She returned carrying a long branch, probably too thin to part the trap’s jaws for very long, and with a dubious expression on her face. Finn nodded and tried to look more confident.“Between that and you stepping on the spring, we can probably do it. What’s your name?”
The braid slid over her shoulder and distracted him as she inched closer and crouched to examine the trap. “Lauren.”
He sensed a slight hesitation before she admitted her name, and filed that away to examine later. “I’m Finn.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said automatically, then huffed a small laugh under her breath. “How’s your day going, Finn?”
He smiled a little at the absurdity, though his surprises were relatively minor compared to hers. Finn pushed the bear still further back, not wanting to roar or growl and frighten her. He closed his eyes briefly as he inhaled near her, memorizing her scent in more detail. Lavender and a hint of rose, bergamot. A bit of citrus, maybe grapefruit with a touch of sweetness. It fit her. Made his mouth water.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, and a soft hand touched his cheek.
Finn’s eyes snapped open to find her nose a few inches from him. She looked terrified as her fingers grazed against his wild beard, made wilder with shifting and being in the woods for a couple of weeks. He couldn’t breathe, the pain fading away, as their eyes met. He wondered suddenly how he’d ever lived without her.
“Yeah,” he murmured. He reached for her face, needing to touch her skin. Wanting to know every inch of her. Mesmerized and enchanted. Almost drunk on possibilities.
Lauren fell back, though, and almost landed on his leg. The moment their eye contact broke, the pain roared back and Finn grimaced against the tidal wave that threatened to drag him into madness.
She froze. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“No,” he gritted out. He wanted to scream but didn’t dare, didn’t want to frighten her. Definitely didn’t want to send herrunning. Not until he knew more about her, knew where to find her. His thoughts splintered. “Just—hurts. Need to move quickly.”
“Right, right.” Lauren looked around wildly, as if searching for where they would move, and Finn smiled even as he squeezed his eyes shut and nearly broke his jaw from clenching it. She patted his chest. “Yeah. Need to do this. You’re—very naked and I’m sure you’re cold and obviously your leg hurts a lot and you’re bleeding and?—”
“Breathe,” he said again. Finn covered her hand with his, keeping her palm against his skin. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
Silence. He cracked one eye open to make sure she hadn’t passed out, and found her nose wrinkled in confusion. Lauren peered at him. “What does that even mean?”
He wheezed a laugh and wrapped his fingers around hers. “Sorry. Military saying. If you want to do something fast, you gotta do it smoothly, naturally. And in order to do something smoothly, you gotta do it slowly. Deliberately. That’s all.”
“Right. Well, not too slowly.” She turned green when her eyes strayed to the torn meat of his leg.
He bit the inside of his cheek. Definitely not a hunter. Possibly even a vegetarian with the way her lips pinched together. Even with the agony of his leg, he didn’t want her to get sick. Maybe she could brace the stick between the jaws, and he could use the leverage to free himself. “Don’t worry. Just—slide the branch between the teeth, near the corner. There’s the flat bit to stand on to work the spring, but you don’t have to do that. Put the stick in and then let me take it.”
She gave him a sideways look. “What are you going to do with it?”
Finn took a deep breath and sat up, a groan catching in his teeth as the movement jostled his leg against the steel teeth stillmore. The world spun around him and darkness crowded the edge of his consciousness. He struggled to remain awake, if not alert, and listened to his heart thunder against his ribs.
And then he heard a soft voice, “Please don’t pass out. Please please please don’t. I don’t think I can do this by myself.”
“I’m okay,” he said. His hand moved, searching for her, and her soft fingers moved into his and the pain retreated. “Just need…”
He didn’t know what he needed. Well, he needed her curled up next to him somewhere warm and safe. He needed to make sure she was fed and rested. Needed to get his leg wrapped up and eat his weight in protein so he healed up enough to protect her.
Finn struggled to make sense of what they should do next. He swallowed the knot in his throat. He wanted to scream and beat his fists on the ground until something else hurt a fraction of what radiated from his leg. But Lauren was there. She was afraid and uncertain. He couldn’t have that.
He remained sitting up and forced his eyes open. “Down the trail behind me. Hollowed out oak. I put my pack and rifle there. Can you get them? There’s a first aid kit.”
She nodded and shoved to her feet, leaving the stick next to his leg, and headed down the trail. Finn breathed hard and found a smaller stick to clench between his teeth. He had a few moments before she returned, since the tree was farther down the trail than she would expect, to deal with the trap on his own. He would have had to do it anyway, and he didn’t want Lauren to have the memory of prying his bloody mangled leg out of a bear trap.
And he didn’t want her to see him pass out, either.
Finn bit down on the stick before he maneuvered the branch between the jaws of the trap and searched for the right kind of leverage. Every bump and jostle sparked new agony, buildinglayers of it until he couldn’t remember what it was like tonotbe in pain. He thought he had it and took a moment to center himself and reassure the bear they had to get it right on the first try, and they couldn’t shift forms again because it would terrify Lauren.
He adjusted his grip on the long branch, braced his good foot against a stump, and closed his eyes. One try. Open the jaws, haul his leg out no matter how much it hurt, and then pass out. Good enough.
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast,” he muttered. He gritted his teeth and forced the end of the branch up until the steel creaked. Finn kept his attention on the trap to tell the very first moment he could move. His shoulders ached and his arms shook.
When the branch resisted and the trap whined more, he took a deep breath and braced himself. One chance. Just do it. Just fucking do it.
