Page 63 of Running on Empty

I hadn’t realised it until then, but part of me didn’t think they would. Ronan, yes. He’d follow me anywhere, I knew that when I gave myself a moment to think, but the others? It felt like there were no guarantees. But that howl? I heard the other two’s twining with it, the combination of threat and intent making me shiver, then grin, before taking off. I plunged deeper and deeper into the trees, wanting, needing to get as far away from the three of them as possible.

Let them hunt us, we thought.Let them find me if they can. Let them show me just how much they fucking want me. Let them declare that they are mine.So we strode forward, putting metres and metres between us, moving as silently as we could, until we came across a stream.

They’d be able to track me from scent and displaced leaves, but no wolf nose could pick up a scent from moving water. I plunged into it, wincing at the sound, but then took off up the river. My feet gripped smoothed pebbles and clambered over rocks, moving in a series of long leaps rather than running now, slowing me down, right up until I found this. The howls were getting closer, my lead narrowing. A large cluster of boulders created a clearing in all the scrub and I eyed it, seeing plenty of promising spots to hide in. I leapt free of the water, clambering over them until I found a little hidey-hole.

My heart thudded loud in my ears, my breath coming too fast, too noisily, but as I hid, crouched down in a gap between two rocks, I wondered if I’d hidden too well.

Would they find me? What was I even doing, running away from the three of them? Surely there were better— The wolf shoved that rational train of thought to one side with a snarl. Her muscles locked down, coiled like a spring, waiting for this.

Because she knew. That their feet would break twigs with a snap, crush dried leaves with their heels as they got closer and closer.

“She’s around here,” one of them growled, their wolves riding them hard.

“Clever using the stream.”

“We did teach her—”

I watched them approach with a weird combination of anticipation and fear, eyeing their bare feet right up until they got close enough to catch my scent. My body felt like a coiled spring, winding tighter, tighter, and then we were off.

I caught their wide-eyed stares, the shock on their faces something I’d get myself off to over and over after this day was done, but I just laughed as I sped off in the opposite direction, leaping over the stream and into the scrub beyond.

Chapter37

The hunt was well and truly on now. I heard their shouts as I went careening forward, weaving between trees, ducking under slapping branches, not bothering to mask my progress now, because they knew right where I was. I heard their howls, their shouts, then their footsteps thundering through the undergrowth, forcing me to put on more speed, the muscles burning now with lactic acid.

I had no way of outrunning them. I didn’t train hard enough or often enough to make a good showing of that, so I needed to think of another strategy. I scanned the landscape like a predator would, looking for something I could use to my advantage.

There. That.The wolf directed me to a thicket of scrubby bushes, ones I could wriggle through with greater ease than the three of them could with their larger size.

“Stevie!”

Ash’s voice was full of alpha bark, stopping me right where I was, so I turned around, seeing the three of them stride forward, looking like an actual pack for the first time. Three sets of bright green eyes slid over my body, feeling like they were actually physically touching me.

But they weren’t.

“You’ve made your point,” Ash growled, blinking then, as if to dislodge whatever was shining through his eyes right now. “This ends now.”

But as if in contradiction of that, Ronan and Jax stepped forward.

“Not for them,” I said, a smile spreading across my face. “And not you either. What will you do if I take off again? Wait here for me to come to my senses?”

I took a single step backwards. The moment when Ash’s eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a snarl, when he stopped being a sensible man and became a fucking wolf in the presence of his mate. It lightened something inside me. Didn’t stop me from moving though. I whirled away, tearing through the trees to dive right into the bushes.

It was about now that I started to question my life decisions. Branches raked across my skin, lashed at my face and threatened to put out my eye, but I forced myself forward. If I was struggling, they had it so much worse, the sounds of their grunts and complaints music in my ears, right before I stumbled out and into the more sparsely vegetated forest.

I ran away from them, in reality, in my heart, and as my legs took me further and further away, I felt something shift. Like a knot in a muscle, or a snarl of yarn, it was finally pulled free, I was free. I ran and ran, not even sure where I was now, running from the possibilities of us, the complexities and all of the hurt. I felt nothing but the ache of my muscles, the thud of my feet slamming into the earth, the rasp of air in my lungs and the burn as my whole body protested at the great demand I put upon it, right up until one of them grabbed me around the waist and yanked me around.

The world swung with our momentum, my claws snicking out at the feel of him and my fangs were bared in a snarl, ready to bite, to claw whoever was stupid enough to try and take my freedom from me. Ash jerked backwards, missing one swipe, then another, which made me growl in frustration, but then when I had another go, Jax stepped forward.

It felt like I watched inside my own head as my claws scored him, ripping his shirt to shreds, blood welling on all that once perfect skin. I paused where I was, panting, staring at the mess I’d made, but Jax’s expression didn’t change for a second, his eyes burning into mine as he stepped closer. I flexed my claws, showed him the blood there and made clear that more blood was still to come, but he kept on walking, forcing me to edge back. I snarled, we snarled out our warnings, but he just smiled, the fucking bastard, shaking his head slowly.

“You got more in you, beautiful? Lay it on me, I can take it.” He ripped his shirt off, leaving it to fall in pieces to the ground, making clear just how much I’d hurt him.

So why didn’t it feel like enough?’

But when he grabbed my hand, setting my claws to his skin, I didn’t press my advantage, so he used that as a means to get closer and closer until we were toe to toe.

“I see it now, what you need, what I should’ve been. I wanted to be safe, but I needed to be your safe place to land. So let it out, all of it.” He picked the other hand up and then put it on the broad expanse of his shoulder. “Mark me up until you’ve let every bit of that poison out of you, because you’re not carrying it anymore.”

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