Page 29 of Never Tamed
“Investigators are withholding details pending family notifications. No suspects at this time.”
Noble notices my face and goes still. “Mathis? You okay?”
My hands shake and I can’t breathe. Even though my head is screaming that these people could be anyone, the sinking in my gut is telling me the grizzly truth.
Flora.
My pack. The ones they took. The ones I couldn’t save.
“Sick shit, isn’t it?” the driver asks, glancing at me and then quickly away. “What’s this city coming to, anyway?”
Did Andras slaughter the women in a fit of rage when we got away? Is this a message?
“Mat—you don’t think…” Dax whispers from the back.
I glance at the rearview mirror and catch Ren’s eyes. They’re swimming with tears. She’s thinking the same thing we are.
“Just a damn shame…” the driver says in an absentminded tone. “That’s four women already this month found in the sewers. Poor things. I wonder if it’s a serial killer wandering around out there.” He glances at Ren through the mirror too. “You should be careful out there, miss. Good thing you’ve got your friends here.”
I bite down on the inside of my cheek until it shreds. I let this happen. Whatever Andras did to my women, and my gut tells me they belonged to me, the responsibility is on my shoulders. The families impacted, their husbands or parents or siblings or children... I have to take responsibility.
“We won’t let anything happen to her,” Torin says sharply.
“Not a chance,” Noble adds with a glower.
I also want to assure Ren, but the words are stuck in my throat. How can I protect my mate when I can’t even save the women, the most vulnerable, in my pack? It’s a promise I can’t make because it’s one I can’t keep.
As an alpha and as a friend, I’ve failed.
My father would be so fucking ashamed of me. The thought immediately drops my shrunken gut even lower, and I swallow hard to keep the bile where it belongs. Sweat breaks out along my skin.
“Where would you like me to drop you all off?” the driver asks as he slows to stop at an intersection. “A bar? Casino? Hotel?”
“The edge of the city.” The words burst from my constricted throat without warning.
Despite every ounce of sorrow and guilt inside me, fury surges forward, meeting it toe-for-toe. Grief, anger, remorse—it collides inside me like a torrent. I want to rip Andras to shreds with my bare hands. It takes all my control not to leap out of the car, rip off one of the manhole covers, and dive in.
Suddenly, the car is too small to contain me, and my skin prickles with the rise of my wolf.
“Mathis…” My name is a warning on Ren’s lips.
The driver glances at me, worried. “Are you sure? I don’t mind—”
I can’t control the growl rumbling in my chest and up my throat. Or the way the car lurches forward before the light changes back to green and the man whimpers in fear.
“Where the city ends and the forest begins,” I snarl. “We’ll take it from there.”
Chapter 8
Ren
Bodies found in the sewer.
We’re all thinking the same thing. Those bodies are ours. I might not be an official member of Mathis’s pack but they’re mine. And Flora—
Tears prick my eyes. I can’t think about it.
I haven’t been able to think of anything else for the past forty minutes.
