How did I get here?
I try to piece together the memories, but everything comes back in fragments. The Morder. The pharmacy tent. Milo's face. Then my heat hitting me like a freight train. I remember running. Being flung over someone’s shoulder. The smell of dirt and diesel. Then I was in a van.
It rocked over rough ground. Someone's chest against my face. Sage and sunflowers.
Gunshots.
My breath catches as I remember the sound of bullets pinging off metal.
I close my eyes and I can suddenly see Adam ducking behind the wheel. Perrin's white face as Raff held me tight.
Then Cliff.
There was blood on his face. His arms closing around me. His rough voice in my ear, telling me I was safe.
But my thoughts are interrupted as pain flares along the side of my neck.
It’s a sharp, throbbing pulse on the left side, right below my ear. My hand flies to it, feeling a wound. Two raised crescents of broken skin. It’s swollen and hot, the edges crusted over.
A mating bite.
I sit up so fast the blood rushes from my head and the room tilts sideways. My hand stays pressed against the mark as my heart slams into my ribs.
My breath comes in short, panicked gulps as I realize I’m mated.
Mated.
Someone mated me.
Cliff.
Right?
Yes. It was Cliff.
In that tent, he put his teeth in my neck and claimed me. And I let him because my body was on fire and I couldn't think. At that moment, I wanted it. I wanted it so badly I pulled his face into my throat and held him there while he did it.
The blanket falls to my waist, and I look down. I'm wearing a shirt that isn't mine. It's too big, and it smells like sun-warmed cotton and sea-salt.
Adam's shirt.I think…
Someone shifts, and my gaze drops to the floor beside the couch.
Perrin?
The beta is lying on his back, one arm tucked behind his head, the other resting on his stomach. A thin blanket covers him from the waist down. His honey-blond curls are crushed flat on one side and his lips are slightly parted, his breathing slow and deep. He's out cold.
And the rest of it comes flooding back.
I can clearly see the look on Perrin’s face when I grabbed him and dragged him into that tent. His eyes went wide when I pressed myself against his chest, and the sounds he made when I pulled his pants down and took him into my mouth were so perfect.
And then Cliff walked in.
I threw myself at him like an animal, and I didn’t even know his name.
Then I did the same thing to Raff in the back of a van, grinding against him while the guards were trying to kill us.
I put them all in danger.
