Chapter 29

TWENTY-NINE

RUTH

W e were so totally fucked. Complete toast.

Stupid hormones drove us both to shag out in the open when there was an entire pack of wolves hunting me down.

I clung to Carver, trying to remain still and quiet on the off chance that he could talk his way out of this mess. A tall order considering his freakishly large werewolf dick was still hard inside me, the bulge keeping us locked in place.

Even the slightest jostle to our connection had his shaft sliding inside me, his cum making me ungratefully slick.

Whispers and growls of disapproval danced between the trees.

"He mated his meal?" one wolf muttered to another.

"No wonder he's never joined the Hunt. He thinks they're our equals."

"It's disgusting."

"A cat rutting a diseased rat would be more natural than this."

Carver's ice-cold eyes burned with malice. He radiated violence and contempt. He didn't care about any of these monsters. Except for his brother's mate.

I scanned the tree line for the black she-wolf. She wasn't here, at least not from the little I could see while flat on my back.

The alpha slowly approached us. Carver growled, warning the male to keep his distance.

Lars stopped in his tracks. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't tear you to shreds and throw your bunny rabbit to the pack for dessert."

"I'll cut through half the pack before you take me down. Would you really throw all those lives away? Let's save the bloodshed. Let us go."

"Go? You'd abandon your unborn nephew?"

At that, Carver seemed to falter. A moment later, guilt leached into our bond. He didn't want to abandon Casey's mate, but he had every intention of doing that. For me.

For the rabbit shifter, he'd only met yesterday.

I still had bruises from when his human side tried to strangle me. Now, he was willing to betray his whole pack for me.

It was freaky how shit could flip so quickly. I felt like a different person than I did yesterday, and I knew he did, too.

When Carver didn't answer, Lars let loose another jackal-like laugh. "What a way to spit on your brother's memory, Carv. You know what? I'm feeling generous today. It is Easter, after all. I'll kill your mate first. Doesn't matter how addicted you are to her little cunt. No wolf can resist watching a rabbit be torn apart."

The alpha wolf prowled closer. The sinews in Carver's body pulled taut, he was coiled like a spring. Ready to lunge. If he did, RIP to my vagina.

"Come one step closer, and I'll tear out your goddamn throat, Lars."

"What, and wear your bunny rabbit as a codpiece?" The alpha raised his voice so every wolf that surrounded us could hear. "Looks like we're in for a show."

The alpha werewolf radiated arrogance, so of course, he took another step forward.

Everything that happened next moved at speeds my brain could barely keep up. Carver shifted. A werewolf in one blink and a tattooed, silver-haired man with death in his eyes on the next.

His knot disappeared with his wolf form and slipped out of me. He was on his feet, ready to shift again, but Lars was already lunging.

I hated feeling so helpless. If only I had the ax?—

Before a plan had time to set in, a blur of black streaked across my vision. It slammed into the blond wolf hard enough to stagger him. The hulking alpha recovered in a beat, in just enough time for Carver to shift back into his wolf.

"Lila! Get back! The pup!" Carver hissed at the black she-wolf.

Lila lurched at Lars, ignoring the silver wolf's demands. The alpha snapped his attention as her jowls snapped at his legs. Jumping on yet another opportunity the black she-wolf opened, Carver lunged at Lars, pinning him to the ground.

I held my breath, expecting that the rest of the pack would jump to their alpha's aid. But the wolves only looked on as silent spectators, every last one of them frozen in place.

Sheesh. How much of a turd leader did you have to be for no one to come to your aid when you're about to get your guts ripped to shit?

"Rip his throat out."

Lila hesitated at Carver's command. "You know the pack law. The wolf to kill the alpha takes his place. You have to make the final blow."

The silver wolf shook his head. "I'm not staying, Lila."

My throat throbbed with emotion. Even when he had an opportunity to lead his pack, he was still choosing me.

Lars struggled beneath Carver's hands, the downed alpha snarling and snapping at the wolf keeping him pinned.

Lila didn't hesitate another moment. She lunged, latching onto Lars' throat. The male wolf cried out when her teeth closed around his jugular, and with a twist and a sickening crack, he went limp.

The silence that stretched through the woods had my skin crawling. Not even the flora dared rustle as the wolves all stared their new leader down. If there was any hesitation about a pregnant, mateless she-wolf becoming alpha, no one dared say it out loud.

The wolves began muttering to themselves, nodding and chattering in agreement. Then, one by one, they all began to howl at the sky in broad daylight, sending birds exploding from the trees.

The woods came to life again, joining in on what was clearly some kind of pack ceremony.

Lila's bloody muzzle unlatched from Lars' tattered throat. Her attention flicked to me, her expression guarded and weary. I couldn't blame her. She'd watched me decapitate her mate.

"Is she really worth all this, Carv? Lars is dead. I— I don't know what to do as alpha."

I picked myself up from the ground, brushing off the dirt. I felt every eye turn on me.

Normally, I didn't mind being naked in front of other shifters. We couldn't take our clothes with us when we shifted, so in a way, we were part-time nudists. However, being naked in front of a pack of starving wolves was a different matter.

"You can start by renegotiating terms with the Elders of my burrow. It's the twenty-first fucking century. If it's rabbit shifter blood you need, we'll hire a mobile blood donation bus or some shit and deliver it to you in pretty plastic bags. I hear modern vampires do that. Get with the times, you fucking hicks."

"I can see why you like her," Lila mused, equal parts irritation and amusement underscoring her cadence. "She's ruthless."

Carver seemed to hold back a grin as Lila accidentally stumbled across the pet name he'd given me. "Casey would probably find this shit funny."

"Yeah. You both had twisted senses of humor." Stepping over Lars' body, the new alpha nuzzled Carver's chest. "I'll talk with the burrow. We'll be changing a lot of things around here. Go, Carver. Get out of here like you've always wanted."

"Will you be alright? The pup?—"

"We'll be fine," she assured him with a hum. "You'll meet him one day."

It took Carver less than an hour to pack the possessions he wanted to take with us into the back of his old pickup. Most of the boxes were his books. I sat on the bench seat in the cab, wearing another one of his flannel shirts and, this time, a pair of his black briefs. It was all too big for me, but it sure beat driving to the next town naked.

"You look so fucking sexy in my clothes," Carver said as he stood beside the driver's side door, the last box in his arms. His gaze skated over my hair, and his grimace tugged at his facial tattoos. "What, no ears?"

"I can't be caught in my half-form when we drive into town. Don't worry." I tossed him a wink. "You can tug on them later."

He flashed me a filthy grin and disappeared, the truck sinking ever so slightly on its suspension at the extra box of books added to the truck bed. The door groaned open a second later, and Carver sat behind the wheel.

With his hand paused on the keys in the ignition, he eyed me for a moment, staring at me like he couldn't quite believe the turn of events over the last twenty-four hours. I never used to believe in fated mates, but what else could bring a bunny and a wolf together if not the universe and its twisted sense of humor?

Carver reached for me, tucking the purple section of my hair behind my ear before leaning over and planting a kiss on my temple.

When he chuckled against my skin, I angled my head to pop an inquisitive brow. "What's so funny?"

"It's just… Can you believe other people are opening Easter baskets, going to church, and doing egg hunts right now? And this is our Easter."

"That sounds so alien to me. People do that?"

He laughed again. "Oh, babe. You need to watch more TV. And that's coming from a book guy."

I giggled happily against his heat, then angled myself in my seat to examine the cardboard boxes through the cab's back window as he turned the ignition and started down the road. "No creepy animal heads?"

He laughed, raking a hand through his silver tresses. "I figured you wouldn't appreciate my hunting trophies. Wherever we end up settling, we can get new things. Things without any uncomfortable memories attached to them."

"Fresh start," I said with a small smile.

He started the truck, and as we drove away from the cabin, his eyes never went to the rearview mirror for so much as a glance at the old life he was leaving behind.

"Oh, by the way, I packed something for you." Keeping one hand on the wheel, Carver reached under the seat and pulled out the ax. Sometime in the last hour of packing, he'd found a moment to clean it.

He placed the ax in my lap. The weight of it felt familiar and uncomfortable at the same time. "I don't know," I hedged. "What happened to leaving uncomfortable memories behind?"

"It's complicated, sure. But that ax brought us together. Think where you'd be without it."

I opened my mouth to voice the rebuttal in my throat, but the words were swept away with my gasp.

There, on theside of the road, was a brindle bunny rabbit, running as fast as his small legs would take him.

Holy. Shit.

It was Sawyer.

Carver noticed him too on my next breath. "Is that?—"

"Yeah. That's Sawyer, the male sacrifice I came in with."

At the corner of my vision, Carver's fingers flexed around the steering wheel, and a vein ticked in his jaw. "Are you going to tell me what he did to you now?" His voice was that dangerous and electric timbre from before.

"He…" I swallowed, my eyes darting back to the rabbit. "He took my first heat and the fact that he was around as an invitation to…" My voice trailed off. I didn't trust myself not to get emotional, and I was so tired of being angry.

Luckily, Carver didn't press the issue. And judging by the murder that flared behind his eyes, he got the picture.

"Wha—!" The truck took a sudden swerve off the dirt road, and my hands flung out to steady myself against the dash. The truck jolted, and I heard a sickening thunk as we ran over something.

Carver pressed the brakes, cut the engine and shot me a psychotic smile that had my body burning, his gaze centering on the ax balanced across my lap. "What do you say to us having one trophy head on the wall of our new place?"

My fingers curled around the wooden handle, and slowly, a smile as crazed as his own stretched my lips. "You got yourself another deal, wolf."

The End