Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
LEON
Some hours later, they reached the river again, heads and tails tucked against the steady rain. Leon padded to the riverbank and crouched to drink, only to freeze as he saw the water.
It was swollen and wild, nothing like the slow, predictable current of only yesterday.
The surface frothed and surged, looking as if it might boil over its banks, with debris caught in angry eddies.
It had to have been raining hard upriver for days, long before the storm had reached them.
He decided against risking a drink and instead shook himself, water flying uselessly from his fur.
He was soaked, cold and tired, and now they’d have to keep an eye on the water level as they ran.
Then Karl bolted.
One moment he was trotting ahead. The next, he shifted, powered forward on two feet and launched himself in a shallow dive into the churning river.
Leon’s gut lurched. He sprinted to where Karl had gone in and skidded to a stop, his claws digging into the slick mud to hold him. What the fuck? He leaned out as far as he dared, eyes straining through the sheets of rain.
The current had already pulled Karl downstream.
His body was spinning, vanishing and reappearing between surges of whitewater, his dark head just visible among the chaos.
Occasionally, an arm broke the surface in a ragged attempt at swimming—enough to tell Leon he was alive, not enough to explain what the fuck he thought he was doing.
He ran, not knowing where the river went and cursing himself for his previous lack of curiosity about the geography of the area.
He thought about flinging himself in after Karl because jaguars were damn powerful swimmers—far more so than humans.
But the way the water was churning, he didn’t trust his chances of keeping eyes on Karl if he went in.
The river curved, shallow and wide but moving with terrifying power.
Leon kept pace, racing through mud and brush, branches whipping at his face, every instinct screaming.
He didn’t know where the river would take Karl, didn’t know if he could reach him in time, but he knew he was damn well going to try.
Karl’s body tumbled again, and this time slammed hard into a half-submerged tree trunk jutting from the bank. Leon winced at the impact. The trunk caught him, held him in place, but it also trapped him in the current so that water kept pummeling him and debris battered into him.
Leon didn’t hesitate. He shifted, hit the mud barefoot, and scrambled along the slick trunk.
It was treacherous, the bark long since worn away to leave the wood slippery with water and algae.
Wind howled, rain lashed his face, and the trunk rocked under his weight—but he was a cat, damn it, and cats were built to keep their balance even when it seemed impossible.
At least, that was what he told himself when he nearly slipped, caught himself, and dropped down to all fours so he could use his hands as well.
Once he got close enough, he carefully knelt and reached out. Karl had no idea he was there, and he had to yell to let him know. Karl somehow managed to turn around and look up at him. Instead of reaching up a hand to grab Leon’s, he pushed a tiny, soaking-wet bundle of fur at him.
Leon took it automatically, fingers closing around it in disbelief. For a heartbeat, he stared. Then his brain kicked in, and he turned cautiously to crawl back toward the bank, shielding the wolf pup with his body, and cursing wolves and their stupid chivalrous instincts the entire way.
He put it down on the muddy bank, where it lay unmoving. He didn’t have time to do anything for it right now—Karl was his priority.
The tree rocked again under his weight, but Karl was still there, still alive, gulping in mouthfuls of air and also water, as whitewater surged and slammed into the trunk.
Leon braced himself, grabbed Karl under the arms, and hauled.
It wasn’t elegant or easy, but with Leon’s efforts, and Karl pushing with what little strength he had, he got him free of the trunk and onto the bank.
Karl collapsed onto his back, chest heaving, bloody water masking one side of his face. Leon dropped to his knees beside him.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” His voice cracked with the force of it. Karl flinging himself into a raging river was the most senseless thing he’d ever seen. And as he’d spent the last few days with a wolf pack, he’d seen a whole sea of senseless.
“You don’t just—just dive into a fucking river like that—”
Karl opened one eye. “Is it alive?”
Leon blinked. “What?”
“The pup.”
Somehow, he’d forgotten. Leon turned, half-expecting to see a corpse. But the scrap of fur was still breathing, its side rising in weak, shallow pants. It was cold, though. Too cold. Leon gathered it into his arms, pressing it close to his chest. It didn’t protest, didn’t even move.
As soon as he had it in his arms, he knew. It was a shifter.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he breathed, as he rubbed it gently, trying to warm it.
Karl didn’t move. His eyes were closed again, his face pale.
Leon stared at him. “How in the name of all that’s holy could you tell?”
Karl didn’t answer.
The blood on Karl’s face came from somewhere high in his scalp.
It had clumped his hair and streaked down his temple, diluted by river water.
But the real damage was lower. His thigh was torn open, blood welling steadily from a gash that looked as though it had been made by jagged rock or submerged debris.
And Karl’s breathing was far too shallow.
“You might have internal injuries,” Leon muttered. “You might be drowning from the inside. I don’t even have a fucking shirt to tear up for bandages.”
“Wouldn’t let you rip mine, anyway,” Karl said between ragged breaths.
Leon barked a laugh. It came out too sharp, too high, and kept coming, ricocheting between relief and fury and something else he didn’t want to name.
“You’re such a jerk,” he gasped, still holding the pup tight. “A fucking noble, suicidal jerk—what if I hadn’t seen you go in? What if I’d been five seconds slower—what if you hadn’t hit the tree—what if—”
“Leon,” Karl said, and it wasn’t loud, but it cut through the spiral in his head.
Leon shut up, but the twist in his chest that had been there since he first saw Karl go into the water didn’t go away. With no medical supplies, no clothing, and no way of getting evac, he did the only thing he could.
“Don’t go getting ideas about a rerun of earlier.
I’m just keeping you warm,” he said as he lay down next to Karl, put his arm very gently across his stomach, and moved in as close as he could, sharing body heat.
He held the little pup between them so it got the benefit of their combined warmth. It hadn’t stirred.
“This doesn’t mean I like you,” Leon said.
Karl gave a grunt of what might’ve been laughter.
They lay there in the mud and rain, shivering, hearts still pounding, pressed close like it meant something, even though it didn’t.
“Think my ribs are busted,” Karl said, which might explain his breathing. “Is it okay?”
“It’s alive, at least. And warming up a bit. But for the love of God, how could you tell it was a shifter?”
Karl sucked in a sharp breath, then tensed all over, eyes screwing even closer shut. He stayed like that for an uncomfortably long time before breathing out very slowly and shallowly.
“Fuck.” He drew a few more careful breaths and then opened his eyes and looked at Leon. It was disconcerting seeing those brown eyes dark with pain, so different from a few hours ago. Leon pressed even closer against him, wanting to give as much comfort as he could. “It’s a fucking shifter?”
Leon couldn’t help it. He laughed. He laughed so hard that he thought he was probably hysterical. “You risked your life for an ordinary wolf pup that was likely already drowned?”
“Knew it wasn’t drowned,” Karl said, and he sounded so tired. “It was on top of a log, but it was just a matter of time.”
“And it was worth getting this badly hurt over a wild animal that might not make it anyway?” Leon didn’t dislike other creatures, but he did believe in nature taking its course.
And from what he’d gathered about Karl so far, he hadn’t pegged him as soft-hearted.
Protective, yeah, but at heart, he was a fighter.
“Didn’t want anyone else dying on my watch.”
The words were so quiet that Leon wasn’t positive he’d heard them correctly. They also sounded slightly slurred, and that worried him.
He glanced around, hoping for a tree or even a bush to shelter under.
God knew, they’d spent half the day surrounded by the things.
But there was nothing nearby, just sodden ground and cold rain.
And it wasn’t like he had anything to rig a shelter with anyway.
All he could do was try to keep Karl warm despite the damn rain that kept falling, hoping his enhanced healing would repair his injuries and protect him from hypothermia.
He pressed closer against him, trying to think of a way out of this.