Page 96 of Hunted

His jaw hardened. “No. The snipers weren’t able to get a clean shot due to the risk they could hit one of us up on the walkway. There’s been an extensive search for his body downstream. So far, nothing has turned up.”

“How likely is it that they’ll find anything with the water so high?”

“It’s a challenge.”

I blinked as a headache formed behind my temples.

“Are you having another vision?” River went to the light switch and turned off the overhead lights. “Better?”

“I still think you’re wrong.” I raked the one hand not hooked to an IV drip through my hair, anxiety sending my heartrate spiraling. “You said it yourself. There have only been two registered seers identified in the last century. It also doesn’t explain the nightmares for the past six months. I was still human.”

“You want to hear my theory?” He lowered the railing on my bed. I scooted over. The nurses had scolded us more than once after catching River in bed with me. I didn’t care. He was the only one who could calm me when I got into an anxiety loop. He wrapped his arms around me, drawing me to his chest. “Your power was starting to manifest even back then. Our connection, first through me erasing your memories, then through our mated bond, allowed your wolf to access moon magic even before you turned. It’s why you were having terrible dreams of your death even before you regained your memories.” He stroked my hair back off my forehead.

“I was convinced the nightmares were due to my anxiety disorder, that my meds were playing tricks on my mind. I was under so much stress at the lab, from Rossi hunting me, I was sure I was going crazy.”

“I love you.” He kissed my forehead. “You’re my mate, Ellie. Wickedly brilliant. Rabbit whisperer. The most selfless person I’ve ever known. I love you more than I could ever put into words.”

“I love you.” I melted into his kiss, allowing the warmth of our mated bond to thrum through my bones. Mine. After what seemed like forever we broke apart. I rested my head on his shoulder. “I didn’t realize until Rossi’s vampire materialized us on top of the dam that the details from my visions matched the reality of what I’d been seeing all along, that I’d been able to see the future. It wasn’t just the water. All the smells, the sounds, him holding the gun pointing at you while you were bound on your knees… too many specific details matched up to what I’d seen in my dreams for it to be coincidence.” I drew a shaky breath, willing my heartrate to slow. “I don’t want special powers,” I whispered. “I don’t want it to be true. I’ve seen what you and West and Cal have to live with. I just want to figure out why my data isn’t right. I want to follow the science until I find a therapy to treat ALDD.” I shivered, glancing to the Tracer guard at the door. “If whoever was responsible for setting the fire comes back—”

“No one will get to you.” River tipped my chin towards him. “But I don’t like any of this. It’s a miracle no one was killed in the shooting at the lab. Quinn moved fast to take the shooter out and evacuate the building.”

“We lost months of research progress in the fire. I doubt we’ll be able to replicate it. Meera insisted we hold some data back when she learned the Vampire Nation scientists weren’t being entirely forthcoming with their progress in their labs.”

“Rossi’s black ops team corrupted the servers where your research data was being stored as well.” River reached into his hoodie pocket, extracting a thumb drive. Flecks of dark red blood still clung to the casing. “I had August make copies of this. They’re stored in multiple locations we haven’t disclosed to anyone.”

I took it from him, fingers shaking. “I had an anxiety attack just before I stopped work and the attack on the lab happened. I downloaded everything onto a thumb drive. I couldn’t explain, even to myself, what made me do it.” I looked up at him. “But when I shifted back, I was naked.”

“You were naked and you had this clutched in your hand.” A smile tugged at the edge of his lips. “I guess you knew if you could only bring one thing back through the change with you, you needed to reserve all your strength to reform this flash drive correctly. But try not to make fun of Dallas. He’s been a shifter for three decades, and he still turns his cell phone into a brick every damn time if he forgets to take it out of his pocket before going furry.”

“I was so scared,” I whispered, taking his fingers and pressing them to my lips. “We were up there on top of the dam and Rossi had a gun to your head. I was scared I would never get to tell you that I wished two years ago when Guillermo had offered me the choice to be turned, I had let him turn me. I was afraid even back then, what it would mean, that I would go feral. That I would lose part of myself. I’d seen what happened to Topher, how he was dragged into the audience hall that day, lost to feral madness after being tortured by the vampires and running around in the woods like an animal for months.”

“I know.” River caressed my cheek, lips finding the crown of my head. Of course he’d known. He’d heard all those fears that day, my rage, my anxieties, all of it. “What happened to Topher was unforgivable. But we take care of our own. Topher is pack now. He found his mate. You’re pack now. Nothing will happen to you. I swear it.”

He kissed me, and as I let myself melt into his kiss I felt the rightness of our mating bond, the mistakes we’d both made over the past two years fading into the past. We had healing to do. River and I would take the time to fully recover together, and we would emerge stronger for it.

River gently rose from the bed. “Will you be okay for a few hours? There’s something I need to take care of.”