Page 51 of Fat Enemy Mate

"I have no reason to lie to you, Lara," she replies. "It doesn't change anything about what happens now. There'll just be one wolf in your town. You will have to handle it separately when he comes for you. Reyhan?"

"Yeah," Reyhan says. “I don’t think we’ll worry about one wolf; he’ll be weaker without his mate anyway. Right, we're moving. You two take the patrol van and head west. Drive it as long as it'll go before they catch you. Make them think we went that way. Dump it where they'll find it by morning."

"Yes, boss," they reply.

"We’re heading back. Now." Reyhan says, and walks away, back toward the truck they came in.

Two men grab me and haul me out of the van. Glancing back, I realize it’s got the Silvercreek signs on the doors, and my heart drops—they won’t be tracking one of their own vans. Any hope that they might not be far away disappears completely, as I’m dragged along the rough ground and thrown into the back of the other truck.

They don’t look back; they just walk back around to the front of the vehicle and stand, talking to the witch and their boss. I hear snippets like “shall we take the long road” and “the road back to the depot will be better.”

They’re still talking when I realize the door hasn’t clicked shut, and I push it a fraction, keeping one eye on the group to make sure they don’t see as I slide out of the truck, keeping my body flat and low, dropping behind the back of the van and disappearing into the treeline. Terrified of making a noise, I go slowly at first, listening for any sound that might indicate they’ve noticed I’ve gone. When I’m deeper into the trees, I break into a run, trying to keep parallel to the road so I don’t get lost.

Then I hear it, the crash of someone in pursuit, and my heart beats wildly as I try to pick up my pace, knowing full well I’m not going to make it. A body slams into me, and we roll onto the hard ground. On the way down, I grab the cord around his neck and pull it clean off, whirling around and screaming, “STOP.”

He drops me, and I land hard on my side, my shoulder hitting first, and the impact goes through my body as I struggle to keep my bearings. The shifter goes to his knees beside me, obviously fighting the effect of my voice. Everything explodes around me as the other shifter grabs me from behind and hauls me to my feet. I twist in his arms, trying to grab the talisman, but it’s no use; he knows what I’m trying to do and only tightens his grip, wrapping a hand around my neck.

"Get her in the truck, now," Madelina calls from the road.

Reyhan is suddenly in front of me, and the back of his hand hits me across the side of the head where I'm already bleeding, and the world goes black for a moment before comingback fuzzier. The talisman I’d ripped off the shifter is ripped out of my hand, and then I’m dragged back toward the truck.

"Stupid girl," Reyhan mutters.

"Get up," he tells the rogue still down on the gravel, tossing the talisman back at him as we walk away.

"Lock the damn door," Reyhan tells them, and I hear the decisive sound of my freedom slipping away as the lock clicks into place. I sit quietly in the back, trying to clear my vision and forcing myself not to panic.

I think about Wilf again.

I think about what the witch said.

Is he my mate? That's what Madelina said. He’s my mate, and we’ve just been in what? Denial? I told Skylar and Fern I have feelings for him, but I have no idea how he feels. Everything that happened between us has just existed in silence since we got back from the cabin; it’s like neither of us wanted to address it, so we just didn’t. We’ve been living in a weird sort of suspended reality. Together but not together.

And maybe that’s what he wants. But it’s not what I want. I want that feeling where I knew he was waiting for me to get back, and Silvercreek just felt like a normal day. I want to be making dinner in the cabin for us. I want him to make me a cup of coffee; I want to watch him working in the garden.

I want him.

Chapter 23 - Wilf

We hit the bottom of the pass at speed, and my wolf is mentally already up on the road ahead, casting around for her scent. Connor is on the radio, switching between Bryan in the second truck behind us and Dylan, who's cutting down the ridge road to come at the pass from above. They obviously thought they could fool us by changing vehicles, but Dylan saw the whole exchange from the valley road, so we’ve sent another patrol after the decoy can. Now, they’ve kept eyes on the truck up until about a mile ago, but we know where they’ll come out, and we should be able to hit them at the final fork before the road drops down into the next valley.

"Bryan, what's your distance?" Nick asks the radio.

"Two minutes," Bryan replies. "We're right on your tail. I’ve just seen Luna’s truck coming up behind us in the rearview."

"Dylan?" Nick asks.

"Half a mile out and closing," Dylan says. "We’ll hit the upper fork in about ninety seconds."

"Copy," Nick tells the radio. "Ram them if you have to; that truck is stopping one way or another."

I don't say anything; I don’t need to. The plan is solid enough to work, and all I care about is stopping that truck. Connor accelerates into the last straight before the fork, and the truck climbs hard enough and fast enough that the cab tilts, and the trees seem to blur on either side of the road. We come round the last bend, and there ahead of us is the truck braced against a tree with Dylan’s truck lodged in the side and his patrol taking defensive positions while at least three or four rogues do the same behind the truck. I quickly realize that one of them is a witch, and they’ve dragged Lara from the truck, one ofthe rogues holding her by the throat. My wolf is moving before Connor even stops, my claws ripping through my skin mid-shift.

I lunge for the nearest rogue, but I’m pushed back by something that feels like a solid wall. Glancing up, I notice the witch smirking as she works some kind of magic that throws me backward, and I struggle to find my feet. The rogue takes a step back as the one holding Lara shouts instructions. I look at him, recognition flickering; he was one of the Cheslem betas, Reyhan, but he doesn’t look like a beta now; he looks bigger, his wolf stronger somehow. Something seems to move under his skin, but it’s not the shift; it’s something darker. More Cheslem dark magic.

The witch moves boldly into the road, and the air around me goes thick and slows down. My wolf staggers, and I look to my side and see that Connor is struggling to stand as well. I hear Reyhan shouting at her to hold me, and the pale flicker between her palms builds, sparks flying toward me. I know I need to move, but I can’t. Behind me, I hear the sound of a truck screaming to a stop.

"Madelina." Anya shouts.