Even though Brock’s bugaboo was raging to be released, he held the creature back. Not yet. Not now.

It would just make a big, white, fluffy, easy to find target. Unlike Doc’s lithe and sleek puma, his bugaboo would leave more than just a scent trail. It was heavy and left some serious tracks. For right now, staying human was the better option. Especially because he still needed his hands.

Hopefully the time he’d taken to raid the skunk house’s spice cabinet would pay off, otherwise they were going to be in a fight for their lives instead of just running for them. Then his bugaboo would come in handy. 

Snarling, it crouched in the back of his head like a malevolent force ready to be unleashed on the evil. But he couldn't just dive in and kill them all—he had to protect Doc. While she might be a ferocious mountain cat, Brock didn't doubt their pursuers probably had both silver bullets and tranquilizers. He wasn't taking any chances with her safety.

He'd been too young to do anything when he and his siblings had been kidnapped, too unsuspecting when his squad had been betrayed by one of their own, but he could do this. He could make sure Doc stayed safe.

And if he couldn't, he'd die in the attempt, because there was no way she was being killed on his watch, not as long as he was still breathing. 

Doc moved much faster than he did, since she was in cat form, and she kept slowing down and looking over her shoulder at him. Keeping his ears perked behind them, for the sounds of pursuit, he waved his hands to shoo her forward. Until he saw a huge boulder and realized this was their chance to muddy the trail. 

A howl back by the houses—full of anger—indicated they'd probably found the body of their dead comrade. Using hand signals, Brock pointed to the right, directing Doc to go behind the boulder. If a puma could look confused, she did. Pulling out the cayenne pepper he'd been able to find in the spice cabinet, Brock waved her a little farther along past the boulder and then he dumped the whole thing right across the path they were taking. Fortunately it wasn't windy, and the boulder should hide some of the scent.

It was something Meredith, his squad leader, had told him about before she'd been killed. Not only would it be extremely unpleasant for the shifters, it would affect how well they were able to follow a trail and they would also follow it much more slowly. Maybe give him enough time to set up more booby traps and slow them down even more.

At the very least, he and Doc should be able to move far enough ahead of them to rest a little bit and check in with Steele or Eli. They needed backup. His bugaboo tried to insist he could protect them all, but Brock wasn’t willing to risk it—and when he looked at Doc’s lithe form and thought about her having to battle it out with The Company’s soldiers, his bugaboo settled. Sulkily.

They went about fifty yards before Brock indicated they should leave the trail and head in the direction they'd originally been going. Doc's puma gave him a look, but followed his lead as they worked their way deeper into the woods.

They could hear the hunting call of a wolf, coming closer every time it sounded, and it was all Brock could do not to break into a run. But moving carefully and not leaving a trail was more important. Granted, he was still moving pretty quickly but they were definitely not running.

When Brock heard sudden howls—not those of a hunting predator, but those of two creatures in pain—he grinned. Sounded like he'd managed to hit both of the shifters with his little cayenne pepper booby trap. If he was really lucky, they wouldn't even be able to tell when he and Doc had changed direction again. They might even go back to the skunk's commune thinking that he and Doc might be looping back around to the car.

He could only hope.

The look Doc's puma gave him now was curious, but he shooed her on with his hands. When they got further away or managed to find somewhere sheltered from the wind, then he might try talking to her.

But his grin grew as he heard the sound of sneezing and loud, shouted curses. His bugaboo snorted in superiority.

They were far enough away he could barely hear the soldiers, even though they were very loud, and that made him feel even better. As long as he and Doc kept being quiet and didn’t start shouting, the others wouldn’t be able to track them by sound. So far, so good.

******

The sounds of their pursuers were dwindling quickly. Whatever Brock had done to slow them down, it was definitely effective, and Doc felt a little surge of triumph. Although her puma was a predator and Doc had no problem killing the bad guys after them, she didn't have the same kind of training as Brock did and they were heavily outnumbered. Sure she could fight, but she wasn't a soldier, and their pursuers definitely were. 

It was very likely a losing proposition if they actually came face to face.

Fortunately, she was pretty sure they were putting quite a bit of distance between themselves and the group behind them. If the bad guys were even still on their trail. Brock seemed pretty cheerful.

They kept going, and the sound of the others completely disappeared, allowing Doc to relax somewhat. They still weren’t safe, but safer than they were was still good.

She let Brock set the pace, since he couldn’t move as fast as her.

About an hour later, he finally slowed, looking warily behind them. Doc slowed with him, cocking her head as she looked up at him. He wasn’t exactly short anyway, but in her current form he was so much taller than her that she couldn’t really make out his expression when she was this close to him until he looked down at her.

Pulling out his phone, even though they hadn’t heard any sign of their pursuers, he kept his voice low. “I’m going to try to get in touch with Steele or Eli to let them know what’s going on.”

Doc nodded, turning back to face the way they came and keep an eye and ear out so Brock could keep his back to their pursuers while he spoke. He seemed tense, so she leaned against his leg.

Her puma shivered with happiness as his hand came down to scratch behind her ears and Doc would have rolled her eyes if she could have. Silly cat. But she had to admit… it did feel really good. Made it hard to suppress her rumbling purr, but she made sure not to make the noise anyway.

When Steele picked up the phone, Brock’s fingers stiffened. As usual, he didn’t mince words, talking low and fast even as Steele began to curse.

“It was a trap. Two shifters and three humans on our trail at least. I assume silver bullets. Doc and I are in the woods behind the community, we’re going to need backup.”

The growling fury in Steele’s voice when he responded sent a shiver down Doc’s spine.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can. Keep your phone on silent. I’ll send updates as I can…. Fuck. You know we’re probably not going to be able to make it there until the middle of the night at the earliest.”

“I know.”

“Fuck. Your sisters are going to kill me.” Steele hung up the phone. Doc shivered again. A whole night? On the run? This sucked.

Brock’s fingers massaged, soothing her a little as her fur rippled.

Nice. Her puma was practically sighing and melting under his touch now. The silly creature wasn’t nearly as bothered by the danger as Doc was. Then again, like any animal, her cat didn’t tend to think in terms of future threat. Right now they were safe though and she was having her ears scratched by a male she liked. As far as the puma was concerned things weren’t so bad.

“Alright pretty kitty, let’s keep going.”

Pretty kitty?

The flush of pleasure that went through Doc was almost like a hot blush. He thought she was pretty?

******

Brock could tell he was distracted, otherwise he would have never called Doc ‘pretty kitty’ out loud. The words had left his mouth before he’d really registered them. Now he was just pretending he hadn’t actually said them, keeping his face blank as he set the pace again.

There was no need to freak out about some words anyway. She probably hadn’t even noticed. They did have bigger things on their minds right now, after all.

Like finding somewhere to hide for the night.

They didn’t have food, but they did need to rest. Damn those betraying shifters. If it weren’t for them, Brock wouldn’t hesitate to shift and find both him and Doc some food. Plus, the two of them would have been able to outrun any humans. They might be able to do the same with the shifters, but it would use up a lot more of their energy, make them into much bigger targets, and they could easily go running headlong into another trap.

He wasn’t going to risk Doc that way. The tactics he might use on his own or with another soldier were different from what he felt comfortable doing with her.

We protect, his bugaboo agreed fiercely.

Just as the sun was beginning to set, they came across a small outcropping of rocks running alongside a stream. Signaling for a stop, Brock studied it, trying to decide if it was a good place to stop. As he tried to make the decision, Doc suddenly shifted beside him.

Holy fuck!

Brock snapped his gaze back forward, trying not to blush.

He and his siblings still weren’t quite used to the casualness with which shifters viewed nudity. Especially because… well… his body had an immediate and decisive reaction to Doc specifically being nude and right beside him.

Mount her?

Great. Just what he needed, a horny bugaboo to make this situation just totally FUBAR.

FUBAR was a term he’d learned at Lakewood from an extremely ornery gator shifter, it meant Fucked-Up-Beyond-All-Recognition. If that wasn’t the term for this exact situation of a mission gone to complete hell, he didn’t know what was.

“We should probably stop for the night if we can,” she said in a low voice, apparently completely unconcerned by him seeing her naked.

There was no way he was going to be able to concentrate when she was standing next to him with all that smooth, pale skin showing, her dark pink nipples puckering in the wind, the neatly trimmed curls on her mound which were a darker shade of red than the hair on her head…

Stripping off his shirt and handing it to her was completely self-defensive. Or at least, necessary for his own mental sanity. Not to mention the way his cock was now throbbing.

“Put this on,” he said gruffly.

The bemused smile on her face as she tugged his shirt over her head made him scowl. He didn’t see what was so amusing. Unfortunately, even clothed she didn’t become less attractive or distracting. Her hair was waving around her face in disarray and now she was wearing his shirt, which fell to her upper thighs and made her look like she’d just finished a night in his bed. The sight just turned him on even more than when she’d been naked if that was possible.

It also made his bugaboo oddly, possessively satisfied. An emotion Brock didn’t quite understand.

Doc wasn’t his.

So why did he like her looking like she was his?

“Are we stopping here?” she asked, uncertainly, and he realized he was staring at her face while dealing with his burst of surprising emotions.

He cleared his throat, trying to cover his discomfort. Hopefully she wouldn’t look at the front of his pants and realize why he was so distracted.

“Maybe. Let’s see if we can find a good spot.”

Fortunately the rocks weren’t gravely and there was plenty of packed down dirt for Doc to walk on as they explored. There were no caves or overhangs, which was what Brock had been hoping for, but on the other side of the outcropping was a really nice willow tree with drooping branches and lots of soft grass underneath.

Not as good as a fortress, but it would be fairly comfortable, and Brock was pretty certain they’d lost their followers at least for now. The woods were big after all and they’d need their own backup. Plus, they didn’t actually know who they were looking for. He bet they were more interested in the vaccines than anything else. If he was really lucky, they wouldn’t realize one of The Company’s prime targets was the one running around with the vaccines.

“Is it safe to stop?” Doc asked nervously even as she sat down on the soft grass, looking exhausted.

“Safe enough,” Brock said. “We can’t keep moving all night. We’ll exhaust ourselves and not be able to fight. If they do catch up to us, at least we’ll be rested and they won’t be.”

“That’s a good point.” Doc flopped onto her back and Brock looked up at the branches above him. The hem of his shirt was tantalizingly close to her gorgeous pussy again and he was really struggling with the physical desire running through him.

Mount!

He ignored the voice.

“Try to sleep. I’ll keep watch,” he said, turning around so he didn’t have to keep looking at her laying back on the soft grass in a far-too-inviting position.

******

The grass was actually pretty comfortable and it was a nice warm night, but Doc couldn’t quite let go of her nerves. It didn’t help that Brock was still standing.

Rolling over, she rested her head on her arm as she observed him. Facing outward, his shoulders were tense. Her eyes traveled over the exposed muscles of his back. There were some scars, probably from before he’d been made into a shifter, but they didn’t at all take away from his physical attractiveness. Might even add to it.

He also had a damn fine butt.

The purr of her puma signaled agreement. The cat liked how protective he was. It had also liked being called ‘pretty kitty.’ Doc had to admit, she liked it too.

She was starting to really understand why so many women had been jumping into his bed and ignoring his lack of social skills. The strong, silent thing didn’t normally appeal to her, but it looked good on Brock. At least, it did now; maybe because she felt like she knew him a little better than she had before.

As if he could feel her staring, he suddenly turned and looked at her over his shoulder. When she jerked her gaze upwards, blushing, he raised his eyebrow at her. Oops. He totally knew she’d been checking out his butt.

“Go to sleep.” His voice was low.

Doc sighed. “I can’t. I’m too wound up and tense because I can sense you are. Maybe… come sit next to me? Relax a little?”

“I don’t want to relax,” he said, but he moved over to stand next to her and slowly lowered himself into a sitting position. Doc sat up and he scowled at her, which she ignored.

It was different from when she’d ignored him before though. Before she used to ignore his grumpy demeanor because she thought she’d eventually work past it. Now she ignored it because it didn’t actually bother her, it was just part of who he was. She didn’t take it personally, because she was pretty sure he liked her.

In more ways than she’d realized going by the bulge he was trying, unsuccessfully, to hide.

“I thought if I sat down, you’d sleep,” he said, his scowl deepening.

“If you laid down and slept with me I might be able to,” she said truthfully. “I can’t just fall asleep when you’re standing up alert and on guard.”

“And I can’t fall asleep when I need to be alert and on guard,” he retorted, although without the bite he used to have in his voice when he countered something she said. “We can’t be sure we lost them.”

“What was it you put down on our trail?” she asked.

“Cayenne pepper.”

She stared at him.

Blinked.

Giggled.

Giggled some more. For some reason she couldn’t stop giggling even though it wasn’t that funny… but remembering the frantic cursing they’d heard earlier, it kind of was. But Brock was staring at her like she was crazy and so she tried to make the giggles bubbling up in her throat stop, but the more she tried the harder it was.

And then she snorted.

Which made Brock start laughing.

Quietly, but he was totally laughing. Which did all sorts of crazy things to her libido.

Show him your tail! Her puma suggested.

The bad thing was, it was starting to seem like not that bad of an idea. But her growing physical response to him did manage to finally stifle her giggles.

Of course, as soon as she stopped giggling the tension between them grew. Stretched. Should she keep ignoring the bulge in his pants? Because she had wanted to brush out the cobwebs from her vagina and even though she’d gone on a couple of dates she hadn’t done more than that with anyone yet.

Brock had definitely not been the man she’d imagined breaking her dry spell with, but he was the man currently making her wet. That had to mean something, right?

“So…” He broke eye contact with her, leaving her feeling a little disappointed. Apparently it didn’t mean something because he was totally going to ignore his own obvious sexual interest in her. Boo. Pout. “I guess this is probably the worst thing to ever happen to you, huh?”

A surprised laugh burst from her throat. “It’s probably the most dangerous, but so far I wouldn’t call it the worst.”

“Really?” Now he focused back on her, looking extremely dubious.

Her smile grew a little more strained now. Dammit. There was a reason she didn’t talk about her past. It made her sad. And mad.

Smad. It made her smad.

Since she didn’t like being smad, avoidance tended to work really well for her. Because she was over it. Mostly.

On the other hand, she didn’t really like the way Brock was looking at her either. Like he didn’t believe she’d gone through something worse than this. Which did kind of make her want to tell him just to prove him wrong.

******

“We’re hiding out in the woods with no food, supplies, or backup while being chased by soldiers who will either kill us or capture us to take us back to be experimented on after stealing our medicine to use for their own purposes, and this isn’t the worst thing you’ve ever experienced?” He knew his skepticism was showing through and he definitely getting under her skin, but come on.

Strawberry Shortcake, who always acted like everything was sunshine and roses, went searching for even the slimmest of silver linings, and thought happily-ever-afters were real, had been through worse than this?

Be nicer or she won’t like us. The chiding tone of his bugaboo made Brock feel a little guilty. After all, she was handling all of this pretty well.

And he was realizing he did want her to like him.

Maybe more than like him.

But he couldn’t keep his disbelief completely hidden. Definitely too late now.

She scowled. Even that looked cute and kind of sexy with her messy hair as she smoothed her hands down her thighs in irritation. Which, of course, drew his attention to her long, sexy legs and their complete lack of coverage.

“I’ve gone for a lot longer without food and so far we’re not caught, so no, the hypotheticals of the situation are not the worst thing I’ve lived through. If we are killed or captured and then tortured or experimented on, I’ll change my answer.”

Something about the way her voice quavered immediately convinced him of her sincerity even though she didn’t give any details. Protective rage filled him, his bugaboo growling as well, as he focused on the first part of her statement.

“How much longer without food?” he asked. They might have only missed one meal, but he didn’t like the idea of her missing any meals. He especially didn’t like the way the light seemed to have dropped out of her face as she shrugged, her expression carefully composed. Even closed off. “What happened to you?”

Doc sighed. Rubbed her hands over her thighs again. He could tell she was uncomfortable… but he wanted to know. Almost felt like he needed to know. He didn’t know why, but he just wanted to know her and he had a feeling right now he was learning things she kept from most people.

“My mom passed away when I was fourteen. She was human and she had cancer,” Doc said, not quite meeting his eyes. Brock’s heart ached for her. Obviously she’d loved her mom a lot and losing her had been a big blow. He would have never guessed Doc had lost someone she loved, especially not so young. Around the same age his own life had imploded, although not in the same way obviously.

Then Doc’s voice changed. Hardened. She didn’t sound like herself at all. 

“About a year later, my dad met another woman. Becky. She… well, she was basically a complete evil stepmother. Totally obsessed with social climbing and she wasn’t very kind.” From the blank way Doc was talking, her stepmother had been more than unkind. Brock felt rage growing inside of him and he scooted closer, slinging his arm around her shoulders. He didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but she didn’t protest and he felt the overwhelming need to hold her. To offer some kind of comfort. “My dad wasn’t the same man after my mother died and he basically left me in her care. When I was eighteen she tried to arrange a marriage between me and a local wolf alpha. Didn’t care that he was three times my age or that his pack was completely terrified of him or that his last mate had died under suspicious circumstances.”

The bitterness in her voice was so great Brock felt his entire chest aching. He squeezed her a little tighter and she turned her head, resting it on his shoulder. Which at least made him feel like he was doing something, even though what he wanted to do was go hunt down both her stepmother and this alpha.

“What happened?” he asked softly, even though he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the end of the story. Instinctively, he already knew it didn’t end in a happily-ever-after for her. He felt like a total shit for having made the assumptions he had about her. While he couldn’t do anything to change that, he could at least listen. Let her get it all out. The therapist at Lakewood had said that was important.

“My dad gave me a choice. Mate who Becky thought was a good choice or get out.” The bitter betrayal in her voice was so thick, Brock never wanted to hear her sound like that again. He hauled her onto his lap, ignoring the nakedness of her lower body and hoping he was doing the right thing. Doc snuggled right into him, wiggling slightly on top of his hard cock, which hadn’t gone down despite her story. Being so close to her, holding her, it was unlikely his erection was going anywhere.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her hair. Not just because he was sorry about what happened to her, but also because he was sorry about all the unkind thoughts he’d had. All the assumptions he’d made. She wasn’t cheery and optimistic because she’d never faced any real hardship—she was that way despite everything she’d gone through.

Which made her one of the strongest people he’d ever met. Now all he could do was admire her for the very traits which had once annoyed the hell out of him. For a long moment he just held her, trying to ignore his physical reaction to having her on his lap.

“Hey Brock…” She wriggled again, and he manfully swallowed as his lower body throbbed. Definitely not the time to put the moves on her, not after that sad story. Even his bugaboo wasn’t pressing him for sex—it was fully in protect mode now and ready to kill anything which hurt Doc, physically or emotionally.

“Yeah?” he asked, trying to shift his hand to where it wouldn’t brush against her silky skin. Much better to place it over her t-shirt, even if that meant resting it against her hip.

“Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

“I… uh… what?” he stammered as Doc sat up a little straighter, twisting in his lap so she could look at him.

The sparkle was back in her eyes as she smiled at him impishly. “Cuz I’m pretty sure that’s not a banana.”

Then the crazy woman—whose mood swings were fucking impossible to follow—grabbed his face, leaned forward, and kissed him.