POV: The Shadowed Stranger
Her scream still echoed throughout the trees well after her body went limp in my arms.
The sound was swallowed greedily by the forest, as if it understood what I carried… and what it meant. Moonlight filtered through the branches overhead, silver and cold, brushing her pale face. Her lashes were wet with tears she hadn't meant to shed. Her breathing was soft—shallow—but steady enough to keep me moving.
She was still alive.
Thank the fates.
My claws retracted, shifting her weight into a gentler hold. I hadn't meant to knock her unconscious. I'd leapt fast - too fast - after sensing Hunter and Trixie closing in. If I had been a heartbeat slower, they would have found her. And they wouldn't have stopped at hurting her.
They would have killed her.
An unfamilia
