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Chapter Twenty-Two

Dom

White hot pain seared through my side as Vivian left the highway, the heavy car fishtailing as she took a turn too fast. I clamped my hand over the spot and then lifted it, expecting to see blood. My hand came up clean but the spot continued to throb, the pain a pulsing wave.

My connection to Jess flared to life as I recognized the fact that she was in pain. I grasped the link like a lifeline, grateful for her pain because it meant she was alive.

“Faster,” I gritted out, barely able to think past the phantom pain. “She’s hurt.” Vivian floored the gas and we shot forward, our headlights the only light in the dense overhang of trees. The car bounced over potholes as branches scraped down its sides and Dylan braced his arms on both windows so he wouldn’t get slung around.

“I should have shot the bastard when I had the chance,” Vivian muttered to herself, her fingers wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel her knuckles had gone white. “If he hurt her….”

I vowed to stay out of her way when she went after her brother, my only focus Jess, until a wrenching pain ripped through my skull. It was strong enough to make me forget the searing pain in my side as my link to the Navarre Pack disappeared.

“Are you alright?” A panicked shout came from beside me as Vivian shoved my arm and I heard Dylan whimper, “Dom,” as the agonizing loss penetrated through to my Pack’s bond.

I inhaled, focusing on my breathing as I tried to reconcile myself to what it meant. I prodded the now empty space where my connection to Caleb, Anna, my father, and the others of the Navarre Pack had been. It was gone, a gaping hole in its place where the Pack bond was severed.

“We’re too late,” I breathed out.

“Jess,” Vivian cried out, the car slowing as her foot came off the accelerator.

“No,” I said sharply. “She’s alive. Caleb….” I couldn’t complete the thought, shaking my head, unable to believe he was gone, but it was the only way my link to the Navarre Pack would disappear. If he’d died, which meant someone else had become Alpha.

Vivian pressed the gas again, determination creasing her face as she sped up, going even faster if it was possible, swerving around branches before shooting into a clearing, the car’s headlights highlighting the scene in front of us.

I was out of the car before I finished registering what I’d seen. A dark streak flashed past me as Dylan landed on all fours, headed directly for two men. Hanley stood above a sandy brown wolf on the ground, as a dark stain matted his fur, but my gaze was focused on Jess as she used our arrival to her advantage.

My side pulsed as I watched her kick out, her foot slamming into the guy’s nuts and he crumpled. She ripped the gun from him, almost losing it, her hand slippery with blood.

I skidded to a stop when I reached her and she frantically shook her head, pointing with the gun to Caleb. “Save him,” she cried, and I shook my head, knowing he was gone. “No, he’s alive,” she replied, shoving at me. “You can save him.”

Her desperate belief spurred me forward and when the guy who’d shot her lunged toward her, she put two bullets in him. My gaze bounced off Dylan as he tore into the two men who’d been his focus, and I didn’t worry they’d be bothering Jess. I landed on my knees next to Caleb, his throat torn open, and a tear trickled down my cheek as I reached for him, certain I’d lost him.

A rattling breath stopped me in shock and as one blue eye peered at me, I saw his acceptance of his own death. “No,” I growled, suddenly determined not to let him die. His eye drifted closed at my denial and I sank my hands into the fur of his side. “You have to shift, Caleb. Shift,” I yelled, the word a demand. He didn’t move, didn’t open his eyes, or give any sign he’d heard me.

“He’s a goner,” Hanley crowed above me. “I’m the new Alpha.” My head turned, a violent snarl building in my chest, when he jerked, surprise crossing his face as a red spot bloomed on his chest.

“You’re not the Alpha,” I informed him as he stared at me in shock. “Caleb ceded his position to make sure you would never become Alpha of the Navarre Pack. He was buying time until we could get here.” I knew as I spoke the words they were true. Only with death or by Caleb’s choice could the link to the Navarre Pack be severed and since he was still alive, barely, it had to have been his choice.