Chapter 19
RUN
Taylor
Pain. Pain and panic.
Taylor’s head shot up as he sat hunched over the desk. Something was wrong; he knew it even before the emergency call went out.
His chest squeezed, hard, making him double over. It felt like he was having a heart attack. He slapped a hand on the desk as his wolf tried to rip out of his skin.
Danger, his wolf snarled in his head. Hurt. Alone. Hurt. Hurt. Hurt. Mate is hurt.
Amil blinked, teacup halfway to his lips. “The fuck is wrong with—” His mouth dropped open when he saw Taylor’s claws popping through his fingers and his fangs elongating. “Shiiiit.”
He and Isla stood abruptly, their hands immediately going to their radios.
“Bravo two six—” Amil began, but his words were cut off by the high-pitched trill of the emergency call.
It was a sound every police officer knew, and one they all dreaded.
There was a ten-second window of open air where all they could hear was a scuffle, followed by growls and barks, followed by screaming.
Taylor was already ripping off his stab vest and running towards the door. He didn’t bother with the rest of his clothes, letting them get ripped to shreds as his wolf tore free from his skin. It was a rough shift, but he barely felt it as adrenaline shot into his veins and he began running.
Find. Find. Where. WHERE.
He dipped his head, sniffing the ground, his wolf carrying him in the direction of Johnny’s scent.
They’d been together long enough that their bond was like an invisible thread, tugging and twisting as Johnny’s wolf cried out for Taylor.
Taylor’s head snapped up, the bond pulling taut, and he let it drag him in the direction of the main town.
“Coming. Now, coming,” he tried to say across the bond, but it was fuzzy and his words jumped all over the place.
He tore across a small park, across people’s gardens and over their fences.
Bushes and ornaments snagged in his fur, his wolf just dragging him along like he was on rails.
He barely even felt the distance when he reached the high street, and pedestrians screeched and flung themselves out of his path as he went thundering down the old cobbled road.
“Move,” he growled, snarling at anyone who got in his way. “Move, move, move!”
The shops fell away and he was on the road again, his wolf pummelling the tarmac, pulling him left, through another housing estate and into a small patch of woodland.
It took him to the outskirts of Applewood Heights, and he was panting and foaming like a mad beast as he dipped his head and followed Johnny’s scent again.
It was stronger now, lanced through with fear and fury.
“Over here!” someone screamed. “Oh God, he’s over here!”
It was Wendy, face pale and eyes filled with terror.
She had her baton in one hand and an empty can of bite-back spray in the other.
She swore as she threw it to the ground and disappeared behind a hedgerow.
Taylor threw himself forwards, claws almost ripping up the road as he sprinted after her.
He rounded a corner, raced down a narrow alley and found himself in the middle of a block of flats.
And there he was. Johnny’s black wolf. Cornered. Bleeding. With at least a dozen people surrounding him.
Taylor threw his head in the air and let a howl rip from deep within his chest. Several of the attackers, the ones still in human form, turned and ran, dropping their weapons and abandoning each other. Six remained, all wolves, alphas and betas, snarling and breathing hard as they turned on Taylor.
Johnny growled, snapping at one of their legs, blood trickling between his pointed teeth as he dragged the wolf back.
Cold fury ripped through Taylor’s body, but before he could leap forwards the other wolves were on him, biting and gnashing, fangs and claws ripping into Taylor’s scruff as they tried to bring him to the ground.
It wasn’t happening, not when rage bubbled in Taylor’s chest and set his blood on fire.
Dropping his head, he clamped his jaws around the throat of the first attacker, his back legs kicking another in the face.
He flung the wolf in his jaws against a wall with a wet crunch, before jerking around as another tried to jump on his back.
They missed, but ripped at his ears and bit through his scruff.
Blood sprayed over the grass, and Taylor dropped his shoulders, flipping the other wolf over as he tore a chunk out of its muzzle. It howled and thrashed, but Taylor only rocked his head, burying his fangs in deep before throwing the wolf to the ground.
It was a mess of teeth and claws and the scent of violence, and at some point Taylor couldn’t even tell who was who.
It just felt like a mass of bodies pressing themselves on top of him, biting him, ripping at his legs as they tried to stop him.
They looked like they had started attacking each other, too, whatever loyalty they might have had to one another completely disintegrating when there was blood in the air.
Taylor thought for a moment that he might die there. Or that he’d killed someone, because the stench of blood and torn flesh was overwhelming.
He ended up on his back, the top of his head pressed against the concrete. There was another wolf crushing him, its jaws shaking so badly it couldn’t get a hold of him. Amongst the chaos Taylor could see Johnny limping towards him, one paw bloodied and hovering above the ground.
Taylor grunted, kicking the other wolf off him with his back legs and sending it howling into the air.
He rolled onto his front, springing towards Johnny, their muzzles crossing as Taylor frantically drove his nose into the other alpha’s chest. Johnny’s fur was short, unlike Taylor’s scruffy ginger mane, and he could feel his heart thundering.
“I’m here,” he said across the bond, pressing his head under Johnny’s belly to guide him to the ground. Johnny whimpered as Taylor stood over him, barking and snarling as red started to cloud his vision.
Just red.
All red.
Only red as the three remaining wolves picked themselves up, dropped their heads and zigzagged menacingly towards him.
He didn’t care. He did not care, because if they made another move to hurt Johnny he would kill them, of that he’d never been so certain. Fuck his guns, fuck PAVA, fuck batons, because if they even so much as touched another hair on Johnny’s head he would rip them to shreds with his teeth.
Taylor crouched low, his belly pressed to Johnny’s back as saliva dripped from between his fangs.
“Taylor!” someone called. “Tay!”
It was Wendy, and when Taylor blinked he realised she was sitting on someone’s back with her hand jammed into the pressure point behind their ear. The only way to prevent someone from shifting.
She flung her head in the direction of the alleyway, and before Taylor could react two more people came barrelling into the clearing.
Amil ran head first into one of the wolves, smashing his baton across its shoulder blades.
Isla yelled as she kicked another in the gut before taking out the third by emptying an entire can of bite-back spray into its face.
“John-Paul!” she cried, dropping the can and running towards them.
It re-triggered the fight response in Taylor’s brain, making his wolf take over again.
“Threat, threat, threat,” it said, trying to pull itself free from Taylor’s control.
He could feel it seething, pushing the human part of Taylor’s brain away.
Except… there was something—something he hadn’t felt before.
His wolf’s aggression… the anger dipped into fear and right back into anger again.
It was unstable, like him, and right now it didn’t know whether to attack or back down.
Uncertainty.
Taylor sucked in a breath. “It’s okay,” he said, trying to calm his wolf rather than fight it. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. Friend. Friend. Friends.”
His wolf thrashed, pressing its weight harder onto Johnny just so it could feel his warmth. Johnny whined, his head rocking from side to side as he tried to roll over.
“Taylor!” Isla called, baton clutched to her side. “Taylor, it’s okay! It’s okay! You can stop. We aren’t going to hurt him.”
He could feel Johnny trying to send reassurance across the bond. It was weak, but warmth trickled in behind Taylor’s eyes and eased the tension in his chest.
“It’s okay,” Isla said, raising a hand as she edged closer. “It’s alright. It’s okay now, he’s safe. Help is here”
Taylor’s eyes flicked around the courtyard. Six wolves down, Wendy, Isla and Amil all in human form, sweating and breathing hard and looking at him like he might be about to take them all out.
A light breeze ruffled his fur, wafting the scent of blood into his nostrils.
“Taylor…” Johnny’s wolf coughed around a mouthful of blood. It pawed weakly at Taylor’s chest.
Vulnerable, Vulnerable. Mate is vulnerable.
“Taylor Campbell, will you put your fucking fangs away!” Amil yelled, nostrils flaring as he threw a can of bite-back spray at Taylor’s head.
It bounced off his thick skull, clattering to the ground and rolling back towards Amil.
The omega’s eyes were wide, scared, but something about his berating familiarity drained all the fight out of Taylor in an instant.
Isla let out a shaky breath, placing her baton back in its holder. “Place cuffs on these fuckwits and get PC Ateba in the Ranger. There’s no chance in hell I’m waiting for an ambulance.”
Everything else was a blur—the others heaving Johnny into the back of the truck with Taylor lying over him, Falkington officers arriving, the drive to the hospital, guiding Johnny into a padded room so they could both curl up together as doctors attempted to check their wounds.
Attempted. Because they were wound so tightly together they couldn’t treat either of them properly. It wasn’t until the frosted glass door clicked shut and people stopped coming in that the tension finally eased in Taylor’s shoulders.