Chapter 24 #2
"What are you doing?" I growl, resisting his push toward the car, muscles tensing. Cormac's expression remains resolute, a stone wall against my rising fury.
"We need to get him to safety and alert the network," he says quietly, words meant for my ears alone. "I'll explain everything once we're moving."
Astrid steps forward, outrage flashing in her eyes like lightning before a storm. "You are not taking my car. You can't just leave me here."
"I'm sorry," Cormac repeats. "We'll return it to your apartment. I give you my word."
"Your word?" Fury radiates from her in waves I can almost see, a tsunami of righteous anger. "This is my investigation!"
"Stop this," I say to Cormac, my own anger rising like a tide, claws threatening to emerge beneath my skin. "We're not leaving her here."
A flash of movement from the warehouse catches my attention, shadows against shadows moving with too much purpose to be natural. "Something's coming," I warn, instinctively positioning myself between Astrid and the warehouse.
"Which is exactly why we need to move. Now." Cormac shoves me into the passenger seat with unexpected force. "Astrid, you need to run."
He slams the door. I reach for the handle—
Gone.
The metal has vanished beneath my fingers. I snarl, slamming my fist against the window. The glass holds.
"The hellhounds won't hurt her," Cormac says.
The seatbelt whips around my chest, snapping tight against my body. The strap constricts like a living thing, binding me to the seat despite my strength.
"Release me," I growl, my voice dropping to something inhuman.
My bones crack beneath my skin. Claws emerge, tearing through my fingertips. My canines lengthen, pressing against my bottom lip. The wolf wants out.
"If she dies, I will tear your throat out with my teeth," I promise him, each word razor-edged and absolute.
The partial shift pulses beneath my skin, wolf and man battling for control as Cormac points over Astrid's shoulder.
"That way, right now. Get to the trees."
Cormac slides into the driver's seat, the engine roaring to life beneath his hands like a beast awakening. My struggle intensifies, the wolf and man united in desperate need to protect what's ours.
"Stop!" Astrid shouts, moving toward the driver's side, one hand outstretched as if she could physically halt our departure. "You can't—"
Cormac throws the car into reverse, tires squealing against asphalt as we pull away, the sound like a wounded animal in the night.
Through the window, I see Astrid's expression shift from outrage to disbelief, betrayal written in every line of her face.
"Go back!" I demand, turning on Cormac as we accelerate away from the warehouse, each inch between us and Astrid a physical pain in my chest. "We can't leave her there!"
"We have to. She'll be safer if we lead them away from her."
"Lead who away?" My words come out more snarl than speech, the wolf rising closer to the surface with each passing second.
Cormac takes a sharp turn, putting more distance between us and the warehouse, between me and my mate. Behind us, the terrified man has curled into himself, rocking slightly, muttering under his breath in elvin.
"He's part of it," Cormac says, nodding toward our passenger. "The magic trafficking ring we've been tracking for years. We've never gotten anyone out alive before."
"I don’t care!" I growl, reaching for the non-existent door handle again.
"You should. They'll hunt him. Track him." Cormac's eyes meet mine briefly before returning to the road, a flash of understanding and regret in their depths. "If he had gone with her, they would find her too."
"We take her with us. We tell her everything." It's not a suggestion but a demand.
"We can't. If we take her to the ranch, we expose the entire network. We can't do that."
"Then I'll go back," I argue. "I'll protect her."
"She's running like I told her. I saw her go for the trees. You can't go back. Do you know what they would do with you, if they caught you?" The regret in his voice only fuels my fury. "You don't understand what we're dealing with."
"Fucking explain it!" The words explode from me, a volcanic eruption of rage and fear and desperation.
"I will."
"Now." A command, not a request.
"No." Simple. Final. Resolute.
I turn in the seat, seething with a fury that could burn cities to ash. I'm seeing red, my vision narrowing to pinpoints of rage, the wolf so close to the surface I can feel my bones beginning to crack beneath my skin. "If anything happens to her, I'll kill you."
"I know," he mutters under his breath, the whispered words a confession and a promise. "And I am sorry."
The car speeds through the night, putting more distance between me and the woman who carries my soul with every passing second.
Every fiber of my being screams to go back, to protect, to claim.
But for now, I am trapped—by circumstance, by necessity, by the bitter truth that Cormac's decision, while infuriating, might be right.
But that won't save him if she comes to harm. Nothing will.