Page 74 of Ruin Me Knot
Gabriel throws off his attacker, spins, and crashes into the Alpha trying to take Leah away from us, blood streaming down his face. His fingers lock around Leah’s ankle as the Alpha tries to drag her away.
I roar, desperate to reach her. I try to tear free from the fists pounding me, dropping onto one knee. Fire shoots along my arm where a boot connects, but it doesn’t matter. Using the earth as leverage, I vault over a sprawled body, vision zeroed in on the brute with his arms around Leah. Before I get to him, Jax crashes into the Alpha’s back, an avalanche of muscle and rage. The bastard staggers sideways and Leah twists free, eyes ferocious as she rolls across the ground.
I drive my fist into the Alpha’s throat, but another tackles Gabriel. He hunches over Leah protectively as more swarm from the hedges. Two overwhelm Gabrielwhile another grabs Leah, throwing her over his shoulder and bolting away as reinforcements converge on us.
I twist one male’s neck, relishing the pop of bone, then slam my fist into another’s temple. His skull gives with a crunch, body sagging at my feet. I stagger upright, breathing blood and fury. Jax and Gabriel stand bloodied but alive, their attackers in broken heaps.
But Leah.
Leah is gone.
The world drops out from under me. My ears ring, heart hammering with unrestrained panic. Every instinct shrieks with loss.
I lock onto her terrified scent straining in the air. "This way!"
We burst through the bushes just in time to see the Alpha hurl Leah into the back of a black van. The side door slams, engine gunning.
"Leah!" Gabriel’s scream is pure heartbreak.
We run after her, all three of us wild and reaching, but we’re too slow. The van screeches down the street and all that’s left is her scent, vanishing in exhaust and blood.
My chest caves in around the empty space she leaves behind.
Twigs crack behind me as one of our attackers sprinting toward another black van. Lightning jolts through me.
There’s no thought, only instinct. "Jax! Gabriel! Get him!" My voice is an absolute command, torn between hope and the savagery clawing in my chest.
We converge on the Alpha as he lunges for the open door, fumbling for the keys. I use my momentum and slam his body into the hard metal door. His head cracks the window. I grab his neck and break the glass with his head. I don’t stop slamming his head until his struggles ease, every ounce of adrenaline in my body funneled into this single, brutal moment. The keys spill from his fist.
I seize them, shove him to the ground and throw myself into the driver’s seat. Jax vaults in beside me. Gabriel dives into the back. Each muscle in my body vibrates as I twist the key on a prayer.
The engine roars to life. Ahead, the van Leah is in disappears around a corner. Copper coats my throat, my pulse roars in my ears, and I fucking floor it. The whole world narrows to that vanishing tail end and the desperate, howling need to get our Omega back.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Leah
Itry to scramble back out of the door and away from the Alphas who hauled me into the van, fingernails clawing at metal, at cloth, at any piece of the world that isn’t them.
"Omega.Drop." One of the guards barks as me and the stupid Omega inside me obeys like I’m a well-trained mutt. I slump, useless, to the gritty floor of the van.
The stench inside is thick with sour nerves and metallic sweat. The jacked-up, Beta-wannabe-Alpha leers down at me. His face is a smear of every nightmare. "Stupid fucking whore. Couldn’t run even if your life depends onit. And it does." He wedges his boot against my hip, pressing until bruises bloom. "Look at you now. Right back where you belong."
Every inhale shreds my throat. Panic pitches me back into the black walls of every cage I ever knew. My mind screams for my Alphas.
They said it would be safe outside but I’m not. I’m found. I’m prey. I shouldn’t have insisted on fresh air. Shouldn’t have guilted them into it, yet I couldn’t help myself. My body remembers what comes next: the pain, the cold, the endless turning of keys in locks I’ll never see from the other side.
How did they find me?
How did they know?
Why do they even want me after Hardwick left me for dead?
The van’s doors slam shut, cutting off the light. Every Alpha in here is a wolf in human skin, and I’m just raw meat. The engine catches, tires shriek, and we roar into motion. Terror compresses my chest. I scrunch into the tiniest ball I can make myself, heartbeat shuddering between my teeth.
I want to break against these walls, but my body won’t obey. My Alphas are somewhere behind fighting too many of Hardwick’s hell hounds. I’ll never see them again because Hardwick knows how to cover her tracks. A hole blasts open in my chest and I bend around it.
The van careens around a corner and I’m thrown against the metal wall, hurt explodes across my shoulder, sharp and hot. The impact breaks through the barked order that pinned me down. I wiggle my fingers, free from the command. I can move of my own free will again.
