Carter closed his eyes for one moment.
Followed by another.
He was actually going to let me go.
His grip started to loosen.
Then, in the blink of an eye, he threw me over his shoulder and ran.
Or tried to, at least.
Unlike Maverick, he wasn’t six and a half feet of pure muscle, and he hadn’t carried a woman like a fucking sack of potatoes before. It slowed him down a little.
That little was enough.
Maverick crashed into him like a freight train, taking all three of us down in one hard hit.My head cracked against the tile, but it was a wound I was thrilled to have because it meant I was still alive.
Mav managed to shove me away and pin the turned vampire down in the same second. Ryker dragged me further away from the fight while Carter snarled and bucked, fighting the Alpha’s hold.
Maverick had already proven that even the most experienced werewolf fighters had nothing on him, and Carter had nothing onthem.
The Alpha’s furious eyes met mine, traveling quickly down my figure and back up. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.” I could tell him about the new bump that probably adorned my skull later.
Mav inhaled and exhaled slowly, like he was trying to get his shit together.
Then he slammed Carter’s forehead against the ground so hard, it knocked the vampire out cold.
I walked out of the building beside my mate as he carried Carter’s limp body out onto the sidewalk, heading for the tower. People were taking more pictures of us, but I was learning not to care.
They were going to say whatever they wanted to say and photograph whatever they wanted to photograph. There was no point in dwelling on it. Not to me.
“If you ever risk your life like that again, I will lock you in our fucking apartment for a decade,”Mav said into my mind flatly.
“I love you too.”
His hand landed on my hip, and he pulled me two steps closer, so our sides brushed as we walked.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
bloom
Maverick droppedCarter in one of the cages as soon as we got back to the tower. Not the one I’d been in twice, which smelled like cleaning supplies now.
I knew how Maverick and his pack worked well enough to be pretty damn sure they would put his sister in thecage next to his.
To no one’s surprise, a few enforcers walked his sister Riley into the room thirty minutes later. I watched on a security camera from a few rooms away with Maverick, Nolan, and a few others.
My throat closed when I saw her.
She was skin and bones, but otherwise she looked crazy similar to Carter.
Her entire body trembled as she folded into a ball in the center of the cage, looking completely and utterly terrified.
I watched them silently, knowing damn well that Maverick and his pack weren’t going to kill her.
Not when she looked like that.
