Page 13 of Savagely Mated

“That should quieten you down.”

The one called Rafe looks at me with some satisfaction. I can see them more clearly now that we’re all on the ground. Einar must have me over his shoulder, and I’m guessing Rafe gagged me.

They take me out of the academy through the same passage I use that goes out under the wall, enlarged for their use. Okay, these men have been here before. They were probably cadets at some point before this. I wonder what went wrong, because they’re definitely not King’s Guard now.

They carry me down the riverbank and along the same route I take when I sneak out, all the way to a van. I don’t have a van. The sight of it freaks me out. They’re going to take me away toGod knows where and do fuck knows what to me. This might be the last fucking time I see myself alive.

I start kicking again, hard enough to almost fall off Einar’s shoulders. I’m grabbing at his back to try to leverage myself off him, and it works. I kick him somewhere near the balls and take advantage of the moment of pain to roll over his back and onto my feet. I rip the gag out of my mouth and stare all three of them down. They’re still surrounding me. I know if I run, they’ll chase. I can’t shift again this soon.

Einar gives me a stern look, like I’m being silly. He has the absolute nerve to act as though I am inconveniencing their kidnap attempt.

“Calm down and let us talk.”

“No. Fuck you.”

He reaches for me. I don’t know why, and I don’t care. I kick him in the face. His head snaps back, and he falls against the wall of the van. It’s very fucking satisfying, but it doesn’t get the others off me. I am straining for the door so fucking hard.

They all start laughing as Einar starts bleeding profusely from his nose. I wonder if I broke it. I kind of hope so. I don’t like the way he speaks to me. He talks to me like he owns me, like there’s no reason I shouldn’t listen to him, even though the first time I met him he threatened to kill me, and the second time I killed someone in front of him.

“Let me fucking go. I’m not going to be some good little captive. I’ve been trained to fight my whole life.”

“Oh, we know,” Rafe says. “We’ve seen you fight. Very impressive.”

“But that’s not why you’re here,” Pretty Boy says. “You’re here because of how you ran.”

“Fuck you,” I curse at him too, as shame immediately overcomes me. I know what I did was shameful. I ran instead of staying to finish the fight. I committed a crime and I tried to distance myself from it. I should have known there’d be no way out, not really.

“You have wolf blood,” Einar says, his voice somewhat muffled because he is holding his nose to stop the bleeding. I think he’s going to need to get it reset. “Do you know how many female wolves are left in Eclipse outside the palace?”

I shrug. “One?”

“Right. One. Get in the van.”

“I’m not getting in the fucking van. You get in the fucking van and fuck off.”

Kirin, the pretty blond, is smirking broadly. I think he likes my sass. Rafe, meanwhile, is standing with his arms folded over his chest, his muscles bulging in the way men’s muscles do when they stand like that. They’re all dressed head to toe in tactical black, and it suits all of them.

“Put her in the damn van,” Einar sighs.

I’m a good fighter, but even I can’t kick three people in the face at the same time. Rafe and Kirin snatch me up and put me in the back of the van, giving me no choice or chance to escape. Rafe stays in the back with me, holding me by the back of my shirt like a wayward kitten. Einar gets in with us, while Kirin goes to the front to drive.

“What the hell do you guys want with me? You want to fuck a wolf girl, is that it?”

“Be quiet,” Einar growls at me. He’s sitting opposite me on a bench type seat, while Rafe keeps me firmly in his grasp, his hand moving from my shirt to the back of my neck. A little thrill runs through me as I feel his fingers on my bare skin, strong, confident, and controlling.

“No. Fuck you.”

“You’re special,” Rafe says. “You’re also a rude little pain in the ass, but that usually comes with the territory of being a bitch.”

“I’m going to pretend you meant that in the female wolf sense,” I growl.

“Settle down,” Einar says. “The second we saw who, or rather, what you really are, we knew you needed us…”

“I don’t need you. I don’t need anybody,” I interrupt.

“Can you try not to backtalk for a minute so I can explain why we came for you? What’s happening to you… what is going to happen to you, is wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

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