by Selena Scott
“Didn’t feel like getting my brains blown out in a parking lot,” he growled, passing a slowpoke in the right lane.
“Your brains…” she trailed off. “You mean that you saw someone who was going to shoot you?”
“You didn’t see him? Dark hoodie? Shiny gun in one hand?”
She shook her head.
“Yeah. Well, I didn’t feel like sticking around.”
It had been an abrupt departure, but Dawn wasn’t going to complain about it, since it was getting her what she wanted in the first place. She couldn’t exactly process the fact that there had been an assassin entering Quill’s apartment complex five minutes ago, and wondered if she’d ever have time to process everything she’d learned over the last four hours.
Her mind was still in a tailspin from its about-face regarding Quill. He’d gone from friend to enemy in record time. And not just any old run-of-the-mill type of enemy. He was a double-crossing, family-betraying, don’t-care-if-you-live-or-die type of enemy.
Dawn had never had one of those before.
She glanced at him, her palms sweating, and looked away immediately. Just sitting this close to him made the blood in her veins sing with emotion. She hated him, she was sure of it.
In no time at all, they were cruising out of Portland city limits. She was officially farther away from her brothers than she’d ever been before. They’d been a tripod her entire life. And now, here she was, speeding away from them. And they had no idea.
A bead of sweat slicked down her spine and she licked her lips. When she’d hopped in the car with Quill, she’d expected an argument. She’d figured that she’d be able to use that fire to get herself revved up. But he’d just immediately acquiesced and now she was racing toward… something. She wasn’t even sure what yet.
“Where are we headed, anyways?” she asked after a minute.
“We?” he scoffed. “Dawn, you can’t be serious. I don’t know why the hell you think you have anything to gain by coming with me, but I’m dropping you off at the next rest stop. You can call your brothers to come get you.”
He wasn’t. She was coming with him. She was going to offer herself up to this Director guy and in exchange he was going to leave her family alone. That was that, as far as she was concerned.
She felt Quill’s eyes on the side of her head. “Why aren’t you arguing with me?”
Dawn turned and raised an eyebrow in response. Funnily enough, she’d had the same thought about him just minutes before.
He narrowed his eyes. “Dawn, whatever the fuck you think you’re planning right now, just cut it out. This isn’t a game. This is my life and your life in the hands of some dangerous fucking people. So, at the next rest stop, you’re going to get the hell out of my car. You’re going to call your brothers. They’re going to come get you. And then the three of you are going to shift into your wolf forms and go back to the wilderness where you’ll be untraceable and safe. You hear me? That’s the only plan. That’s it. No arguing. Okay?”
She almost shivered at the intensity in his dark voice. But she didn’t. Instead, she kept her expression impassive and merely shrugged her shoulders. He didn’t want an argument? That was fine. She wouldn’t argue. But that didn’t mean she was agreeing to the terms he’d just laid down.
He growled and slammed one hand on the steering wheel. “You’re not listening to me. I can tell you’re not listening to me.”
She stared out the windshield.
He reached over the console and pinched her chin between two fingers, turning her to face him. “Enough with the silent treatment. I know you, Dawn. You can’t fool me with that shit anymore. I know your chatty ass.”
She glared at him. It was true that over the last year, she’d shown him her sweeter side. Back when she’d thought that this snake was actually a trustworthy—albeit grumpy—little puppy. She’d thought he was her friend. And she didn’t count almost anyone as her friend.
When they’d first met, she hadn’t spoken to him. At all. It had taken weeks for her to say even a few words. But the months had passed and Dawn had found herself doing something she’d only ever done with her brothers. She’d begun filling the silence. She’d chatted to him about books and movies and all the little joys that she’d delightedly filled her human life with.
Welp. No more.
She just shrugged her shoulders again. If he wanted her out of this car, he was going to have to drag a fully shifted, snarling, snapping wolf out with his bare hands. Because there was nothing he could say to convince her to willingly ditch this plan.
He swore and faced front, dropping her chin. She noticed with a jolt of satisfaction that they drove right past the next service station.
Twenty or so miles passed in silence. She thought he was going to drive past the next one too, but at the last second, he cut across three lanes of traffic and screeched into a parking spot. The nauseating combination of fried grease and gasoline filled the air but Dawn ignored it. She faced out the window.
“Look. I’m not an idiot,” he growled. “I’m well aware that you’re winning this argument without even participating in it. So, just tell me why, Dawn. Why the fuck would you be trying to follow me into hell right now?”
Maybe it was the tone of his voice or maybe it was his specific choice of words, but Dawn turned to look at him.
He was objectively handsome. Square jaw, dark stubble shaved in sharp lines. He had clear blue eyes the color of the sky where the icy tip of a mountain sliced through it. His hair was shaved, almost to the skin, most of the way up his head where suddenly a line of wavy, almost black hair tumbled down toward his forehead. It was a style she’d seen a fair number of men in Portland attempt to rock. Nobody did it quite like Quill, though. He was lean and long. Even now, he was sitting far back from the steering wheel to accommodate his long legs. If she didn’t know for a fact that he was a bear shifter, she would have guessed coyote, or maybe fox. He had a distinct look of cunning that denoted a scavenger.
Normally, his chiseled face held back his emotions. He reminded her of an iceberg, with only the occasional hint of humor showing through.
But right now, intensity burned in his eyes. He looked… afraid.
“Dawn, if you don’t tell me what is in your head right now, that guy we saw at my apartment is going to find us and he’s going to kill us. You know why? Because he’s being paid to find and kill me and anyone who gets in his way. And I’m sure he’s not the only one. The faster you get the hell away from me, the better. So spit it out.”
She narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t let the fear in his eyes fool her. He’d shown her enough times over the year that he was an exceptionally good actor, hadn’t he? She’d legitimately thought he cared about her. But then he’d set her up to get tranquilized and abducted and sold to the government for experimentation. He was evil incarnate. Yet, that look in his eyes… He couldn’t possibly be afraid for her well-being, could he?
He stood between you and the helicopters, didn’t he?
She dismissed that thought handily. He was a snake who’d attempted to dismantle her family and sell it for parts. It didn’t matter if he didn’t want to see her shot in the head in this parking lot. That was lower than bare minimum where human decency was concerned.
She didn’t need to fall into the trap of thinking he was more complicated than he was. He was selfish, self-serving. A mercenary.
For some reason, that comforted her. If she could trust him to only be out for number one, then it would never surprise her again when he did just that. She hated the phrase “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, considering she was a wolf and in that scenario, a wolf was the bad guy. But she knew that was what she had to remember when it came to Quill. If she got taken in by his sheep’s clothing again, it was all on her. He was a snake to the core. And as long as she trusted him to remain a snake, then she’d be okay.
Time to get this show on the road.
“You said that this Director guy woul
d never stop coming for my family now that he knew we existed. Now, me and my brothers can take care of ourselves, sure. But he sent men with guns in a helicopter. Obviously, he’s a threat worth taking seriously.”
Quill’s eyes burned into hers. She endured the singe for a few seconds before she looked out the window again.
“My brothers have love in their lives. I don’t. I’ll go with you to this Director person and I’ll try to strike a deal.”
“Your plan is to offer yourself to him?” he choked.
Dawn quirked her lips up just a touch. “Well, not in, like, a sacrificial virgin type of way. But, yeah. For medical research or for whatever it is. He wants to weaponize my sense of smell? Whatever. I’ll do anything if it keeps my brothers out of his eyeline.”
“You want me to bring you to the Director and hope that he’ll leave your brothers alone if you come willingly?”
“It’s better than running and hiding like scared animals.”
He grunted and his gaze burned the side of her face.
“Are you going to take me or not?”
His face tightened further.
“Seriously, Quill. You said yourself that us waiting around is only going to make us sitting ducks for whoever wants to kill you. So, why don’t you just get us to wherever we’re going and do what I’m asking you to do?”
She hated that she needed Quill. That she’d have to put so much faith in the hands of the man who’d betrayed her so easily. But there was no other way for this plan to work. Quill was the only one who knew where to find the Director.
“And a bonus feature for you is maybe he won’t kill you if you actually bring one of the Wolf siblings in, right?”
She couldn’t believe that she actually had to convince him of this plan. Shouldn’t he be jumping at the chance to prove to his boss that he hadn’t botched everything beyond repair? He couldn’t deliver all of the Wolf siblings to him, but one out of three wasn’t bad, right?
Quill eyed her for another long minute, calculating. And she could see the exact moment that he chose to give her what she was asking for. Something clicked in his gaze.
He reversed the car out of the spot and put them back on the highway.
Dawn wasn’t sure whether to feel victorious or doomed.
***
Quill wasn’t sure if he should be feeling relief or dread. Keeping Dawn close to him was a double-edged sword. He liked having her around. But he was also in debt with the devil and about to use her as collateral. So. Yeah.
He sucked.
And so did her plan. There was no chance in hell that he would ever have gone along with it if he hadn’t hatched a plan of his own while they’d been sitting in that parking lot. One that, if it worked, would mean that Dawn and her brothers would be free of the Director for life. Also, it was one that would almost certainly mean his own head on a plate.
But yeah, he’d think about that later.
Right now he was going to try to get them to the Director without being killed by one of his men.
One step at a time.
Neither of them spoke for another three hours. Not until he pulled up to a gas station and filled up his tank. Dawn got out of the car and he grabbed her hand before she could disappear into the gas station.
“You got cash?”
She shook her head.
He reached into his wallet and pulled out a few twenties and handed them to her. “Don’t use your card. It’s trackable.”
She stared down at the cash. “He’s watching me that closely?”
“If he sees that you’ve left Portland, it’ll make him pounce. No question.”
“What about my phone?”
“I turned it off completely a hundred miles ago. You didn’t notice?”
She shook her head.
“Well,” he continued, “don’t turn it back on unless you want to get flirty with more men in helicopters.”
She said nothing, but she plucked the cash out of his hand and walked into the gas station.
Quill followed her in, watched as she disappeared into the bathroom, and then quickly bought a burner phone from the cashier. He’d left his phone on his dresser in Portland. But he’d written down a few phone numbers.
He stepped outside and made one quick, terrible phone call. He expected Diana’s vitriol—she was in love with a man he’d tried to have abducted, after all—but he hadn’t expected it to hurt quite so much. He respected Diana. He always had. In a different world, one where the devil didn’t own his soul, he might have considered her a friend.
“Ready?” Dawn asked, stepping out of the gas station.
He nodded, tossing the burner into the trash can as he went.
If she noticed, she didn’t say anything. When they were back on the highway, a crunching sound drew his attention to her. He’d been trying his hardest to ignore her presence, but she made it difficult.
Right now she was crunching on pretzel sticks and staring out the window. She’d tucked her feet up onto the seat, her shoes in a neat little pile on the floor mat. Her toenails were painted a dark purple.
His eyes skated upward involuntarily. She wore gray yoga leggings. The kind that had sheer panels up the side of the legs, making her look semi-naked. Her shirt was just a plain, loose T-shirt but the collar was pulled to the side and he could see the edge of her blue bra strap.
The crunching stopped all at once. He tightened his bicep when suddenly her warm hand was grabbing him there. “Hold on. That assassin guy that was coming for you. He wasn’t coming for my family too, was he? Are they in danger right now? Is the Director coming for them right now?”
“No. Look, I’ve worked for the Director for a long time. I know how his mind works. He’s not the type of person to split his focus. He’s very aware of the fact that you and your brothers were harder to capture than he’d thought you’d be. He’s also aware of the fact that the local authorities have been notified. He won’t want to bring any attention to himself. He’s going to lie low for as long as he can, keep an eye on them, and regroup. I’d be surprised if he struck against your family any time in the next month. He’ll want to wait until you think you’re out of danger. It’ll be easier to take you at that point. Element of surprise.”
“So, basically, right now he’s just focused on making sure you die?”
Quill laughed drily. “Pretty much, yeah.”
She frowned and looked back out the window. A few more miles passed.
“In order for this to work, I’ll need to tell my brothers that I’m all right. It’s only noon right now, so they probably haven’t noticed I’m gone. But come nightfall, they’re going to lose their minds.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“Not the truth,” she said immediately.
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Dawn was the least duplicitous person he’d ever met. She didn’t talk a lot, but when she did, it was only the truth that passed her lips.
“No way,” she continued. “If they knew what I was up to, they wouldn’t stop until they’d found me and dragged me back to Portland. They’d never let me out of their sight again.”
“They love you,” he said quietly. “They wouldn’t want you to sacrifice yourself for them.”
“They’ve sacrificed plenty for me. I’m perfectly capable of doing this for them.”
He knew she was perfectly capable. That was what was so scary about this whole thing. The fact that her plan was actually a good one. Because if everything went the way that Dawn apparently wanted it to, he had no doubt that the Director would have accepted her deal. He’d have jumped at the chance to have a willing participant in his experiments.
“What are you going to tell them?”
She bit her lip and he quickly looked back at the road. “It’s not important. I know what I can say so that they’ll believe that I’m okay.”
He frowned. He was pretty much a hundred percent positive that there was nothing she could do, short of going
home and locking herself into their house, that would convince her overprotective brothers that she was out of harm’s way.
Dawn was a smart person, but she’d only been a part of the human world for a little over a year. It was definitely possible that she was overlooking some details. “They’re going to know something is up when you call them from some random number instead of from your phone.”
She bit that damn lip again. “Not necessarily. Any chance we’re going through Salt Lake City?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I, uh, know somebody in Salt Lake City. We’ll call from his phone. He’ll confirm that I’m with him. They’ll be appeased. I mean, they won’t be happy that I took off. But they’ll at least be convinced that I’m safe. I’ll tell them that all the drama of yesterday got me really upset and I needed to take a break. Be with a friend.”
A few seconds slid past while Quill absorbed this information. He squinted out the windshield. The yellow lines on the highway tick-tick-ticked until he just couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Hold on. You have a friend?”
Dawn burst out in insulted laughter. “You don’t have to sound so surprised.”
“Well. Yeah. I kind of am, okay? You lived in the mountains your entire life. In your wolf form. And then when you finally made your way down to the land of the human beings, I’ve been there with you almost every day. You tell me everything. I mean, like, all the way down to what page you’re on in whatever you’re reading. Your breakfast cereal. That time you dropped your toothbrush on the ground and had to go out and buy a new one at ten p.m. on a Tuesday. Everything. So how the hell did you make a friend in Salt Lake City that I don’t know about?”
She scowled at him and, if he wasn’t mistaken, a pink flush started to creep into her cheeks. “Well. I haven’t told you everything about my past.”
There was something about the way she said the word “past” that got Quill’s back up. She’d put a weighty little pressure on that word. Just enough to make Quill think that maybe…
“Hold up. When you say that this guy is your friend, do you mean friend or friend?”
“What’s the difference?”
