“We won’t,” Gina told him. She knew it was the truth. “There’s no way you can survive off of that kind of food if you’re lugging me through the forest. And you’re certainly not leaving me behind.”
Dean crouched down on the balls of his feet. He nodded again. “You’re right. We’re going to run out of food, way before we can get to our destination. We’re expending so much more energy than we’re taking in. It’s not going to work.”
“What do we do, Dean?” Gina asked. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“We’re going to North Williamstown,” he said. It was said without any gravity, as if it wasn’t a big problem.
“Dean, it’s been destroyed.”
“No, it hasn’t,” he said. His golden eyes glinted. Gina could tell that he knew something she didn’t.
“What?” the question had a bit of venom in it.
“When the broadcast said ‘lost’, the General didn’t mean it had been destroyed. It’s probably a breeding ground for the worst of mankind right now.”
Gina felt her heart turn to ice. She had expected most of the town to be leveled, littered with dead bodies and rubble. But she had imagined it would be possible to find some food, somewhere. Dean had a good nose and sharp eyes. She had believed they could get food there.
She had never imagined it to be full of the dregs of what remained of society, but it made sense. She’d seen some of them in Haysberry on that first night — they had already started looting within hours. What would they be doing a few days after the fact? She thought she knew, but she refused to dwell on it.
“Is there any other option? Can you hunt?”
Dean looked unsure. “I can try, but if I fail, I’ll burn up even more of my energy. This is a serious situation, Gina.”
“I know.”
“Well, then let’s get you down the mountain.”
Gina swallowed and reached for a bag, but Dean shook his head. “We can’t leave them, Dean.”
“I’ll come back up here later,” he told her. He packed up most of their food, with the exception of two meal packs and a can for Petey. He also grabbed a blanket. Then he stashed the duffel bags underneath a rock overhang, hidden from view.
He came close to her, bending down. Gina felt his warmth enveloping her, felt his hands wrapping tightly around her body. She wished it was for something else. Tears were rolling down her face.
“Dean, I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he told her with a smile. She knew he was saying that for her sake. Things were bad. “You’re going to have to carry our food and blanket.”
Gina reached out and grabbed them, pulling them onto her stomach. Petey jumped up on her, and then Dean lifted them both up, one arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders. He took a few steps and Gina could hear him already wheezing under the load.
He was beat, though she hadn’t noticed how badly until now. His wounds were healed, but the low food intake and the constant hiking had taken its toll.
Getting down the back side of the mountain took hours, but finally, they reached the bottom. Dean was dripping sweat and Gina was wincing in pain at every step Dean took. Petey whimpered the whole way down.
Once they reached the bottom, Dean deposited them in the bushes, hidden from view if someone was out in the woods. He laid out a blanket for Gina, gave her two meal packs, and then headed back up the mountain.
“Wait,” Gina said. “Dean, you can’t go back up there tonight.”
“We need our supplies, and we can’t spare that time in the morning. Get some rest. I’ll be back soon.”
“At least take a meal and eat while you’re going up.”
“You’ll need them more than I will,” he said, then he came over to her, and kissed her on the lips. Gina was so surprised that she didn’t immediately kiss back, but then she was, their lips moving together. When Dean pulled away, even he looked surprised, but he gave her a smile and disappeared into the forest.
The sun was going down and the gloom was darkening. All around her, she heard the sounds of the forest she was growing accustomed to. That didn’t mean she had to like it, though. She heard a few bird chirps, the hoot of an owl, and another stream gurgling. Petey, on the other hand, was relaxing, face buried in his food. Gina looked down at her own meal pack, feeling her stomach turn at the thought of eating another.
Still, she had no choice. She was starving and her body needed the nutrients. What little the meal packs could offer, anyway. She peeled the first one open and dug in, eating it in only a few minutes. The taste of the food helped keep her mind off of her ankle. She looked at the second meal pack, and shrugging, opened that one too.
After eating two entire meal packs, Gina felt a bit better. She wasn’t in good shape., not yet, anyway, but the food helped. She lay back on the blanket, lacing her hands behind her head, and thought about what was going to happen next.
Dean was a strong, powerful man. But even he had his limits. She hoped that he wouldn’t reach them while trying to get her safely out of the woods. She couldn’t even imagine how he could keep his energy up. He was going back up the mountain tonight, then coming back down, and then tomorrow he’d be chopping down trees and building her a litter.
After that, he’d be dragging her through the woods, all while most likely starving himself. It was going to be tough.
Gina sat up and poked at her ankle. Flashes of pain jolted through her body. The sprain was bad, but she thought in maybe as little as a week she could be walking again. It hurt, but she thought it was just a grade one sprain. If it really was a grade two, then it could be an entire month before she was walking again. She would never survive.
Gina tried to keep her mind occupied and off of her injury and Dean, but it was pointless. She couldn’t think of anything but. Her thoughts mainly focused on the kiss he had given her before he had gone up to the mountain. What had that meant? Was he coming around?
*
Why did I do that? Dean had been asking himself that question over and over as he climbed back up the mountain. He couldn’t find the answer.
Kissing Gina hadn’t been planned, but once it had occurred to him he’d been powerless to resist. It wasn’t like he had tried to fight it, though.
He enjoyed it more than he would admit.
Now, he was using that thought to keep his mind off of the grueling climb in front of him. But getting their supplies was only the first step. He’d have to make his way back down, carrying the heavy bags of food, and then start working on the litter to drag Gina through the woods.
The litter was the only idea he could think of, and it made sense. But they had no traditional tools, so Dean was going to have to shift. He’d have to really exert himself cutting down all of the trees and branches they would need, and that wasn’t even the hard part. The hard part would be shifting in the first place. It was never easy, and now, in his weakened state, he wasn’t even sure if he could do it at all.
“Damn,” he muttered to himself. His grandfather would be more disappointed in him than he could express. He’d yell at him, berate him, and ask him what kind of a Shifter he was. Ask him what kind of a survivalist he was. He wouldn’t have an answer.
Dean growled, pulling himself up a rock. He pushed the thought away. His grandfather was dead; he had been for years. He was good at surviving and embracing his Shifter tendencies. But that didn’t make him a good man, as Dean was finding out. They had never butted heads in life, but now that Dean was with Gina, he was finding out that he was clashing with his grandfather. He was learning some things about himself every day.
He was realizing that he would do nearly anything for Gina. She’d stuck by his side, even when he had blamed her for starting the fire. She hadn’t abandoned him, even when his temper got the best of him or he drove them hard through the woods.
She had taken care of him and brought him back to the world. So he would take care o
f her, no matter what the cost.
He found the bags easily and picked them up. They were heavier than he was expecting, but he reasoned that was a good thing. They still had food. Without even waiting for a break, Dean started back down the mountain. He made good time going down. Instead of carrying the bags down each rock, he just tossed them in front of him over and over.
Still, the moon was already going down when he finally reached the campground. Gina was fast asleep when he returned. Petey looked up and gave him a look, then came over and stood with him. Dean set the bags down as quietly as he could, then he unzipped one bag, pulled out a meal pack, and took it a few steps away before digging in.
It wasn’t much, but he felt a little bit better. Just a little bit. Then he carefully peeled off his clothes and sat them next to the bags. It was time to get to work.
*
Gina’s ankle woke her up. It was a dull throb, now. She hadn’t been having much luck in this apocalypse. Well, besides meeting Dean. She sat up and looked around. One of the duffel bags was on the ground, a few feet from the blanket. Petey was lying next to her on the blanket.
Where was Dean?
In answer, she heard a grunt behind her. She turned and looked. The first thing she noticed was that Dean was absolutely, completely, nude. Her eyes flew open, watching his body as he crouched down, working with some felled trees.
He was covered in dirt and skinnier than the last time she had seen him naked in the bunker, but he was still a sight to take in. His legs were like tree trunks in themselves, his chest was heaving up in down in exertion, and he was covered in a slick sheen of sweat.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Dean jumped ever so slightly before he looked at her. “Working on your litter. What do you think of it?”
He took a few steps back, having the modesty to cover himself for once. Maybe he was remembering what it’s like to be around people again, she thought. He picked up a pair of his underwear and slid them on. When he was clothed, Gina finally turned her attention to the litter.
It was simple, but it looked like it would work. Two decent sized logs made the frame, which Dean would grab on to. Other smaller branches were at the top and bottom to give it some stability. She saw that the trees were held together at the joints by strips of one of the bags. A blanket had been laid across the middle of the litter. She could see other branches and tree limbs underneath it.
It certainly wouldn’t be comfortable, but it looked like it would get her from this mountain to the city in one piece.
“It looks good, Dean,” Gina told him, and she meant it. “Thank you.”
“It won’t be the most comfortable ride in the world, but I promise it’ll hold up,” he told her, with a smile. She could tell that he took pride in his work. She looked at his face and saw dark bags under his eyes. He was exhausted.
“Dean, you need to rest,” she told him. “You look beat.”
“I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head. “We should probably get going.”
“If you don’t rest and get some more food in you, neither one of us will ever make it. Please. It’s for your own good.”
He nodded wearily. “Just for a few hours, then. Then we go.”
“That’s fine.”
Dean walked over to the blanket, lay down, and was out almost immediately. Gina sat around, unsure of what to do. She could hear the stream, just a couple of yards away, but couldn’t see it. She saw that there was an extra branch that Dean had chopped down lying next to the litter. It looked sturdy enough to support her weight. She carefully pulled herself up and limped over to the stick on one foot. Using it as a crutch, she made her way to the stream.
It was only about ten feet across, but looked a couple of feet deep. She made her way to it and put her swollen foot into the cool water. She let out a sigh of relief, lay back, and enjoyed the feeling.
*
Dean awoke with a start. He looked up into the sky: the sun was halfway down the horizon. It was probably close to 3 o’clock. When he had gone to sleep, it was early morning. Why hadn’t Gina woken him? Was she okay?
He jumped up, clad in only his boxers, and looked around. Even Petey was missing. Dean turned his nose to the air and sniffed. He could smell Gina; she was close, down by the stream. He made his way to the stream at a run, crashing through the bushes and coming out the other side.
He came through, ready to fight or attack, and stopped immediately. Gina was below him in the water, swimming. He looked at her, her form rippling underneath the water. Then he noticed that her clothes were lying on the bank. He felt his face heat up.
She turned towards him and smiled. He had been meaning to ask her why she had let him sleep so long, but her smile erased all thoughts of that. “You look better,” she told him.
“I feel better,” Dean replied. He made his way down the bank, sitting down on the edge and dipping his feet into the water. It felt amazing on his tight muscles.
“Sorry that I didn’t wake you,” Gina said, swimming towards him. “But you looked so peaceful and I know you needed the sleep.”
“It’s okay,” he told her. She eyed him and he continued, “Honestly. I needed it. It was probably better for me to get some rest than to keep pushing myself.”
“Get in,” Gina told him. Dean hesitated. Then he shrugged and stood up.
“Look away,” he told her. Gina covered her eyes halfheartedly and he stripped down and jumped in.
*
Gina felt the splash as Dean hopped into the water. She turned towards him and watched as he swam on his back, an actual smile on his face. Gina hadn’t seen much of that since she’d met him. For once, she actually felt at ease — even though she knew their situation was dire. But now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Now was the time to enjoy a few minutes of relaxation before things got bad.
Petey barked from the bank and jumped in. She laughed, and next to her, even Dean was laughing. They swam in lazy circles for a few minutes. Gina kept catching Dean stealing glances at her, but she didn’t mind.
When he was looking at her again, she splashed him in the face. He came close to her then, swimming up until their bodies were nearly touching. Gina wrapped her arms around Dean’s neck, pulling her body to his. She wrapped her legs around his body, feeling the warmth of it even in the cool stream.
He buried his face in her neck, kissing her, and she felt goosebumps exploding across her body. She moaned low, letting his mouth cover every inch of her body above the water. It felt good. It felt great.
“Gina, I’m sorry,” he whispered between kisses. “About how I treated you before.”
“Dean, not now,” she told him. He gave her a slight nod, then pressed his lips against hers. She kissed him back, floating in lazy circles in the stream; all of their worries: their low food supply, their trip to the city, Gina’s ankle, the apocalypse, all fading away.
Then Dean lifted Gina easily out of the water, one of his hands sliding under her knees and the other under her shoulders, just like the night before. With ease, he walked out of the water, climbing the bank without any problems. Gina felt safe in his thick arms.
He carried her back to their campsite, his mouth against hers as he did so. Carefully, Dean lowered her down onto the blanket, then lay down next to her. His eyes took in every curve of her body, and Gina found herself doing the same for him: her eyes couldn’t stop looking down at what he had between his legs.
MUNDO (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 2) Page 67