Page 91 of Feral Werewolves

Red’s voice was raw. “If you hurt him—”

“What did you do toher?” I said, jerking my head at Clementine.

Red bowed his head.

“How could you do it when youknow?” I said to him. It was one thing when Red wasn’t fucking mated. This was another level of shit. It made no sense to me.

“Let him go,” said Red.

“Car,” I countered.

Red seethed, and then he yelled at someone named Dirk to get him the keys to the Subaru. Dirk came forward with them, and I told him to give them to Clementine.

The Subaru was green, scratched up on the passenger side door, but otherwise serviceable. It was parked outside the garage, half on the driveway, half on the grass.

I told Clementine to go get in the driver’s seat and she scurried over to do that.

I backed up, still holding Noah, until he got to the car. I pulled Noah with me into the back seat. “Drive, baby, drive now.”

“But Paladin, you have to promise that Noah—”

“Drive,” I said to her.

Clementine started the car.

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clementine

I DIDN’T EVENknow where I was going. I drove over the road, which was in bad shape, all cracked and falling apart. It’s amazing how quickly nature starts taking back stuff like that if you don’t have anyone constantly repaving and mowing and driving on the roads.

Eventually, Paladin told me to stop and he said that Noah could get out.

Noah looked at me and looked at Paladin.

I said, “You can stay with us if you don’t want to go back to him.”

Noah looked unsure. “You want to stay withhim?” he said to me.

“Obviously,” I said.

“Well, then, you know what I’m going to do,” said Noah, sounding a little ashamed of himself. He jumped out of the car.

Paladin shut the door. He turned back to me. “Drive, baby,” he said again.

I drove. “I don’t know where I’m going,” I wailed.

He climbed up into the passenger’s seat and gave me instructions. He was wearing this windbreaker that was way too big, and he took it off and used it to wipe at his face, which was all bloody and broken. He’d been badly beaten.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I let them take you. I’msorry they, um… I’m sorry for what they did. I’m sorry I didn’t stop that.”

“Because you could have,” I whispered.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I couldn’t think of a way last night, no, but then I didn’t show up just now with the intention to get you out, either. I was going to leave you there for even longer. That was the plan,” he said. “So, maybe if I’d tried harder, I would have figured something out. Sometimes, I’m too cautious in the planning stage.”

I didn’t even know what to say to that.

“Sorry about that, too,” he said. He slumped in his seat. “I should have kept Noah. I could have traded him back to Red for something, maybe. That was really dumb of me.”