I jerked my gaze to the Alpha, then slipped and fell, hitting the asphalt hard. But strong hands were there, scooping me up from the road and hurtling with me toward the car as the deafening sound of gunshots rang out.
Smoke stung my eyes. The white plume was choking as the fire blazed from the Wolves’ strip club on the mortal side of the city, blurring the sleek black Camaro in a tear-filled haze.
Screams came. Orders were barked from Harlan, the FBI Special Agent in Charge and my goddamn boss, as almost every cop in the city descended on the burning building behind me.
But it wasn’t the fire that made Harlan scream with rage…it was the body they’d found.
A body that had been alive only an hour ago.
A body that’d been clawed to death…from what looked like a Wolf.
The back window shattered with a crack as I reached the car. Shards of glass exploded, stinging my face and arms. I ducked, and threw my arm over my head as Church yanked open the back door and shoved me inside.
The roar of the engine was thunderous. I tried to shove upwards, tried to find Arran and Vitold in the Hummer behind us as the monstrous four-wheel drive was peppered with bullets.
“No!” I screamed as the Camaro’s engine roared. “ARRAN!” I fought Church, punching and bucking my hips, trying to dislodge his weight.
But there was nothing I could do as the tires of the Camaro howled, spinning for a second until they bit and propelled us forward. “Arran! Vitold!” I roared and tried to lift my head.
“Get them!” Harlan’s faint roar came through the busted window. “Hunt them the fuck down!”
“Stay down!” Phantom barked, and whipped the car toward the busy city streets of Crown City. “Stay the hell down!”
Church braced his hands on each side of me, his heavy weight almost pushing me into the seat as he shielded me with his body.
“Arran!” I raged. “Jesus Christ, Arran.”
“He’ll be alright.” Church turned his gaze to mine, the low growl vibrating from his chest. “They’ll both be alright.”
But I saw panic in those piercing blue eyes, terrifying, unmistakable fear.
“What the fuck just happened?” Phantom barked. “That fucking cop was alive when we left him.”
The image of the crime scene techs stuffing Special Agent Murphy into the body bag returned. “He’s not alive now,” I murmured. “Not at all.”
His hands singed from the fire, chunks of hair torn out, and his face scratched. But his organs were pooled outside his body, slipping through the jagged claw marks across his middle, a Wolf’s claw marks. I should know…I’d seen more than my fair share lately.
Gutted like a fish and left in the one perfect place to set the Wolves up for his murder.
The nightclub called Wild.
Phantom worked the gears expertly, pushing the Camaro hard as the faint wail of sirens slipped through the busted window. They were hunting us, just like Harlan had commanded...like a pack of hunting dogs as we headed for the bridge and the other side of the river. The flashing glow of red and blue splashed against the roof as Church slowly eased his weight off me.
I pushed upwards as the agent in me battled the woman. Get them to pull over. Hands in the air. Knees on the ground. If they told the truth, Harlan would believe them.
But then I remembered the curl of my commander’s lips and the way he’d looked at Phantom.
I’d seen that look before.
It was how he’d looked at Phantom in the meeting, right after the Alpha had hunted me along the hallways of the FBI building and claimed me in the bathroom. Harlan hated the Wolves, hated everything they were…and it showed now, burning in every command.
“Jesus.” The word trembled on my lips as my hands started to shake. I tried to stop the panic, but the shit roared through my veins. “Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.”
The Camaro coughed and surged. Phantom let out a savage snarl and gripped the wheel. “The car took a bullet, somewhere important.”
I jerked my head up at the words.
Church pushed forward between the seats to look at the instrument panel. “Will we make it?”
“I’ll make sure we fucking make it.” My Alpha cast a look at me in the rear-view mirror.
Desperation shimmered in his eyes. The kind I hadn’t seen before, as he downshifted and we hit the on-ramp to the bridge. I gripped the leather seat, holding on as the cold river wind invaded, and