Page 41 of Cold Foot Revenge
God, hopefully she hadn’t turned down one of these alleyways. The bears would smell her, but he couldn’t track her like that.
“Roxy!” he yelled again, honking over and over.
The grizzly was catching up, and up ahead, there was a light on a stale yellow. He would’ve been fine running it if it weren’t for the two cars coming to a stop there.
Dylan jerked the wheel, cast his eyes up at the now three grizzlies in the rearview, and that said one thing. He was still going in the right direction. He nearly crashed into a head-on collision as he pulled into the wrong lane, and tires screeching, he yanked his truck back into the right lane. “Roxy!”
There!
She was at a full sprint ahead, still sticking to that sidewalk, where the cars had thinned out. She was running out of busy road.
“In, in, in!” he yelled, his foot on the gas as he tried to line up with her.
The damn grizzlies were so close and would swat the back end of his truck any moment now.
He could see the recognition in her terrified green eyes as she glanced over at him. One moment, and then she was blurringto him, so fast. He reached over to shove the door open, but she jumped through the open window before he could.
He would never in as long as he lived forget the way she hunkered down on the floorboard of the passenger’s side. He would never forget the sound of her panting, or the soft, scared yip at the end of every breath. He wouldn’t forget how tightly her tail was tucked, or the way she just stared up at him.
“Hold on,” he murmured, changing lanes so he could floor it.
Behind them, the bears were slowing, tiring, and one of them had already fallen behind and stopped completely.
The roar that followed them was deafening, even over the loud exhaust on his truck.
His heart was pounding so hard, but he was worried about Roxy. “It’s okay,” he said calmly. “Everything is okay. I’ve got you. We’re going to get away from whatever is happening, okay? Just breathe.”
She was the size of a large dog, a German Shephard perhaps. Bigger than a wild coyote, but much smaller than the assholes who had been chasing her.
The anger was starting to replace the adrenaline inside of him, and he glanced up to find all the bears had stopped and weren’t pursuing them anymore.
He wished she was human right now so she could explain what the hell was happening.
His phone was connected to Bluetooth in his truck, so when Andrew called, it came right up on his screen. “I’m good,” he answered. “I’m out of there.”
“Are you coming back?” Andrew asked.
“We both know I suck at goodbyes,” Dylan teased dryly. He did not feel like joking right now. He felt like going back and unloading every clip he had stored in his truck into those fuckin’grizzlies. What was their plan if they caught Roxy? Huh? Kill her? Hurt her? Maim and maul her?
Ooooh the anger was getting bigger and bigger.
He talked to Andrew for a few seconds more, then got off the phone and aimed his truck in the direction of his hotel.
The yips at the end of her panting breaths turned to the whining of a dog, and he put his hand near her to pet her, but she snapped at his fingertips. He felt the air from her bite barely miss his skin. Dylan flinched back.
“Can you Change back?” he asked, a little concerned that he’d picked up a random coyote shifter and not Roxy.
The coyote could barely fit in the space in front of the passenger’s seat, and tried to turn around, but couldn’t move. She looked pinned. Another whine escaped her. God, he hated this.
“Who did this?” he demanded. “Who was chasing you like that? Grave? Leech?” He wasn’t meaning to raise his voice like this, but all he saw was red right now.
They were going to hurt her.
They were really going to hurt her. Right there in the street in front of everyone.
His phone rang, and a completely unexpected name came across caller ID.
Wreck.
