by J. L. Wilder
But someone else moved first.
Emmett heard the crash of the rock breaking the window and startled out of the light doze he’d been in, sitting concealed in the bushes under the window. For a moment, he crouched there, trying to understand what had made the noise, and then he heard a too-familiar scream and the sound of running feet. He looked up and saw two men running, one with Hazel slung over his shoulder, the other empty handed and sprinting off in a different direction. Where was he going?
Didn’t matter. Emmett knew he had to act quickly. Above him, in the Coywolves’ house, lights were starting to come on, but it would be too late by the time they got to her room and figured out what had happened. The best chance was to follow Hazel right now.
And the best chance to do that was in wolf form.
Emmett’s transformation was almost instantaneous, fueled by his love for Hazel and his anger over what was happening to her. He sprang from the bush, hackles standing straight up, and began to run.
Hazel’s captor met up with a car—that must have been where the other man had run off too, Emmett supposed, to get this car—and shoved her in the back seat. They drove off.
There was no time to go back for his motorcycle. He would lose the trail if he did. The only option was to run. Emmett dug in his heels and sprang out after the vehicle.
He kept to the shelter of the trees. If the kidnappers realized they were being pursued, they might turn violent. Emmett didn’t want a confrontation now. All he wanted for the moment was knowledge. Where were they taking her, and how tight would the security around her be? Knowing these things would give him power, power that would be necessary for his eventual rescue attempt.
Of course, he thought bitterly as he ran, stealing her from this pack was going to be a hell of a lot harder than taking her from the Coywolves would have been. They were probably still back at their house wringing their hands and trying to figure out how this had happened to them twice. He had known Hazel wouldn’t be safe there, he thought, cursing himself. He should never have allowed her to go back.
Emmett ran hard, ignoring the pain that shot through his ribs with every step. He couldn’t afford to slow down. Her kidnappers were in a car, and who knew how long they were going to drive or how fast they might eventually go? As long as he was physically capable of keeping up, he was going to do it, no matter how painful it might be for him.
They’re not hurting her in that car, he thought to himself, feeling desperate. They wouldn’t. They can’t be. Because every now and then, when he pulled close, he could see the back of her head in the passenger seat. If they’d been doing anything to her, she would have been struggling. He would have seen her struggle.
Fuck, just run.
If he got her back, he swore to himself, he would never leave her side again. The two of them would leave Rhode Island together and never come back. They would raise their pups together. Everything would be perfect, just the way they’d imagined when they’d realized she was pregnant. He thought of the happy moment they’d shared in the drugstore and poured on the energy, running even harder. His entire life, his entire future, was in the back of that car. They weren’t going to take Hazel away from him.
Then, just when he thought he might collapse or pass out from the strain of chasing a car, the vehicle came to a stop. Emmett barely managed to stop in time—he almost came bursting out from behind the trees and began the fight right there. He had to aim his body directly at a tree trunk and allow it to shoulder check him to stop his forward momentum. The impact rattled his entire torso and his injured ribs screamed in protest, but he pushed the pain away and hunkered, watching and waiting.
Hazel was shuffled out of the car. He saw that her wrists and ankles were bound and felt a hot surge of anger, but other than that, she appeared to be unhurt. One of the men picked her up and carried her down through a trapdoor in the floor. When he emerged, he helped the other man pile several boards on top of the door.
Emmett felt a surge of satisfaction. You think you’re trapping her down there, he thought, but you’re actually just marking where that door is for me. And another thought—if they were so concerned about securing the door, that meant they weren’t actually going to stand guard. They were going to go away and leave her.
Idiots. When Hazel had been in his care, he had never wanted to leave her alone. Everyone else seemed to do it without thinking. Didn’t they understand how valuable she was?
He stayed low to the ground, waiting. Sure enough, a few moments later, the men got back in their car and drove off.
Idiots!
They wouldn’t stay gone, he knew. There was no point in kidnapping an omega if you weren’t going to keep her alive, so at the very least, they’d be back in a few hours to feed her. But he intended to be long gone by then.
He waited until he could no longer hear the car’s engine before creeping out of the woods. He moved slowly, nose to the ground. He recognized the scent of Hazel’s captors immediately. Savage Rangers. They must have realized they were following a false trail and doubled back. He should have known better than to think they were free of the Rangers. He’d just wanted it to be true so badly, he supposed, that he had been blinded.
Pax never would have allowed himself to be so careless, he thought. His enforcer would have slept with one eye open, would have mounted a guard every night, until the Savage Rangers were completely neutralized. Emmett felt a pang, thinking of Pax, and wished suddenly and fiercely that his pack was here with him. The last time he’d gone in to rescue Hazel from the Rangers, he’d had them as backup. This time, he was on his own.
He expected to feel safer inside the barn, but instead, he felt more exposed somehow. The stench of the Savage Rangers was stronger here, and it almost made Emmett feel as though they were standing all around him and watching his every move. He nosed the boards carefully off the top of the trap door, trying not to make too much noise about it, and then shifted back to his human form to grab the ring that would open the door.
He pulled it open. “Hazel?”
“Emmett?”
Emmett scrambled down the steps leading into the pit. Hazel was in his arms instantly, her tears wetting his shoulder, her hands, still tied, pressed against his chest. He felt himself grow instantly hard at the nearness of her body. He had missed her, ached for her, but he hadn’t realized, until this moment, how primal that need really was. She was his omega, and he would cross the earth for her.
But right now, his baser needs had to be ignored. “Are you hurt?” he asked, feeling her body.
“No,” she said. “Are you?”
“A little bruised up. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“I can’t believe they did that to you,” she breathed. “When I think of how many times I defended them to you—”
“It’s not your fault,” he said, loosening the knots around her wrists and ankles as he spoke. “You didn’t know what they were.”
“I should have known, though. I should have seen it. I spent all my life with them! Matthew was my alpha!”
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “Before they come back. I’m sure they won’t leave you unguarded for long. Climb out. I’ll be right behind you.”
She ascended the stairs without argument, and he came up after her. He shut the trap door and moved the planks back on top of it. Maybe when the Savage Rangers came back, they wouldn’t check on Hazel for a while. Maybe it would take them some time to notice she was missing.
“Where will we go?” she asked him.
“We need to get back to my bike,” he said. “Then we can get out of here. But we’ll have to be quick. Can you shift?”
“I’ve only ever done it in training. I’ve never stayed in wolf form for more than twenty minutes at a time.”
“We need to try,” he said. “I need you to run with me.” And he shifted.
Hazel closed her eyes.
A moment later, she stood beside him in wolf form. She was beautiful, he
thought, with a thick, even coat and intelligent eyes. But there was no time to admire her now. They had to run.
He led the way out of the barn and back to the forest, back the way he had come. There was no point in worrying about covering their tracks now. The only thing that would save them was his bike. They had to reach it, hopefully before anyone realized they had gone. If they could make it back, they would be free to leave the state. Canada, he thought. Maybe all the way up in the Yukon. They could build a little cabin and hide out, wait for the pups to be born. He would miss the road, but that didn’t matter. Only his family was important. He had to keep them safe.
Hazel ran beside him, her paws thudding against the earth in time with his. He was impressed by her strength. He hadn’t expected her to keep up so easily, knowing as he did that she had no real world experience running. But it seemed to come to her naturally. He had to give her credit. She’d clearly retained some of the wolf in her nature, despite the obvious efforts of the Coywolves to suppress it. If they could see her now, he thought, they’d be furious. Their precious omega, running like a real animal.
He’d never been so proud of anyone in his life.
After about an hour on the run, she began to flag slightly, and he slowed his own pace to match hers. They needed to keep moving, he knew, and to move as quickly as possible, but she had performed admirably so far and there could be no hope of forcing her to exceed what she was capable of. He would just have to hope they had enough of a lead.
Finally, after what felt like years, they reached the bike. Emmett had parked it only a few blocks away from the Coywolves’ house. It felt strange and wrong to be so near this place again after what had happened the last time he’d brought her here, and Emmett wanted nothing more than to throw his leg over the seat of his bike and ride away with Hazel safely in tow.
But if they were pulled over, he knew, they would face a whole new set of problems. He rummaged in his duffel bag and found some clothes for himself. He gave Hazel a t-shirt and a pair of boxers, the only items of his that were unlikely to just fall off her. “Get dressed,” he said. “We’ve got a long ride ahead.”
The woman he’d met the night he’d first rescued her would have protested at the idea of riding away in nothing but a ratty t-shirt and underwear, but things had changed. She knew more now. She trusted him more now. She put on the clothes without comment and climbed onto the back of the bike.
Emmett engaged the engine and pulled away.
He would ride all night if he had to. Right now, he couldn’t imagine ever stopping. It felt as if he’d pulled the woman he loved from within the jaws of two different traps tonight, two traps that would close around her again at the earliest opportunity. They had been incredibly lucky, maybe even too lucky. He wasn’t going to take safety for granted ever again.
Hazel clung to him, arms wrapped around him, thighs gripping his hips. He hadn’t realized this either—how much he’d missed feeling her there. Riding solo would probably never feel right again.
He felt a pang of guilt, remembering that he had kept this from his pack. He had refused to allow them to meet women, to form serious relationships, to fall in love. They had wanted to explore that side of life, he knew. Dart had talked about it regularly. And Emmett had always shut him down, always ordered him away from even the possibility of love. We can’t take women on the road with us, he’d always said. They’ll want to settle down.
He hadn’t understood that when you loved someone, really loved them, you’d break all the rules. And so would she.
He had no idea what their life would be now, whether they’d eventually find their way to the Yukon and put down roots or whether they’d decide to keep moving, riding all over the country and taking jobs the way he was accustomed to. He knew only one thing for sure: wherever they went and whatever they did, they would be a family. He was never going to let Hazel Lang out of his arms again.
He rode through the night and most of the next day. At one point, he thought he felt Hazel doze off against him. It wasn’t until they crossed the state line into Iowa that he felt safe enough to stop for the night. He spent some of the very last of his money on a motel. Hazel stood beside him as he made the transaction, and though the receptionist clearly took note of the way she was dressed, he didn’t say anything, just handed Emmett the key.
The motel was cheap, cheaper than any place he’d stayed with Hazel previously, and he half expected her to protest. But she didn’t. She took his arm and pulled him into bed beside her. “Are we safe here?” she asked quietly.
“I think we’re as safe here as we are anywhere,” he replied. “I don’t think they’re going to follow us this far very quickly.”
“They tracked me before.”
“I’m not sure they did. Once they’d realized we’d turned around, it couldn’t have been that hard to figure out where we were going to go. I don’t think they tracked you back to the Coywolves so much as they just assumed that’s where you’d be.”
“But they knew we’d turned around,” she said.
“Yeah,” Emmett said quietly. “They did know that.”
“So, they must have been tracking, right?”
“I’m not going to let them take you again, Hazel.”
“I just don’t want us to have to spend the rest of our lives on the run,” she said. “I don’t want our children to have to spend their lives on the run.” She brought his hand to rest on her belly, and he was surprised to realize that the swell had increased, just incrementally, in the time since he’d seen her last.
“They won’t have to,” he promised. “We’ll find a home somewhere.”
“Or we can stay on the road,” she said. “That would be all right too.”
“Really?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Just as long as we’re not running. As long as we’re safe and together, I don’t care where we are.”
He wrapped her up in an embrace. “I don’t either,” he said, and meant it. “I don’t care what my life looks like, as long as it’s with you.”
She laughed a little. “I never thought I could fall for someone this quickly.”
“It’s a wolf thing,” he said. “We imprint.”
“Have you? Imprinted?”
“It explains a lot, doesn’t it?” he said. “The way we can’t choose any road that doesn’t lead us to each other. The fact that you got pregnant so quickly. Our bodies want each other.”
“Well, that’s certainly true,” she said, running a hand down his side.
He grinned. “We’re safe enough for now, I think. Safe enough that we can enjoy ourselves a little.”
“Yeah?”
In answer, he sat up and pulled her with him, peeling away her shirt. He took her breasts in his hands and lowered his mouth to suck at her nipple as he removed her shorts. She threw her head back and moaned, pulling his head closer.
He couldn’t wait. He stripped down, gave himself two quick strokes, and buried himself inside her. The relief was like nothing he’d ever felt. He wanted to take his time, to luxuriate in the fact that they were together once again, but his body was on fire. He bit at her shoulder, embraced her tightly, and came with a few deep thrusts, vaguely aware that she was falling apart in his arms.
He fell asleep naked beside his omega, cradling her, one hand resting on her stomach.
Chapter Seventeen
HAZEL
She woke up naked with Emmett wrapped around her, all her nerves firing with arousal.
She ground her hips back into him. He was hard in his sleep.
His hand was on her belly. She took it and eased it up to her breast. Even though he was asleep, he responded, giving her a pleasurable little squeeze, and a moan escaped her lips.
He stirred behind her, and she knew he was awake. His hand moved to her other breast, squeezed, and stroked the nipple gently. Then he trailed his fingers slowly down her torso and between her legs.
She lifted her thigh, wrappin
g her leg around his to allow him access.
“I marked you last night, you know,” he whispered in her ear. She could feel how hard he was, how desperate for her, and it was only increasing her own arousal. “That bite I gave you? Means you’re mine now. Doesn’t matter what the rest of them say. Doesn’t matter how many tattoos I give you. You’ve been claimed. They’ll all see it. Any shifter who looks at you will know you’re mine.”
She bucked against his fingers at the thought.
He tilted his hips and slid inside her, fingers still working, and Hazel thought she’d gone to heaven. She closed her eyes and lost herself to sensation, to the pure waves of pleasure crashing over her. She came once and he kept going, slowing down long enough to allow her to recover before working her in earnest again.
“You’re mine,” he said hoarsely. “Mine. Mine. Mine.”
And Hazel came again, screaming her alpha’s name, her entire body shuddering. He thrust into her twice more and let out a roar that was far more animal than human.
They came back to earth slowly, Hazel luxuriating in the feel of his arms around her and his lips tenderly kissing the place he’d bitten last night when he’d claimed her. “You’re mine,” he whispered, and this time, it sounded gentle. “You’re mine, Hazel. I love you so much. You’re mine always.”
There was plenty to worry about, plenty to be afraid of, but in that moment, lying in his arms, sated and happy, it all seemed to disappear. “I’m yours,” she said. She would give him anything, she knew. She was thrilled beyond measure to be carrying his litter. She would go anywhere with him. Even if it meant being on the run for the rest of their lives, she would do it for his sake.
They got up slowly, went to the shower, and washed slowly, soaping each other’s hair and bodies, taking time to explore each other. Hazel became aroused again as he touched her—would that happen every time Emmett touched her?—and leaned against the wall as he sucked at one of her nipples, his left hand playing with the other, his right hand fucking her slowly until she came again with a little sob. After that, she was so worn out that he had to hold her upright in his arms, and she rested against him, content, and let him rinse the shampoo from her hair.