Chapter 16
Narae’s heart was hammering in her chest. Daemon and Thrall weren’t listening. Hell was coming their way, and it was coming fast; she could feel it. But against any logic, Daemon and Thrall were stalling to secure her.
“Run!” she hissed, trying to jerk out of Dameon’s hold as Thrall bound her hands behind her back. “I won’t do anything, you idiots, just go! Tell Jury I love her.”
Ignoring her, Daemon shoved her into Thrall’s arms and jerked his head toward the forest, “Take her, I’ll meet you at the truck.”
All the air left Narae on a whoosh! Take her? She thought they were tying her up to leave her so they’d have a clean escape. But they were taking her! They couldn’t take her! They’d lead Bragga right to Jury if they did that. “Wait!” she bellowed, but Thrall was already dragging her into the trees.
Looking back, she watched Daemon lift a hand to his mouth and rip into his palm before he held out his arm, his blood dripping onto the ground.
She knew what he was doing. He was leaving a marker.
It was an invitation, a challenge. Were these guys crazy?
They didn’t want to call Bragga and his Biters to their territory.
Bragga didn’t play by the rules, and he sure as shit didn’t follow any of the elders' laws. Bragga wouldn’t issue any formal challenge to Daemon.
He’d attack their compound, probably at night, and he’d kill Enforcers, elders, women, and children.
Bragga simply didn’t care. There wasn’t an ounce of civility in the man, and Daemon was calling serious trouble onto his pack and onto Jury.
“Stop!” she screamed. Then, looking at Thrall, she jerked back hard and started thrashing, “Let me the fuck go!”
Thrall growled and stopped just long enough to toss her over his shoulder before he tripled his pace.
They broke through the trees onto an old logging road where a blacked-out, jacked-up, quad-cab Ford Raptor waited.
In a blink, Thrall had her shoved into the back seat before he was in the driver’s seat, starting the engine.
The roar of the motor was loud and wouldn’t go unnoticed by her pack.
Luckily, when her pack would eventually find her, at least they’d be able to see that she was taken against her will.
As if that’d matter. Bragga would punish her for the dead trainees.
Somehow, it’d be her fault. Everything was always her fault in Bragga’s eyes, especially now that Jury was gone.
In the front seat, Thrall hissed, “Ffffuck!” He put the truck in gear and blasted down the mountain.
He was driving too fast on the curvy road. Narae eyed the seatbelt over her shoulder, but with her hands bound behind her, there was no hope of securing herself. Instead, she was slammed into the back door so hard that she winced as Thrall took a turn at a high rate of speed.
He tossed a repentant, “Sorry!” over his shoulder.
They took several more turns like that, and Narae was tossed around the back seat like a rag doll. When the road finally straightened out, she righted herself. Whipping her head around to search behind them, Narae couldn’t help but stammer, “D-Daemon?”
Thrall’s eyes hit the rearview mirror before slicing back to the road. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about D. He can handle his own. Hell, he can handle his own, my own, your own. He’ll find us, and…”
A loud boom sounded, and the truck rocked hard.
With a shriek, Narae rolled off the bench seat and ducked low.
Thrall was struggling to right the fishtailing truck, but managed the feat.
When he did, Narae peeked up from the floor to find Thrall eying the rearview mirror again with a satisfied smirk.
“See!” he bit out tightly before clearing his throat, his attention going back to the road. “Told ya he’d find us.”
Hands still bound, Narae had difficulty clambering up off the floor.
When she finally managed to make it onto the bench seat , she turned and stared in awe at Daemon.
He had one hand clamped to the truck’s rack roll bar, his legs splayed wide for balance.
The wind was whipping through his hair, and he was staring dead ahead, eyes blown out with his wolf while a sinister grin twisted his lips.
He looked terrifying…and sexy. Chilling gaze sliding down to Narae, he shot her a wink, then turned to look behind them.
Narae looked down the road, too, but there wasn’t anyone coming.
Had they really gotten away from the Biters so easily?
The truck rocked slightly again, and Narae’s heart rate kicked up as she watched Daemon scale the side of the truck.
Thrall didn’t slow down a bit, but that didn’t deter Daemon from opening the passenger side door and climbing in.
Once seated, he glanced over his shoulder and shot her another wink. “You good, trouble?”
Unsure how to respond, she nodded woodenly.
Thrall was eyeing the rearview mirror for the millionth time. “They coming?”
Daemon shrugged. “I hope so.”
And that cemented it. Daemon was most definitely bat-shit crazy. Great! She’d been kidnapped by morons and marked by a psychopath.