Page 35 of Alphas Like Us

Winona blinks a few times, then inhales a sharp breath. Inshock.

“Winona, you’re okay. Just breathe,” I say, drawing her attention while I also feel for my seatbelt buckle. I know her sister Sulli better than I know her, but within the security team, the Meadows girls are known for beingtough.

Wide-eyed, Winona nods slowly to me. A gash runs down the corner of her lips. She needsstitches.

“Does anything hurt?” I ask. “Your neck, back, legs?” I unbuckle myself and gradually lower to the bottom of the car. Really, the roof. My boots crunch the glass, and I try to open mydoor.

It’sjammed.

“No,” Winona answers in a short breath. “No, I think…I think I’mokay.”

I crouch and I look up at an upside-down Maximoff. He blinks like his world is still spinning. I sweep him rapidly. What I can see: a clavicle fracture, blood trickling from his nose, shallowbreathing.

He’s notokay.

I need to lift up his shirt, but I hear my boyfriend in the back of my fucking head. Screaming at me to check on his cousinsfirst.

“Maximoff? Talk to me,” I say, but he’s still comingto.

It takes the greatest amount of effort and force to tear away from him and focus and triage. I open my mouth to call his name again, but I stop myself. My heart is being shred to fuckingpieces.

Winona’s eyes dart to the front. “Ben?” Fear pitches hervoice.

He groans from the driver’sseat.

“Ben, Charlie, how do you feel?” I ask, moving closer. I examine both in a longglance.

Blood drips down a small laceration at Ben’s hairline. Tiny cuts prick his face from the glassshards.

“Huh…” he saysgroggily.

“Help my brother,” Charlie winces while he clutches his extremely fracturedleg.

I’d like a backboard and a neck brace for Ben, but the longer we stay inside a demolished car, the more dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

Get themout.

“Ben,” I call while I shift back to my door. “What’s your birthday?” I peek beneath the deflated side airbag. The window is punched out and large enough that a body could crawlthrough.

Winona all of a sudden unbuckles herself, and I catch her shoulders so she won’t fall on her neck. She squats likeme.

“Ben, what’s your birthday?” Irepeat.

“Uh…” he groans. “Huh…?”

I start unbuttoning my black shirt. “Maximoff?” I call out, but my boyfriend is still disoriented.Unresponsive.

Come on, wolfscout.

I breathe hot breath through my nose and pass my shirt to Winona. “Put this against yourlip.”

She presses the fabric to the corner of hermouth.

“Ben,” I call loudly, “what day isit?”

“Huh…?” hemumbles.

“REDFORD!”