Chapter Eight
Ty
I let my foot rest heavier on the accelerator. The change in engine noise from a steady hum to a high rev woke Sonya with a start. Eyes on the rearview mirror, I saw her gaze shoot to my white-knuckled hands on the wheel. She sat up so fast the seatbelt jerked her to a stop. The exhaustion that had been dragging her down was gone, leaving her looking alert and more than a little panicked after her eyes shot to the speedometer.
Even out of my peripheral vision, I could appreciate the way the seatbelt pushed her breasts apart and tugged down her low-cut shirt. A fleeting glance was all I had time for. That was a good thing, for more than one reason.
“What’s going on?” she asked as she turned to look behind us.
A yellow Porsche and two black BMW racing motorcycles hugged the ass-end of the Jeep.
“Why aren’t they passing?” she asked.
“Because they do not want to go around us,” I said.
“More of Raul’s friends?”
“Afraid not. Can you fight?”
I eased my foot off the gas and the speedometer started to drop, leveling out at eighty for a moment. Despite being a classic, the Jeep handled quite well at high speeds. The stiffer suspension and slightly souped-up motor suggested Sonya had done a bit more than simply restore it. Though it had been a long time since I had been behind the wheel of such a vehicle, it did not mean I could not appreciate one. It was the woman more than the vehicle I appreciated.
“A little, and not very well. Why?” Her voice went up an octave on the last question, which I would have found cute as hell if I was not so worried.
A glance back showed the bikes were not backing off.
“We cannot outrun them,” I admitted.
“Don’t you dare ram them. If you hurt my Jeep…”
I shook my head. “I would not dare. Besides, it is not as clean or easy as the movies make it look. We could flip, and you could get hurt because you are not through the verða yet. It is best to stop and face them on our own terms.”
“Point made. You’re sure they’re not Raul’s guys?” she demanded, eyes on the dropping speedometer.
Seventy miles per hour now.
“I am sure. They are from another pack. I will explain later. Get ready.”
Her breathing quickened, making mine quicken—though not for the same reason. Heat radiated off her as she leaned back into the seat and squeezed her eyes shut. The spicy scent unique to her intensified, became musky as her wolf started to rise. Mine stirred in response to it. Shit.
“Breathe, just breathe, Sonya,” I said in a soothing tone.
Slowly, she relaxed back into her seat, closed her eyes, and did as I instructed. From her open mouth I saw the gleam of her fangs retract. I tried not to think of how sexy that mouth looked, lips parted, pink tongue moving with each breath. My ability to distance myself needed work.
“Good. Feel that calm center?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Excellent. Hang on to that, because we are about to stop.”
Gods, I hoped she could handle this. It was a lot to ask of a new wolf—too much. But we did not have a choice. I slammed on the brakes, took a hard left that rocked the Jeep up on two wheels, and rocketed down a dirt road. I barely got up to fifty before slamming on the brakes again, bringing the Jeep to a jarring stop inside a group of tall pine trees. In a flash, too fast for her new wolf eyes to follow, I took off both my seatbelt and hers.
She was not going to like what I had to say, but it had to be said. “Keep that calm center, and hide, but be ready to fight if they sniff you out.”
“What? But—”
In the middle of her questions, I leaped from the Jeep, hoping beyond hope that she would comply. Cursing, she flung her door open and made a considerably less graceful exit that I found totally charming. I did not hear her walk away, but I could not risk looking, either. Arms crossed over my chest, I stood in the middle of the overgrown road staring at the oncoming speeding car. If I made a big enough target, maybe they would not see her. Plenty of trees that would make a good hiding place lined the road and stretched out behind us. She needed to find her way into them, fast.
“I told you to hide,” I said out of the side of my mouth.
“Not happening.”
Though I cursed inwardly, I didn’t say a thing out loud. No sense in aggravating her further and testing her control. Her bravery impressed me more than I wanted to admit.
Dust barreled toward us as the Porsche and bikes braked to a stop so hard the ass-end of the Porsche slid out. A man poured out of the car to join the two off the bikes storming our way. Each of them stood over six feet tall and though they were not as built as I was, they were big Nordic-looking lads like most of our kind. The one in front carried a baseball bat, the one to his right a tire iron. Nothing I had not seen before, and nothing that worried me overly much.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Tyler,” the dark-haired man walking slightly in front of the others said.
I stiffened at my full name. He wasn’t the biggest of the three, but by the way the other two men hung back, it was clear he was the one in charge. From the stench beginning to waft off him, he clearly was not happy about facing me. Good. Slowly, I unfolded my arms, slid my feet out into a fighting stance, and curled my fingers into fists.
“It is not going to be hard, James, it is going to be impossible. You know me, and you know how this is going to go down.”
Head tossed back, James let out a barking laugh before exchanging a grin with his two companions. His eyes shot back to me like two hazardously flung darts. “You aren’t what you used to be, kennari. Just hand her over. She won’t be harmed.”
The way he twisted the word kennari, as if it were a bad thing, made me want to do the same to him.
Anger flowed like a heat wave from Sonya. “Who are you and what the hell do you want from me?” she demanded.
His eyes darted to her. “Raul really did leave you clueless, then, didn’t he?”
The heat coming off her grew in intensity. No, no, no!
“Ignore him, Sonya. He is trying to make you angry,” I said.
Hands spreading out, James shrugged. “I wasn’t trying really. I’m told I have that effect on people. Now that you mention it, though, we really don’t care if she turns early and goes insane. Either way she’ll serve our purpose.”
I heard Sonya taking slow, measured breaths and hoped they were helping. The two men behind James fanned out, flanking us. This put one of them too close to her for comfort, but at least it was the one without a weapon.
“Now you are trying to piss me off, and that is dangerous,” I said in a voice that sounded far calmer than I felt.
James and the man to his left moved in, weapons rising. The man with the tire iron lunged in and swung for my head. Fast as a snake, I ducked, shot a foot out, and took the man’s legs out from beneath him in a sweep. Air expelled from the man in a loud rush as he landed hard on his back. Not waiting, my right foot slammed down onto his chest and I heard a crack. I snatched the tire iron from him and brought it up to block a blow from the bat James swung at me. Twice more he struck and twice more I blocked.
Too far away I heard a deep, grating voice that I knew was talking to Sonya. “Best worry about me, pup.”
It was almost impossible not to get distracted from my own struggle when I heard flesh hit flesh.
“No, asshole, you’d better worry about me,” came Sonya’s spunky reply. “Move again and I’ll see if werewolf balls detach as easily as human ones.”
I grinned, ducked James’s latest swing, and swept his legs out from under him. Before he could hit the ground I cracked the tire iron hard against his head. Nothing broke from the sound of it—no surprise when it came to the strength of varúlfur bones, but he would be out for at least a few moments.
A small whimper that I would not exactly call masculine, but was clearly a man, came from Sonya’s direction. I turned to find her standing over her attacker with a death grip on his balls. Damn, she was kind of amazing. Shaking my head and laughing, I approached.
“And here I had been worried about you,” I said.
“I’m not the kind of girl who needs fussing over,” she said, sounding out of breath and in pain.
“I can see that. You should probably let go of his balls before you catch something.”
Lips curling up from her teeth—I was kind of proud that they did not sport extended fangs—she let go of his balls and wiped her hand on his yellow T-shirt before stepping back. He bared his teeth in return, a low growl starting in his chest. I shot between the two of them. Grabbing him by his shirt, I lifted him up with an ease born of fury and varúlfur strength. Feet dangling above the ground, the man sagged in defeat, head dropping.
“Drag your sorry-ass wolves back onto those bikes and get the fuck out of Missoula. Tell your Alpha if he sends anyone else into my territory I will kill them,” I said, letting the desire to do that fill my voice.
The man nodded quickly. Grunting in disgust, I tossed him to the ground and turned to Sonya.
“Just for the record, Isak didn’t send us,” the man said as he got to his feet with as much dignity as he could.
Ignoring the man, I put a hand on Sonya’s back as we started to walk to the Jeep. Blood flowed from three deep gashes on her left arm. She opened her mouth but did not say anything, so I did not take my hand away because I knew what was coming. From the time of my first change as a child, I remembered the verða all too well. Her knees gave out and she collapsed. Before so much as her jeans could brush the ground, I swept her up into my arms and cradled her against my chest. Long black lashes fluttering, she let out a little moan that did things both wonderful and terrible to me. Then she slid once again into unconsciousness.