Free Colliding Worlds Trilogy 03 - Explosion by Berinn Rae

hair, she walked on ahead.
    His mouth opened slightly before clamping it shut. With her brisk pace, it took several steps to fall in behind her. Talla’s long wings, made for flight and not for hiking, swayed with every step, brushing against fallen leaves. Even weighted down with the extra appendages and fatigue, she stood tall and walked proud.
    She was different from Risa. Demure Risa who’d fucked his life up the ass. He’d truly believed he’d never think of another woman again. A lot of good that did. Hell, ever since he was assigned as Talla’s Leash to get his ass back into the game two years ago, he couldn’t get her out of his damn head.
    Then again, there was no one like Talla. She was easy on the eyes, God, she was an Amazon beauty. But her looks had only served as a red flag for Jax to toss up his emotional walls in time. It was her spirit that blew his intentions all to hell. A woman beaten but who refused to be broken, she’d suffered more than many POWs, but still she continued on. Off duty, on duty, it didn’t matter. He inevitably found his way to her every day.
    Everyone figured he was simply taking his duty as her Leash seriously. Hell, he’d even tried to convince himself of that at first. But, while he was a lot of things, he wasn’t a hypocrite. He watched Talla because he had some fucked-up need to protect her, and he couldn’t imagine not being near her.
    Up until today, they’d had a good thing going. He watched. God knows why, but she allowed it. They kept a distance from each other. Then she had to go fuck things up and kiss him this morning. What the hell had that been all about? He couldn’t keep a single thought going in his head since. And now, with her curves sashaying through the woods in front of him, any remaining thoughts were quickly dropping to a lower and harder part of his anatomy.
    Scowling, he quickened his pace and bumped into her on his way around her to retake the lead. An audible
hmph
behind him stung some chord of guilt inside. “I’m more familiar with this terrain,” he said, the excuse sounding lame even to him. At least he didn’t have to stare at her luscious body mucking up his view anymore.
    They continued on in silence for some time until the trees opened to a gravel road. “Shit,” he cursed as he scanned for traffic. He’d been distracted. They were lucky no one was driving down the road at that particular moment. Talla came up behind him, and he moved them both back into the cover of the woods and walked them in a line parallel to the road.
    “Let me guess. That paper map of yours would come in handy right about now.”
    He faced her to find a twinkle in her eye, and some tension eased. “If we follow this, we’re bound to come across a house if we keep moving.” A house meant water and food and potentially a vehicle.
    “Good. I’m thirsty.”
    Jax’s throat was parched. If they didn’t find potable water soon, they’d start losing their edge. The cleaning team should have found the Jeep by now, which meant they knew there were Etzee runaways in these woods. Jax and Talla needed their minds and bodies sharp to survive.
    “Ahh!”
    The sounds of a scuffle tore Jax around. Fear flashed through him, and the M9 was in his hand instantly. Talla was on the ground, shaking her walking stick at a tree. He scanned up the tree to find … he squinted. “That’s … ”
    Her eyes were wide. “I thought it was a
fregee.
”
    “A squirrel,” he said, holstering his piece. Her attacker was currently standing on a lower branch, angrily flicking its tail, no doubt as antagonized as Talla for having its foraging interrupted. When Talla still looked afraid, he added, “It’s harmless.”
    She rubbed her ankle. “It moved like a
fregee
. It even has the same adorable look. That’s how they get you, you know. One goes in to distract their prey, and that’s when the entire pack moves in for the kill. They’ve been known to take down entire herds