Chapter 25 #2
At the portal entrance, he turns and tries to push me back, but I push back harder, eyes flaming as we jostle. “Don’t you dare try and stop me, Jax.”
Our fists are clenched. I don’t care if he has wolf in him, if he tries to resist me, I’ll knock him out cold.
Seeing the fire in my eyes, he backs down.
“Be it on your own fucking head,” he mutters as I stride into the portal elevator after him.
“Follow what I do,” he orders. “Sit down and strap in. I warn you, you won’t be alive on the other side if you don’t.”
I buckle up and then he presses the control panel, and it feels like I’m being shredded from the inside out.
But then, almost as abruptly as it started, it’s over. I groan, and it takes every skerrick of my willpower to get my discombobulated body back under control. I can’t afford to let it affect me, not in this life and death situation. Adrenalin drives me to save my mate.
As we run out, I notice there’s a truck being unloaded nearby. “Over there.” I point.
In seconds, Jax has yanked open the door.
He pulls the driver from the front seat and, I’m ashamed to say, I grab the innocent peripheral by the collar and hurl him as far as I can.
The two guys loading the truck turn and run away.
Clearly, a big green orc about to knock their lights out overrode their programming.
I jump in next to Jax and within seconds the truck is roaring and belching down the long, straight road toward the army barracks.
I spot a barrier and a guard station. Jax crashes the truck right through the barrier and moments later, we screech to a halt outside the captain’s office and run inside.
We’re just in time.
Because two burly humans in uniform have Clem held between them, and while she’s valiantly struggling, she is no match for them.
A blond guy stands next to them, talking fast on the phone, and two more humans in army uniform stand guard.
Everyone freezes. Clem lets out a cry of relief.
A second later, one of the guards pitches himself at me. I hurl him over my shoulder and don’t even look back as I tackle the bastards who are holding her.
Pulling myself to my full height and stature, I bellow, “You wanna be eaten? Do you?” I bare my tusks, flex my biceps. “Because I sure fancy a couple of humans for my lunch,” I roar as I lunge at them.
They scatter, and Clem, freed, runs to me and I catch her as she jumps.
If it weren’t for Clem, I’d take them on, but my priority is to get her out of here. But then I feel something hard at my back. I turn, holding Clem to my chest, and there’s a gun barrel pointing straight at us, mere inches away.
“Hand her over,” blond guy says through gritted teeth.
If I move, that fucker will shoot, and the first person he’ll get is my beloved human.
I let out a thunderous roar, but my heart is pounding. Deep down, I know I’m no match for guns and bullets.
How the fuck are we going to get out of this alive?
And then Jax shouts from the other side of the room. Even though the remaining soldiers now have their guns trained on him, he’s clearly unafraid.
“Take her. Get the fuck out of here!” he shouts.
His green eyes blaze brighter than I’ve ever seen, and he’s growing in stature. He seems to be bristling all over, and a glowing light surrounds him, like an aura.
He roars again, “GO!”
With Clem in my arms, I stride toward the door, casting a glance behind me as we exit.
Jax is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a huge silver wolf is rounding up the five guys like sheep into a corner of the room.
Holy fucking gods of the Labyrinth.
Jax has shifted to save his sister.
I have no time to think further. I turn and bound toward the truck with Clem swaddled in my arms. I open the door and, as gently as possible, lay her onto the passenger seat.
“We can’t leave Jax behind,” she sobs.
Gods damn it, she’s right. I need to help him, but how can I leave Clem on her own in the truck? Any moment, more armed soldiers could appear from those squat ugly buildings.
I look all around. The area is remarkably quiet, the road eerily empty. There’s no sign of other reinforcements. Yet.
“Lie down,” I order. “Lock the doors. I’ll be back in a minute.”
By sheer luck, there are ropes coiled up in the back of the truck. I grab them.
When I bound back inside, Jax has the group of soldiers still cornered.
The fucking bastard who posed as Jax, certainly doesn’t look powerful now, groveling on the ground, hands over his head.
They’re all crying out for mercy. I take the thick ropes and tie them together, so tightly it will take hours for them to escape.
“We need to go,” I say urgently to wolf-Jax.
He turns and starts to pad toward me on big paws, but then he lets out a low whine, as if in pain, and his limbs start to jerk as if he’s been hit by a tranquilizer pellet.
Suddenly he collapses on the ground at my feet.
Fuck, did a bullet hit him? I didn’t hear a shot, but…
Shit, shit, shit.
“What have you bastards done to him?” I shout at the huddled group.
None of them answer, their faces frozen in abject shock. Except blond guy. He is huddled on the ground, weeping like a baby.
I resist the urge to gore him with my tusks for what he did to my mate.
But that won’t help wolf Jax, out cold at my feet.
I think fast.
I have only one choice. And that’s to drag Jax’s inert form back to the truck, and somehow get him and Clem down to the Labyrinth without being shot at from the towers that surround the portals. Hopefully Traggar will know how to help him.
With humungous effort, I drag Jax outside to the truck. He’s so much bigger as a wolf, and in his inert form he’s unbelievably heavy.
When I reach the back of the truck, I have another hurdle to overcome. I’ve got to heave wolf Jax into the back, and get us out of here and into a portal elevator. The enormity of the task nearly scuppers me.
But just as I bend to lift the shaggy beast over my shoulder, he turns back into human Jax. Still inert. Still unconscious.
I quickly scan his body. No wounds. No blood.
Relief floods through me. I can lift him now, no problem.
I pick Jax up and stride round to the passenger door.
Clem opens it, and I place her brother on the bench seat next to her.
He lolls against her, and her arms come round him as he pitches sideways onto her lap.
“Is he dead?” Her eyes are hollow with fear.
“I hope not, babe. I hope not,” I mutter through gritted teeth before striding round to the driver’s side.
A moment later, we’re hurtling toward the portal elevator, just as gunshots pepper the side of the vehicle.