Page 39 of Quest of the Wolf

Even as we tilted and wobbled on the uneven road, driving far too fast for all the bumps and bends, the tank-SUV roared after us. Something told me that vehicle was made for off-roading and would have a lot less trouble than my old truck.

As we whipped around a bend, a branch smacking the windshield and making Jasmine curse, the passenger-side window rolled down on the tank-SUV. A gunman leaned out, his rifle poised to fire.

“Shit.” I drove faster.

If we could make it to the highway…

The tank-SUV hit a bump hard enough to gain air. It came down right behind me, and I pressed the accelerator harder, worried about them shooting up my truck or outright ramming it. They might well shootustoo. I stayed low, even as the bumps and rocks in the road threatened to toss me into the ceiling.

A rifle fired, but I didn’t hear it hit. Hopefully, the road made it hard for them to aim, though it was possible the bullet had pierced my tire.

I growled, tempted to halt, jump out, change into a wolf, and attack them. But if I stopped, that armored bully of an SUV might hit my truck in the rear and launch it into the next county.

“Is there anything I can do?” Jasmine peered over the seat’s headrest and out the back window.

“Got anything you can throw at them?”

Visible in the rearview mirror, the rifleman hanging out the window was trying to steady himself enough to shoot again.

“Uh, Doritos?”

“Unless they have points like throwing stars, those aren’t going to help.”

“In this climate? Are you kidding? They get soggy five seconds after you open the bag.” Jasmine opened the glove compartment as the truck bumped through another pothole, tilting alarmingly.

Something thunked out onto the floor. My first thought was that it was Duncan’s magnet, but I’d put that under the seat, not in the glovebox.

“What the hell?” Jasmine bent, clunking her head as we whipped around a bend, the tire catching momentarily in a rutbefore the truck jerked free. She picked something up. “Is this… It looks like a grenade.”

“I don’t have anything like that in the glovebox.”

“Are you sure?” Jasmine poked her hand into it. “Because there are three more in here.”

“They’renotgrenades.”

“Luna, they have pins and look like the military ones in the movies.” Jasmine held one up, the lights from the tank-SUV flooding our cab to make it easy to see.

Shit, thatdidlook like a grenade.

“Duncan had to have put them in there at the same time as the magnet.” I shook my head. “But he said he was out of them. That’s why he was using underwater demolitions at Augustus’s place.”

Maybe he’d picked some up on the way out there. We’d taken our separate vehicles, so it was possible. And then he’d tucked them into my glovebox at the same time he left the magnet gift?

Jasmine rolled down the window. “I’m going to?—”

The tank-SUV rammed into us with a wrenching of metal and a great jolt that knocked the wheel out of my hands. The truck lurched wildly. We veered straight toward a tree.

Cursing, I grabbed the wheel and turned us back into the road.

“Thosebastards!”

Rage flooded my veins with adrenaline. Adrenaline and magic. The wolf in me wanted to roar forth, to attack those who were threatening us.

But I couldn’tdrivein wolf form. And were those headlights visible through the trees ahead? We were close to the highway. I had to hold it together. If we made it to the flat pavement, I’d stop andthenwe could turn wolf and attack these assholes.

“I’ve got this, Luna.” Jasmine yanked the pin out of the grenade, leaned out the window, and lifted it. “Wait, do you have to count before throwing?”

“No,” I blurted, sure she’d already waited too long. “Throw it!”

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