Lucas’s command got my legs moving, but the battle between me and my wolf raged under the surface as I got back into the car. It was usually easier to control my wolf. We’d come to terms, like any other alpha werewolf. It was either that or get killed by the Seven. Werewolves with too much power and not enough control were too dangerous to let alive.
I knew I shouldn’t give in to my wolf, but I couldn’t seem to make myself care.
My bond was gone.
My mate was gone.
Nothing else mattered.
Move now or your mate’s brother is dead. Lucas’s command cut through the wolf’s instinct to run, find, fight for our mate.
On my way. The tires squealed against the pavement as the car spun around.
I sped back to the warehouse and stopped beside a half-open rusty bay door. Lucas, carrying Axel’s limp form, opened the back of the SUV and slid inside.
The thick scent of coppery blood filled the car. I could barely make out the faint whistling noise of Axel’s too shallow breaths. He was unconscious, and a part of me knew he would be until he started shifting, but another part of me worried that I would fail Tessa again. I let them take her, and if I wasn’t fast enough, then that meant I’d let them kill her brother.
Claudia jumped into the back seat, and the sound of her seatbelt clicking into place was too loud.
“Move! Now!” Lucas’s commands—backed with centuries of power—jerked me in my seat, and I couldn’t ignore them.
They were like a lifeline to me. The wolf obeyed Lucas’s order when I would’ve fought it. But Tessa’s words—to save her brother—helped me stay calm enough to make the drive.
I didn’t remember driving back to campus. We were just there—as if we had transported—but I knew we hadn’t. More than ten minutes must have passed.
Lucas was running into the infirmary with Axel. I followed, but only because Lucas was yelling at me to do it.
And then I lost more time.
I didn’t remember walking into the infirmary or lying on one of the beds, but I blinked, and there I was.
The lights were too bright. The room was too hot. Too small. Too confining.
Dr. Gonzales was telling me something—but I couldn’t make out the words—instead, there were plinks of metal against metal. I heard them. They seemed to resonate in my soul.
I turned my head to see her set down a pair of tweezers onto the tray, next to three bloody bullets.
Tessa was gone.
Someone had shot me three times, and they took Tessa.
They stole my Tessa.
I remembered turning wolf and ripping up the room while Dr. Gonzales told me to calm down. She screamed down the hallway for someone to bring a tranq, yelled at me to stop, but it felt like I was outside my body. Like this wasn’t really happening. Like it was a dream, and if I fought hard enough, I would wake up.
But I didn’t wake up.
There was a chick-click, and I knew what that meant. A gun was being loaded.
A gun was being loaded for me.
That got me moving.
I jumped through the tiny window, and as I was falling, I remembered that Tessa had done the same thing once.
And that made me feel closer to her.
But then I hit the ground, and there was yelling, and I knew I had to go. I knew I had to run.
I remembered running through the woods.
I remembered blood in my mouth.
I remembered killing anything in my path. It was still night, so there were demons here, and I needed something to kill. They were a good thing to kill. They were something to take my anger and helplessness away.
But it didn’t help. Not really. Not when I needed my mate.
But no matter how far I ran, how long I looked, I couldn’t find her.
Tessa was gone.
Someone took Tessa.
Someone stole my mate.
My wolf was panicked. I was panicked.
From one second to the next, night turned to day, and a part of me knew that losing time was a bad sign. A very bad sign. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. I wasn’t in control anymore. I was going feral.
I was feral.
But I couldn’t stop moving. I couldn’t stop the wolf’s feral frenzy.
In the end, the only thing that stopped me were my former friends hunting me with tranqs.
And then there was nothing but a cold cell and empty darkness.