by Helen Scott
Either way, it was no surprise when she said, “I don’t feel good. Can we head back?” She didn’t announce it or do anything suspicious like that, but since she didn’t try to lower her voice, we all knew someone would hear and that would either signal their attack or give us a chance to escape.
Nothing happened other than Roman saying, “Of course, angel. Whatever you need.”
All of us moved out of the booth, while Blake and Tate made a show of chugging the rest of their beers. If they’d been humans, I would have worried about the alcohol affecting them during a fight, but there was one thing that we all definitely were not, and that was human. It also meant that alcohol didn’t have the same effects on us. Nina smiled softly at the two of them as we waited for them to finish before heading out.
I wasn’t sure how things were going to go down, but I could feel all the eyes on us. Anyone who thought they were being sneaky was sorely mistaken. When I glanced at the bar area though, there was no one overtly staring at us, so we kept moving, heading toward the door and out of it.
For a split second, I thought we were going to make it. That this wasn’t going to be a bloodbath, with my blood being one of the ones that was spilled.
I was wrong though.
As we exited the bar and made our way through the parking lot, I caught the scent of other shifters on the air. The problem was they were in front of us, not behind us coming from the bar. Like ghosts in the darkness, the figures emerged from around various cars and SUVs.
Another five shifters for us to fight.
Fucking perfect.
“Y’all need to hand her over or we’ll kill you,” one of the men said as he came into view.
I could feel the panic already radiating off Nina. We’d been in bad situations before, but this was probably the worst it had been. I had no idea how we were going to make it through, and I doubted the others had any ideas either.
“Sorry, dudes, I think you’ve got the wrong people,” Blake said, using that affable charm of his against them.
“Shut up, Blake. You and Tate are fucking traitors, and whether or not you hand your bitch over, you’re both going to die tonight,” a man said from off to the side. And there it was—the inevitable threat of death and violence.
“Hey, Stan, what’s up?” Tate asked, seeming to still not give a flying fuck about the situation, though I could feel tension singing through the bond from all of us.
“Still so cocky, aren’t you, asshole? You and your halfwit friends are well outnumbered, so in case you missed it and you need me to explain—you’ve lost, and Jax has won. The only thing that’s about to be determined is how quickly you die and how much the bitch bleeds before we take her to Jax. After all the trouble she’s caused, all the pain, my vote is to let her bleed like a stuck pig until we get her right to the point of death, then drop her off with Jax. He’ll be so fucking happy to have her that he won’t care how she was injured. Hell, he’ll probably fuck her half dead in front of the pack, just to show off.”
“You still talk way too much, Stan,” Blake said, all his charm and easygoing attitude gone.
“What if I go with you willingly?” Nina called from where she was standing in the middle of us. All of us spun to face her with the exception of Roman.
“No,” I hissed. “We aren’t doing this again.”
“How did you even find us?” Tate demanded, distracting them from Nina’s offer, which was a good thing because if they’d said yes and she’d tried to go with them, I wasn’t sure what I would have done.
“You think Jax is just going to let you wander around unchecked? He’s got people everywhere on the lookout for you. And I do mean everywhere. You’ll never get away from him. Not that you have to worry about that since you won’t be leaving this parking lot alive,” Stan replied with a sneer.
As they continued to exchange barbs, I looked at Nina and spoke quietly as I said, “Do not negotiate with them, beautiful. If they take you, we’ll never get you back. Not this time. Jax knows what he has to do, and he’ll squirrel you away so far that we’ll die before we even stand a chance of getting to you. Don’t let the dark side of fate tempt you.” She watched me with those big eyes of hers that made my heart stutter in my chest. I took a deep breath before I added, “If we go down, then we go down together, fighting for what we believe in. I don’t want to watch you get dragged away by these assholes and know that you’re getting turned over to Jax with four dead mates behind you. Remember what Skuld told you.” I saw the guilt flash across her features, and I knew I’d hit my mark.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt her, far from it, but it was obvious that unless we were all on the same page, there wouldn’t be a snowball’s chance in hell of us getting out of there alive. I couldn’t let her throw her life away for us, not when I knew that as soon as she was gone, they’d kill us anyway.
Eventually, she nodded, and we both returned our focus to the men that were poised to attack us.
“I already told you, you’re dying tonight, asshole,” Stan growled out as he lunged for Blake.
I wasn’t sure what had finally set the other man off, but whatever Blake or Tate had said had been the final straw, and as soon as Stan exploded into movement, so did the others. My first instinct was to have Nina behind me, but I knew my mate could fight so I had to let her. We didn’t have the luxury of being a man, or in this case, woman, down. Not against so many enemies.
The five of us formed a loose circle and fiercely protected it. None of us wanted to have someone slip through and be at our backs, and there were enough shifters to keep our eyes on as it was. The man that came at me was shaped like a barrel, rounder around the gut than anywhere else, but that didn’t make him any less of a fighter. The fists that flew from him were enough to leave me spinning, ducking, and weaving until I honestly wasn’t sure what was going on any more.
It was obvious that fists and feet were hitting flesh, but I couldn’t tell you who was winning or not winning. A particularly vicious punch knocked me back, and I tripped over someone’s booted foot and landed on my ass, an opportunity that my barrel-shaped friend wasn’t about to pass up as his foot tried to connect with my manhood. Fortunately, I clamped my thighs together in time to prevent any serious impact and trapped his foot, which he hadn’t expected. He definitely didn’t expected me to roll.
I kicked out as he fell to the ground, and my foot connected with what I was fairly sure was his kidney. The yelp of pain that came from him was extremely satisfying, but I didn’t have time to enjoy it since there was another guy standing over him and pushing my now kidney impaired friend out of the way. He had the high ground, so to speak, and didn’t waste the opportunity as he began to wail on me.
The rough tarmac grated against my skin as I tried to protect myself from the blows that he was raining down on me. A very feminine scream of rage sounded from above me, and suddenly, the guy was gone, as though Nina had literally ripped him off of me and thrown him away. When I looked up, my breath caught in my throat as I saw her wolf shining through her eyes. I pushed to my feet as my mind reeled at what I’d just seen.
It was the first time we’d ever even had a hint that her wolf was present, and I hated the fact that we were probably going to die before my mate ever got to shift and run in her second form again. It was that regret that pushed me to my feet, fortifying my determination to fight until I couldn’t anymore, until I was so exhausted or beaten that I couldn’t move.
I would fight for Nina for her chance to be free, to love who she wanted to love, to run as her wolf when that day came once more, because we all knew it would. She’d said herself that her wolf had been more present within her mind, and now I’d seen evidence of it myself in her eyes. Her normally blue-gray eyes had shifted to the palest gold, and it was breathtaking.
Not quite as breathtaking as the punch to the gut I got from my next attacker, but still. I knew without a doubt that she would be the most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen when
she shifted, and godsdamn it, I was going to be around to see that, we all were.
With renewed vigor, I lashed out at my attacker. I wasn’t even sure I knew which one had sucker punched me, but there were enough guys around us that all I had to do was hit out and I stood a good chance of striking one of them. Which I did.
The guy went down as the hit landed just right, even though I hadn’t expected it to, and I moved on to my next target without pausing. We had a lot of dudes to get through if we wanted to try and make it out of that parking lot alive, and the circle we’d formed combined with the vehicles that were parked somewhat haphazardly were the only things keeping us on our feet. How long that would last, I wasn’t sure.
29
Nina
My heart was trying to beat out of my chest as I took another hit, my body and mind trying to absorb it like it could make me stronger instead of breaking one of my ribs.
We were failing. Fast. We were going to lose all the progress we had made, because it was just the five of us against twenty plus shifters. These were the worst odds we had ever faced, and I didn’t know how we were going to defeat them.
Micah had been right, though. The last thing we needed was for me to go to Jax. I knew I would do anything to save their lives, and he knew that as well, which was probably why he sent so many guys after us. The reality, if I actually looked it in the face, was that if I left here with any of the other shifters, my mates’ lives would be forfeit.
As much as I didn’t want them to get hurt, the idea of them dying at the hands of these assholes just because I was too scared to fight was unacceptable. These men all believed whatever lies Jax was feeding them at the moment, and it was up to us to defend ourselves against them, only there was no way for us to talk them down from this ledge that they were standing on.
It was either fight or die.
The man across from me dealt me another blow to the rib cage, and I felt the sharp lightning crack of pain explode through my torso. I kicked back and followed up with the knee to his ribcage in the hopes that it would make him back off, but it didn’t.
He came at me again full force, trying to tackle me to the ground, and I knew if I went down, then it was all over. Having somebody that big on top of me would mean my death, or at the very least my capture and my mates’ death. If he’d been one of the first guys I fought, then I might have had a different perspective, but I’d already taken plenty of hits and knew that I couldn’t fight the same against someone who was coming at me fresh, hungering for my blood to be spilled.
As he charged at me again, I spun and allowed him to get behind me, which I knew was dangerous, but it felt like my only option. I felt my guys close ranks around us, and it gave me a chance to really unleash on the man who had been torturing my ribs. Nobody ever expected me to be able to kick as high as I could, but I had a lot of martial arts and yoga classes to thank for that ability. My kicks landed against his ribs, making him curl toward me to protect them, which gave me exactly what I needed—a few inches off his height so my kicks could land on his head. I hit him with all my might in the jaw, so that his head turned a little and I could follow up with a hit to the temple. My kick there took him to the ground hard.
I thought he was down and out as I turned to keep fighting next to my guys, but his hand reached out and grabbed my leg as I moved past him, yanking me close to him and forcing me to my knees.
“You think you’re going to win with a couple love taps, bitch?” the man practically spat at me as he spoke, which made my wolf howl with rage inside me. They dared to hurt my mates, and now he was insulting my skills?
When he tried to pull me closer, I pulled back, almost dislocating my shoulder in the process. His growl of frustration was music to my ears though. The guy may have pulled me to my knees, but that was still a stable position. In fact, since it put me closer to the ground, it made it easier for me to move. I didn’t have to worry about falling because I was already down.
He was getting ready to lash out at me again though, so I did the one thing I could and lunged at him, pushing him back down to the ground as my fist connected with his face. His hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me tight, which I hadn’t been prepared for, and when he rolled so he was on top, I had a moment of panic. He pulled his fist back and let it fly. I dodged at the last moment, letting his fist hit the concrete of the parking lot under my head.
Instead of pulling back and trying to hit me again, my attacker decided that choking me was the better option, and as much as I tried to fight his hold, to use every defense tactic I’d learned over the years, I couldn’t. I was trapped, and my mates were all too busy with their own battles to help me. Each twist of his hand, tightening his grip around my throat, sent a spike of panic through my heart. At this rate, even if he didn’t strangle me, he might break my trachea.
Just as the world was starting to go hazy, I heard the roar of an engine. I knew it had to be reinforcements for the guys we were fighting, and my heart broke. We were going to die here. I prayed to the gods that they would step in and help us. The five of us couldn’t handle any more brutes, which was exactly what Jax would send after us. He’d tried sweet-talking me, he’d tried taking my mates before, now he knew the only option he had left was violence. I knew that he’d kill my mates at the first opportunity he had, but he’d never resort to human methods like guns, not if he wanted to keep the pack loyal. Whoever had brought the guns with them in the forest must have gone off the playbook, too desperate for a win to follow the rules.
Wolf shifters fought, rarely with weapons, but when we did use weapons, it was always blades. Our fights were up close and personal. There was no other way the pack would tolerate his leadership. Eventually, if his brutes didn’t kill us, he would come after us himself, I knew that. There was no other way to describe his obsession. Plus, if he gave up now, it would be admitting defeat, admitting that he was running his pack into the ground with this effort, and that was unacceptable to a man like him.
When people started running, I was more than a little surprised.
Usually, it was us doing the running.
I was even more surprised when the guy who’d been strangling me released me and took off himself. My lungs felt like they were tiny as I sucked in a breath of air and tried to learn how to breathe again.
A car swerved at the last moment, barely avoiding hitting me and Roman, who was braced over me to protect me from whatever was coming our way. When the passenger door was flung open, I saw Denver there, his expression panicked. “Get in!” His voice was desperate and his eyes were blazing with the need for violence, but even more so with the need to save me and my mates.
None of us wasted any time pushing to our feet and scrambling to get to the vehicle. Blake was the one to reach the backdoor and pulled it open so hard, I was worried that it was going to come off its hinges. They piled in the back while Roman and I dove in the front.
We didn’t even get all the way in or get the door closed before Denver was peeling out of the parking lot, fishtailing as he did so. As he sped away from the bar and the crowd of shifters, most of whom had received at least one punch from me or my mates, I could barely catch my breath. When I heard his car at first, I’d thought that we were well and truly dead. I’d started to make peace with that fact, knowing that I would fight until my last breath, as would my mates, but accepting that the last breath was going to be coming a lot sooner than I’d ever hoped.
Then Denver had showed up.
I looked over at him and could see how his knuckles had turned white from his grip on the steering wheel. There were so many words trying to get out of my mouth at once that none made it, like there was a traffic jam in my throat. As I saw headlights flash behind us, I knew that our getaway hadn’t been as clean as we’d hoped. Hell, we hadn’t even gotten the doors shut until a second ago, and I definitely didn’t have a seatbelt on because I was perched on Roman’s lap.
A second after the lights behind us had
flared, Denver whipped the car around, taking more turns in that couple of minutes than I thought possible. We were going left, right, doing circles, before finally we pulled to a stop in a small parking garage that you couldn’t even tell was there from the street. Denver cut the engine and turned off all the lights, and we all just sat there in the dark.
“Get down if you can and stay quiet.” Denver’s voice was a hiss next to me, and we did as he asked.
There was enough room for me to slip into the footwell, letting Roman slide down in his seat until I was caged in by his knees. Any other situation, and it would have been super sexy, but right now, all I could think of was how screwed we were if we got caught in the parking structure. It wasn’t like there was an easy way out like there had been in that lot by the bar.
I peered between the seats and saw Blake, Tate, and Micah all lying on top of one another so their heads didn’t stick up over the back of the seat, while Denver had shimmied down in his seat so he was sitting in a similar fashion to Roman, only without me between his legs.
An engine sounded as a car entered the parking structure, winding its way closer to us and making my heart beat wildly in my chest. It was that moment that I realized why Denver had chosen to park a few floors up in the structure. All the concrete pillars and walls, plus all the metal of the cars that were parked there, would reflect the engine’s sound, making it impossible for the shifters in the vehicle to hear our heartbeats. I couldn’t hear anyone else’s over the engine, not even Roman’s and he was right in front of me.
We all froze as the car passed behind us.
It seemed to inch by as though they might recognize the license plate or something, but they never stopped, just eased by like the creepy stalkery fuckers they were. I held my breath, unable to do anything else as tension made my muscles rock-hard and my bowed spine sing with pain. Curling into a footwell of a sedan from the nineties wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing.