Page 41 of The Renegade Mate

Ryan was silent as he drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.

“You’re right. We need to use everyone at our disposal, no matter who or what they are. I’ll deal with Ronnie in the future, though.”

I knew it was the mating bond driving him to try to keep me away from any male, Shifter or human, and there was no point in arguing with him. Not right now.

Twenty minutes later, I was leaning my head against the cold glass window, the world outside blurring into a mix of inky skies and fleeting shadows. A deep sense of unease was creeping up on me, filling the pit of my stomach with dread. We had to stop Tristan, and we had to challenge Brock and Hayley. All in the next two days. Yet, we had no plan and weren’t sure who was on our side and who wasn’t.

The peace of the night was broken by a sudden roar of engines, the sharp, biting sound echoing through the otherwise quiet night. I jerked my head up and twisted around to look behind us.

Headlights, bright and blinding, were closing in fast, multiplying, until the road behind us was lit up like a runway. My breath hitched as I counted them. Six. Six cars.

“Ryan.”

“I see them,” he replied, speeding up.

“Ronnie?” I asked Shya.

“No,” Shya replied. “He’s strictly a bike guy. This isn’t him.”

An engine revved behind us. Ryan’s eyes darted to the rearview mirror, and his knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. The car swerved as he jerked the wheel, trying to get out of the way of a car that was trying to ram us. The sudden maneuver threw us off balance. I could hear the panicked shouts of Shya from the back seat, the screeching tires, the snarling engines behind us.

Ryan swerved and dodged again, trying to throw them off, but they were persistent.

“Brace!” Ryan shouted, just as a deafening crash echoed through the car as one of the pursuing cars rammed into us, sending our car spinning. My head slammed into the window, the world tumbling around me. Ryan was trying to regain control of the vehicle, but it was too late. The world flipped, the car rolled, and everything went black.

Chapter twenty-four

Mai

My head felt like it was stuffed with razor wire, a sharp throbbing making me wince with each pulse. With an effort, I opened my eyes. The world was upside down, and I was hanging, suspended in the cool night air. The acrid scent of gasoline hit me first, followed closely by the coppery tang of blood. Pain, confusion, fear, and anger swirled around inside the car. My heart pounded in my chest, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

“Ryan?” I muttered, twisting my neck to get a glimpse of him. He was there, his eyes closed. I reached over, but my seatbelt yanked me back.

“Ryan!”

He stirred, his eyes fluttering open, a look of confusion in them. Then his face snapped into extremely pissed-off mode.

“Mai, you okay?”

“I think so.”

Shya, Mason, and Sam were all stirring, too. They looked pale and shaken, but they were all alive. I felt a wave of relief so intense it almost made me black out again.

“They’re not attacking,” Sam said, his eyes searching the road . “But they’ve surrounded the car.”

Unbuckling my seatbelt, I braced myself, pushing away from the crushed roof of the car. A rush of dizziness hit me as I fell, landing heavily on the shattered window.

“Dammit,” I grunted, pushing myself to my knees. The metallic scent of blood filled my nose, and I swiped my hand across my lip, coming away with a smear of red.

“We have to get out of here,” I whispered to the others, but they were already moving.

Crawling out from the wreckage, my gaze fell on a looming figure standing in the road, in the glare of the headlamps.

Korrin.

His broad shoulders were tense, his stance wide. He was waiting, a statue of patient revenge under the wash of the headlights.

Korrin was the outside contact. He had come for his retribution. I could almost taste it in the air. His son, Seth, had kidnapped me, beaten the shit out of me, and tried to sever my Three Rivers bond using illegal witch magic. Despite this, Korrin had loved Seth, had been grooming him to take over his Beta spot in the Cocrane Pack. I’d escaped from Seth, and when he came after me, Ryan and I had killed him. Isaac, Seth’s best friend, had warned me that Korrin would look for payback. I just hadn’t expected it so soon or that he would join forces with Brock and Hayley.

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