If the rest of them chose to go on, Cade wouldn’t blame them. In fact, he hoped they would. The rest of the team needed every abled bodied person they could get, but he wouldn’t be going with them. As much as it pained him, and as little as he understood why, his decision had been made the moment he’d locked eyes with the female in his arms.
“Rest,” he whispered. He stroked her matted hair away from her face and rested his cheek on the top of her head. “You’re safe now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He tightened his arms around her to emphasize his promise. “What’s your name?”
“Mackenna,” she answered after a pregnant pause.
“Mackenna, I’m Cade.” He lifted his head and tilted it to the side. “This is Thea.” He nodded toward the front. “That’s Rhys in the passenger seat, and the driver is Miles. They’re Revenant, so you can trust them.”
Her grip moved from his jacket to his shirt as she looked up at him with a furrowed brow. “They’re what?”
“Revenant,” he repeated, but with much less certainty this time.
The valley between her eyes deepened, and she shook her head. “I don’t…”
“It’s okay,” Thea interrupted. “We’re going to help you.” She placed a hand on Mackenna’s bent knee. “You’re running from something, aren’t you? Can you tell us what?”
“Was it Raiders?” Rhys asked from the front seat.
“Or Ravagers?” Miles added.
Mackenna tensed, and she pressed closer to Cade’s chest. Instinctively, he rounded his shoulders, cocooning her, but his gaze was continuously drawn back to the hand on her leg. He liked Thea, but right then, it took all of his self-control not to growl at her like some feral animal.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mackenna’s grip tightened on Cade’s shirt, and she began to shake again. “I don’t understand. What Raiders? What’s a Ravager?”
A frightening thought began to take root, and Cade glanced up at the other three members of his team. “It’s okay.” He ran his hand up and down her arm, soothing her. “One thing at a time. What were you running from?”
“Hunters,” she whispered.
Cade thought about the cuts and bruises that covered her body, the blood that coated her skin, and he felt sick. “They took you?”
A single nod.
“How long ago did they take you?”
“I…” She paused, a frown pulling at her lips. “I don’t know. A while ago, I guess.”
“Before or after the Coalition was formed?” Miles asked.
The Allied Races Coalition had risen as the new governing body after the Purge, declaring a kind of martial law across the country. With limited communication, he couldn’t say what was happening in other parts of the world, but Cade figured it was a reasonable assumption to think their reach extended around the globe.
They were meant to patrol the divided territories, guard prominent families, and protect the towns and people under their watch. Mostly, they just made sure humans didn’t step out of line or forget their place.
“The what?” Mackenna asked, a note of rising panic in her voice. “What is that?”
The silence that descended over the vehicle was deafening.
“People were sick,” Thea prodded gently. “Humans. Do you remember?”
It was several moments before she finally responded. “They called it the Purge.”
Cade nodded. “That’s right.”
“It happened so fast. Thousands of humans died.”
“Try millions,” Rhys mumbled from the front seat.
Of course, with her supernatural senses, she had no problem hearing him. “What?”
“Easy,” Cade soothed when she tensed. “You didn’t know?”
Mackenna sniffled. “I don’t understand any of this. How long was I there? How long ago was the Purge?”
Sharing a look with Cade, Thea sighed. “Two years ago.”
Mack froze, her small frame becoming eerily still. “No.”
Cade had been held captive for a matter of weeks, and he was still having a hard time processing everything that had happened. He couldn’t imagine being imprisoned and tortured for years. The fact that Mackenna could string even two words together without falling apart impressed the hell out of him.
“What can you tell us about the Hunters?” Rhys asked, twisting halfway around in his seat to look at her.
Cade had to bite back a scathing rebuff when Mackenna cringed away from the wolf’s gaze. “No,” he said instead, finality ringing in his voice. “Whatever you want to ask her can wait.” Gently, he coaxed Mackenna’s head back down on his shoulder and brushed her hair away from her face. “Sleep now. I’ve got you.”
A long sigh spilled from her lips. “I don’t understand any of this,” she repeated, “but thank you.”
Her continued gratitude made him uncomfortable, and her very presence raised a lot of questions he couldn’t answer. For the time being, however, he was content to simply hold her and watch the forest whip by through the window.
“Cade?”
Without conscious thought, he dipped his head and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Rest.”
It took a long time for her grip on his T-shirt to loosen and her breaths to slow into an even rhythm. Halfway back to the safe house, however, she finally relaxed into him and stopped fidgeting, drifting into what he hoped were peaceful dreams.
Chapter Three
Quiet, steady beeping lured Mackenna from a fitful sleep.
Prying her eyelids open, she blinked against the bright, golden light that spilled through the wall of windows. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, grimacing at the cloying dryness.
She felt like she’d been hit by a bus.
The mattress beneath her was comfortable. The blanket covering her felt thick and soft. A far cry from the cold piece of floor at the back of her cell.
Mackenna jerked upright and shoved her hair out of her eyes.
Clean, white bandages covered her hands and fingers. Another had been taped to her
