Semua Bab The Rogue’s Savage Claim on Me: Bab 81 - Bab 89

Then a blur of tawny fur slammed into the brown wolf, ripping it off me. Thalia — I recognized her coloring, the scar across her throat — tearing into the enemy wolf with a savagery that made Fao's kill look gentle."Get up!" Corvin's voice, from somewhere near the back door. "Move, now!"I scrambled to my feet, slipping in blood — whose blood? I didn't know anymore. I spotted the .22 on the floor, grabbed it. Sixteen rounds left.Gun tucked into my waistband.The cabin was chaos. Fao and the gray wolf were locked together in the living room, rolling through the debris of my furniture, neither giving ground. Thalia had the brown wolf pinned, her jaws clamped on the back of its neck, slowly crushing. More wolves poured through the broken windows — some enemy, some loyalist, impossible to tell in the blur of fur and teeth.El. Fao's voice in my head, urgent, strained with pain. Back door. NOW.I ran.A wolf — I didn't see its color, didn't care — lunged at me from the side. I fired with

I didn't hear the shot — just felt the impact, the white-hot pain that made me scream into Fao's fur. My leg spasmed, nearly losing my grip, and I felt the bullet punch through muscle and out the other side, burying itself in Fao's flank.He stumbled but didn't stop. Didn't even slow down.El! His voice in my head, frantic with terror. El, are you—"Keep running!" I screamed through gritted teeth. Blood was soaking my pajama pants, hot and wet, but I could still feel my foot, could still grip with my legs. "Don't stop! Don't you fucking stop!"You're hit—"It went through! I'm fine!" I wasn't fine. The pain was blinding, nauseating, but the bullet had passed clean through the meat of my thigh — missed the bone, missed the artery. I'd live. If we got out of here, I'd live. "How bad is your side?"Fur caught most of it. Barely a scratch. He was lying. I could feel the pain echoing through our bond. But he was right — his thick fur and dense muscle had stopped the bullet from going deep.

I stared at him, memories clicking into place. The way the bite on my shoulder had healed so fast. The scratches that should have scarred but didn't. The soreness between my legs that had faded impossibly quickly after that first night."You've been healing me this whole time. And you didn't think to mention it?""I didn't know if you'd— I wasn't sure how you'd react. It's intimate. It's a wolf thing. I didn't want to freak you out."I was losing too much blood to argue about the absurdity of werewolf healing spit."Fine. Do it. Whatever it takes."He helped me out of my ruined pajama pants — I was past the point of modesty — and eased my leg under the running water. The pain was blinding. I bit down on a washcloth to keep from screaming as he cleaned the wound, flushing out dirt and debris and god knew what else."Almost done," he murmured. "Almost done. You're doing so good, El. So brave."When the water finally ran clear, he turned off the tap and lifted my leg gently onto a towel.

FAOTwo hours into the drive, Elowen was still asleep.The painkillers had done their job, pulling her under despite the discomfort of the SUV's backseat. She lay curled against my chest, her breathing slow and steady, her wounded leg elevated across the seat on a pile of motel pillows.I hadn't slept. Couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw flames. Heard howls. Smelled blood.The SUV hummed along the back roads, heading north. The sun was fully up now, blazing through the tinted windows, and the Texas scrubland stretched endlessly in every direction. Flat and brown and indifferent, the kind of landscape that had no interest in what had happened to us last night or the night before. It just kept going.Corvin had switched to the other SUV at our last stop, coordinating with the backup team. Thalia was up front now, eyes scanning the mirrors, watching for pursuit. We hadn't seen any sign of House Varen since we'd fled, but that didn't mean they weren't out there. It meant they wer