“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” she growls, closing the trunk door.
There’s mumbled, hushed words that if I didn’t feel like I was dying, I’d normally be able to make out.
The driver’s side door opens, and I hear dumbass say, “I just don’t get why you’re doing all this. Risking all this for him? He abandoned you.”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Sam answers and slams the door in his face.
The last thing I hear is the engine roaring to life before I pass out again.
∞∞∞
“... I don’t know. Before he partially shifted, his mouth was all black. Could that have something to do with it?” Sam says, real terror in her voice, dragging me back to consciousness. “All I know is he can’t fully shift, and he’s not getting better.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Kaleb comforts, his deep made-for-radio voice unmistakable. “We’ll take care of him.”
I can feel a cool breeze against my bare chest. Cracking my one good eye, I can see the hatchback door is open, and Donovan and Kaleb’s black truck is idling a few feet away.
“Sounds like silver nitrate,” D comments, the Tahoe shaking as he climbs inside. “Kaleb’s parents will know what to do. Now come help me carry him. Fucker weighs a damn ton.”
Relieved that I’ll be taken to someone who knows what to do, my mind drifts and lands on the person whose taken up permanent resident in my thoughts.I have to protect her.
I reach up and grab Donovan’s shirt, the fabric wrapping around my fist, and murmur, “Don’t tell Callie.”
“Welcome back, man,” he replies with his normal level of asshole cockiness. “Now you can help get your bitch ass to my truck.”
Shaking my fist, I repeat, “Don’t. Tell. Callie.”
“Seriously, she’s all he can think about? This all happened because of her,” Sam utters, tears in her voice.
She doesn’t understand. She can’t understand.
“Alright. Alright, I won’t tell her,” Donovan grumbles, pulling me to a seated position. “Fuck, you’re a mess.”
Everything is blurry and spinning, but I have enough energy to flip him off.
“Love you too, Con,” he snorts.
“Why don’t you want Callie to know?” Kaleb questions, standing at the bumper and shifting my legs so they hang outside.
With Donovan’s help, I shimmy to the edge, and my feet rest on the ground. Taking Kaleb’s hand, I explain in punctuated grunts, “Callie. Alpha. Rage.”
“Boom,” D supplies, wrapping my free arm over his shoulders. Again with the help of multiple people, I’m back on my feet.
“Callie is our friend. One whose trust we’re still earning,” Kaleb reminds, while we shuffle toward the truck, like we can’t all remember the details of her abuse that she shared this morning. “We can’t keep things from her because we’re worried she’ll get angry.”
“Oh but you can’t upset the witch,” Sam sneers from behind us. “She might just off herself. Pathetic.”
Despite the fact I can barely walk, a low, warning growl vibrates in my throat. We stop moving, and tension turns my friends to marble.
“Because you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about and you did us a solid today, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Donovan warns, the gravel in his voice adding to the menace of his words.
“I know she’s a witch. That means she’s an entitled, selfish, bitch,” she fires back, digging herself into a deeper hole.
“Sam, stop talking!” Kaleb barks, the unfiltered anger scaring her into silence.
The guys heft my weak body up into the passenger seat that’s been pushed all the way back and all the way down.
Before Kaleb can close the door, Sam marches up, hands fisted at her sides and hisses, “You know what? Fuck you both. He killed someone today because of her. He’s beat to shit and nearly died because of her. So make sure he takes a bath when he’s done fucking her. Because the next time he comes back stinking of witch, I’m not saving his fucking ass again!”
