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“You should’ve had more to eat than that,” John said.

He knew that, but he wasn’t about to eat any more than he needed to when John was the one who needed food in him more.

“I’ll be fine for now. I have enough in me to keep me going.”

When John looked like he was about to keep arguing, Storm cut him off. “Feel free to hunt for me as often as you like when we get back to your pack if that will make you feel better. Until then, we should conserve our energy and keep moving when possible.”

John nodded, and it seemed Storm did a good job of satisfying the man’s inner wolf with promises that he would allow himself to be taken care of by John.

John sat down in the middle of their den. It was so small, and the makeshift roof was so low that even as they sat it still brushed the top of both of their heads.

John flexed his leg out, hissing as he did so. His bandages had gotten dirty during their last run, and had fallen off when John shifted back into a man, but from the look of it, it was neither infected nor was it bleeding as much as before.

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Maybe the food John consumed was already doing its job of providing his body with energy.

“How do you feel?” Storm asked.

John gingerly set his leg back down. “Throbs like a bitch, but I’ll be ready to travel whenever you are.”

He was trying to allow the both of them to make decisions together. It was against his alpha nature, and Storm wasn’t sure what he thought about it, considering he wasn’t exactly John’s equal. Not with the way his debt to the man worked.

That didn’t stop him from appreciating it. He liked it when his input meant something.

“I get the feeling you would jump up and start running with me if I wanted to go right now, and we can’t do that yet.”

Storm poked his head out of their den to look at the sky, and he guessed the time. It was way too early for them to actually stop for the night.

“Can you tell how far away we are from your pack?”

“I’m not that familiar with this area, but based on how long I was running to catch up with you, and how slow we’re moving now, I’d say another day or two away.”

That was too far.

The look on his face must’ve suggested as much. “We’re obviously too beat up to keep on running like this. After we rest, we should find another motel, and I’ll use their phone to call for help. I won’t bother with howling it out now since we’re too far away for any of my pack mates to hear it anyway.”

That, and it was becoming increasingly apparent to the both of them that they might not make it on their own as well.

The thought of simply calling John’s friends with an actual telephone was so simple it shocked him they hadn’t thought of it.

“Why did you not call them when we were at the last motel?”

John glared at him. “I did call them. When you were in the shower and I’d just ordered pizza, I told James I’d found you and he should Hunted and on the Run

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expect us back soon.”

Storm blushed. “I am sorry I doubted you. I’m just…”

“I know. This sucks,” John said, laying his body flat on the ground. It was cold, but the place Storm had used to make their den was dry, so they didn’t have to worry about that at the very least.

“Because I’d called and said we were fine, no one will come looking for us unless I call again,” John said, each word twisting his lips around as though they tasted foul. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Yes, well, what’s done is done,” Storm said.

“You could at least try defending me from myself, you know,”

John said.

“You would simply brush off my defense and claim I’d only done it to make you feel better, or something equally ridiculous.”

He would’ve defended John whether or not John was right in insulting himself. He just wasn’t planning on letting the man know that.

“The fact of the matter is that you are a young alpha.”

“Not this again,” John said, putting his fists to his eyes.

“Hear me out before you ignore me. You are a young alpha, and you’re eager to prove yourself. You went out on a solo mission to claim your mate on your own, which puzzles me, by the way, and when you checked in with your alpha, you told him everything was all right.”

John’s lips went tight as the list went on, and Storm sighed. “You did not do those things because you are an idiot and wanted to purposely put either of us in harm’s way. You did it because you genuinely believed the situation was under your control, and now you must learn the hard way that you cannot control everything.”

“Kind of like you?”

The response threw Storm for a loop. “What?”

John pulled his fists away from his eyes, but he didn’t so much as blink up at him. “You blame yourself for becoming a hunter, but you even admitted that your honor demanded you follow that other guy, 88

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be his servant and all that. You couldn’t control your situation either, but you still worry over what my alpha will say to you when he sees you.”

Storm blushed and looked away from those honest eyes. “Yes, well, sometimes I wish I had been more rebellious growing up.

Maybe if I didn’t care about the promises I made, or honoring debts I felt I owed, I could’ve saved more lives.”

“Well, if your honor keeps you with me, then I’m glad,” John said.

“I would stay even had you not saved my life,” Storm admitted.

John smiled up at him. He held out his