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“He’s running,” she hissed.
Seeing me adjust my target in Henric’s direction, her nails bit into my flesh.
“We’re in the blast radius.”
I huffed, the wolf in me frustrated. I wanted the bastard dead for what he’d done to my mate and my daughter. But I wouldn’t risk injuring them, or the men with me risking their lives to save my family.
“Fall back!” I ordered. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
CHAPTER27
JUSTINE
The vanwe escaped in had clothes that fit me. Mallory and the big wolf they called Doone remained up front as Mosa and I dressed. Doone did the driving and the big bear they called Taron traveled separately on a motorcycle almost as big as he was.
Once Mosa and I were clothed, she changed places with Mallory. Sensing that my body was far from done with healing, he wrapped me in a thick blanket and pulled me onto his lap, his alpha energy flowing in to replenish my own.
I wanted to rest but a handful of thoughts plagued me like daggers penetrating my brain. My mind still boggled at Doone’s special power. It was a dangerous one to possess and I wondered how long before his secret left the small circle of those who had rescued me. I wondered a lot more, and, safe in Mallory’s embrace, I kept sneaking glances at Mosa and the man who had clearly captured her heart.
She must have felt my gaze on her. She turned in her seat and looked at me with eyes that mirrored my own in their bright green depths.
“Did you know?”
“About your wolf?” I asked.
She nodded.
Guilt tortured me, turning my voice raspy as I answered. “Yes, love. I knew.”
Her face a blank mask, she fixed her attention back on the road ahead of us.
Did she hate me for what I had done? I had only wanted to protect her, not harm her, although I knew there were times I had done one to achieve the other.
I would hate me. I would hate me with all the deep simmering passion with which I had hated my father for betrothing me to a man he knew was a complete sociopath. I would hate me the same way I had hated him for making that marriage part of the treaty that ended the pack wars and took me from the only man I had ever loved.
Not only took me from Mallory, but made me believe he had been murdered because of me.
Too ashamed to look at either my daughter or my true mate, I buried my face against Mallory’s neck and concentrated on finding a pattern in the way the van's tires rolled over the pavement.
We drove for two hours straight before stopping. I didn’t sleep, just kept my eyes closed as my body worked at healing and my mind replayed each minute of my many betrayals of Mallory and Mosa. Had I taken the “easy” way out all these years? I had too many memories of too many wounds inflicted upon my body during my marriage and as my father’s daughter before that to think my choices were the easy ones.
Eyes still closed, I reached blindly up and curled my fingers against the strong line of Mallory’s jaw. He covered my hand with his, then turned his face until his lips brushed my palm. Areas long dead inside me ignited with a dull spark. I whimpered, dying inside because I couldn’t hold the sound back.
Mallory sank another wave of his alpha energy deep into my chest.
I pushed away, wrapped the blanket around me like it was some kind of magical shield to keep my emotions from spilling out.
“You’re using too much of your energy,” I gently warned. It may or may not have been true. I just knew I would break in half if he kept holding me. “And none of you should have come to rescue me. Henric will use it as an excuse to attack your people.”
“He can try,” Doone growled from the front seat.
“First he’ll have to figure out it wasn’t Kalchik who ripped off his finger,” Mallory chuckled, his dark sense of humor apparently undiminished by the last quarter century since we parted.
“Now, now,” Doone jokingly admonished, waving his own right index finger, the digit’s position the same as the one he had severed from Henric’s hand.
“And when he does, then we’ll have the Rockford leap and Kalchik’s wolves united against us,” I said, a tremor of fear spreading like ice through my body.
Mosa left the front seat to slide under the blanket with me. Mallory shifted his arm from my shoulder to hers, his other hand sliding to rest against my stomach.
