Page 53 of Cruel Alpha: Season One

What I feared becomes abundantly clear when their steps halt altogether. It seems that they fully intend to keep their distance and watch from afar.

“Just a little longer, then it’ll all be over,” a deep voice calls out, taunting me. “You made this incredibly easy. Didn’t even need to get my hands dirty to kill you.”

My heart races hearing his words, his admission. The accident I’d blamed on my own clumsiness wasn’t an accident at all.

“Why are you doing this?”

Hot metal sears my knee and, on instinct, I flinch, attempting to move my leg, but a second pain shoots through it as bone shifts over bone.

I cry out again. Only, now I know no one’s coming, and the one whohasshown up only wants to watch me suffer.

Wants to watch me burn.

“I’m willing to bet you still haven’t put two and two together, have you? You still have no clue how you ended up here. No clue who set you up.”

I hear his words, but I’m starting to slip, succumbing to the pain, the heat. Through the flames, I see his silhouette, and he’s just far enough to avoid injury if the car explodes.

Whenthe car explodes.

Shit… I’m actually going to die here. In some obscure part of the forest, with zero understanding as to why this happened.

However, the one thing Idoknow… is that this is all Elizabeth’s doing.

I’m barely conscious, so I consider that it might be my imagination when I make out a second silhouette through theflames. There’s a brief scuffle, a deep, guttural growl, and then something thuds to the dirt. Half a second later, the body of the one content on watching me roast to death in this car falls to the ground. Only then do I realize the thud that came first was his head.

“Annalise!”

My eyes flutter as I struggle to stay conscious, but I’m aware of the sound of twisting metal. Then, strong hands have me beneath my arms, and I’m pulled free from the wreckage I honestly believed would be my final resting place.

“Cas…”

My voice is weak, hardly a whisper.

“I’ve got you,” he promises, and while I do believe him, I’m not sure what good it will do.

He’s careful when he hoists me into his arms, and I smell the scent of fresh blood on him. The blood of the man who attempted to kill me. Cas’s body flexes and tenses as he carries me far away from the burning car, climbing the steep hill I tumbled down.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” he asks, but I think he knows I’m not in any position to answer.

We reach the road, and I feel my wolf. She’s nowhere near full strength, but she’s no longer fading, no longer slipping away. She makes me feel stronger, more aware of my surroundings.

“You’re going to be okay,” Cas says again, and this time, I’m able to see his face. There’s immeasurable worry creasing his brow, and I find it hard to believe he’d harbor so much concern for me. But there it is, plain as day—evidence that I’m not the only one who’s feelings have deepened.

Cas braces me against the side of the truck when he needs a free hand to open the back door. I wince and a sharp hiss of air fills my lungs from the pain, but I endure it. He slides me in gently, but everything hurts. I fight the urge to react to thepain again, knowing it’d make him feel guilty for having hurt me. But in truth? I’ve never felt so banged up before, so close to death. I’m out of that car, yes, but I’m nowhere near being out of danger. If I don’t start to heal soon, I may not live long enough to explain what happened to me.

“I’m taking you home.”

“No.”

That one word leaves my mouth, but I can’t muster the strength to say more.

Cas’s brow gathers again. “You don’t feel safe there? Is someone at the estate behind this?”

I manage to nod, but can’t say more, can’t explain.

Rage flares in Cas’s eyes, rivaling the powerful sense of worry.

“First, we’ll focus on getting you better. Then, the moment you’re well enough to give me a name… whoever did this will feel my fucking wrath.”

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