by Sadie Moss
His hands lifted the back of my shirt, so much more gently than they had in the woods four nights ago.
“We’ve got you, Alexis,” he whispered softly, his voice low in my ear. “We’ve got you, baby.”
His words were a balm to my soul, and for a moment, I was able to take a full breath again.
Then Val’s knife pierced the flesh of my back, tearing a ragged cry from my lips. Warm blood spilled in a stream down my back as she used the tip of the blade to root around for the tracking chip the doctors had inserted under my skin. I gritted my teeth against the pain, pressing my forehead hard into Noah’s chest. My hands squeezed Jackson’s and West’s so hard my muscles shook.
“Shit,” Val muttered. “Slippery little fucker.”
I winced as the blade cut deeper. Val’s fingers dug inside the incision she’d made, trying to leverage the chip out.
“Almost done.” Rhys’s hand gripped my wadded up shirt at the nape of my neck, his other hand bracing my shoulder as he watched Val work.
The blood trailing down my back tickled my skin, which was coated with a light sheen of sweat.
Get it out. Get it out! Get it out!
Val’s fingers gouged deeper into the wound, and my knees shook as bile rose up in my throat. Finally, she let out a triumphant sound.
“Got it!”
There was a sharp, tearing feeling, and then her hands pulled away. I slumped forward into Noah’s arms, weak with relief and pain.
“Shit.” Val’s voice turned hard. “Yeah, that’s a Strand tracker all right.”
“Should we destroy it now?” Noah spoke over my head, his arms wrapped around me, carefully avoiding the cut on my back. Rhys pressed a piece of cloth to my back, soaking up the blood that still leaked from my wound.
“No,” the female shifter said. “If the signal cuts off now, the last known location will be right here. We need to take it at least a few miles away before we destroy it. That may not be enough, but it’s the best option we have.”
“I’ll do it.”
Four voices spoke in unison, and my heart swelled at their response. The tracker was like a blinking beacon calling “come get me” to the Strand hunters, and anyone near it would be in danger. It made painfully sweet emotions burn in my chest to know these shifter men wanted to protect me like that.
But I couldn’t let them.
The tracker had been implanted in me. I was the one who’d carried it all this time, putting the men at risk. And I’d unwittingly brought it into the middle of the Lost Pack, potentially revealing their location to Strand.
“No. I’ll do it.” I forced myself to push away from the comforting strength of Noah’s embrace. “It was inside me. I’ll destroy it.”
“No!” West’s eyes blazed. “No fucking way. You’re injured—twice over.” He gestured to my bandaged arm. “You’re not in any shape to go running off through the woods.”
“Yeah, sorry, Alexis. None of us are gonna get on board with that.” Jackson flashed me a smirk, but his eyes were anxious.
Rhys peeled back the cloth he’d been holding to my back to stem the blood flow. I hissed a breath, pulling away from his touch and turning around. A small trickle of blood still worked its way down my back, and I felt a little lightheaded. But I squared my jaw as I looked at Val.
“Give it to me.”
Her hazel eyes narrowed in assessment as she handed over the small tracker chip. It was covered in blood—so was her hand—and my stomach churned as she slipped it into my palm. The thing was small and innocuous-looking. A tiny piece of metal maybe an inch long and a quarter inch wide.
I closed my fist around the blood-stained chip. “How do I destroy it?”
“Bash the fuck out of it with a rock. Don’t stop until it’s unrecognizable.”
A savage satisfaction filled me. With fucking pleasure.
I strode toward the doorway, but Rhys grabbed my uninjured arm, hauling me back. His eyes were wild as he closed his hand over the fist containing the tracker. “No, Lexi!”
For a moment, I lost myself in the swirling, bright blue of his irises. This was the first time he’d looked at me since our encounter in the woods. The first time I’d seen something on his face like the expression he’d worn when he confessed how much he needed me.
“I have to, Rhys,” I whispered, trying to make him understand. “Because I can’t lose you either.”
His entire face changed. Something lit up in his eyes that I’d never seen before, not even the night he kissed me. His hand squeezed tighter around mine, and he opened his mouth to speak when a long howl sounded outside the shack.
Two more wolf voices joined in, sending up a haunting, sustained sound like a siren.
Alpha Elijah cocked an ear, a frown darkening his roughened features. His nostrils flared.
“It’s too late. They’re already here.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The howls outside the shack grew louder, the pitch rising as the threat neared.
Alpha Elijah roared, the sound completely inhuman. Before I could even think, he was shifting. He didn’t bother stripping off first, and his clothes tore away as his body rippled and bent, fur sprouting from his back.
His wolf was enormous, with shaggy brown fur and massive paws. He raced out of the shack as one of the howling wolves cut off abruptly with a pained yelp.
Val turned to us, her face hard. “Run. As far and as fast as you can. Alpha Elijah will scatter the pack. Our rendezvous point is in Montana.”
She rattled off a set of GPS coordinates, and I tried to burn them into my memory, forcing my overloaded brain to focus.
Then she raced out the door after her alpha, shifting as she ran. The other Lost Pack wolves followed.
Rhys blinked at me. His fist released mine, and I uncurled my fingers and tipped the tracker out of my palm. It fell to the rough dirt floor of the shack, its blood-soaked surface picking up dust and debris. It looked so plain and ordinary; how could that one little piece of metal have caused so much trouble?
Growls and yips came from outside, followed by an unmistakeable popping sound.
Fuck.
I’d know that sound anywhere. I heard it most nights in my dreams these days.
Gunfire.
The noise seemed to shock all of us back into action. Rhys dropped my hand as West and Noah shouldered the packs. Jackson pressed himself to the wall by the door, peering out through the curtain.
“Damn it, there are a lot of them.” His voice was tense. “Armed. The blond Terminator is here too.”
Nils. He seemed to be the one leading this hunt. Had it been his decision to let us get away after the hotel? To track and follow us instead?
Cold rage filled me, and I wanted to race out of our shelter and confront him, to finish what West had started back at the hotel.
To end him.
But I didn’t have any weapons. I couldn’t even shift.
Running again was the only choice we had if we wanted to live.
“Here! Rhys, Noah. Help me!”
West gestured them over to the back of the makeshift wooden shack, and the three men started prying planks away from the wall, creating a hole.
The sounds of wolves and humans clashing spread out around us as the Lost Pack shifters scattered into the woods.
“Shit! They’re raiding all the buildings. We gotta fucking move!” Jackson’s voice was a harsh whisper, and he ducked away from the front wall, being sure to stay out of direct line of the doorway. He grabbed my hand, tugging me with him as we joined the others.
The hole in the back wall was barely big enough to squeeze through. My heart felt like it was trying to crawl up my throat as I forced myself through the small opening. The guys, with their wider frames, barely made it through. Noah and West had to remove the backpacks and pass them ahead separately. In the woods around us, whimpers and growls sounded, interspersed with human voices as the Strand’s hunters called out to each other.
Because the little village was so spread out, there wasn’t exactly one central area for Nils and his men to level their attack. That meant they were probably spread out in the trees all around us. A net that would be almost impossible to slip through.
West tucked the plank of the wall back into place behind us, and we all crouched behind the small shack. Noah scanned the woods, his gray eyes darting around quickly. When there was a moment of silence, he nodded.
“Let’s go. Stick together. Stay down.”
Rhys and West flanked us, guns drawn, as we ran through the forest.
I was practically folded in half, trying to make my body as small as possible. Branches scratched my face as I ran, and the back of my shirt was soaked with blood.
A shout went up behind us. Then a quick pop pop pop. A large hole appeared in a tree trunk next to me, splinters of wood flying as a bullet pierced the bark. I screamed, holding my hands over my head and running faster. Rhys and West fired back, the sounds so loud this close up that they made my ears ring.
“Fuck! It’s Nils!” Jackson peeked over his shoulder then cursed soundly.
More gunshots burst through the middle of our group, scattering us like antelope.
A bullet grazed my leg. The sharp, stinging pain almost broke my stride, but momentum kept carrying me forward. I glanced around me but couldn’t see any of the men out of my periphery. We’d been forced apart by the spray of bullets.
I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t think. I could only run, faster and faster, lungs burning and side cramping, breath coming in painful gasps.
Waiting.
Waiting for the bullet that wouldn’t miss next time.
But no bullet came. The sound of gunshots faded, the howls around me died out. And still, I ran.
Finally, when my lungs felt like I’d inhaled fire and the stitch in my side was so acute every footfall felt like plunging a knife into my belly, I collapsed to the ground, crawling behind a fallen tree trunk to shield myself. Blood and sweat bathed my body in a thin sheen, and my hands shook as I rose up on my arms to peer over the large tree trunk.
Damn it.
There was no sign of the guys.
No sign of anyone.
Worry nearly overwhelmed me. In all the shots fired, had any of them been hit?
I should’ve stopped, should’ve—fuck, I don’t know.
There wasn’t anything I could’ve done, I knew that logically. If we’d stopped running, we’d probably all be dead. But at this moment, that almost seemed like a better option.
To die together rather than be forced apart.
I forced myself to take a deep breath, though my lungs still burned. It’s okay, Alexis. It’s okay. You know where the rendezvous location is, and so do they. You’ll find each other again.
And they would find me. I was more certain of that than I’d ever been of anything in my life.
But I still couldn’t bring myself to move farther away from the place I’d last seen them. Instead, I clung to the dead bark of the fallen tree, staring through the forest as if I could somehow call the four shifters to me by wishing hard enough.
Should I go back? Was it worth the risk?
I hauled myself to my feet, but before I could make a decision about which way to move, a twig snapped behind me.
Someone grabbed me roughly, yanking me back, and I was slammed up against a hard, muscled body. The impact made the wound in between my shoulder blades scream with pain, and I struggled against the thick arms binding my arms and chest like a vise.
“Let go!” I rasped. “Let me go!”
The Strand hunter growled, his grip tightening even more. He hauled me backward, lifting me up so my feet barely even brushed against the ground.
I was helpless. Immobilized.
A sudden memory of the red-headed asshole who’d cornered me in the bar flooded my mind. I hadn’t done anything to stop him then. I hadn’t fought back hard enough. But I’d promised myself I would never let that happen again.
Trying to regulate my breathing, I let my body go limp, giving up the struggle.
“That’s better,” the man grunted.
He loosened his hold slightly to adjust his grip on me, and in that second, I moved. I dipped my head and bit down on the flesh of his arm as hard as I could.
Blood flooded my mouth, and the man screamed. He dropped me, tearing my teeth away from the ragged wounds I’d created. Then he charged, bowling me over backward and landing hard on top of me. His blunt face was red, and his eyes flashed with anger.
“You fucking bitch,” he snarled.
I threw an elbow at his face, putting so much weight behind it that when his head whipped to the side, we both rolled over. I scrambled to my feet, but he lunged after me, grabbing me by the ankle. The breath rushed out of my body as I slammed against the damp earth of the forest floor. I coughed and scrabbled for a handhold, kicking desperately as he hauled me back toward him.
The burly hunter flipped me over onto my back, hands gripping my ankles to stop me from kicking as he loomed over me. A sneer twisted his features, and he tugged me closer.
“Now, that was not very ladylike,” he chastised, his voice rough. A trickle of blood worked its way down the side of his face, and his arm was smeared with it.
He bent down to pick me up again, and I didn’t even think. My hand formed a tight fist, and I rose up quickly, aiming a punch right at his crotch. I connected with dick, balls, and pelvis, and it hurt like a bitch.
But it hurt him worse.
He let out a squawk like a dying turkey and collapsed in a ball, face turning almost purple as he gasped for air and clutched at his junk. I hauled myself to my feet, my entire body quivering with exhaustion and adrenaline.
“That ladylike enough for you?” I panted breathlessly.
He didn’t answer. And I didn’t wait around for a reply.
I took off through the forest in a staggering run, wiping the blood away from my mouth with my sleeve as I went. I didn’t know how long what I’d done would disable the man, and I knew I didn’t have it in me to kill him in cold blood, even if it would keep him from coming after me. So I needed to get away as quick as I could.
My heaving breaths and rushing blood drowned out almost every other sound. Until a new noise filtered through to my ears.
A distant cry.
“Scruuuuubs!”
It came from a distance, but the word was unmistakeable. Tears of relief, joy, and worry stung my eyes as I stopped, whirling around. My men. My shifters.
Damn it, they shouldn’t be yelling like that. Not with the woods full of Strand hunters.
But they were alive. They were coming for me.
The call came again, so far off I could barely hear it, and I changed course, moving as quickly as I could in their direction. Hope made my heart clench in my chest. I just needed to get to them. Once we were together, we could figure out our next step.
But we needed to be together. And I needed to get to them before they called all the Strand hunters down on us.
My body was exhausted, and the wounds in my shoulder and back hurt like hell. I pushed that all away though, focusing on drawing in deep, even breaths as I jogged unsteadily through the woods.
But just as my stride began to even out, a figure stepped out from behind a tree ahead of me.
My heart clutched in my chest, and my feet skidded over the rough ground as I froze in place.
He was almost fifteen yards ahead of me, but the black gun in his hand was pointed directly at my chest.
“There you are. I saw what you did to Simon,” Nils called, his deep voice cold and callous. “I’d blame you, but it was really his mistake. Do you know how they take down an animal in the wild, girl?” He squared his shoulders, tilting his head back slightly. “They don’t get too close.”
Keeping his weapon trained on me, he reached behind him, pulling what looked like a second gun from the waistband of his cargo fatigues.
He brought it up beside the first, his unblinking eyes locked on me.
Then he fired.
The sound was different than any other gun I’d heard before—more of a hiss than a pop—but before I could register that fact, something sharp slammed into my shoulder. A red-feathered dart had buried itself deep within the muscle, and even as I looked down to gape at it in horror, my vision wavered as if the world around me was nothing more than a mirage.
I tried to move, to run, but when I lifted my foot, it couldn’t seem to find the ground again. I stumbled and pitched sideways, the earth reappearing suddenly as it rushed up to meet me.
Dragging myself on my forearms, I crawled across the mossy forest floor until even that became too difficult.
With the last of my strength, I rolled over onto my back. Numbness spread through my limbs and infected my brain, a quiet nothingness that robbed my soul of fear, robbed my spirit of fight.
Nothing mattered.
Not the blue sky peeking through the blurry leaves overhead.
Not the sound of heavy footsteps approaching.
Not the hard, weathered face framed by blond hair peering down at me.
It was all just a dream.
Somebody else’s nightmare.
My vision darkened around the edges, the blackness pulling me under as Nils’s hard features cracked into a smile and he spoke again.
“That’s how you take down a wild animal.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!
I absolutely loved writing this book, and I hope you loved reading it just as much! If you did, please leave a review (even a sentence or two makes such a huge difference!).
And don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging! Book two, Wolf Called, is coming very soon.
Pre-order on Amazon:
CLICK HERE
In the meantime, you can dive into my complete reverse harem urban fantasy series, Magic Awakened, starting with the free prequel novella, Kissed by Shadows.
