Page 85 of The Untamed

He’s dead.

Someone stabbed him.

Panic swells up inside of me and I race down to my parents’ room. Their bedroom is closer to the living room that’s quickly being overtaken by the inferno, so when I touch their doorknob, it burns the hell out of my palm.

With several hard kicks, I knock the door in and it flings out of my way.

“Mom! Dawson!”

My baby brother wails from the other side of the bed. The bed that’s empty. Where the hell are my parents? I practically hurdle myself over the bed in an effort to find my brother. What I discover has me freezing in terror.

“Mom?”

She’s covered in blood and has Dawson in her tight grip. Her eyes are wide and her lips are curled into a vicious sneer. When I go to reach for my brother, she swipes at me with a knife, tearing through the fabric of my T-shirt. A fucking knife!

“Mom! Stop!”

“You can’t take my baby!” she screams at me. “You can’t take my baby!”

This time, I anticipate the knife swipe and grab hold of her arm. Easily, I wrench it away from her and throw it out of her reach. Then, I scoop them both up together.

Dawson’s screaming is interrupted by a coughing fit that has him gagging. And all the blood that’s on Mom appears to be hers based on the moans of pain that escape her as I move.

I have to get them out of here.

Stepping into the doorway, I feel the intense heat of the flames inching closer. Thankfully, I can head back the way I came from without running into any fires. I run as fast as my legs will carry me while holding two people, and eventually make it back to the window at the end of the hall.

“Here!” a deep, familiar voice barks. “Hand her to me.”

I feed Mom and Dawson through the window into the arms of…Rowdy. As soon as I see my older brother’s familiar face, I choke out a relieved sob. He takes over the physically demanding task of getting Mom and Dawson away from the house that’s perishing quicker than ever.

As soon as I’m out of the house, I quickly scan the smoky yard, looking for the others. I need to find Dad and Kota and Declan. I scramble all over the place, searching by the campfire and then where the tents were erected.

Nothing.

The tents are gone and so are the people.

Wild and Chet show up to where Rowdy is kneeling to look at Mom’s wounds. Wild crouches to pick up Dawson. Both guys are wide-eyed and wearing matching bewildered expressions.

“We have to find Dad and the other kids,” I tell them, voice nearly gone from all the smoke. “I’m going to grab Ronan and Raegan to help. Meet me by the gate.”

“I got this,” Rowdy assures me. “Find our family.”

I take off in a sprint back toward the cabins, choking on the thick clouds of pungent smoke. Finally, I reach Ronan’s cabin and burst through the door.

“Wake up,” I holler at them. “Everything’s on fire, Mom’s been stabbed, Carter’s dead, and half our family is missing!”

Nothing.

A poisonous seed of dread takes root in the pit of my stomach.

“Raegan! Destiny! Sadie!”

Still nothing.

If I find my sisters and brothers stabbed like Carter, I’ll fucking die.

I scramble over to Ronan’s solar-powered lamp and twist the knob. Yellow light illuminates the space. No dead bodies. Thank fuck.

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