The alpha wolf who had rescued him from the kidnappers.
“Help,” Killian cried.
Crush glanced past Killian’s shoulder. In the same breath, he sized up Killian and Mathlin, and swept Mathlin off his feet.
Killian ignored the growl of... something in his chest. Crush was right. Mathlin was the slowest, and they needed to get out of here.
Mathlin screeched and kicked. “Let me go! Help! He’s kidnapping me!”
“He’s—” Killian didn’t have time to explain. Crush yanked open a car’s back door and threw Mathlin into the back seat.
“Get in,” Crush barked at Killian, his eyes flashing gold.
He didn’t wait for Killian to obey. Crush was already leaping over the car hood, reaching for the driver’s side door.
Killian made a split-second decision. He shut the back door on Mathlin, and threw himself into the front passenger seat.
Crush spared him a glance and floored the gas.
“We’re being kidnapped,” Mathlin wailed in the back seat.
“We’re not,” Killian tried to tell him.
Mathlin wasn’t listening.
Gunshots rang out. The car jerked forward, tires squealing. Killian could only clutch at the door handle as Crush drove them out of the parking lot, merging into traffic in front of a wave of honking cars.
“Damn,” Crush rumbled. “What’s going on?”
Killian shook his head. He didn’t want to jinx himself.
“Do you have a gun?” he blurted instead.
Maybe it was the way he said it. Crush shot him a sharp look.
Before Killian could explain himself, Mathlin announced, “I’m gonna text for help! We’re being kidnapped and I want a lawyer!”
Killian groaned. “Math—”
Mathlin was already typing furiously into his phone.
Then the car swerved, narrowly avoiding another bullet. Killian hurriedly put on his seat belt.
“I’ve got this,” Crush said, shifting gears with his large, paw-like hand on the gear stick. He slid his car between two other cars, so smoothly that Killian gulped. “I’ll get you both somewhere safe.”
Crush sounded calm and confident. Like he had the situation under control.
The last thing Killian wanted was for Mathlin to call overallof Crush’s friends, when this seemed to be a problem on a smaller scale.
He pulled out his phone, scrolling to the latest messages.
MathlinHatesMath
Umm. I don’t want to say we got kidnapped, but I think we just got kidnapped?
NotAWalrus
?? What?? How???
