He threw back his head and laughed. “Happy, Savannah. Very happy.”
* * *
He hadn’t said no to dinner. He hadn’t said yes, either, but at least he wanted to come.
Savannah was absolutely, totally dying to ask him about his future plans. He’d said he would never come back to Washington after delivering Roy. Did he mean it? And if so, why? If he managed to deliver Roy and collect the bounty, he could live anywhere he wanted, do anything he wanted, even with just his share of it.
His feelings for her seemed to go beyond sexual attraction. He actually liked her family, too, which meant that he was clinically insane but also meant that wasn’t the reason he was running for the hills. So why was he leaving? Why wouldn’t he want to live near her? Was he running from something?
Now isn’t the time to ask, she told herself firmly. They didn’t have the luxury of doing the relationship talk. First they had to survive another couple of days with Nightmare on Wolf Street there in the back seat.
“Oh, that call I made earlier?” Austin’s voice jerked her from her reverie. “I called up the Deep River Pack and told them we’d be bunking down with them tomorrow, for the full moon.”
“I was going to ask you about that,” she said. “I figured you had a plan.”
Shifters could normally control their shifts, once they were past cubhood. During the full moon, however, all shifters compulsively changed to their animal form – and stayed that way throughout the night. They wouldn’t be able to guard Roy, and the idea of him in his shifted form, on a full moon, was a horrifying one.
“So they were all right with it?” she said.
“Not at all,” he scoffed. “They bitched, they moaned, they cried, they tried to say that they had nowhere they could safely hold him. I asked them if that meant I need to report them, and they whined and cried some more, and then they said that they would come up with something.”
Annoyance roiled in Savannah’s gut. She’d never met this pack, but she disliked them already.
There were few universal rules among shifters, but the requirement to offer a safe place to travelers on a full moon was one of them. Otherwise, a shifter on a full moon might be forced shift too close to human territory and expose their existence.
The requirement to have a place to restrain feral shifters was another.
There was no central shifter authority, but every territory in the country had one large pack that oversaw matters that affected all shifters. They usually had smaller packs reporting to them. If a pack refused to take in travelers, or if they had nowhere to restrain a dangerous shifter, they’d find themselves quickly disbanded, and their Alpha would find himself…well, he wouldn’t find himself, because he’d be dead.
Savannah and Austin fell silent again.
The drive through the night was long and torturous. Roy did everything he could to make their trip hell.
He’d learned to fake being unconscious, for one thing. Apparently he had admirable control over his heartbeat and breathing, and now that he’d figured out how quickly he could burn through their tranquilizers, he was doing his best to get them to use as many as possible.
So he would be lying there perfectly still, giving no sign that he’d woken up again, whatsoever, and then he would suddenly leap up with a terrifying roar and start tearing at his chains.
Austin had gotten so pissed off that he’d repeatedly punched Roy in the head, then beaten him with a wrench. It had just made Roy laugh.
Chapter Eleven
Savannah yawned and shrugged her shoulders, shifting in her seat, desperately trying to stay awake.
It was morning, and the days were starting to blur into one. Tonight was the full moon. Normally she’d feel the wonderful – the wild call of the moon, singing to her animal, coaxing her to the surface. Right now her brain was so fogged with exhaustion that she wanted to just crawl into a foxhole and sleep for a million years.
And now Roy was clanking his chains again, because he’d just woken up.
She braced herself to hear Roy howling and struggling, but he didn’t. Instead he growled, his voice low and hoarse, “Give me water.”
“Screw yourself,” Austin said.
“If we give you water, will you promise to stop trying to get out of your chains for the rest of the trip?” Savannah called back to him.
“Fuck, no.” Roy croaked out a horrible laugh.
Well, it had been worth a try. “Or at least not to attempt to get out of your chains for six hours straight?”
“Running low on tranquilizer, are we?” Roy sneered.
She flicked an annoyed look at the rearview mirror. Austin picked the wrench up off the seat next to him and slammed it down on Roy’s skull with all his might. It made a dull kong sound. Roy didn’t even blink.
“Do you really want to die thirsty, Roy?” Savannah tried again. “Because we know how this trip ends, and being thirsty sucks. So you can either promise not to pull on your chains, and get a bottle of water, or you can just lie there and suck it up. Dealer’s choice.”
Roy grunted, glaring at the front seat with bleary eyes. “What makes you think I’ll keep my word?”
She sighed. “Well, I’m just hoping that you will. I’m hoping that you will think about the memory of your mate, and that you’ll decide to go out with honor, to respect her memory.”
There was dead silence in the back of the truck.
“I don’t appreciate people using the memory of my dead mate to manipulate me.” There was something in Roy’s tone that sent an icy shiver through Savannah’s veins. His mate was no-go territory. Duly noted.
“I am not in any way using your dead mate to manipulate you,” she said, keeping her tone calm and even. “I am sorry about your loss, and I’m not saying that in the bullshit way that everybody says it when they don’t know what else to say. My father died four years ago. He was severely injured in a trap, and we kept bringing him back to a healer, but he died a year later, and it was devastating. My mother was in mourning for years, and the only thing that kept her going was the need to take care of her family. For the longest time, she was like a zombie, moving her emotionally dead body through her days. And she’s the strongest woman I know. I know how awful it is.”
Roy made a scoffing noise. “Yeah, whatever. Your mother didn’t go crazy and kill a bunch of innocent people.”
“Well, Roy, here’s the thing. The people you killed who were torturing wild animals, they were about as far from innocent as they could be. It sounds as if you screwed up and let humans see you, which was stupid and possibly deliberately suicidal, but you rid the world of a revolting cancer. As for the family that was murdered, I’m actually starting to wonder whether you did it, given that you didn’t even know what was done to them.”
“Told you. When you’ve killed as many as I have, you lose track.”
“If you’d killed anyone else, it would have been on the report,” she said impatiently. “Harris provides very thorough information on his marks. And we do monitor the news, you know. All the time.”
“Well, listen to shifter Nancy Drew.”
Roy’s voice was hoarse and it cracked on the last sentence. She pulled over to the side of the road.
“You are not giving him water.” Austin’s voice was tight and angry.
“Yes, I am.” Savannah stifled a flare of impatience. She was too tired and stressed out for arguing. “It’s going to take us several more days to get to our destination, and he is going to have to drink at some point. As for the tranquilizers, either we will have enough to get us through, or we won’t. We will deal with it at that point. If he lies to us this time, then we don’t give him any more water or food for the rest of the trip.”
She got out of the car, walked around to the door on the opposite side from Austin, and pulled it open. Roy looked up at her as she stood there, his gaze sullen.
Austin’s face was twisting, his expression strange and tormented. She’d never seen
him look like that before.
“Fuck!” he screamed. He threw the rifle down on the seat and stormed off down the road. She gaped after him in astonishment.
Was that how he handled disagreements?
No. She’d never seen him behave like that before.
“What a dick, huh?” Roy let out a deep chuckle. “Cowardly little pussy. Running off to leave you alone with me. He’s useless. You should shoot him in the fucking face when he comes back. If he comes back.”
Savannah bit back her urge to defend Austin. It was instinctive, so quick and sudden that it snatched her breath away. Her hands twitched with the urge to pick up the wrench and bash Roy’s face in with it.
Don’t talk smack about my mate, asshole.
Damn it!
She couldn’t deny it to herself anymore.
Austin was her true mate.
How the hell had that happened?
Her mother had told her that, according to legend, the paths of True Mates always crossed at least once in their lives. Smart shifters didn’t try to fight it. Dumb shifters sometimes did what Austin’s mother had done – ignored their heart, ignored their instincts, and chased after something shinier. And they always ended up miserable.
Rattled, she pulled a water bottle from her jacket pocket.
She opened it and held it up to Roy’s lips, and he gulped it down greedily, sucking down the entire bottle.
Austin was still gone. She looked around uneasily. She could still scent him, but he’d vanished into the woods. Restroom break?
But he could at least have told her what he was doing.
She went and got a sandwich from her cooler and fed it to Roy. He scarfed it down ravenously, and licked his lips.
“What was that sauce? Not a bad last meal at all.” He said that so calmly. Almost cheerfully. As if his imminent execution was no big deal.
“My mother made that sandwich. It’s a secret recipe.” She scourged him with a fierce glower. “And speaking of my mother, I’ve made an executive decision. Threaten my mother again, and I’m going to cut your throat. I’m not going to enjoy doing it, I won’t feel good about myself afterwards, but I’ll get over it and be just fine. I’ll forfeit the bounty, because we’re supposed to deliver your crazy ass alive, but my mother is more important than money.”
Roy looked up at her thoughtfully. “I’m not going to threaten your mother again, but it’s not because you told me that you were going to kill me. That’s a given. I’ll die today or in a few days – either way, this coming full moon will be my last one. I’m not going to threaten your mother anymore because taking away a woman from this world who can cook like that would be an actual sin.”
Savannah stared at him, her brow wrinkling in puzzlement.
“What?” he asked, squinting at her suspiciously.
“You aren’t acting anywhere near as crazy as I thought you would be.”
Roy’s face went slack and his gaze drifted, seeming to fix on nothingness. “Well. It comes and goes. And if you know your business, you know that makes me even more dangerous than someone who’s crazy all the time. I’ll lure you in, I’ll make you think I’m sane, and I’ll snap your neck when you least expect it. Best get it over with now.”
She folded her arms across her chest, shifting uncomfortably. “Are you trying to get us to kill you? Are you afraid of what the Washborn Pack is going to do to you? Because if you think they’re going to torture you, I don’t have to take you to them. I could take you back to Harris, the broker, and I guarantee you that whatever he does to you, it will be humane.”
She felt queasy. She’d been attacked and had to defend herself over the years. She’d killed three men who were trying to kill her. She hadn’t felt badly about it in the least. She had no problem with self-defense. But something about sitting there having a conversation with a man she would have to hand over to his death…
“Is that what you think?” He threw back his head and laughed. “You think I’m afraid of pain? It doesn’t matter what you fucking do to me. It doesn’t matter where you take me. Take me to the Washborn Pack, kill me yourself, it makes no fucking difference to me.”
“Hey!” she heard Austin calling, and she turned to him with a wave of relief washing over her. It had been getting to the point where she thought she might have to go search for him. Which would mean using more tranqs on Roy, and their supply was diminishing so fast that it was genuinely frightening her.
Austin jogged towards her, and as he got closer, her relief was replaced with worry.
The expression on his face…like he’d just stared into the bowels of hell. He was pale, and his eyes were wild. His hair was pasted to his head with sweat. He was breathing hard. What had just happened?
“Sorry,” he gasped, coming up the opposite side of the truck from her. He planted one hand on the side of the truck and leaned on it as if needing support to stay on his feet.
“Nice job, leaving your girlfriend alone with me,” Roy sneered at him as he scrambled in. “Next time you do that, I’m going to break my chains and eat her face while she’s still alive.”
Austin jerked upright, and his face contorted with fury. He drew back his fist and smashed Roy’s face, breaking his nose. Blood spurted out, dripping down his face, and Roy’s lips drew back in a wordless snarl.
“Next time you threaten Savannah, I’m going to dig up your mate’s grave and pound her bones to powder, and then mix it in my coffee and drink it!” Austin barked at Roy. “And then I’ll puke it up!”
Not the mate! Not the mate! That’s Roy’s trigger point!
“Austin, no!” Savannah cried, but it was too late.
Roy went insane.
His face twisted in a maddened scream, and he hurled himself against his chains so hard that Savannah heard several of them snapping. Fur rippled all over his body.
She reared back and shot him, twice, but Roy was so frenzied he didn’t even seem to feel it. His jaw was stretching, fangs descending. She had to shoot him twice more before he finally collapsed.
“Austin. What. the. Hell.” She stared at him in dismay. “Damn you, Austin! You made me waste all those tranqs! He promised to behave for six hours, and he would have if you hadn’t provoked him!”
He sucked in a breath. “You’re right.”
“And you ran off and left me with him!” she shouted, fear and worry boiling over and rushing out of her. “The agreement is, we’re working together!”
“You’re right. You’re right.” His head bobbed miserably, and he clenched his fists, then crossed his arms over his chest.
“Don’t keep saying that! It doesn’t help!” she yelled at him. “Just tell me what the hell is going on here!”
“Okay.” A haunted expression twisted his face. “I ran off because I saw a vision. You were catching on fire. I can’t control myself when I see them. I was afraid I might hurt you.”
Alarm jolted through her. “You…saw a vision.” What exactly did that mean?
“Yes. Again. I keep seeing visions. It’s been happening for months.” He chewed his lower lip in anguish. “I’m going feral. I’m not going to last much longer, and when I finally go, somebody’s going to put me down. That’s why I moved away from my pack, to Greenville. That’s why I’ve never tried to pursue anything with you. If I weren’t going crazy, I’d have been at your house courting your crazy ass from the day I met you. Losing you? That’s what sucks the most about all of this.” He shook his head miserably. “We should just get going.”
Savannah’s jaw hung open.
He’d just tossed a bomb into her lap, and…they should just get going?
“Seeing visions…that could mean a lot of things. What if you’re a Seer?”
“My visions aren’t like that. They’re twisted and crazy. I…I went to a healer. He said that I’m going feral, and there’s nothing that he or anyone can do to stop it.”
“Austin, you idiot, I do not have enough bad words in my vocabulary right
now.” She bit the words out so she wouldn’t scream.
“I do. I’m a motherfucking stupid asshole. Is that good for starters?” His lips twisted up in a wretched smile.
“Don’t make this into a joke!” she cried out, blinking back tears. “I am seriously pissed off that you didn’t tell me that before! Because you know what? We’re True Mates, and I know that, and you probably knew that. And I’m not even worth fighting for?”
He shook his head in denial. “Savannah, I’d fight to the death for you! Every time a man even looks at you, I want to bite his head off! If anyone ever tried to hurt you, I’d skin them alive! That’s not the problem at all. This isn’t me running from a fight. This is me making a sacrifice, Savannah. This is me letting you go so I don’t flip out and kill you.”
Her heart pounded against her ribcage. Austin was dumb and stubborn and too blind to get out of his own way, but he was hers.
The only man who’d ever made her feel pretty and sexy and incredibly talented at her job, all at the same time.
He looked at her like she was the tastiest dessert on the buffet table and he was starving. When she was with other men, she was always sucking in her stomach, trying to tone down how much stronger she was then them, trying to sound natural when she laughed at their dumb jokes.
Austin made her laugh without even trying.
And a curl of his lips made her knees melt and her heart pound.
Sure, he was a hothead. And he loved to torture her. But she loved to torture him back. He was the only man who’d ever challenged her.
He made her yearn for things she’d never even dreamed of before. A mate. Kits, or cubs, whatever they would have together.
She wasn’t going to give up on him, and she wasn’t going to let him give up on himself.
“Tell me everything,” she said tightly. “From the beginning.”
“I can’t. We need to just get back on the road and drive. The tranqs are only going to last so long.”
“No, Austin, this truck doesn’t move until you talk to me. And you’re not going to do it while we’re driving; I want to focus and hear every word you’re telling me without distraction. Saving your ass is more important than delivering this mark. You know what? If I don’t get this bounty, we will lose the restaurant. And that will be horrible. But you know what would be worse? Me letting you, my True Mate, down. Me not fighting to the last breath for you. My mother would agree with me, you know. If someone had come along and said that we could save my dad but we’d have to give up our house and the restaurant and everything we own, she’d have been building a tent for us in the woods and sewing us clothes out of rags and rubbish.” She fixed him with a stern look. “You should have told me earlier.”
The Billion-Were's Foxy Forever (The Billion-Weres Book 3) Page 12
