Page 224 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

My father blinked at me. “What?”

“Henry. Untie Henry.”

“There is a monster eating a man ten feet away.”

“And if we leave without the dog, Tessa will lose her mind and I will come back from the dead to be annoying. Untie him.”

Tessa dropped to the fountain base with shaking hands. Sava was already cutting zip ties. Quick. Efficient. She sliced through Dad’s, then Mom’s, then Tessa’s. Grant held his wrists out as if he expected rescue to be a customer service experience.

Sava looked at him. “Say please.”

His mouth opened. A wolf slammed into the paving stones nearby and skidded through blood and rain.

“Please,” Grant said quickly.

Sava cut him loose. “Growth.”

My father grabbed my shoulders. “Cassie, we need to call the police. We need an ambulance. We need the army.”

“Dad.”

“They kidnapped you.”

“Yes.”

“There are goddamn wolves.”

“Yes, and if you do not shut the hell up and follow us right now, there will be a very embarrassing amount of paperwork after we die.”

He stared at me. That finally did it. Maybe it was the blood. Maybe it was the bruises. Maybe it was the fact that I had said hell in the tone my mother used for china cabinets and hospital billing.

He shut up.

I turned to the others. “Everybody listen to me. Questions later. Screaming quieter. Stay low. Follow Sava. Do exactly what she says unless you have a secret history of surviving werewolf hostage situations, in which case, please feel free to contribute.”

No one contributed.

“Great. We’re improving as a group.”

Sava pointed toward the service arch. “Move.”

We moved.

The next several minutes were a mess of rain, screams, and trying not to look back.

That last part went badly. Every few steps, my head turned toward Ian without permission. I caught flashes of him between bodies. A blood-slick arm. Gold eyes. A wolf thrown through a chair hard enough to splinter it. The brutal arc of his body as he changed further, less man each time he struck.

He was magnificent. He was terrifying.

He was leaving me.

The bond shuddered, and pain lanced through my chest so suddenly I nearly fell.

Tessa caught my arm. “Cassie?”

“I’m fine.”

“You are absolutely not fine.”