Five minutes later she was pissed and kind of impressed, but pissed nonetheless that she couldn’t open it. She tossed it back in the bag, sealed it and gently slid it back in his pocket before she turned her attention to his bag. Of course he had a small survival kit with matches and stuff, but that stuff would have to wait until she figured out a way to get him on solid ground and further away from the water.

Or maybe she should just start a fire and hope someone saw it and came to help, she thought as she looked through the rest of his bag. When she spotted a large black handgun she paused. If he didn’t wake up anytime soon it would be up to her to defend them.

Her hand shook as she picked up the gun, careful to keep her fingers as far away from the trigger as she could manage as placed it on a flat gray rock beside her.

She pulled a large black tee shirt out of his bag and laid it over his chest, having absolutely no idea what to do, but she knew she had to get him dry and warm, but that meant getting him up the hill.

She had to try. There was no way she could leave him to freeze. She didn’t know much about survival, but she knew being wet in the cold September night air was bad. It might take her half the night, but she needed to try.

Hoping like hell that she didn’t make his injuries worse, she squatted behind him, grabbed him by arms and nearly whimpered when she couldn’t wrap her hands around his massive biceps. She gave up her hold and grabbed his backpack once again, praying that it wouldn’t snap.

**********

Why the hell was he so cold?

He opened his eyes and was met with pitch black. Oh shit, was he blind? he wondered as the mattress beneath him shivered. His chest hurt every time he inhaled, but at least the sharp stabbing pain in his lung was gone.

By the feel of it, the ribs were still broken, but his lung felt healed, at least healed enough not to make him wish he was dead. That was progress. Soft tissue injuries always healed the fastest, but they still required rest and time.

“Munchkin?” he muttered, his voice coming out as a hoarse whisper.

His mattress let out a relieved sigh.

“You scared the hell out of me!” she whispered accusingly, sounding both relieved and scared.

“What’s going on? Where are we?” he asked, wrapping an arm around his chest as he tried to sit up, but his damn ribs screamed in protest, keeping right where he was.

“Oh, you mean besides you scaring the ever loving hell out of me?” she demanded.

“Yeah, that,” he said dryly as he tried to look around and failed.

Going by the cold air being softly blown over his body and sound of water rushing by they were still by the river. Did she ever f**king listen?

“I thought I told you to run, Munchkin. You shouldn’t be here,” he bit out, wishing he could haul her over his knees and spank the hell out of the beautiful ass of hers.

She let out a cute little snort as she hugged his shoulders more tightly against her. “Did you really think I was going to run off and leave you defenseless?”

Defenseless………

That was the wrong f**king choice of words to use on him. Long ago hated memories threatened to surface and he shoved them away and focused on the woman that ignored him and pissed him right the f**k off.

“I wasn’t defenseless,” he spat out through chattering teeth.

“Oh, really? Then what would you call passing out and remaining unconscious for probably twelve hours?” she asked and he didn’t appreciate the sarcastic tone one bit.

“I didn’t pass out. I was resting.”

“Riiiiiiight,” she said, sounding as though she didn’t believe him. “So when you almost drowned, got dragged for an hour and it down poured for probably three hours you were just catching a catnap?”

“Exactly,” he said, trying not to smile at how cute she sounded as his anger faded away. How the hell did she do that to him? He was pissed, beyond pissed that she hadn’t listened to him and hauled her ass out of here and now he was…….calm. He still wasn’t happy that she hadn’t listened to him and worried about her safety, but he wasn’t angry, at least not at her.

He was angry with himself for failing her. When she needed him the most he’d f**ked up and left her alone and vulnerable. He didn’t even want to think about what could have happened while he was out. Her abilities might be starting to surface, but she was a weak, untrained female, a pregnant female.

When he started to wonder if the baby was okay he forced those thoughts away. It wasn’t a baby, it was a problem, he reminded himself. It was something he couldn’t allow himself to think about or want. Her pregnancy was just another f**kup in recent f**kups and one they would take care of when they reached a compound. He didn’t care what she said, she wasn’t keeping it.

He couldn’t be there for her and he couldn’t stomach the idea of her struggling to bring up a child alone. He didn’t want to think of a child crying itself to sleep at night, wondering where its father was and he sure as hell didn’t want to find out the hard way that he inherited more than just his dark hair from that bitch that gave birth to him. He could never take that chance.

“Do you think you could walk?” Izzy asked, pressing a kiss to his forehead and it acted like an immediate balm to his soul.

No. “Yes, we need to get out of here,” he said, praying he could f**king man up and get her somewhere safe before heThe sound of a twig breaking caught his attention. Izzy went perfectly still behind him. As quietly as he could he reached out and felt around him, looking for his bag.

When he came across mud, sticks and wet leaves he cursed silently.

“Where’s my bag?” he whispered, praying that whatever they were dealing with didn’t have enhanced hearing or sense of smell.

“Please tell me that’s just a rabid squirrel,” Izzy whispered softly.

If he wasn’t afraid that they’d been found he would have smiled. His mate was just so damn cute. “My gun, Munchkin. I need my gun,” he whispered back as he scanned the area.

He couldn’t see a f**king thing and normally that wouldn’t bother him. He’d use it to his advantage, but this wasn’t one of those times. He could hardly move, couldn’t breathe without pain and he had to protect his mate.

“I may have left it on the river bank, but it’s okay. I can get it!” she whispered excitedly just as he felt her shift beneath him. Before he could stop her, she scurrying away from him and he was left grabbing his side and falling onto his back, biting back a scream of agony.

“Get back here!” he whispered harshly as he struggled to get up, but his damn ribs threatened his lung again and kept him prisoner on the f**king cold wet ground while his mate went and pissed him off by doing something stupid.

There was no doubt about it in his mind. He was going to spank her ass until his f**king hand fell off.

“Munchkin!”

He heard another twig snap and he prayed that was her. It didn’t matter if his rib lodged itself in his lung, he couldn’t just sit on his ass while his mate risked her life. It was his job to take care of her, not the other way around and the fact that she’d been left to care for him for god only knows how long irritated the shit out of him.

Biting back a scream of agony, he sucked in a breath and rolled over until he could use his knees and hand to push off the ground onto unsteady legs. He didn’t allow himself anytime to get his bearings, he moved his ass towards the river, but he didn’t get far when her scream broke through the eerily silent night followed by the flash of a gun firing.