Page 186 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

“No, ma’am. We are positive. We’ll help you bag it up, though.” He turned to the cashier. “Brianna, give me a hand.”

“Hi, Brianna,” I said to the woman as she started tucking our items into bags.

She grinned at me. “Hello.”

Harley and I helped them bag up the groceries. I looked at the manager and asked his name.

“Oliver Vaden. It’s lovely to officially meet you,” the man said, extending his hand.

I shook it. “I’m glad I got to meet you. Now that I know your names, I can say hello the next time I’m in here.”

Both Oliver and Brianna looked pleased, and by the time the three of us were loading the groceries into the truck, I felt much better. The evening was clear, the air cooler than it had been last week. The lights in the parking lot turned on as the sky turned dark.

“Anything else you need?” Tank asked as he buckled his seat belt.

“No, I think we’re good,” I said.

Tank pulled out of the parking lot and turned right on Main Street. It was Friday, and people were heading to and from restaurants and shops. For such a small town, it had quite the bustling nightlife.

“What’s going on over there?” Harley asked, pointing to a building near the intersection.

“That’s the movie theater,” Tank said. “It’s small, only two screens, but it gets tons of business. Shifters are old-school,” he added. “We do streaming stuff, but we still love the theater experience. Some of us are old enough to remember vaudeville and stuff, so we—what the fuck?”

He looked down, pumping the brake pedal. “The brakes aren’t working!”

The street was on a slight decline, the truck picking up speed toward the intersection. The traffic light turned red, telling us to stop. At least a dozen people were crossing the street.

“Tank?” Harley asked worriedly.

“I can’t stop,” he said, the words coming out in a rush.

Ahead of us, men, women, and children crossed the street. The sidewalks to either side had people everywhere. There was nowhere to go. We had to stop.

I reached out, trying to use some sort of spell to slow the tires, but nothing worked. I couldn’t make a connection without seeing the tires, and I still didn’t have the skill to cast a spell on something moving so fast. The truck barreled forward. Tank slammed his foot on the brake over and over and yanked on the emergency brake. It didn’t work. No one ahead of us had noticed yet, and Tank was too preoccupied with the brake to blast the horn. In a last-ditch effort, he threw the truck into neutral, but we were still going too fast.

Summoning all the magical energy within me, I threw out a massive cloud of protective magic around both Tank and Harley, then tossed up a wall of energy in front of the truck, only ten feet from a mass of people. The truck slammed into it. It took a split second for me to realize I hadn’t extended the protective bubble around myself.

The front of the truck crumpled as though it had crashed into a brick wall. The old truck only had lap belts, and my upper body went flying forward, my head slamming into the dashboard. My skull bounced off the leather and plastic, and a sound like a high-pitched siren exploded in my ears. Nausea swirled in my gut, and the outer edges of my vision went hazy and gray.

Dazed, I heard muffled screams and shouts from outside the truck. The screams from inside, however, were crystal-clear and agonizing.

“Kirsten? Kirsten?”

Was that Harley? My arm seemed to be made of lead as I raised my hand and touched my temple. My fingers came away bloody. I had a sudden and powerful sense of déjà vu. Blinking, I looked around to see if Eren was there to drag me out of the car like the last time this happened.

Then darkness consumed me, and the last thing I heard was Harley’s frantic screams.

Chapter 22

Jace

My truck tipped up on two wheels as I jerked the steering wheel to the right and pulled into Crestwood Hospital. The vehicle came down hard on the other two wheels, and the tires squealed as the truck shot forward. I slammed on the brakes mere inches from the front door, and it squealed again as I slammed it into park. With the truck still running, I leapt from the driver seat, leaving the door hanging open as I sprinted into the hospital.

“Kirsten?” I shouted.

My heart thundered in my chest as I scanned the waiting room, looking for Harley or Tank. I could still hear the big man’s choked voice on the phone.

“Jace? It’s Tank. You gotta get to the hospital.”

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