Chapter 232

“I’m sorry, Chloe,” Carrie says. “Just do what I say and this will all be over soon.”

This close, I can see now that her desperation had less to do with speaking to me and more to get me into her car. And now, as she starts to drive, that desperation has shifted once more, into getting me wherever she thinks we need to be.

I feel like an absolute dolt being here, getting in this situation. Carrie herself had warned me to be careful who to trust, and I so easily extended my trust to her. She’s Mia’s mother. She’s hiding from the Alpha King. I didn’t think I could have an ally stronger than that.

Apparently I was wrong. I just hope it doesn’t turn into dead wrong.

“Carrie, whatever this is, we can talk about it,” I say.

Inside, my fear claws at my insides, I fucking hate the unknown. But I’m not about to let it control me or make me crawl up into a ball and wait to die. I need to be alert. If I can’t talk my way out of this, I need to be aware of my surroundings, always looking for an opportunity to escape.

“Talking won’t help.” Carrie clutches the steering wheel with both hands like she’s trying to choke the life out of it. She pulls the car back out onto the road and begins to drive us away from campus.

I don’t know the lay of the land very well, but I can’t tell we’re not going to the Pyramid or the neighborhood I know Carrie lives. In fact, we seem to be going deeper into the city.

And at the center of the city… is where the Alpha King resides.

Surely… no…

I don’t want to believe it, but looking at Carrie now, at the fear in her eyes, the way her eyes dart all around, the way she’s trying to kill that steering wheel…

“Carrie,” I start. I keep my tone light, not wanting to amplify the already thick-as-all-hell tension in the car. Carrie’s already clearly pushed right up to the edge. I don’t want to see her even more desperate. “Did something happen with Alpha King Hayes?”

The moment I say her name, she veers harshly to the right. Someone behind us honks their horn. She overcorrects and then runs a red light. More cars honk. One has to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting us.

I grab the handle above the door and hold on for dear life.

Apparently, I hit the nail straight on the head, though. I definitely touched a nerve.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I say under my breath.

She hears me. “He found me.”

“Yeah. Figured that.”

She shakes her head. There are tears in her eyes. “He said he’ll let me be. He said I can be Mia’s mom again and he’ll leave us both alone. All I have to do is bring you to him.”

“And you believe that? Carrie, come on. You know better than anyone how much of a liar he is.”

“What choice do I have?!” she shouts so harshly, so suddenly, that her voice breaks. She doesn’t believe him then, I can see the war inside of her. She knows as well as I do this is foolhardy. But she genuinely feels like she has no other options.

She’s like a scared mother bear, backed up into a corner, lashing out at anything that moves.

“I’m so tired of running, Chloe. You have no idea what’s it like. I just want to rest!” She smacks the steering wheel.

“So you’ll throw my life away instead? Carrie, Gods know what he’ll do to me!”

I’m not unsympathetic to Carrie’s plight. Far from it. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to just let myself be handed over to someone who very much wants me dead. I can’t just roll over and die for the sake of a life the Alpha King likely won’t let Carrie have anyway.

So, while Carrie and I continue to speak, I reach into my pocket and very subtle send a message in the group chat with the brothers. It’s sat quiet since I left. But now…

I type, S.O.S. and send.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. It’s you or me.”

“It won’t be either of us. He’s never going to give you what you want.”

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Carrie says, and her tone turns cold. She’s decided then. Her resolve is steeled.

Well, it’s time I resolve mine as well, because I can’t let myself be taken. I won’t.

“Carrie, if you don’t stop this car right now, I will get physical to free myself.”

It’s a fair warning. I don’t know the nature of Carrie’s wolf, or if she trains, but I’m willing to bet she doesn’t train as hard as me. She’s too skinny, too frail. I think I can take her in a fight.

I’m going to have to take that chance.

I lunge for the steering wheel. She fights against me. The car swerves across the road, zig-zagging through traffic. Cars lay on the horn. Some zoom past us. Others slam on the brakes to get out of our way.

Carrie tries to elbow me, but I won’t let go. After the hits I’ve sustained from Wyatt, the hits might as well be light taps.

“Pull. Over!” I shout through gritted teeth. While her hits aren’t hard enough to truly jostle me, her grip on the steering wheel is vicelike, as if she superglued hers hands to the leather.

I pull one way, she pulls the other.

I’m fighting but I don’t want to hurt anyone around us. But then I see it, a small construction site, abandoned. I grab the wheel and yank hard, leading the car in that direction.

Carrie screams and releases the wheel. She slams on the brakes, but not before the car smashes through a fence and collides into a pillar. The airbags deploy, and it’s some miracle we both don’t go shooting through the windshield.

Gods, I wish I’d put my seatbelt on.

I push myself off of Carrie and right myself in my seat. I think my shoulder is dislocated. Carrie has a cut on her forehead. Her eyes are dazed, disoriented. She must have hit her head off the door. The window is shattered.

“Carrie,” I say. If she has brain trauma, I need to get her to a hospital.

She rolls her head around on the headrest to look at me. “This is your fault,” she says. Her voice doesn’t have the same fierceness anymore. It’s lost its frostiness too. Now, she just sounds so tired. Defeated, too.

“No,” I tell her. “This is the Alpha King’s fault.”

She doesn’t try to argue that. I know she can’t. She just pushes her head back against the headrest. Tears well at the corners of her eyes and drift down.

“I’ve lost everything,” she whispers. “There’s no hope anymore.”

I almost feel bad for her… which feels weird in my gut, since she was about to hand over my life like it means nothing at all.

But… in a way I get it. A desperate mother would do anything for their child.

A thud sounds on the hood of the car. I glance over and through the cracked windshield, I see the shape of a familiar wolf.

Asher.

And he’s growling.