Chapter 3
Sabrina
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“What do you mean? Ofcourse I’m riding with him.”
Cinjin shoves Bo’s shoulder, attempting to steal his spot of caging me in between the back seat of the SUV and the open door. “Help Slade dig out some clean clothes? Otherwise we’ll be here all night before you get all of the glass out.” Stealing the tweezers from him, he declares, “I make a better nurse when it comes to this sort of thing, and you know it. You’re too scared to hurt her by probing around.”
Lips pressed into a thin line, Bo finally relents. Cupping my cheek, he leans in to kiss my forehead, adjusts the wadded-up shirt I’m clutching to the back of my head, and steps away. “Fine, but I swear to the gods, if you pull the same shit as the last time we were here and bolt, I’m breaking both of your legs, Cin. I’m serious. She’s riding with us, end of discussion.” He stays within earshot, is able to still keep an eye on me through the back as he rummages through suitcases with Slade in the trunk, not even giving us the illusion of privacy.
Before I can even get a word out, Cinjin puts a hand over my mouth. “My beautiful, fiery angel of death, hear me out. Please?” Lips pursed, I nod, promptly regretting it when the world spins and I have to shut my eyes.
Removing his hand to trace his knuckles reverently down my cheek with a low rumble of displeasure, he turns his attention to operating on my brutalized side while I try not to flinch. “I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it’ll be pretty jarring when Reid first wakes up. We don’t know if he’ll remember what happened while he was like that, if he’ll wake up while we’re digging out the bullet fragments and try to tear our faces off, or if in a day or two he’ll lash out defensively on instinct until he gets his bearings. And if you and Hunter got this sick just siphoningenergy,I bet he’ll be puking his guts out when he comes to. Both from the drugs, and from his first experience of shifting being... what it was. He’s not going to want you to see him like that, angel.”
Carefully plucking another shard of glass from my side, my immediate retort is stolen as I’m reduced to sharp, hissing breaths while he works. Gradually, I’m able to shift my focus away from that pain to the one in my head so that I can get the words out.
“Exactly why I should be there. If he does freak out, I could help calm him down.” It’s a weak protest and I know it, but I’m grasping at straws, as shaken up as the rest of them after tonight went so wildly off the rails. “He didn’t try to hurt me, but Hunter already wanted to shoot him once, and I doubt he’ll hesitate if I’m not there to st-”
“Sweet girl,” he whispers, palming one of my cheeks and kissing me before returning to our game of operation. “Say he did wake up while you were in the car with us. Do you really think that seeing the state you’re in right now is going to calm himdown? Look at the rest of us; we’re barely holding it together as it is. We almost lost you, Sabrina. Don’t ask us to take any more risks with your safety right now.”
Glancing over the backseat through the trunk loaded with suitcases and boxes, Bo and Slade are yanking on clothes now that the storm’s died down. Jaws clenched, not saying a word even to each other, and muscles taut with restrained aggression, it makes my anxiety flare for a brief second. Both of them stiffen in tandem, heads whipping my way and scanning my face before they simply... deflate. Like my discomfort was a bitter scent on the air they picked up on without me having to say a single thing.
Slumping in my seat, I swallow, staving off the burning in the back of my eyes. “I know you’re right, I just hate it. And hate not knowing what happened.”
“So do I, angel. After all, I was convinced the only debris I’d have to pick out of your mangled flesh was if we wiped out on my bike.” His smile is strained, but he’s trying, and it’s the smack to the face that I needed.
I might be a wreck, but so is he, and he’s busy taking care of me instead of being with his twin like he should be. Of all of us, Reid’s closest to Cinjin, and if our roles were reversed, I’d want to wake up with someone I was comfortable with, too. Not the girl that dragged me into a warzone that nearly got my brothers killed, and brought my worst fears to life.
A few more shards are wrenched free of my flesh before he declares me good to go, letting my sopping wet shirt fall back into place and kissing my cheek. “We’ll meet you at the motel in a few hours, okay? And if anything exciting happens before then, we’ll call. But you know that I’m a quicker draw than Hunter, so no need to worry; I’ll take care of Reid while you’re being good and letting these three take care of you.”
With a sad smile, he leaves, climbing in the backseat of the truck with Kaige, Hunter, and Reid. Silently, I watch them pull away, laying a false trail to mask our departure so that once we leave Shadow Ridge, every part of it remains behind us for good. It leaves the four of us the last living souls among the charred remains of Alodia's legacy, watching the dying embers from the most distant part of their property. The few wolves that were wise enough to take their mates and run have nothing to come back to, are going to be forced to start over, but at least they’ll be able to.
They slaughtered all but nine Hawthornes six years ago; we left them double that as a parting gift.
Bo returns, helping me strip out of Hunter’s ruined shirt to pull on a clean one and pajama shorts without toppling over. All of my muscles ache, my head’s still spinning, and I’m more exhausted than I’ve ever been in my entire life; physically, but mostly mentally. Honestly, without his help, I don’t think I could have pulled it off. I’d have laid down and passed out as is, just rolled over and accepted defeat.
The world has officially won. It’s finally beaten me down enough that I don’t want to get up again, can’t find a reason to fight the inevitable. My faith in humanity may have died a long time ago, but I always had faith in myself to motivate me to keep going, even if it was simply out of spite to prove something. I wasbetter.But it was only a lie I’d tricked myself into believing, because in reality, I’m so much worse than all of them.
Easing me back into my seat now that I’m dressed, Boden’s fingers tighten on my hip. “Where’s your necklace?”
Reaching under the seat, I pitch forward, Bo barely managing to catch me before I smack my head on the seat. Seeing what I was after, he pulls out my purse that I’d stashed before the meeting a few hours ago, passing it to me as he eases me upright with his jaw clenched tight.
“Wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t lose it in the chaos. Good call, too. The chain likely would’ve melted when I was freeing Hunter, and it’s too pretty to be left behind.”
“I’ll swap it out for a different one then, something heat resistant.” Abruptly, he crushes me against his chest, heart rate spiking and thundering against my ear. “Just... just promise me you won’t take it off again? Please.”
Slade slides into the driver’s seat as Damian climbs in the back on my free side. Pulling me out of Bo’s clutches and into the middle, Damian snags the bloodstained shirt from the floor and presses it to the back of my head again with a scowl.
“Wouldn’t you be upset if something happened to it, though?”
