Page 43 of Savage Prince

I zoom around the side of the campus, clinging to the shadows beneath the trees as bullets begin to rain down from the walls above. But I’m moving too fast to make getting a shot in easy and the forest floor is still dark. The sunrise hasn’t touched the world down here just yet. I won’t be truly exposed until I’m on the beach.

Right then, I decide not to stop.

The chopper has grooved tires for off-roading. I’m not sure if that means it will get traction on sand, but I guess I’m about to find out…

I lay on the gas, pushing seventy as I explode from the woods and up and over the sand dunes at the edge of the beach. The tires sputter and spray for a moment as I touch down, but eventually gain purchase and carry me down to the ocean faster than the bullets chasing me to the water’s edge.

I’m going so fast, the motorcycle seems to skip across the water for a few feet, before eventually sinking in the morning waves. I dive off the front of the bike, plunging into the water. I kick off my shoes and pull hard with arms, putting as much distance between me and the people shooting at me on the walls as possible before I break the surface and pull in a deep breath.

I’m back down again almost immediately, tearing at my clothes. As soon as I’ve disposed of my jeans and jacket, I shift, letting my wolf rip through my base layers as he churns through the water.

Maxim’s boat is still a good half mile away, and the third wave of boats even farther, but there’s no time to waste. I reach out with my thoughts, shouting,Maxim, it’s a trap, the Montreal wolves are on Hammer’s side!and hope like hell he hears me.

I don’t get a response, but when I break the surface again, I hear gunshots coming from the boat at the front of the fleet.

Gunshots on the boat, gunshots on the beach, and probably half of Maxim’s best fighters dead on the hill in front of Lost Moon. Which means this isn’t about a terrorist group taking over a university campus anymore. This is war—full-fledged, all-out war between the North American packs.

And the woman I love is currently in enemy hands and there’s not jack shit I can do about it except swim like hell and hope to get to Maxim’s boat in time to fight with him to keep it.

Willing fate to be on my side, just one more time, I pull hard through the water, silently promising Juliet I won’t give up on her—on us—until the day they put me in the ground.

* * *

Juliet

By the time the gunshots sound from the boats in front of us, it’s too late. Jean-Paul’s men already have me surrounded and Jean-Paul himself is clapping a heavy, shift-prevention collar around my neck.

“Apologies for the indignity of it all,chère,” he says in his lightly accented English. “But I can’t have you setting fire to the escape plan.” He motions over his shoulder, calling to the captain, “Reverse course, Andre, our role in this little drama is done.”

Turning back to me he adds with a smile, “If the current is on our side, we’ll be back in the city by brunch. I’ll treat you to omelets from my favorite little place in the arts district. And champagne, of course, to celebrate our new alliance.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I say calmly. “That’s what I do to people who betray me, and if your stunt has hurt anyone I love, I’ll do it slowly. Piece by rancid little piece.”

Jean-Paul chuckles, making the mistake so many people have made before him, assuming I’m a petite, harmless little woman he won’t have to worry about so long as he keeps me from shifting.

But if he’s hurt Ford, he’ll regret it every day for the rest of his very short, very painful life, no matter what form I’m in.

“Now, now, is that any way to talk to your future husband?” Jean-Paul asks with a flirtatious wiggle of his brows. “Your father promised me your hand and control of the entire Eastern Seaboard down to Washington, D.C. Isn’t that wonderful? Our children will truly be kings and queens such as the shifter world has never seen before.”

I want to tell him that I’ll rip my uterus out of my body myself before I bear his children—or honor a marriage arranged by my monster of a father—but I bite my tongue. I may decide playing nice is my best bet with the Alpha of Montreal, at least long enough to get him to drop his guard and take this collar off.

Then, I’ll roast him alive in his bed as a warning to anyone stupid enough to double-cross me in the name of getting on Hammer’s good side.

“You’re plotting my demise, aren’t you?” Jean-Paul asks, laughing again. “You’re diabolically adorable, sweet Juliet, and I, for one, can’t wait to take our wedding vows. I think we can whip together a sweet little ceremony by tomorrow evening, don’t you?”

I clench my jaw, swallowing the wave of acid that rises in my stomach.

“Thankfully, all the best flowers are in season in July,” he continues as the captain finishes bringing the ship around and heads back the way we came. “I see a bouquet of peonies for you. Or perhaps calla lilies, the orange ones that look like a sunset in honor of my rare bird.” He sighs as he leans against the railing beside me. “And we’ll have somethingen flambéfor dessert. I want to embrace the wonder of you,ma choupinette, make it clear to my pack that I’m proud to have a mythical beauty at my side. Wolves are wonderful, but very few men can say they’ve bedded a fire bird and lived to tell the tale.”

“It’s cute that you think you’ll manage,” I say with a cold smile.

“Did you hear this?” Jean-Paul laughs as he glances at his guards, who still surround me, clearly not as convinced that I’m harmless as their boss. He rubs his hands together with a soft growl. “I can’t wait for our life to begin. You’re going to keep me entertained for years, little one. I couldn’t ask for a better match. We’ll have to send your father a case of my best port to thank him. He likes port, yes? He seems like a meat and red wine sort of man.”

I turn, staring out over the water, willing Ford to still be alive.

Hammer thinks he can play with our lives like we’re pieces in a chess game, but he’s forgotten I was born to be a queen, not a pawn.

And if Ford is gone…

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