Knox bares his teeth. “It’s handled.”
“You’ll both go down.”
“I won’t drop her.”
His answer is so achingly Prime Alpha Knox. Stubborn and hardheaded in his duty.
Viper’s nostrils flare. His fingers twitch like they want to rip Knox’s jaw off and reset it. But he nods once. Respecting the chain of command. And he peels away again to watch our rear.
My head rests against Knox’s shoulder. It feels like trespassing. I don’t pull away.
I open my mouth. I want to say thank you. Or sorry. Or please, please, please don’t hate me before I die.
Nothing comes out.
The enemy’s attack seems to be waning. Perhaps they’ve decided to let us retreat so Blaze will stop doing… whatever he is doing that makes them scream like they’re being hunted by a rabid monster.
Shade’s voice cuts across the static of my thoughts. “There. Our truck. Behind the yard.”
A junkyard yawns ahead of us, rusted metal twisted like bones.
Viper moves first, sweeping through with terrifying ease, clearing it of any potential hostiles.
He whistles once. Sharp.
Knox stumbles, his boot catching on a rock, and we careen to the side. He twists just in time to catch his shoulder on a decaying car, but it lands right on a still-open wound.
A raw, agonized howl, bursts from his chest and echoes off the ruined walls around us.
It’s the sound of agony he’s been keeping inside. And like he’s given me permission, I can’t help but add my own sob of pain.
Viper appears before us and says, “Give her.”
This time, Knox doesn’t protest.
I’m lifted from one set of muscled arms into another.
Viper carries me differently. Not worse or wrong. Just different. But it’s not how I remember his touch, which was always warm and gentle. Now it’s colder and detached.
I look up.
His jaw is set. His face unreadable.
He doesn’t speak.
Not until he lays me gently into the back of the truck and pulls away like he touched fire.
“We’ll patch you up,” he says, looking me right in the eye.
It’s all there. The betrayal, the fury, the ache soloudit doesn’t need words.
“Then we talk.”
The truck door slams shut behind him.
Chapter Nine
Halley
