Madd
TEN
The gas station was a ten-minute walk that took us twenty because I kept having to stop.
Not because of the shoulder, though that wasn't helping. It was a dizziness that clouded my vision and made the ground tilt. I’d suffered blood loss, an adrenaline crash, and my wolf was drawing energy from every part of me to feed the repair.
I'd felt it before with minor injuries but never with a bullet graze while hiking through dark woods with a dragon shifter who walked three paces ahead and kept glancing back as if he expected me to collapse.
And I probably would because my vision was blurring.
“I’ll slow down.” Conrad didn’t turn around as he spoke.
“No. I need to warn Flint, and we have to get away from the dragon posse that’s sure to be on our tail.”
“You've stopped twice in ten minutes.”
“I was admiring the trees.”
He made a sound that might have been suppressed laughter or perhaps a dragon eye roll came with sound effects. But he slowed his pace, dropping back until we were walking side by side.
The woods thinned and a road appeared with two lanes of cracked asphalt.
Beyond it, a gas station sat encircled by fluorescent light.
I ran my gaze over the small building with a hand-painted sign and a pickup truck parked near the door.
This was the kind of place that survived on truckers and locals, and I hoped they didn't ask questions about people who showed up on foot in the middle of the night.
I stopped at the edge of the tree line.
“How do I look?” I asked.
Conrad gave me a quick glance. “Like someone who's been shot and walked some distance through the woods in pants that are too small for them.”
He was no help. “So, great.”
“The blood doesn't show through the dark shirt. Keep your arm close to your body and don't lean on anything.”
We crossed the road. The fluorescent light was brutal after the dark, and I squinted through the window. A man behind the counter was reading something on his phone, and all around him were racks of snacks and motor oil.
“Here we go.” Conrad held the door open, and the man behind the counter looked up. His face didn’t express surprise, and I suspect he was used to late-night customers and wasn’t going to ask us any questions.
“Can I use your phone? Our car broke down a few miles back.”
I almost felt the need to explain that our phones had died, but my training and instinct kicked in, and I didn’t offer any more information. The guy reached under the counter and set a cordless phone on the surface.
“Local calls only.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your help.”
As I picked up the phone, my hands shook.
“I’ll do it. I can give him the coordinates and explain what happened.” The dragon shifter reached for the phone, but I put a hand out and stopped him.
“No. He’s my Alpha and cousin.” What the heck did he think he was doing? “I’ll tell him you’re with me.”
He harrumphed. “You’re lightheaded and you’ve hardly eaten. You’ll forget what you have to tell him.”
Damn this dragon shifter telling me what to do. I glared at him, but he was so close and his freaking scent was teasing me.
“I’m grateful you got me out, but you don’t control my life.” I was hissing but trying to keep my voice down because the guy who worked here was listening.
He leaned close and placed his lips by my ear. “I’m trying to keep us alive.”
“So am I.” We glared at one another, and I turned away from the counter and punched in Flint's number from memory, because he had made every member of the family memorize his emergency line and tested us on it at random moments which I'd found annoying.
It rang twice.
“Who is this?” Flint snapped. “Is this Aldric Blain?
“It's me, Madd.”
He didn’t waste time with questions about how I was or what had happened. “Where are you?”
“Gas station on route—“ I looked at Conrad who mouthed, “Seven.”
But then he added, “Mile marker 14. Tennison’s Gas and Bait.”
I repeated the information into the phone, and by the end, I was whispering. He must have covered the phone because there were murmurings in the background, and I was pretty sure I heard Ranger growl.
“Are you hurt?”
Even though he couldn’t see me, he was perceptive and didn’t miss much, one of the reasons why he was such a good Alpha. Except for that one time with Emilio.
“It’s just a graze on my shoulder. I’m fine, and once you’re here, I’ll be even better.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I’ve had a rough few days, Flint.”
There was another muffled exchange on his end.
Grandpa was there. I hoped my brother Treyton wasn’t among them because I remembered when he’d tried to shoot someone and missed.
I closed my eyes and the voices of my family washed over me, and I had to put my hand on the counter because the ground was tilting toward me.
Conrad put his hand under my elbow and a tingling shot along my arm. Damn, was that the mating instinct in physical form? He pressed a cereal bar into my other hand. “Eat.”
I hated that he had to steady me.
“Who's that?” Flint asked.
“A friend.”
“Since when do you escape from a dragon stronghold and make a friend either before, during, or after?”
“He helped me because he has a grudge against the patriarch.”
The gas-station guy gasped. Damn, I’d forgotten about him. Again, instinct told me not to explain myself and dig Conrad and me into an even deeper hole.
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Maybe Flint was wondering if I was speaking under duress and leading him into a trap. Ahhh, my brain wasn’t functioning properly.
“Tell Grandpa I’m missing his lasagna.”
Alpha exhaled because that was our code to let him know I didn’t have a gun to my head and everything was as I’d said.
“I’ll pass that on.”
“How far out are you?” I wanted to get the heck away from here.
“Not far. We tracked your last known location but lost the trail in the early evening. There were reports of significant damage at the dragon compound. That was you?”
“Not exactly.”
“Madd.”
“It’s complicated. Can you just come?”
“Yes. Please stay where you are and out of sight. Are you or your friend armed?”
I glanced at Conrad and then at the guy behind the counter who unlike earlier was hanging on every word. “Weapon?” I mouthed.
He mouthed back, “Knife.”
“Ummm, sort of. It’s the kind with a point at one end.”
“Who’s listening in? Someone working at the gas station?”
“Exactly.”
“A knife isn’t much use against a horde of angry dragons.”
“Thanks for that visual, cousin.”
“We'll be there soon.”
“Flint.” I gripped the phone. The room was spinning. Conrad's hand was still under my elbow, and I was leaning into it. “There's something you should know. When you get here, the friend is coming with us.”
Now it wasn’t just the room that was spinning. I sensed Flint’s mind was too.
“Why?”
“Because he left everything to get me out of there, and his father will do you-know-what to him if he goes back.”
The gas-station guy was leaning closer, maybe trying to catch what Flint was saying, but it was Conrad’s grip on my arm that got my attention. He squeezed hard while I rattled off my explanation to Flint.
“You’re with Evander?”
“Not quite. There’s a second one, and he's coming with us. That's not negotiable.”
In the background Ranger asked what was going on, and Grandpa shushed him and said everyone should shut up and let me finish.
“Fine.” Flint huffed. “But I want answers when I get there.”
I hung up. The man behind the register was studying his phone, pretending he hadn’t been eavesdropping. I was tempted to rip the phone out of his hand and stomp on it, along with the one I’d been using, in case he recognized Conrad and was going to call the patriarch.
I thanked him, and Conrad steered me toward the door with his hand still on my arm. I didn’t have the energy to shake him off, and I was enjoying having someone else take control, though he’d pretty much done that all night.
“Your Alpha figured it out.” Conrad led me behind the gas station into the darkness. The guy inside was human, so he wouldn’t scent us out here, and I hoped the patriarch didn’t have non-shifters on his payroll.
“Huh?”
“You said ‘his father.’” He made air quotes around the last two words.
“Yeah, and he assumed I was talking about Evander.”
Conrad bristled at the mention of his twin.
“He doesn’t know you exist.”
His head snapped toward me. Did he think I’d just dismissed him? “I know. Father made sure of that. Whatever, so he thinks you’re with my brother.”
I wasn’t going to repeat everything we’d said because I was tired, sore, and worried about the repercussions of tonight.
“And you said it's not negotiable.” He paused. “Your Alpha’s not a fool.”
I replayed the conversation in my head. Also, Flint knew about fated mates because he, his brothers, and my brother had found their person in circumstances that made no sense, and they'd all learned that the bond didn't care about logic.
“He probably knows.” Good. I wouldn’t have to explain that.
A car passed on the road, and its headlights swept across the pickup. Conrad crept around the corner of the building, but the car didn’t stop.
“We need to cover our scent.” He yanked out a ziplock bag. “I kept these juniper berries for a reason.” He told me to crush them and rub the residue on my arms.
“We’ll drop the rest around us as we get into your Alpha’s car. It might confuse Father’s trackers for an hour or so.”