Biter took a curve fast. I slid along the leather of the backseat until my head thumped up against the door.
He’d tied my hands behind my back again before throwing me in the backseat. I was dizzy-sick with fear and a weird sense of being caught in some never-ending cycle. I had to do things different this time, or his coming after me would happen over and over.
I was done with Biter, done with Mama. My baby wasn’t going to grow up the way I had. People here cared.
Sophie took me back with no blame at all. At dinner she told me how the mayor and others had stopped by to see if I was all right. Me, they’d asked about me. My chest had fluttered with the strangeness of it. But I could get used to it. This was my home now.
Somehow I had to stop Biter from taking me back to Arquinta. I couldn’t let the pattern repeat.
I struggled to sit up. He drove like a crazy man, flying through curves like he didn’t care if we crashed. I cared.
If only I could think. I was never bright, and now my head was fogged up with fear.
For my baby’s sake, I had to fight past my stupidity.
This time I didn’t have a utility knife in my apron. There was no way I could work my hands free. I already knew the back doors wouldn’t open and the windows wouldn’t roll down. The only way out was through the front seat.
A flash of movement caught my eye. On the slope opposite us, something moved at the edge of the trees. Between the tinted windows and the faintness of the moonlight, I couldn’t tell what it was.
Gripping the wheel in both hands, Biter ignored me. As fast as we were going, it was crazy for me to do anything but relax and wait.
But I was desperate to escape. He wasn’t taking me back to Arquinta. I was going to break that pattern.
Slowly I worked my way to the center of the backseat, taking advantage of the tight turns to the right to slide back to the center, fighting the turns to the left.
There would have to be a straight stretch somewhere. Then I’d leap into the front seat, somehow elbow the door open, and throw myself out of the car. It might be a stupid idea, but it’s all I could come up with. No matter what, I wasn’t going back with Biter.
When the split between the two front seats was in front of me, I braced my feet against the back of the front seats to keep me from sliding at the next curve. Staring out the front window, I watched for the right moment.
It seemed like the road would never straighten out. My legs ached from the effort of holding myself in place. When we took a hairpin turn and doubled back the direction we’d just come, something big moved in the trees just ahead, disappearing as we turned again.
The curve straightened out. On the passenger side of the car there was nothing but a steep drop. Didn’t matter. This was my chance.
Just as I was getting ready to launch myself, a bear appeared in the road in front of us.
Not Dominic, couldn’t be. But I couldn’t let the car hit it. Instead of leaping for the passenger seat, I threw myself at Biter.
I fell across his lap, knocking his hands from the steering wheel. My head banged hard against the side window.
“Stupid fucking bitch!” He braked.
Tires squealing, the car skidded toward the steep rocky cutout on the left. He grabbed at the wheel. With a massive contortion, I jerked my shoulders upright and smacked my forehead against his cheekbone. He twisted the wheel to the right.
Too far.
We shot through the gravel and the thin barrier of shrubs, and over the edge.
The car bounced down the hill. Each thump pounded through my body. My mate was inside that dented metal box.
I threw myself down the slope after her.
The car had lodged on its back wheels between a stubby pine and a boulder. Laleesha was in the front seat, hanging half out of the open driver door. Biter was nowhere to be seen.
When I pushed the deflated airbags off Laleesha, she was unconscious but breathing. The air was sharp with the scent of blood. She didn’t have any visible injuries, nothing to account for the blood pooling in the seat beneath her.
I didn’t have a phone. Traffic on the road was sparse, and no one up there could see us anyway. I couldn’t wait for some probably nonexistent help.
Laleesha was my claimed mate. That had to mean something.
Still in bear form, I rested one paw on her shoulder. I—weird as it sounded, this was exactly what it felt like—sensed her body as if it were my own. A dull ache in the head, sharper pains in the ribs. Deep bruises, cuts. Nothing broken but the ribs and one arm. And a rip in her womb.
That was the source of the blood. Oh my Laleesha.
Our cub.
I had to get her out of the car.
Gently I worked my paws under her body. Blood soaked through my fur as I slid my arms under her hips and lifted her.
She moaned.
I made a little grunt of apology.
Her eyes fluttered open. She looked me straight in my bear eyes for an instant before her lids drooped shut. Her mouth moved, whatever she said so faint it came out only as a breath.
It could only be my imagination that her weight in my arms grew heavier as she relaxed.
Some distance away I found a level spot under a pine. I laid her on a bed of fallen needles, taking care not to jostle her arms or ribs any more than necessary. What concerned me the most was the bleeding. There wasn’t any way to stop it by normal means, no direct pressure, no tourniquet.
Lick it to make it better, my bear suggested. He would.
I was desperate enough to try anything.
Hooking one claw in her waistband, I tore her pants open. The smooth brown flesh of her belly rose in a gentle mound. Our cub was in there.
I licked her belly gently, probing for injury. Laleesha’s breathing hitched. Still licking, I purred comfort.
My tongue lingered on a spot that felt unnaturally swollen. Holding my tongue still, I absorbed the trauma of her injury. The pain, the rending of flesh, the chemicals telling her womb to expel—I tasted all of them. I spit out the taste and kept licking.
The blood tang turned stale. The swelling decreased. I kept on licking.
Her breathing eased and deepened. Reassured, I stopped licking before my tongue peeled off her outer layer of skin.
She slept through it all, which made me worry about her head injury. Afraid the cold, wet ground would leach out her body warmth, I loped back to the car. There was a tarp in the trunk and a jacket in the backseat. For good measure, I wrenched out the seat cushion and dragged it back too.
I dropped everything when I saw the naked man crouching over Laleesha.
From instinct I shifted back to human form, naked too.
“Get the fuck away from her.” I shoved him away and stood between them.
He grinned at me, insolent and unafraid.
I knew that harsh scent. Biter.
And I was certain now that he was a shifter. When I first caught his scent at Sophie’s store I hadn’t been sure. I still didn’t know what kind, but it explained how he got out of that wreck uninjured—or already healed—and why he wasn’t wearing any clothes.
My first priority now was Laleesha. I could take care of him later.
“Get out of here,” I said evenly. “Get your ass on the road back to Arquinta and I’ll let you live.” For now.
“Fuck no.” He leered at me. “That’s my babydoll. Looks like you already started getting down to business. I’ll take it from here.”
My bear roared in rage. Calm, I told him. But I was white-hot myself.
“Last call. Get out of here.”
“Make me, motherfucker.”
I swung. Shifter fast, he darted back. My fist barely clipped his jaw.
He threw a punch at me. I moved into it and grabbed his arm. He tried to twist out of my grip. I looped a foot around his knee and took him down.
He landed heavily, me on top of him. He squirmed, but I had him firmly around the neck.
Slimy bastard, he shifted and wriggled free. A badger, he was a goddamn badger shifter. He bit my hand. With a grunt of pain, I shifted. He bit me again before I was fully bear.
I swiped at him. My claws grazed his fur. He was fast, I’d give him that. Fast and nimble.
Every minute I wasted on him was time stolen from Laleesha. Screw finesse. I needed to put him out of commission.
He sprang at my legs, zipping in to bite and immediately retreating. I dived at him and caught him between my two front paws. Tumbling to the ground, I hung on grimly despite the sharp teeth worrying at my paws.
I squeezed until I felt the crack of bone. Still I didn’t let go. I had to injure him past the point of healing.
My bitten paws dripped blood when I lifted him high in the air and smashed him onto a rock. I released him then, expecting him to be dazed. He swarmed my legs and bit in, his jaw locking on my ankle.
My claws scraped his back and skidded off the tough skin. Reaching down low, I slashed his belly. That was the killing wound.
Slowly he sank to the ground. When his eyes went glassy and his scent changed, I pried his teeth out of my leg and limped back to retrieve the jacket, tarp, and seat cushion.
Laleesha was still unconscious, but the bleeding had stopped. I got her on the cushion, wrapped the jacket and tarp around her, and dragged her back up to the road.