The fuck?
I didn’t give myself a second to consider the full implications of my husband’s words. My instincts kicked in, and I ran straight for the tree line. Undergrowth cut at my feet as I leaned into a run, and a branch scraped along my arm. Within seconds, I heard the thudding of footsteps behind me. Growls ripped through the night, and I glanced over my shoulder to see a glimpse of glowing green, predatory eyes. I lunged to the side, and the sediment under my feet suddenly gave way.
I tried to get my feet under me, but there was only a ledge and then nothing but open air. I screamed as a tree root smacked into my ankle, and pain sliced through my leg as it snapped the wrong way. My stomach flew into my throat, and I just managed to inhale a deep breath when my back slammed into the water’s surface.
My whole body felt as if it was shattering, and then I sunk under the dark water. The river was churning in every direction, ripping me one way and then the other. I fought upward and broke the surface, managing to gasp in one giant gulp of air, before the current pulled me back under. The ice-cold flow held me down like a massive hand, and my lungs ached.
A blinding explosion of pain seared into my arm and ripped me up to the water’s surface. I gasped in air, looking around only to see that a spike from a log was impaling my arm and blood streamed from the wound. The log had yanked me up like a fish on a hook. I blinked at the injury, somehow unable to feel it.
Screaming, I fought the immense drag of the passing water and wrapped my other arm over the log. It slammed into my stomach and wiggled in the current. All I could do was scream, horrid, ragged cries as the river did everything in its power to rip me from my log. Ahead, an outreaching tree hung into the frothy flow, and I kicked furiously with my one working leg. The river swept me closer, and my log hit with a loud crack. The spike yanked out of my arm, and the world went black. I woke with a jolt, caught in the limbs of the tree.
Dragging my savaged arm and broken leg over the branches, I climbed toward the trunk. The merciless river burbled past, seeming to laugh at me as I clambered onto the thick wooden limb that grew horizontally over the river. Halfway across the branch, there was a loud crack. I was weightless for a moment, and then I plunged back under water. The river ripped me back and forth, and then I slammed into a hard surface. Every one of my ribs seared, and I opened my eyes to see that I had collided with a boulder. It felt as if the impact had shattered my ribcage. Reaching up, I grabbed onto the rock, found a groove and pulled myself onto the stone. I gasped in breath as I lay there on the cold stone outcropping. Using all of my remaining strength, I reached up and dragged my body a few more inches onto the rock.
Every labored breath threatened to be my last. The world faded away, returning with a rush of water and searing pain, only to disappear again.
“How the fuck did she survive all this way?” an unfamiliar male voice said from close by.
Immediately, I thought it was Kane. Kane would save me. And, then my slow, groggy mind remembered that Kane had been pretending all along. Kane had made a deal with Triple Cappuccino, probably to save Kane’s pencil company that was bankrupt because it was a fucking specialty pencil company, not exactly a hot seller.
“It doesn’t matter how she survived. It only matters that she did.”
It was Triple Cappuccino’s voice, but all I saw was a bleary swirl of color. Hands grabbed me around my waist and knees and lifted me up. Pain exploded through every inch of my body.
“She’s lost too much blood, Alpha,” someone said from a short distance away. “And it looks like the crashing against the rocks have battered all of her internal organs. She’s not strong enough to survive the bite.”
“She’s strong enough.” Triple Cappuccino said from just above me, then he lay me down on the cool, slick rocks. His fingers pushed my wet hair from my face and then traced down my cheek. His thumb brushed over my lips. “We’re your pack now. You’re never going to escape us again, Omega.”
I had been saving up all of my energy, and I used it to bite down on his thumb. Instead of pulling away, the man just watched me until the strength of my jaw failed. “Fuck you,” I wheezed. “I’d rather die than go with you.”
He grunted. “That’s a lie. You’ll never stop fighting to survive. It’s in your nature… you’ve already proven that. And so long as your heart beats, you’ll belong to me.”
There was a rustling sound over me, and then sharp teeth pierced the length of my wrist. Liquid fire flashed through my limbs, and my vision went white before subsiding into darkness.
Chapter One
Ever since the day I became a werewolf ten years ago, fear has had a specific taste for me. It tasted metallic, like sucking on a penny. Right now, slouched in the back row of a mostly deserted bus, somewhere in Northern California, my mouth tasted like I swallowed a whole piggy bank.
The bus seat under me vibrated with the telltale rhythm that signified we were decelerating on the highway. My heart raced and
