Chapter 1 #3
“Fuck,” he snarled. “Do you know how to drive?”
“A little, around the … before I was… before—”
He waved a hand in front of my face. “Can you make a car go forward without hitting anything?”
“Probably.”
“Good enough. Blue Toyota. Staff lot, by maintenance. The address is already in the navigation. Put it in drive, don’t deviate from the nav, don’t stop, just drive. They’ll be looking for you.”
“Where—”
“Find Cassian there. Tell him Ronan sent you.”
“C-Cassian. Ronan.” The words tangled in my mouth; I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get my chest to expand, panic locking everything tight.
“I don’t understand.” The words dragged out between breaths that wouldn’t come.
“Yannick—” I couldn’t finish it. My lungs burned.
“Where are Yannick’s babies?” I hit his chest, hard enough to hurt my hand.
“Please. Find them!” I hit him again, sobbing.
“Stop.” He growled and caught the back of my neck, fingers tightening, thumb pressing hard at the base of my skull, and my cat subsided instantly—no fight, no hesitation, instinct snapping under the force of his command, and terror crashed through me a second later because I couldn’t stop it and the panic forced my lungs to draw in air.
“If the SED catches you, they’ll take your baby.” His fingers tightened on the back of my neck. “There is no way out of this for you if you don’t get to Cassian. Do you understand?”
I sagged into his hold, and he cursed.
“He won’t understand why I sent you to him, but he’ll protect you from anyone who wants your baby.
He works with the Haven Network, okay? You can trust him to get you across the border.
” I recoiled, but he held on. “I’m opening the door, and you run.
Okay?” I stared at him, mute, and he tightened his grip enough to make me yelp.
“Cass is strong. An alpha wolf. Are you listening, omega?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good.” The praise settled deep enough that my cat lifted, alert, locking onto the fear running through me.
He’d been absent so long I was used to the emptiness where he should have been, but now instinct crashed so hard it drowned everything else, driving me toward the alpha, toward obedience, toward escape.
“Everything you need is in the car, okay? In the trunk, bags of it…” He stared at me, swallowed, and there was more shouting behind us.
“Fuck it. Ready. On three. One—two—three!”
The door burst open, and he lunged out into the kitchen garden, half dragging and half lifting me, the thin grey light of dawn just breaking over the high security fence, not enough darkness to hide us.
“Over there!” someone shouted from the verandah.
His gun came up over my shoulder. “Go!”
I stumbled, one hand braced under my belly, the other locked around the key and the stuffed toy I’d yet to drop. Gravel tore under my sneakers as I lurched through the gate and into the staff lot, cold dawn air biting through my pajamas.
Twenty yards to the car. Then fifteen. Then ten—
An explosion tore the air apart, loud and close, and gravel kicked up and cut my ankles. I screamed and half-turned before I could stop myself.
The alpha who’d pulled me out was on one knee, firing back toward the house, when something slammed into him hard enough to snap his shoulder backward.
He staggered, almost went down, then forced himself upright and kept firing.
The moment he saw me still standing there, something savage broke loose in his expression, his nails lengthening into claws as rage consumed every trace of the man who’d been there a second before.
“GO!” His voice tore through me, so full of alpha command that my cat shrank back with a frightened cry. Another bullet struck him, and he dropped hard to both knees, but somehow his gun came up again, one-handed now, his other arm hanging uselessly at his side.
Every instinct screamed at me to run before they reached me, but I couldn’t abandon the alpha who’d dragged me out of that nightmare and leave him there to die. “Come with me!”
“No!”
“Please—”
“GO!”
I wrenched open the car door, sobbing, and fell into the seat, my belly catching under the steering wheel, and I wriggled in terror, grabbing the belt and shoving the key in the ignition at the same time.
The engine caught on the first turn. Another crack split the air, and I flinched so hard my vision went white.
In the side mirror, I watched him go down.
He fell sideways, his gun slipping from his hand, his fingers reaching for it even as he hit the gravel, and then his body jolted—a wrong movement under his skin, shoulders bunching, spine twisting, his wolf breaking free.
He clawed into the dirt, dragging himself forward a fraction, leaving a dark smear behind him.
That was the last thing I saw as I accelerated down the drive, the gate wide open, and I didn’t slow as I hit the road.
The calm voice from the dashboard cut through the noise in my head.
In three hundred feet, turn right.
I turned.
And I didn’t look back.