He had thought the urge to shift and attack that had come over him when he had found her would have faded by now, but it was still going strong, kept him quiet as it filled his mind with images that made him restless. The replay spinning around his head was different every time, but one thing remained constant—the human male had survived the fall and Lowe had been the one to kill him.
Lowe glanced down at Cameo, studying her profile as she stared intently at the ground, carefully picking her way over it.
He wanted to know more about her situation, but one look at her was all it took for him to see she wasn’t ready to handle being questioned. She was too pale, her eyes unfocused despite how fiercely she watched the ground before her, and although she was doing her best to hide it from him, she was in pain. In shock.
Talking about the male would only remind her of what she had done. It would only make her condition worse. She wasn’t handling it well, was as quiet and lost in thought as he was, and his gut said she was still blaming herself for what had happened.
The scent of fear was still strong on her too, as acrid and overpowering as it had been when he had come upon her, when she had refused to look at the body, and it triggered a powerful reaction in him—a fierce need to protect her.
That urge had him striking out on a south-eastern path rather than heading directly east to attempt to find Knox. The weather was abysmal now and night was closing in, and getting Cameo somewhere warm where she could rest took priority. Knox was going to be furious with him when he returned to Black Ridge, but his brother would return there. He knew it in his heart and it calmed him, eased the need to find him and make sure he was all right.
Knox might understand his reason for choosing not to join up with him again when he met Cameo and saw the state of her. Being out in the cold was only going to worsen her condition, could even prove fatal for her. He knew a little about humans. They were weak, easily succumbed to hypothermia. He feared that her state of shock and her injuries might make it easier for hypothermia to seize her.
She hissed in a breath when she wobbled on a root and was forced to put her left foot down to steady herself.
He glared down at her injured leg. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with it, and he wanted to get a good look at it because he feared it might be broken. The need to get her tucked safe and warm inside his cabin grew stronger, rousing an urgency inside him that had his bear growing even more restless and had him turning to her.
“I can carry you.” The moment those words left his lips, she turned a glare on him. “I really don’t think now is the time to be stubborn.”
He pointed the flashlight at her leg, drawing her gaze to it.
“It’s fine,” she bit out. “I can walk.”
He wanted to growl at that, but held it back, aware that if he unleashed it he would only terrify her.
To prove her point, she broke free of his arm and defiantly hobbled a few steps, the toe of her left boot barely touching the dirt before she hopped forwards.
He grunted. “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way… but you don’t need to be stubborn about it.”
“I’m not stubborn,” she snapped, fire in her eyes as she scowled over her shoulder at him.
Maybe the shock was passing, for her at least. It felt as if it hit him instead as he stood there staring at her, bewitched by her spit and fire, by how her sky-blue eyes gained a sharp edge. She was beautiful, even when the soft curve of her jaw set in a hard line as her full lips flattened and her cheeks reddened. Caramel-coloured eyebrows knitted hard above those entrancing eyes, ones that dared him to say another word about her being stubborn.
Lowe got the feeling he had been wrong. She wasn’t stubborn. She was scared. She didn’t want to rely on him any more than she already was, clearly feared that she was pulling him into her mess. She was responsible. Courageous. A female who felt sure she could handle everything on her own.
Only she didn’t need to, not anymore.
That look in her eyes said she wouldn’t concede easily though, and as she dropped her gaze to her feet and leaned against a tree for support, he recognised something else. She didn’t want to be a burden.
Here was a female who was clearly used to being strong and capable, and who was ashamed of what had happened to her. Foolish female. Being injured and relying on someone else didn’t make her weak. Refusing help was being weak. Clinging to some crazy notion that she could do it all alone and hurting herself further just to prove a point to herself, well, that was something he wouldn’t allow.
He strode up to her, wrapped his right arm around her ribs and gripped her firmly, but not hard enough to accidentally hurt her, showing her that she wasn’t going to push him away that easily.
“You want to walk, then we’ll walk.” He looked down into her eyes and hated the edge of hopelessness and vulnerability they possessed. He sighed. “But, if you want me to pick you up, give you a rest like, just ask, Cameo. I’m not offering to do it to come across as some macho male or dominate you. I’m not trying to trample your independence or make you feel weak and helpless. I’m just trying to stop you from hurting and to help you get through this.”
She lowered her gaze to the ground again, a solemn look crossing her face. “I know.”
Her eyes slipped shut and she sighed.
Lowe leaned across her and placed the flashlight in her right hand, and she frowned down at it as he closed her gloved fingers around it.
“Light the way for us. We’re heading that way.” He directed the flashlight towards where he knew Black Ridge to be.
She nodded and clutched the light, kept it steady on the ground just a few feet in front of her, so it illuminated her path, and he started walking with her again. He could feel the tension in her easing as they crawled along at a snail’s pace. Giving her something to do that made her feel useful had been the right move. She was far more relaxed now, focused on her task, and was even leaning more heavily on him, using his strength and his support to help her move easily over the uneven terrain.
At this rate, they might make it to his cabin before the month was out.
“You really live up here?” Her soft voice barely reached him as a gust of wind roared through the trees and her question ended on a shriek as it shook snow loose from the trees and it showered down on her.
Lowe released her for a moment and brushed the white powder off the hood and shoulders of her dark jacket, and then slid his arm back around her. “This storm is getting worse.”
He scoured the route ahead of him, trying to make out where they were. The snow made it hard for him to recognise anything as it raced through the trees at almost a horizontal as the gale caught it.
“We should find somewhere to stop for the night.”
She locked up tight as he said that, her blue eyes leaping to his face. “We can’t stop outside in this weather. We’ll freeze.”
“Wasn’t talking about outside.” He squinted through the snow and thought he spotted a sheer rocky wall ahead that he recognised. “There’s plenty of caves around here.”
She gasped. “And plenty of bears or cougars in those caves.”
“The local wildlife won’t bother us.” He chuckled and when she looked at him as if he was insane, he tried to think like a human, because he didn’t like her looking at him that way, as if she wanted to run a mile from him. He glanced at her belt. “You’ve got your trusty bear spray. That’ll keep us safe.”