Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Flynn left my side long enough to get dressed and grab his jacket and rifle. Jesus, did that mean that going after Xavier could be dangerous? The wolves he’d talked about… he’d said they hunted at night, right?
Despite knowing Flynn could handle himself, especially with his devoted horse as a partner, I was still terrified.
By the time we reached the main driveway, BJ was already saddled up. Curtis and Brooks had horses too. A poorly timed strike of lightning chose that moment to light up the night sky, reminding me how truly pitch black it would be as the men searched.
“What about me?” I blurted without thinking as I watched the trio start to head out. I knew it was stupid to want to go with them, but all I could think of was Flynn out there alone. What if he got separated from the other two? What if he split off to do his tracking thing alone, just him and BJ?
All those wolves and only one rifle…
I opened my mouth to demand that someone saddle a horse for me, but before I could say anything, I was being lifted in the air by a strong, warm, welcome arm. My ass landed on BJ’s back, right behind the saddle. Remembering the last time I’d tried to ride the horse without actually coming into physical contact with Flynn was at the forefront of my brain. It hadn’t been a particularly successful endeavor. I didn’t want to be the reason that the men had to slow down, so I wrapped my arms around Flynn’s waist. I kind of felt like I was copping a feel because I’d gotten the sense that Flynn hadn’t been happy to see me when I’d roused him from his sleep. He’d been bleary-eyed and moving slowly, like he’d been walking in mud.
Until I’d told him why I was there.
I did my best to hold on to Flynn as we began up the trail that, similar to the one we’d been on earlier in the day, had roots and rocks all over the place. Worse, though, the trail had low-hanging branches and prickly bushes that grabbed at anything they could hang on to. I was so focused on the pitch-black surroundings and maintaining my position on BJ’s back that I didn’t hear much of what the men were saying back and forth to each other.
Then BJ came to a full stop.
And Flynn dismounted.
Curtis and Brooks did the same.
“Stay here,” Flynn said to me. He handed me BJ’s reins, but I doubted it would have mattered whether I held on to them or not. Truth was, I was probably in the safest spot considering where we were.
“We’re fine, we’re fine,” I repeated until my throat felt sore. BJ actually turned his neck so he could look in my direction, but I figured it was probably because the horse thought I’d lost my mind.
After several minutes, the men returned. Looks of worry and disappointment covered their faces every time their flashlights flickered over their expressions. Brooks appeared to be inconsolable as he returned to his horse. I wanted so badly to tell my friend that everything was being okay, but even if I’d been able to figure out how to get off BJ on my own, I wasn’t so sure there was anything I could say that would make things better.
“What did you find?” I softly asked Flynn when he reached BJ’s side.
I fully expected him to do his fancy footwork and climb on the horse in front of me, but to my surprise, he grabbed me by the waist and physically lifted me so he could settle me right behind the horn of the saddle. A split second later, Flynn was mounted behind me. He shifted my body until I was doing what I hadn’t wanted to do earlier that day when we’d been riding to see the wolves.
Straddling him.
“Flynn,” I began, but he didn’t let me finish.
“Get over yourself, Jules,” the man said curtly. “I’m only putting you in front of me because it’s going to get steep as hell soon. We’re going to spend the next couple of hours actually climbing a mountain, and you falling on your ass because you couldn’t be bothered to hold on to me the right way means it would take us that much longer to find Xavier.”
Flynn’s words stung.
He wasn’t pissed about being woken in the middle of the night to go in search of a man he barely knew; he was pissed at me specifically. With everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I was too tired to make sense of who had the right to be mad at who.
Besides, the shit between me and Flynn could keep… or go away altogether. What mattered was finding the man Brooks was meant to be with, and that took precedence over everything else.