SWNOVELS Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
I scream.
My knees skid across the wood beams, taking skin with them. My face slams into the ground.
"Don't hurt her!" Jace roars.
"I didn't mean to!" Michail yells. But he's a second away from shifting and he's a fierce wolf, his instincts would've been triggered by the chase.
"I'm sorry," he tells me as he drags me to my feet.
"Let me go!"
Tyler grabs my other arm.
"Don't do this, Jace! Don't."
He looks physically pained. "You're bleeding again."
"Yeah. I know. I was hurt before you all showed up, and Michail just ground me into the railway."
"I said I'm sorry!" Michail protests. "Shift and heal, damn it!"
I glance sharply at him. "Did you not notice my other wounds earlier? I can't heal right now, you asshole!"
He blanches.
"Get her into the jet and back to packlands," Jace orders.
"NO. Get your hands off me. I'm not going back!"
Jace talks over me. "Sedate her if you have to, but don't let her hurt herself any worse."
"I didn't hurt myself, you asshole-he tackled me!"
I stop. This arguing and bickering, falling back into old roles. "I'm not subservient to you or your pack or anyone else. Not anymore. Do you understand?"
Jace freezes.
"I've always thought of you as my brother." A tear slides down my cheek. "If you do this...I'll never forgive you. Never. You'll be dead to me."
He pales. He reaches to touch my cheek and then his hand falls away. "I'm sorry," he says.
"No! Damn it! Nooo!!!" The guys lift me off the ground. Each holding a limb so I can't gain enough leverage to do anything. They pull my arms and limbs apart so I'm stretched like a sheet and can't get close to any one of them. "Let me go!"
Jace looks gutted. But that doesn't stop him. "Hurry!" he says.
They move over the rough terrain and into the forest. I wrench my arms and legs and shift, but even hurling my body from side to side, I can't get close enough to bite them.
I retract to human so I can speak. "Jace... I have to protect my kids."
"You mean Cameron's kids. My kin. I'll take care of them," he tells me.
I thrash harder, shifting fully and mauling Tyler, then lunging at Liam before Declan throws his wolf form on top of me.
A second later I feel a pinch in my flank.
Michail holds a syringe. He shakes his head.
I howl as the darkness closes in.
JACE
"We need to get her off-lands before Alpha Eric comes after us."
Tyler glances back toward the sounds of a vicious battle. "I'm pretty sure MacPherson is a little busy at the moment."
"I thought for sure he set this whole thing up-but now he's under attack, so what does that mean?" Liam asks.
I look at my men. Liam squats beside an unconscious Mia. He's naked and holding one of her paws. "She's still bleeding." Yeah. It's similar to Cam's symptoms.
With Ashley's decline, we expected it. That was what happened with mates. True mates were joined in life-and in death. But Cameron is mated to Ashley not Mia... and yet...
"We need to move," Declan says. "This alpha is insanely powerful. And if not him on our heels, he has many enemies. Not just Ashley and her pack." Michail shrugs. "They have the most motive. If someone attacked our lands and decimated our people, forced us to swear fealty... I'd want revenge too."
This was the problem with wolves-with war.
The cycle of hate never really ended.
"Call home," I tell Tyler. He's been the most quiet this whole time. But that's just his way. Taking everything in, assessing. Michail's always been brash, quick to violence. We prize that in him, but just now, I need cooler heads to prevail. "I want an update on the status there."
Liam lifts Mia into his arms. He's gentle with her. Declan brings up our rear, cautiously guarding our flanks, prepared for anything.
These are my most trusted men.
"Christian is en route," Declan says.
From the airfield? That's going to take a minute. "Seriously?"
"I didn't think Uber would take too kindly on half naked men and an unconscious, bleeding wolf-or worse, an unconscious bleeding woman."
A fair point. "Okay."
I grab my cell and check the time. I see a flurry of text messages from Jacob. I scan through the information. Just what in the hell has Mia gotten herself up to!?!
Damn it.
"Tyler, tell them you're coming back with Mia. She's ill and appears to be suffering the same ailment as Cameron and little Merilee."
All drama of the last few hours aside, my brother and 'sister' are on the verge of death. I'm pretty sure my little niece is too-and that just guts me.
I'll do whatever it takes to save my family.
I can't worry about hurt feelings.
"You're not coming with us?" Tyler asks.
"No."
What I have to do next... I'm not sure I can ask it of them, because there will be no forgiveness.
And if I'm wrong... I may just have sentenced all of us to death.