Chapter 13
Unraveling
Isaac
Eli slammed on the brakes. Red and blue lights filled the street.
Tara was in danger too. I needed to get to her.
No. I couldn’t do that.
My brother shouted, clawing his way through police officers to reach his mate’s house.
It was burning. Flames climbed rapidly. I choked on smoke, gripping my brother’s shoulder and forcing him back. Into the shadows.
Eli collapsed onto his knees. Broken.
I couldn’t stomach the expression on his face. That would be me. Tara leaving. And me—ripped open.
Saul’s voice drew us both back. “You’re bonded. What do you feel?”
Eli’s eyes unfocused. Mine did too. My attention turned inward, finding the chain embedded in my chest.
Chain wasn’t the right word. It wasn’t a weight. It was light. Easy.
“She’s not dead,” Eli murmured. I exhaled hard.
Smoke billowed around us, tainting our senses. It didn’t hide the set of yellow eyes watching from the shadows of a neighboring house. Eli noticed them too, rising to his feet, lips curled back in a snarl.
“Who is that?” Saul asked.
“One of us,” Eli answered.
Of course, he was. And the worst part? I’d seen him before, lurking around Rocky’s dock like some stray animal.
That was the day I found Tara running scared behind Celine’s.
We piled back into the truck, gunning through the neighborhood as the other wolf took off in a black sports car.
“Right! Eli, go right!” I pointed to a gravel driveway, almost invisible in the darkness.
Dust churned in the air, obstructing my vision. Eli slammed the truck into park. Saul was out of the truck first, Eli right behind him.
Saul picked up speed, tackling the mutt as he tried to vanish into the brush. He broke easily under my brother’s power. They always did.
He handed Saul a cellphone. Jacques’s voice was smooth and confident through the speaker.
Eli gripped his hair, growling incoherently.
Then Jacques said my name, and the hair rose on my neck.
With four simple words, he had my beast in a chokehold. “He took my mate.”
The monster tore at me, trying to turn me inside out.
Mine. Not his.
My mate.
Jacques knew she was here. It was only a matter of time before he found her.
But Eli was standing over the other wolf, squeezing the life from him, and I saw him unraveling. His mate in danger. Left to drown while a storm raged over the bay.
The bond weighed heavily in my sternum. So did my brother’s fate.
I couldn’t lose Eli either. I wouldn’t make it without him.
We climbed back into the truck, urgency beating against us like the wind hitting the windshield.
I had to see this through.
And then?
I struggled to swallow.
Right now, Jacques didn’t know where Tara was. Tomorrow she’d pack her suitcase and leave Port O’Henry.
I would let her.
It was the safest choice for her. The only right one. For once in my life, I had to make it.
For her.
My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by Saul’s cool tone. He was collected and confident, the tension from earlier fading.
“We’re going to need a boat.”