Page 7 of Never Tamed
We dart into the narrow corridor, Ren cradled in my arms, her shallow breathing my only focus. Dax takes point to clear the way with savage efficiency. One wolf lunges from the side, and Dax slams him against the wall, then keeps moving.
Down the hall. Around the corner. A door. An exit.
Almost there.
Then—
A shape crashes into Dax from the shadows. He goes flying and smashes into a pillar. Plaster and stone rain down on top of him, and he doesn’t get up. Acid fills my veins.
“No—” I start forward, but I can’t drop Ren. I can’t leave her.
It’s her or Dax and when it comes down to a choice, there really isn’t one. I grip Ren tighter to my chest, taking one step forward.
Sorry.
I never thought I’d see the day I’d start apologizing to a thing like Dax. Yet guilt clings to me as the dust starts to clear. And the attacker steps into view.
He stands as a naked man with a toothy grin streaked in blood, his gaze falling unerringly on Ren.
“You’re not leaving with her,” he says. “Andras will have the stone.”
I crouch, shielding Ren as best I can. “The only thing Andras is going to have is my claws ripping out the heart from his chest.”
“He’ll consider it a pleasure.”
The naked man steps over Dax and lunges for us. On instinct I twist, letting the momentum pull us backward into the narrow space between two pillars. He clips my shoulder and pain flashes down my arm, threatening my hold.
My wolf pushes at the edges of my skin again in a demand for release. I can’t risk shifting, not with her in my arms. A flash of awareness deepens in my head and I glance down.
Ren’s eyes are cracked open, blood in her lashes, but she’s breathing. Alive.
She murmurs something I can’t catch, despite straining to hear her. In the periphery of my vision, the attacker stretches and shakes his head.
Torin?
She calls for me in my mind.
I set her down, bracing her against the wall. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
For the first time since she went down, the veil lifts and my instincts are clear, adding a sharp edge to the moment.
Then I rise.
I call the shift again, my body transforming faster this time, with less resistance.
Fur. Claws. Rage.
By the time Andras’s man heads for me again, I meet him head on, our bodies driving together.
He’s fast—but as an alpha, I’m faster. He’s strong, but I’m fuckingfurious. My jaws clamp around his side and I drive him into the stone floor, going down with him. He tries to throw me off and I dig in. My claws rake across his chest, my teeth snapping at his throat. He gets in a single hit.
I barely flinch, barely feel it, my thoughts centered on my mate with her broken body. I made her crawl across the floor to me and call me sir. I put her through emotional hell and now she needs me to save her.
Growling, I drive the man into the floor again, using my teeth to push him harder. Again. And again. Until he stops moving.
The coppery scent of blood stings my nostrils and crimson pools underneath him where his skull cracked open.
Shifting back, panting, I stagger to Ren and scoop her up again. She’s pliant in my arms, and her head lolls back again, eyes closing. “Shh, you’re okay. I’m going to get you out. I promise.”
