Page 13 of Never Tamed
Because when I look at Ren’s face—pale, slack, streaked with blood, unconscious—I don’t see a win.
I see a clock ticking down.
Chapter 4
Dax
Foot pressed to the floorboard, Mathis keeps driving, one tire flopping and the others having to pick up the slack. The force of his speed practically shoves me back in the seat.
Exhaustion is right there, a greedy sonofabitch.
I have to stay awake.
Through the nauseating driving, the glass, and the haunting song still stuck in my head and burrowing deeper, I have to keep my eyes open.
I swallow and my mouth tastes like antifreeze. Worry for that woman in the backseat encompasses everything else. She’s fading fast. I tug in a breath and sense her in the air, the way her soul clings to life while her body fails.
A sharp inhale sounds followed by a low moan like an animal with a leg caught in a trap. I’ve heard the sound before, the keen wail of pain and desperation. Only this time it’s coming from a human throat. Red’s.
She’s going in and out of consciousness.
The others hold their breath, like the act of speaking will somehow change the circumstances for the worse.
Maybe they don’t sense what I sense. Maybe they’re too wrapped up in the mate bond. I don’t have to feel her to understand her.
The girl’s a fighter. And she’ll cling harder to life if we keep her talking.
Mathis sticks to the side roads, heading away from the small church and into the wilderness where we belong. The Briar Pack used to be like the Steel Claws. They thought it’s nothing but safety and rainbows when you’re surrounded by buildings.
Or should I call them the Blood Moons? That’s what they really are.
Sure showed Torin. Didn’t they? Got the jump on him. Showed him that even surrounded by allies, there are enemies.
It’s better to trust no one. Or to sleep with an eye open and anticipate the teeth on your neck.
I tug the glass out of my forehead and shuck it out the window. Fuck. the wound will close but I’ve used up too much energy. I don’t have the resources for a speedy recovery.
None of us do.
Mathis drives, silent, his knuckles clenching around the steering wheel. The minutes tick by as he handles the winding forest road the best way he can.
Trees, sky, solid lines. The world blurs and I clench and unclench my fist in my lap, latched onto the sound of Red’s breathing.
Finally, Mathis pulls the SUV over to the side of the road and cuts the engine. It gleefully dies with a clank and a ghost sigh. I highly fucking doubt we’ll be able to revive the thing.
“What are you doing?” Torin asks carefully.
Mathis lets out a groan deeper than the one from the engine. “We’ve got to ditch it. They’ll be looking for us and it’s too conspicuous as is.”
“So where do you think we should go?” Noble asks like the sarcastic shit he is.
“The woods. We take to the trails. With water nearby, we’ll be able to lose them.”
Mathis might be the only one of us thinking logically right now. The fight took a lot out of me and, naked, losing blood, I wanna crash. Mathis is also the first one out the door and leaves us with no choice but to follow him.
Torin and Noble are sullen as they help Ren.
Noble leans hard against the SUV’s smoking husk and when he works his leg, pain flashes over his features.
