The crunch and crash of the car wreck outside was so loud it might as well have happened right in the room.

It was like my heart nearly stopped, and a spot of painful heat began to radiate from my lower back. I groaned in pain, gasping for air.

Across from me, Jessica’s eyes went wide and she stepped forward. “Richard!”

I waved her off, even as an image of Peter formed in my own mind’s eye. “No, Jessica. Nothing we can do.”

“But that was him!” Jessica nearly yelled as Ashley hugged her, trying fruitlessly to comfort her. “Fuck you, that was him!” Tears began to stream from her eyes as her friend clung to her, attempting to soothe her. The soothing didn’t help. Instead, she just stared daggers at me over Ashley’s shoulder, her eyes puffy, her face streaked with salty tears of anguish.

I knew exactly how she felt. “Think I don’t know that?” I growled back, the gun suddenly very weighty in my hand as a cold sweat broke out all over my body. My stomach lurched, and I had to fight to keep my breakfast of toast and black coffee down. “Think I can’t feel it too?”

Shifters mate for life, and when they bond, that bond is nearly unbreakable. Unfortunately, Peter and I had broken ours years ago. We may have been mates, but that instinctual connection was gone, snapped like a tether in a gail.

I hadn’t had a feeling like this in years, not since Peter and I had first admitted that we were mates, back when we were teenagers. He’d torn up his knee during a football game our senior year, and it had felt like the ligaments and tendons inside my own knee had been ripped from the bone. He’d begun healing soon after, of course, like all shifters did, but the pain had lingered for a little while longer. A malignant phantom, but still nothing more than a phantom.

This, though, this had been different. I’d never felt anything like this, even during the times I’d been shot. The heat stayed in my back, pushing other thoughts from my head as it continued to grow in severity.

I growled beneath my breath, panting desperately as the pain transformed, creeping into my head and into my vision.

I tried to shake it off and get back to normal.

Before I could, though, there was another round of pounding on the door behind me. “Oh, little shifter,” called the giant in his bass cannon of a voice, “we have another offer to give you!”

“Fuck off!” Elise screamed, her little tanned fists balled tightly into dense bricks of rage. “Fuck off and die!”

The giant chortled behind me, sending the door rocking again, vibrating painfully against the spot on my back that was just growing more and more painful.

“Such mouths on you women,” the German said through the door. “Well, if you don’t care to save your two shifter mates, I’ll be more than happy to let my superior know you decided to pass on the deal.”

“Wait,” I gasped, even as Ashley released Jessica and turned around.

“Which one?” she asked, stepping towards me and the closed door.

The giant laughed. “No, no, you’ve been quite explicit in your denial of a deal. That’s fine.”

“Wait!” Jessica yelled. “It’s Richard, isn’t it?”

I licked my lips. “And Peter, too,” I said in a near whisper. “They have Peter.”

“Yes,” the giant said. “We do. I’ve been informed that horrendous crash outside was a Ford Bronco. Your little coffee shop is in need of some repairs now. Sad, really. They pulled an exquisite latte for such a backwater.”

Jessica looked at me, her eyes full of hurt, of pleading. “Please,” she mouthed.

I licked my lips and swallowed hard. My mouth was dry, my body clammy and drenched in sweat, my hair suddenly plastered to my head. Whatever had happened to Peter, it wasn’t getting any better. He wasn’t healing.

“What do you want?” I finally asked.

“Why, we want you ladies, of course.”

“And you’ll let Richard and Peter go free?” Jessica called back.

“Our word. We give it to you now.”

Jessica and I exchanged looks. She was in, I could tell, as hurt as her eyes were. Anything for her mate. Just like I felt for mine.

Even though I’d been willing to redecorate the inside of Jessica’s tiny office with Peter’s pistol, the thought of him being lost to me again was too much. I don’t think I’d be able to make it another minute without him, not in this cold cruel world, especially knowing that my own stubbornness was the reason for his death or his capture.

“Just the two of us,” I replied. “Elise and Ashley stay here, with my gun. You pull back, leave them be.”

There was silence for a long, painful moment. One where there seemed to be hours between the ticks of the second hand on the clock. Where universes were born and died, and loves were won and lost. It seemed to stretch on and on, as both Jessica and I held our breaths, waiting for his answer.

“Jah,” he said finally with a resigned sigh. “Jah, jah, jah. This is good. We have a deal.”

“Good,” I said, nodding. “We’re coming out.”

“What the fuck are you two doing?” Ashley hissed. “You can’t exchange yourselves! What will Richard and Peter think?”

“They’ll be pissed,” Jessica said, matter-of-factly.

“No,” Elise said, her voice lowered, “you guys can’t really be serious about this shit.”

“I am,” I said with a wince as I flipped the pistol around and held it out to the curly-haired woman. “I made a deal. I keep my word.”

Elise snatched the gun out of my hand. She looked more than comfortable holding it. Not necessarily like she’d trained or anything, but she definitely had experience using one. “You’re a fucking thief, though!”

“Who cares? Think we don’t have honor, too?”

Ashley grabbed hold of Jessica’s arm. “Richard’s going to murder me for letting you walk out that door! You can’t do this!”

Jessica looked down at her friend, their eyes locking. “Think I didn’t see the look in your eyes when you thought it might be Frank out there?” she asked. “You’d do this in a heartbeat if you had to, and we both know it.”

“But, Jess–”

“No,” Jessica snapped, cutting her best friend off before turning her face back to mine. “We’re getting our men free. Isn’t that right?”

I took a deep breath, nodded again. I could feel my core temperature rising, even as a cold chill rippled through my body. I swallowed hard and tried to keep my lunch down.

Whatever was happening to me wasn’t happening to Jessica, that much was clear. But whether this was a side effect of what Peter was going through, it didn’t matter. I still had to go through with this. If I didn’t, Peter would be the one sitting in a cell somewhere, or, even worse, dead. And there was no way I could let that happen. Not now, not ever.

“Let’s go,” I said, gritting my teeth.

“Right.”

I turned back to the door. “Hey, Kraut! Call your dogs back from the door. Me and Jessica are coming out, but we’re not giving ourselves over till you’re outside the hallway. Got it?”

“Fine, fine,” he said before barking a command to his men. Boots shuffled outside, and the ground shook as the giant retreated to the spots I’d designated.

“Ready?” I whispered to Jessica.

“Are you?” she asked. “You really don’t look good.”

“I’ll be fine,” I sighed. “Promise.”

She put an arm around my waist, anyways, clearly ignoring my assurances. “No you won’t. You look like warmed over death.”

“Thanks for the boost of confidence,” I groaned as she pulled the door open. “It’s just what I needed.” Still, though, she was right. I could feel my strength waning already. Whatever was wrong with me was getting worse. I sagged into her, grateful that her toned arms were strong enough to accept my added weight.

Together, we shuffled out into the hallway, with Elise and Ashley both moving to shut the door behind us.

I glanced back over my shoulder, giving both women what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

From the looks they returned, though, it wasn’t.

“Alright,” Jessica said as we looked down the hall at the giant who towered over all the armed men and women in the front room of the Curious Turtle. “You got us. Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Donka shein,” he replied with a grotesquely huge, too large for any normal man, smile. “Your chariot awaits.”