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James had survived a similar shot from a similar distance, and that had been with silver pellets. Still, something like that wasn’t exactly easy to live through, even by shifter standards.

“I know. I’m hard to kill.”

John laughed.

A couple of the alphas also shifted back into their human forms and stepped up to him, patting him on the back, letting him know how glad they were that he was safe. Now that Tatum was dead, they no longer had to bother with the mutilated body.

James’s pack was not filled with the kinds of wolves that ate human flesh, but Tatum had been ripped up enough for the police to think it had been a bear attack. His stomach was ripped open and 112

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entrails were hanging out. His neck and limbs were twisted at odd angles. Had his head been ripped open and the brains scooped out, one might even think a zombie had attacked him.

He was not getting back up from that.

It seemed that James had also shifted when John was too busy clutching at his mate. “The trucks are parked just outside of town a couple miles in the other direction.” James nodded toward the corpse in the road. It was going to traumatize whoever found it. “Do we need to worry about his partner?”

John thought of how satisfied he felt when he stabbed that son of a bitch in the throat. Then there was the crash of the vehicle itself. “No.

I killed him. Crashed their van, too. We should be fine.”

James nodded. “Let’s get out of here then before some human authorities show up. We ran passed that motel you both stayed at.

Cops and guys with cameras all over the place.”

Hunted and on the Run

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Chapter Eleven

John had shifted and done incredibly well when it came time to run back to the trucks that his pack master owned, considering all that they had been through these last couple of days as well as the car crash he’d survived.

Still, when it came time for him to shift back into a human, Storm had to help him into the truck with the most space. His mate had passed out while leaning against Storm’s shoulder.

Storm had clutched the hand of his mate tightly during the drive back to this new pack where he would be staying.

The wolves packed in the truck with him, one by the name of Markus, and the human John had spoken of named Isaac, as well as a few others he didn’t know, all stared curiously at him.

It only caused him to hold John’s hand tighter as the man slept on him.

He knew this would happen, this cautious curiosity that the other alphas of John’s pack would feel toward Storm. Even James’s beta, Mick, had threatened Storm, and rightfully so.

No one threatened him now, but he did not lower his guard. If they decided to throw whatever stones they wished until he made amends, they would be perfectly within their rights to do so.

The drive was long, and John still had not woken up by the time they pulled into dimly lit area that was DeWitt’s pack. The sun had set, and the stars had come out. John would likely be getting treatment from the pack’s wise woman, as well as from the mate of the leading alpha.

He’d been correct in that assumption. He hadn’t expected several 114

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other omegas, some female, most male, to accost him before he could attempt to follow John. They took him to another cabin entirely.

His heart pumped loudly in his ears when they sat him down on a chair and clicked on a light. He only managed to calm himself enough when he noted that they had brought out a first aid kit to use on his face.

Not weapons, knives, ropes, or any other devices that could be used to torture him. They were going to help him.

He was less than grateful for that help when they started the process of picking out the pellets that had been lodged into his skin, especially for the ones that had not gone in too deep and his quickly regenerating skin had healed over them. They needed to be dug out. It was quite painful.

Still, they were as gentle as they could be, and for that, he was grateful.

He didn’t become alert and fearful again until Mick, the beta who had threatened him, and Markus, another younger alpha, entered the room.

“Leave us,” Mick said, and the omegas scurried.

Storm didn’t know what to do. He nearly stood at attention himself, but Mick waved him back down. “Don’t get up. I need to talk to you.”

“All―all right.”

Storm would not be afraid. He had caused much pain to this pack, and he had also failed to protect his mate when John had protected him so many times. Saving him from the hunters, and then taking a silver bullet for him. Storm could handle whatever these men threw at him.

Mick inhaled deeply through his nose. “I would like to offer you something. Well, two things, I guess, but here is what they are.”

Storm listened closely, curiosity getting the better of him.

“First is my apology for my threat earlier today. It was made in the defense of a friend, and I saw very clearly that the both of you are Hunted and on the Run

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mates. I don’t know a lot about cougar-shifters other than they’re pretty rare, but I’m fairly sure you would never harm a mate.”

Mick looked at him. “That’s what I offer you. My apologies and my trust.”

Storm’s brows shot up high. Just the fact that this alpha was sucking up his pride and apologizing, as well as offering his trust, was something indeed.

“I appreciate that. I’m sorry as well, for what I’ve done to this pack in the past. I’ll do everything I can to make it