She had one chance to save him, and the territory – and that was her father. Miles and his allies, up against everyone from the east…it was too close to call. Ludwik was powerful – he’d almost knocked Miles down – and there was no telling if Miles would go feral again.
As the sun rose, she walked towards the town center. She was exhausted. She had barely slept, and her clothes were rumpled and dirty. She glanced at her watch. It was 5:30 a.m.
A car that was driving by slowed down, and a familiar voice called out to her. “Dakota! Wait!” It was Tina.
She hurried over to the car. Bizarrely, Tina’s mother Maureen was there too, sitting in the front passenger seat, so Dakota climbed in the back. “Tina? What are you guys doing here?” she asked, shutting the door.
“I came to save you from yourself,” Tina said, sounding exasperated. “What part of ‘your dad is crazy’ did you not understand? Your father and most of your pack are here. He chartered a plane and flew us all to the nearest airport after you left him that message. We got here like an hour ago, and I came looking for you.” Tina shook her head as she headed down the road. “He will rip your throat out with his teeth, Dakota.”
“Your only hope is to kill him first,” Maureen added, twisting around to look at her. “We brought a silver-coated knife. Get in first and stab him.” Dakota couldn’t help but notice that even in a crisis, Maureen was perfectly made up like a 1980s soap opera star, and her silky blond hair was permed, every wave in place.
“I can’t kill my own father,” Dakota protested. Her stomach lurched at the thought. “I’m going to beg for his help. I will stand there and look him in the eye, and if he can still kill me…well, I have no other way out.”
“Fine. I’ll stand with you, then,” Tina said. “I’m taking you to him now.”
“You shouldn’t,” Dakota said tiredly. “This isn’t your fight. It’s okay. He may come around when he sees me.”
“Why don’t you want to kill him?” Tina demanded, her voice rising to a shrill whine. “You’re willing to forgive him after he tried to force you to marry a gross pig like Roy? Even after you saw him naked in bed with scratches all over his body?”
Dakota went still.
“How did you know about the scratches?”
Tina snorted in annoyance.
“You told me about them. Wouldn’t shut up about them.”
She stepped on the gas, whipping around the curvy mountain roads.
“Whoa, watch it,” Dakota yelled. “And no, I didn’t. I absolutely never told you about them.”
“After everything I’ve done for you, risking my life to help you escape, you’re calling me a liar?” Tina wailed.
“Figures,” Maureen said bitterly. “Ingrate.”
Dakota stifled a flare of anger and scowled at the back of Tina’s head. “If you’re claiming that I told you about the scratches, then yes, you’re a liar.”
Tina pulled onto a straight stretch of road and sped up even more. “Then you showed me the picture. I don’t know, that was weeks ago.”
“I never showed you the picture or told you,” Dakota protested. “And why are you in such a hurry? Where are we even going? Slow down!”
Tina didn’t answer her.
“Where did you get a car from so quickly?” Dakota asked. That should have occurred to her before she climbed in.
Tina and Maureen just stared ahead, silent now.
“You were the one who took the picture,” Dakota said as they sped down the road. “You had sex with my fiancé and sent me the picture. That’s why you wanted me to leave town. Because you wanted Roy for yourself.”
“For all the good it did me,” Tina snarled. “I figured he’d come to his senses after you left town, but he’s already sniffing after some other rich bitch. I guess I was good enough to screw but not good enough to marry. All he wanted was to marry somebody else with money.”
“You idiot, I could have told you that,” Dakota said furiously.
Then light dawned on her. “You knew that Jamie Roberts was coming up here to death-challenge the Alpha Prime, didn’t you? You sent me up here thinking I’d be killed.”
Tina let out a harsh, braying laugh. “Jamie actually came to me and asked me to help her escape. Hilarious, isn’t it?”
Her mother joined her in laughter.
