Born to Fight (Can't Resist You Book 1) Page 2

  “Who was she?”

  He chuckled. “That’s for me to know, kiddo.” He patted Hunter’s shoulder. “You ready?”

  Hunter looked at the boulder in front of him, and took a deep inhale. He tried to shove off the ground, but his legs had turned to mush.

  “Come on, Hunter! You got this!”

  “Get up.”

  “Get up, Hunter.”

  “Get the fuck up.”

  I can’t...

  “Come on, Hunter.”

  “Get up.”

  So weak...

  “Get up!”

  “GET UP!”

  “GET THE FUCK UP!”

  ***

  Hunter’s eyes shot open. He trembled. He ached. His abdomen throbbed. His shoulders screamed. His back was raw.

  He began pulling himself from under the brush. Where to? Hell if he knew.

  “If you can’t keep going for you, then you keep going for them.”

  Okay, dad. Hunter pushed forward. If he was going to die, he’d at least go out fighting.

  Chapter Two

  THE BREEZE ROLLING THROUGH bare trees caressed Rain’s skin, numbing her nose and making her cheeks rosy. She had always loved the fall, admiring the way the leaves changed and how the trees, who’d spent so long tied to those leaves, gracefully let them go when the time came.

  It was all a story in Rain’s mind, the most entertainment she got. Perhaps it wasn’t the wisest idea to apply human qualities to the world around her, but Rain hadn’t interacted with other people in such a long time that it seemed… acceptable. Almost.

  The same cool breeze blew her brown hair in every which direction, a slight annoyance but still, one she was happy to have. The breeze, the trees, the leaves, the river… they were her only friends, now. They were all she had left.

  She heard the serene sound of rushing water, and smiled. She was just about at the river.

  Transferring the bucket from her left arm to her right, she picked up her pace and continued towards the river.

  In just six short minutes, she could see the flow of water. Again, she picked up her pace.

  Rain stopped dead in her tracks.

  There was a man lying at the river’s edge. He wore all black clothing, so she wasn’t quite sure where the blood was coming from, but thick red moisture soaked the ground around him and turned his hands a deep shade of crimson.

  Startled for a moment by the sight of an actual human, Rain quickly gathered herself and snapped into action, dropping the bucket and running toward him.

  Falling to her knees, Rain searched for the source of the blood. She felt the moisture on his abdomen and lifted his shirt, only to find three deep knife wounds. She replaced his shirt.

  She stared down at him and mentally fought with herself.

  He was handsome, his face hard and strong, but holding a hint of serenity in sleep. His body was incredibly built, which signaled to her that this man was something, not just a civilian who’d gotten lost out in the woods. Muscles like this did not form by accident, and whoever this man was, he was clearly somebody who valued strength. And in this world… that could only mean two things.

  A chill ran down her spine.

  Part of Rain wanted to run, to turn around and pretend she hadn’t seen anything. He’d never know, nobody would. She could escape, stay safe, and not get involved. That’s what she should’ve done. She needed to get the hell out of there.

  Instead, she grabbed his arm, took as much of his body weight as she could, and began to pull him towards her little oasis in the woods. It would be a long march, but she couldn’t leave him here. It didn’t matter how much suffering people had caused her, she wouldn’t sit back and watch another human die when she knew she could help.

  Rain trudged forward, putting every bit of strength she had into pulling the dying stranger to safety, all the while asking herself whether her moral values were worth risking her life over.

  She certainly hoped so.

  ***

  Rain wasn’t quite sure what it was that was causing her heart to threaten to burst from her chest.

  It could’ve been the blood. God, there was so much blood. When she finally made it to her home, she was able to really assess the damage. There was so much more than she had anticipated. This man was lucky to be alive at all, and Rain wasn’t sure how much time he had left or if her hour long trek in the woods and screaming muscles were even worth it. She wasn’t sure if she could even save him.

  Moving on to a new thought, it could’ve been the physical labor she’d just expended. Living on her own for so many years out in these woods, Rain had had to get strong. But strong typically involved dragging fallen lumber a few feet this way or that, lugging firewood back to her bunker on the cold nights, or carrying water buckets from the river to her home. She certainly never had to drag a man who easily cleared six foot and had more muscle than she’d ever thought possible for over a mile.

  Perhaps it was those muscles. She had only seen one man… naked… in her lifetime, and he certainly didn’t look like this. The man’s clothes were soaked with blood and rain and caked in mud. Rain had no choice but to pull them off in order to clean his wounds, dry him off, and ensure he didn’t succumb to the night’s dropping temperatures.

  If he made it through the night…

  And then there was that.

  What if he didn’t survive? What would she do if this man died in her little bunker? She had to drop him through the entryway in order to get him in, and there was no way in hell she’d be able to carry his body up that shaky ladder. She’d lose her home to a corpse, and then what? Where would she go? This was her safe place, her oasis, her escape. There was nowhere else. There’d never be another place where she was this safe, and even here, it was questionable.

  But then… what if he survived? What if he woke up? A man who was built like that was dangerous. So who was he dangerous towards? He didn’t wear the red and black UNR clothing, but he could’ve been an officer undercover. If he was UNR, she’d be a prisoner again, and she’d never be able to escape a second time.

  And if he wasn’t UNR? Rain swallowed hard as her heart continued to race.

  She stared down at the man laying on her bed. It was just a small cot with little room, but it was hers.

  He made it look even smaller.

  She had stripped him of all his clothes, covering his… area… with a sheet and tending to his wounds the best she could. She’d cleaned them, pulled the skin together with butterfly bandages, and wrapped them with gauze.

  The one perk to her little shelter was the bounty of medical supplies. She’d never needed to use them until today, aside from bandages here and there when she first began learning to chop wood.

  She walked over to the medical cabinet and pulled out antibiotics. She then turned and looked towards him again.

  “How am I going to get these in your belly?” she wondered aloud.

  She bit her lip and looked around the room. “Ah!”

  She placed the pills on the countertop and ran to the ladder, climbing it quickly and peeking her head out from the small entryway. She spotted a stone just a foot from the latch, grabbed it, locked the latch behind her, and scurried back to the counter.

  She crushed two pills with the stone, brushing the powder into a small medicine cup and then mixing it with warm water. She then grabbed a syringe and walked over to the man, sitting beside him on the bed.

  She pulled all of the medicine into the syringe, then opened his mouth and eased it in a few drops at a time, massaging his throat in the hopes that he would swallow.

  He did.

  Rain then grabbed the small cup of water she had by the bed, pulled some into the syringe and dripped that into his mouth as well. He continued to swallow weakly. Then, he stopped.

  She sighed and placed the cup and the syringe on the table.

  Clothes. She needed to find him clothes.

  His pants would be okay after a good cleani
ng and letting them out to dry, so she tackled that first, scrubbing the cloth and making sure to get all of the blood and mud out.

  Until they were clean, he’d have to be okay as he was. She’d make sure to keep the sheets over him at all times.

  Rain felt uneasy as she continued to scrub at the rough pant material, her small sink growing redder with each second that passed.

  ***

  Rain’s back was aching. Every muscle in her body was too tight, and there were just too many knots to work them all out. Days of sleeping on her sorry excuse for a couch would do that to a girl.

  For a week, she had been washing and redressing the man’s wounds, changing his bedding, cleaning him off, and sneaking in antibiotics and water using the syringe. A few days ago, she started giving him some soup broth, which he greedily swallowed down. It was a good sign, and the broth gave him some much needed nutrients.

  Rain sighed. What was she even doing?

  It had been a week, and while the mystery man had not died, he also hadn’t opened his eyes or given any sign of consciousness. For all she knew, he could be gone already, and she could be prolonging the life of a corpse.

  Walking over to the small cot, she sat down, her hip pressing against mystery man’s side. She looked at him, staring at his strong muscles, his hard jaw, his messy hair and growing beard.

  She couldn’t help but stare, finding him attractive in a rough, raw type of way. He didn’t look like a gentle man. He looked hardened, by God knows what. Perhaps it was just the world around them.

  “I’ve been cleaning your wounds twice daily for a week, now. I’ve been giving you antibiotics, both in the crushed pills and in an ointment I’ve been putting on your wounds. You seem to like the broth more than water, so I’m glad I started giving you that a few days ago. I’m glad you like it.”

  She bit her lip. “I’m not sure who you are, or where you came from, or what happened to you. Your wounds were bad, I’m honestly shocked you made it at all. You must be a fighter,” she smiled. “You know, I like to think of myself as a fighter, too. Maybe we have that in common.”

  She mulled over what she was doing in her mind. “I know it’s silly talking to you. You clearly can’t hear me, but it gets lonely sometimes. I hope that when you wake up… or, if you wake up… I hope that you’re kind.”

  Rain swallowed hard, letting out the breath she’d been holding in and getting up from the bed. She had to go fetch more water from the river; she’d been going through a lot of it, between cleaning his wounds and trying to keep him hydrated.

  As she began her walk to the river, she looked up towards the sky, shades of blue and purple dancing among the clouds.

  Please, God, she thought to herself, if you grant me any wish, please let him be kind. Please let me be safe.

  She slowly exhaled.

  God had a habit of ignoring her prayers.

  ***

  Rain. The angel called herself Rain.

  She smelled like lavender. Her hands were soft and gentle. Her voice was the sweetest voice he’d ever heard. When she wasn’t near, he craved her touch. He felt safe when he heard her moving around, humming to herself or talking to the air. He felt even better when she was talking to him.

  But he didn’t even know what the angel looked like. He didn’t know where he was or how he’d gotten here.

  His eyes were sewed shut. He couldn’t see anything but darkness.

  His arms were nailed to the bed. He couldn’t lift them to touch her.

  His lips were stapled together. He couldn’t tell her he was here.

  His legs were anchored down. He couldn’t get them to move an inch.

  The only thing Hunter could do was swallow when she put the liquid to his mouth, internally screaming that he was here, he was alive. He was alive.

  She never heard him.

  The scariest part of it all? His legs were not anchored down. His lips were not stapled together. His arms were not nailed to the bed and his eyes had never been sewn shut.

  He was alive, conscious, aware, and trapped inside of a body that refused to obey him.

  While the angel spoke, and sang, and tended to his wounds, he just laid there, desperately trying to communicate with her and failing every single time.

  This was no way to live for Hunter. He couldn’t take it anymore.

  He wanted to fight, but this was not fighting. This was something else. This was failing.

  Hunter was not weak, or useless, or a burden, and he’d be damned if he spent another day being any of those things. He was going to get his body to wake up. He had to. For the sake of the angel.

  When she came back, Hunter would talk to her. He’d tell her he was here. He’d thank her a thousand times and then some.

  He just had to wake up.

  ***

  Rain had replenished her entire water supply, filling her tank with enough for it to last them a little under a week. She walked over to the bed, plopped down and stared at the man laying there.

  She started to fear that he’d never wake up, that he wasn’t in there anymore. That he’d gone to another place.

  “I’m not sure what to do,” she started. “I’ve dressed your wounds, I’ve cleaned you up, I’ve kept you hydrated and given you nutrients. I am not sure what to do, now, though.”

  Rain placed a hand on his bare chest, marveling at how beautifully this man was sculpted. Did he have a woman waiting for him to come home, grieving for him and assuming him dead? Was she marveling at another woman’s husband?

  “I don’t know who you are, or how you got all the way out here. I don’t know how you ended up with so many wounds and I certainly don’t know how you survived them. I don’t know if there’s a woman waiting on you at home or if you’re a UNR soldier who will wake up and take me.” A shiver ran down her spine.

  “So here’s what I do know. I know that I should’ve left you out there by the river. I shouldn’t have gotten close to you, let alone drag you a mile back to my safehouse. I’ve put myself at risk having you here. I don’t know who your enemies are or if they’ll come searching for you. I don’t know if you’re my enemy.

  “I do know, though, that I couldn’t leave you out there. I couldn’t sit back and let a man die. God, I am a stupid woman. Do you even know what a risk I’ve taken with you?”

  Rain rolled her eyes at herself and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “It is incredibly stupid to see a man with multiple stab wounds in the middle of the woods and think: wow! I should bring him home with me.” She chuckled.

  “My God, I am a stupid woman.” Rain rubbed her thumb in small circles on his chest and sighed.

  “You know, I don’t even know your name,” she laughed.

  She swore she felt him twitch. She jumped, but steadied herself, still keeping her hand on his chest. He coughed and his head fell to the side.

  Her heart began racing. She didn’t know what was happening.

  He coughed again. “H-” he struggled.

  Rain stood and moved away from the bed, moving until her back hit the wall. Damn this small space!

  “Hun-” he continued to move and struggle. He was trying to say something! She moved closer to him again, placing a hand on his cheek.

  “Don’t talk! It’s okay! You’re okay!” she tried to comfort him.

  “Hunter,” he choked out. His eyes opened to reveal the most beautiful golden irises Rain had ever seen.

  Her heart continued to thud in her chest, threatening to explode.

  “My n-name,” every word sounded like it was painful, “i-is, H-Hunter.”

  Chapter Three

  IT HAD BEEN NEARLY twenty-four hours since he spoke. Rain couldn’t believe it when he opened his mouth and told her his name. He fell back into sleep nearly instantly after getting it out, but he fought hard, and he got it out.

  Hunter. His name was Hunter.

  She’d never met someone with that name before. She’d also never met someone with eyes like his
. They were brown and green, with specks of gold throughout. They complimented him well, taking his already attractive features and giving them a whole new layer of sexy.

  Rain internally berated herself. She shouldn’t be thinking about a man who was laying here wounded in that way. She shouldn’t think of a man in that way, period. She never had, and she didn’t understand why she was starting to, now.

  She knelt beside the bed, using a washcloth to clean Hunter off. As she pressed the wet cloth to his skin, he moved.

  She froze and watched as his eyelashes fluttered open.

  And then he was looking at her, fully conscious, his stare not wavering or weak like it had been the day before.

  “H-hi,” she forced herself to speak.

  He cleared his throat, the act shaking the small bed beneath him. “Hi.”

  “My name is Rain,” she began. “I found you out in the wo-”

  “You saved my life, Rain.” His face was hard and cold; she had no idea what he was feeling. “Thank you.”

  “Y-you’re welcome.” Rain hated that she stuttered when nervous.

  Hunter shifted on the bed, trying to sit up.

  “Here!” She stood and began moving the pillows behind him. “Let me help you.”

  She created a sort of backboard with the pillows, which allowed Hunter to prop himself up into more of a sitting position. The movement had made the sheet over him fall far too low, and Rain suddenly found herself staring at the growing bulge beneath the sheet.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be with a man who…

  “Sorry,” he chuckled. “It happens.”

  Her eyes snapped back towards his, and the smirk on his face sent a shiver down her spine. “I- I need to go g-get more water. Supplies. Stuff. I’ll be back.”

  She pulled away from him and hurried towards the ladder. She began climbing, desperately needing a breath of fresh air. When she made it to the top, she swore she heard him call her name, but she didn’t turn back.