13. Thirteen

The seat belt caught me, jolting my arm in an awkward position, and then flung me backwards into the seat. Because I sat turned sideways, my forehead smacked the headrest so hard that I saw white spots.

Blood gushed from a cut by my eye, running down my face and making it hard for me to see.

My chest hurt, and I tried to draw in a breath. I turned in my seat, gasping.

It wasn’t just anyone who’d hit us. It was a black Mustang, and the men inside it were getting out.

Lincoln growled, his seat belt swishing as he shoved his door open. “It’s my father’s men.”

My hand shook as I fumbled with my seat belt. It wouldn’t come undone. I mashed my thumb on the release button repeatedly, but it didn’t unlock.

“I’m stuck,” I said.

Lincoln jumped out and yanked on what was left of my door. It didn’t budge.

He glanced over his shoulder and cursed under his breath. “Brandon, help Sloane. Ian and I will try to head them off.”

He didn’t wait for a response before darting toward the men. Two more Mustangs pulled up beside the first.

Crap. I needed to get out of here. Lincoln, Ian, and the other enforcers would need help.

I wriggled, twisting, thinking maybe if I turned, I could unjam the belt. I gasped as pain ripped through my leg. My foot was stuck, trapped between the front of the car and the crumpled door.

Outside of the windshield, Lincoln and Ian were engaging Alpha Dane’s men with their fists. Chance and the enforcers in his car raced past to join the fight.

But our guys were outnumbered, and yet another Mustang was pulling up.

I had to get out of here. They needed my help.

What was Brandon doing? I looked at my brother, slumped over the wheel, unmoving.

I gulped. Oh no. Panic stabbed my heart.

“Brandon?” My voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

I shook him, and he groaned as he started to come too.

“Sloane, what happened?” He sounded a little out of it, his words slurring.

The front of the car had taken the full brunt of the impact, and we hadn’t been going slow either.

I shook him harder. “Hey, I need you to wake up. We got hit. Alpha Dane’s men are here.”

He blinked and then snapped to attention. His hands shot to his seat belt, and he hit the release button.

Good. He was back with me. Now I needed to get free.

I tugged the belt, flexing my hand just enough so that it turned into a wolf’s paw and then swiped my claws over it, sawing it in two.

One part of me was free. Now I needed to get my leg unstuck. I put one hand under my thigh as I shoved the other at what was left of the dashboard. It didn’t want to budge.

I couldn’t stay here while my mate and enforcers were outnumbered. I had to get out.

The car rocked as Ian and another guy fell into it. I screamed as it jarred my injured leg. Searing heat spread through me, making my vision darken.

Brandon looked at me with wide eyes. “Are you okay? Can you move?”

I put my hands on the seat and grimaced as I tried to push myself up. My leg still wouldn’t budge, and warm, sticky liquid ran down it, which meant that I was probably bleeding because I knew I hadn’t peed myself.

I pushed at the front end again, avoiding sharp pieces of the dashboard. “My leg’s trapped. I can’t get out.”

Brandon reached over and shoved at the metal. I gripped my thigh and pulled. The dash groaned against his efforts but started to budge. I gently slid my leg out, screaming as something sharp caught it and cut deep.

But then my leg pulled free. I would assess the damage later. Two more black Mustangs had joined us, and men hopped out to join the fight.

I grasped the door handle and shoved, but it didn’t move. It probably wouldn’t from the way the car had collapsed in on this side.

“Brandon, I’ll have to climb out on your side. I need you to get out first. We need to help them.”

Brandon pushed his door open. It creaked and hung at an awkward angle, but he got it open enough that he could crawl out. He reached back and gave me a hand. I slithered through the car, wriggling my way out.

My foot buckled when I stepped on the ground. Pain ripped through my leg, and I gasped. The deep gash ran from my knee all the way to my ankle. Blood covered the entire bottom part of my pants, and my shoe wasn’t faring much better.

I felt woozy, and I needed to shift. My heart fell. That wasn’t going to happen.

Alpha Dane’s men had attacked us in the middle of a freaking neighborhood. A few people peeked out from the window across the street, and a mom dragged two toddlers who were kicking and screaming back into the house.

This was going to be in the media. There were probably doorbell cameras and maybe even security cameras. Hopefully not, though.

These houses were huge, and the neighborhood looked expensive, with four-car garages and well-manicured lawns and bushes. I’d bet money the residents were blowing up the 911 switchboards.

Brandon pulled me against him and then pushed so my back leaned against the car. “Sloane, are you all right?”

I didn’t get the chance to answer.

Tires squealed against the pavement. Another black Mustang pulled up, this one behind us, blocking our cars in.

I hoped this was the last of them. Not only were we making a scene with a huge fistfight, but we were severely outnumbered. Brandon and I would have to take on the car behind us so they couldn’t team up with their buddies.

I took a step forward, but my knee gave out. I would’ve fallen on the pavement if Brandon hadn’t caught me.

He pushed me against the car again. “Stay here.”

I gritted my teeth. “There are too many of them for you by yourself. We do this together.”

His eyes widened, and he shook his head. “Sloane, no, I can’t let anything happen to you. You’re our alpha.”

We didn’t have time to argue. I knocked him away and then mustered up the strength to run as the first guy opened the car door. My leg throbbed, and each step I took made me see stars.

But now I had the advantage. He wasn’t out of the car yet, and I could get there before he was.

I rammed the door with my hip as hard as I could, smashing him in between the door and the frame. He moaned and then gasped for breath.

I balled my fist like Lincoln had taught me and threw a jab, hitting him in the face. Blood gushed from his nose, and something crunched beneath my knuckles. He cursed under his breath.

I grabbed the door handle, pulled the door out, and then shoved it back as hard as I could, squishing him again. Because it was a two-door car, the guy in the back seat was completely stuck. I made a mental note to make sure that we always purchased four-door cars for this exact reason.

I balled up my left hand and threw a hook, hitting the guy in the cheek. Then I grabbed his hair and jerked his head down, smashing his forehead against the top of the door.

His eyes rolled shut, and he went lax. I let him fall to the ground and then glared at the guy in the back seat, daring him to come out.

He held up his hands. “Look, I don’t want any trouble.”

His voice trembled.

I snarled, my eyes flickering into my wolf’s for a second before I got them under control. “Stay there, asshole, or you’ll end up like your friend.”

He didn’t budge.

I turned toward Brandon. He and the guy from the passenger side were rolling around on the grass.

My lip curled as I stared at the guy in the back seat again. “You better not move!”

I sounded ferocious, startling even me with the intensity of it. The guy’s eyes widened, and he visibly shook. Good.

I ran to the other side of the car where Brandon and the enforcer were wrestling. It took a moment for the opportunity to arrive where I could jump in. I lunged, kicking with my good leg and catching him right in the jaw.

His head snapped back and twisted at an awkward angle. He made a noise that sounded like a gurgle and then fell to the ground, unmoving.

Brandon blinked up at me. I offered him my hand and pulled him to his feet. His mouth dropped open, and he shook his head as he looked at the guy on the ground and then back at me.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Come on. We have to go help the others.”

I peered into the back seat again. The wolf still sat back there, his face white as a ghost. My lip curled as I walked past him, my eyes flickering to my wolf and then back again. He flinched but made no effort to get out of the car.

Maybe I was scarier than I thought.

Sirens wailed in the distance, getting louder by the second. It sounded like they’d sent the whole station. Who could blame them? We had to get out of here.

Brandon and I raced back to the others. Alpha Dane’s men pulled back and climbed into their cars. Then they peeled off.

I caught up to Lincoln, Ian, and Chance, who squatted next to one of our guys. His name was TJ. I knew that much, but I knew nothing about him other than that he’d volunteered to come with us.

And he’d paid the ultimate price.

I covered my mouth. “We need to get him back in the car and bring him home.”

Lincoln looked at me, his eyes widening, and he shot to his feet. He grasped both my elbows. “Luna, Sloane. Are you okay?”

The sirens grew louder. We couldn’t get caught here. We might’ve told the sheriff about us, but he wouldn’t be able to help us all the way out here. We were way out of his jurisdiction, and if the police caught up to us, they’d have questions, especially since there was a dead guy in the middle of the road.

We couldn’t let anyone get their hands on TJ, since our blood and DNA were different from humans’.

I looked back at our mangled car, and I didn’t think it was going anywhere. Chance’s car wasn’t damaged at all. We’d have to all fit in there. Unless…

Nope, the Mustang wasn’t an option.

The guy from the back seat had pulled his buddies into the car, and when he saw me looking, his eyes grew wide. He jumped in the driver’s seat and put it in reverse. The vehicle zoomed backwards until he threw it over a curb, and then he put it in drive and zipped down the street.

The police would be here any second. We really had to go.

I bent down to get TJ, but Lincoln stopped me. He and Ian picked up the enforcer as Chance and Alex, the other enforcer with us, went back to the car and opened the trunk.

They got him situated, and we jumped into the car. I sat on Lincoln’s lap in the back since we were out of seats.

Now that I was sitting, I began to feel a little woozy and lightheaded again. I’d lost a lot of blood.

I laid my head on Lincoln’s shoulder and let my eyes slide shut.

He jostled me. “Don’t go to sleep. You need to shift. What happened?”

I sighed as I pried my eyes back open. “This is all from the car. I hit my head, and my leg got stuck.”

Brandon gingerly moved my leg and ripped at the soiled fabric around the wound. He repositioned me so that I lay across the back of the seat on top of everyone’s laps.

Then he wrapped something around my leg.

My eyelids grew heavy and were so hard to keep open.

Lincoln shook me. “Hey, you have to stay awake.”

I blinked my eyes open, but they were leaden and didn’t want to stay open. “I’m awake. Promise.”

My words sounded jumbled even to my own ears, like I was underwater. It kind of felt that way too, like I’d held my breath for too long.

Someone pulled whatever they were wrapping around my leg tighter. I hissed, my eyes flying open as pain radiated through me, now more awake and alert.

Brandon looked up at me. “Sorry.”

He turned to Lincoln. “You should’ve seen her, man. You would have been so proud of her. She got to the one enforcer before he got out of the car and smashed him with the door. The other guy who was wrestling me… She kicked him like she was trying to score the winning field goal in the Super Bowl. Broke his neck from how hard she got him.”

Chance nodded and met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Good. We always knew that Sloane was kick-ass.”

I grimaced and sat up a little straighter in Lincoln’s lap. “I wish I didn’t have to do that.”

My stomach twisted. Killing was becoming a common occurrence. I knew we were at war, and killing was inevitable, but I didn’t like it.

Chance must have read my mind. “None of us like having to do that, Alpha, but we do what we must for the betterment of the pack.”

I shifted my focus to the trunk, where TJ lay. Dead. All because he’d volunteered to come along on this trip. A trip that had ended up being for nothing.

I put my hand on the lever that would pull the seat down and ran it between my fingers. “Did TJ have any family in our pack?”

Ian shook his head. “No, he was by himself. One of the enforcers from my parents’ pack.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Ian, I’m so sorry.”

He looked down at the ground. “He knew the price of coming out if we got caught. I’m sorry that it cost him his life. Best thing we can do now is fight to make sure that his death isn’t in vain.”

I squeezed his hand tightly. “I promise it won’t be in vain. We will defeat Alpha Dane.”

The rest of the ride back to the pack was quiet. But when we rolled down the drive, people began to gather outside of the enforcers’ quarters.

Chance pulled into a parking spot and killed the ignition. It looked like everyone stood on the porch and in the yard.

Dread pitted in my stomach like I’d eaten rocks. I opened the door and crawled out, shifting my gaze over my pack members.

My mom watched us, her hand covering her mouth as she leaned against the porch railing. She was biting her nails, something she only ever did when she was nervous.

Thomas stomped forward and stopped only a few feet in front of me. “You took two cars, and there should be one more of you.”

Like he couldn’t tell from my bloody clothes and face that something had happened.

Anger and righteous indignation flared in his eyes. I knew what was coming, but I prayed I could stop it.

I stood tall and met his gaze. “We were attacked on our way back. We lost one of ours. TJ. Alpha Dane lost some of his men, too.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes and pumped his fist at his side. “And the alliance?”

I gritted my teeth. I knew I had to tell them the truth, and it wouldn’t go over well, so here went nothing.

“There is no alliance. We can’t be sure if Alpha Charles sold us out or not.”

Thomas looked back at the pack and then at me. “We lost a man, and there’s no alliance. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I just don’t think you have the experience that we need to go up against our enemy. You need to step down.”

“No.” I’d never been surer of anything in my life as I was at this moment.

I would lead our pack to victory. I knew Alpha Dane, and with Lincoln and Sawyer by my side, we could stay a step ahead of him.

Thomas drew in a deep breath and then let it out. “Then I have no choice but to challenge you for your position.”