claim on you."
Carri stopped short on the doorstep, the door snapping shut behind her. Jason's prints showed in the already deepening snow, but as more fell, those tracks would be filled in, and she wasn't a skilled tracker by any means.
"So he's serious." Her breath hung as frozen mist in the air. "And you're not mad about Bradley?"
"Ben's not happy, but he confirms it a fair fight. Bradley made his choice to face off with Jason and lost. It will teach the pup to train harder."
"I'm going to look for him." Carri stepped out into the snow.
"Ben is on his way." Jenna's voice took on a crisp, no nonsense cadence. "I'll be covering patrol. You keep your comm with you and report in to us if you don't find him."
"I'm following tracks now, but if I lose them, I'll head to the surveillance building and check in from there." Carri ended the call and started into the cold, pulling her red hood close around her head.
She followed the tracks for a while, but her legs faltered in the deep snow and she lost the trail as more fell. Not as fast as him and unable to tell if he headed in a particular direction, she stopped to get her bearings, realizing the tracks had taken her in a sweeping arc close to the surveillance building. If Ben tracked her and Jason, it would be a good place for him to catch up to her. Plus, she had to check in with Jenna.
The surveillance building held welcome warmth as she kicked snow off her lower legs and stepped inside. Cold, aching and exhausted, she promised herself she would make Jason give her a good rub down for all of this trouble.
If she found him.
She shook her head in frustration. The truth? He might refuse to acknowledge this thing between them. It would break her heart into pieces if he did. Just a few days and all she could think of was him. It wasn't infatuation; she’d felt that before with other men. No, Jason wasn't like any other man she had ever met. He managed to be infuriating, stubborn, brooding and a stick-in-the-mud, but also thoughtful and considerate, tender under his gruff exterior. From somewhere deep in her soul, he struck a chord in her, and she could rely on him no matter what the situation, if he acknowledged her. She wanted to trust him, love him, if he would let her.
She sent a text-only message to Jenna to check in then sat at the console to review the diagnostics she’d left running.
"No!" Horrified, she warmed up the board and ran a real scan to confirm the diagnostics on the initial test sensor array Jason had installed earlier.
An aerial incursion had been detected, not a false positive in the tests. Another hunter lurked out there, in pack territory, and Jason ran alone.
Her hands flew over the board, sending the alert to Jenna and Ben's cell comms. Once she'd warned the alpha pair, she bolted out of the surveillance building and back out into the snow. She had to find Jason, had to warn him. No time to wait for Ben to catch up to her.
She peered through the flurries, doubling back on her own trail to the point where she had left Jason's tracks. His had almost filled in, subtle indents in the white blanket over the forest floor. Half-running, half-wading, she hurried to follow.
The snow seemed to muffle all of the sounds of the forest. She labored on with only the ragged sound of her breath in her ears, the cold burning her lungs with each intake of air. Her hood fell back,