Page 43 of Destined Prey
“Bro, there’s about a half-dozen wolf shifters running alongside my truck.”
The admission tasted like rust in his mouth. Saying it aloud made the threat sharper, more real, as though the pack’s teeth were already nipping at his tires.
The words rasped from his throat like gravel. Admitting it made the danger more real. His heart thundered, not just from fear of the wolves but from the thought of never seeing Jack again. It wasn’t supposed to end like this—not when they’d only just begun.
“Shit!”
“Exactly. They’re off the road, maybe a dozen feet to the right, but yeah. I don’t think this is going to go well when I get to the ranch.IfI get to the ranch,” he added. “I think they’re planningon stopping me before then. I’d turn around, but that’d mean slowing down, and I don’t really want to have to do that.”
“You drive faster. You can outrun them in that truck. Get to the ranch. Me and the others will be there shortly.” Casey hung up.
“Aye aye, captain,” Ben muttered. He asked the phone to call Jack.
“What’s wrong? I feel it. Something’s wrong,” Jack said immediately upon answering.
Ben told him what was happening. “What?” Jack asked. “Why? What are they trying to do?”
“I don’t know, but chances are, it’s not anything good for me,” Ben said. “I’m going to step on the gas pedal and haul ass your way. I’d turn around but—”
“No. Come here.” There was a shuffling sound, then Jack’s muffled, “Rhett, we need the rifles!”
“Jack, no, I don’t want you to kill anyone.”
“I’m not going to, but the bastards chasing you don’t have to know that,” Jack pointed out. “Stay on the line. We don’t have to talk, but—keep in my head, too. Just, stay with me. How far away are you?”
“Ten minutes, or less.” Ben upped the speed. “I’m leaving them in the dust, but not as much dust as I’d like to.”
“Just keep coming to me,” Jack said. He sounded short of breath.
Ben caught flashes of images, of him and a bruised Rhett checking the rifles they had out.
Then a jolt of surprise came from Jack. “Someone’s at the door.”
“Don’t answer it,” Ben warned.
“Fuck that, I’m answering it,” Rhett snapped in the background. “This is our home!”
“I have you on speaker,” Jack explained. “Rhett, wait! Let me come with you. We have the rifles.”
“Please, don’t answer,” Ben begged, driving faster. “Please don’t.”
“He’s going to see who it is no matter what we say. I have to go with him. I’m going to have the phone in my shirt pocket, but I’m turning you off speaker.”
Ben didn’t argue. He could feel Jack’s resolve.
And his own fear was gnawing at the base of his spine. Ben pressed the gas pedal all the way down, and concentrated on getting to the Double T.
“It’s Ernesto,” Jack murmured.
Ben could hear Rhett and another man, the rumble of their voices, but not the actual words.
“What’s happening?”
“I’m not sure,” Jack replied, then the link between them wavered.
Ben shot through the open gate to the Double T. “Almost there. Another minute.”
The coyote shifters joined him halfway to the ranch house, running beside his truck, baring their teeth at him.
