Page 23 of Cold Foot Revenge (Wreck’s Mountains #7)

Run.

Roxy startled awake, her body tensing with the remnants of that whispered word through her mind.

There was a snarl in her throat, and in the dark, Dylan pulled her closer to him.

Roxy lay there, staring at the pattern of the wallpaper as her eyes adjusted to the dark, every sense alert.

The room was silent except for the hum of the air conditioner, and the steady breathing and heartbeat of Dylan as he slept behind her.

Run.

There it was again. Her coyote was awake and agitated. Even now, Roxy’s skin tingled with the urge to Change. Why?

Carefully, Roxy slid out from under Dylan’s arm and sat up in bed, her ears alert. Her heart was pounding so hard, but what for? She was safe here with Dylan. There was no one in the room besides her and Dylan. She would sense them if there were, but the coyote was telling her something was off.

The sound of Dylan’s phone vibrating on the bedside table next to her was deafening in the silence. She flinched, but it was just a text message for Dylan. Nothing more.

Perhaps it was Wreck, or Garret needing to talk to him. Maybe Wreck was delayed on his trip here or something. She leaned over and grabbed the phone to hand it to Dylan, but the text was right there, lighting up the screen.

It was from an unknown number, and the text chilled her blood.

Come outside.

Roxy sat there frozen. If it was Wreck or Garret or the guy, Tawk, Dylan had mentioned, he would have the number saved. Right?

Now. Another text lit up the screen, and an overwhelming sense of dread moved through her like a tornado.

Run , the coyote whispered.

Slowly, Roxy set the phone on the bed and slid out from under the covers, careful not to wake Dylan.

Something was happening. Something wasn’t right.

As she padded over to the window, she tugged the edges of Dylan’s T-shirt down, just needing something to do with her hands. Her fingertips tingled with the urge to Change as she touched the fabric of the curtain and pushed it open by inches.

Grave’s glowing eyes were there.

With a gasp, she froze completely, unable to move a single muscle.

His eyes glowed orange, and he was backlit by the single streetlamp on the other side of the parking lot. He lifted his phone to the window, and terrified, she read what he’d written onto a note there.

Come outside and I will let him live.

Chills rippled up and down her spine. It was Grave. He hadn’t been able to reach her because her phone was in the bag he took, so he’d somehow tracked Dylan’s number down, which meant…Grave knew who he was.

Grave looked big, and monstrous with all that anger in his glowing eyes. Behind him, a pair of grizzlies paced the parking lot, and near Grave’s black expedition, Leech and Donnie stood waiting.

She and Dylan didn’t stand a chance here.

Shit.

Grave, pressed the palm of his hand to the window, and then drew it back in a rush, fist clenched like he would shatter the window.

She held up her hands in surrender. He was going to come in whether she wanted him to or not. He would come right through the window if she didn’t do something.

Behind her, Dylan still slept soundly. She wished she could be in bed with him, oblivious to the world. Senses dull, dreaming of normal human things.

It wasn’t fair. Not that he was human, but that she hadn’t been able to spend enough time with him. Anything less than a lifetime was too little.

She inhaled a shaky breath and held a finger up to Grave. She gave in. She gave up. Anything to keep Dylan safe.

The Cold Foot Crew wasn’t due to be here until hours from now. The timing had been off, and Dylan didn’t have backup against the Grit-Bron Crew. The only thing that stood in between him and certain, painful death…was her.

She cast one last glance back at him to commit to memory, and then slipped through the door, and eased it closed silently behind her.

Grave grabbed the back of her neck immediately, and she hunched and yelped softly in shock at the pain.

He dragged her toward his expedition, and in the parking lot, the grizzlies Changed back into Tommy and Haden. Fuckin’ henchmen with no moral compass. Grave had brought the wrecking crew with him, just to collect her, a little coyote.

She didn’t know whether to be flattered or disgusted.

“You smell like him,” Grave gritted out.

But something didn’t make sense. If he knew who Dylan was, and this was a possessive thing, why wasn’t he dragging Dylan out of there too? She knew Grave and the boys tried to stay away from hunting humans because the laws were strict on harming them, but this wasn’t like Grave.

She didn’t trust it.

“You stole something from me,” he growled.

“Well, I guess we’re even,” she blurted out as he shoved her into the passenger’s seat of the expedition. “I guess we’re both shitbags.”

Grave stalked around the front of the Expedition and got in as the guys piled into the back two rows.

“How did you find me?” she asked, hoping to keep him distracted from thinking about Dylan laying just inside that thin-walled hotel.

“I’m your Alpha!” he roared in her face, and she flinched back as tight against the door as she could, trying to stifle the whimper in her throat. “I have a bond to you, you stupid cunt. I could find you anywhere.”

There was a truck waiting on the edge of the parking lot, with the window rolled down. A shifter she didn’t recognize was sitting in there. He had orange eyes like Grave, and Leech. Grave pulled up beside him and rolled down his window. “A deal is a deal. I want him by noon.”

“You’re in my territory, Asshole,” the behemoth in the jacked-up truck said easily. “I don’t need reminders on deals.” He cast a glance at Roxy, then back to Grave. “What is so special about Hoffman?”

“Nothing is special about him. I want him dead, and I want to do it myself. Bring him to me alive.”

“Mmm,” the man said, narrowing his eyes. “The deal is if he doesn’t leave by noon, I’ll have my Crew bring him to you.

“He’s not going anywhere. He’s had a taste of this little slut,” Grave told him.

The orange-eyed shifter didn’t react at all. There were a few seconds of loaded silence, and then he told Grave, “This is the only time you’re allowed in my territory without my guys snuffing you out of existence completely. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal clear,” Grave uttered, then rolled up his window, and muttered that the guy was a, “Fuckin’ dick.”

“Well, Grit hasn’t changed much,” Leech said quietly from the back seat. “Still a human sympathizer.”

“Shut up, Leech,” Grave ordered as he sped away.

Okay. Okay. There was a territory line in play here with another Crew.

And that was what was keeping Grave from killing Dylan right now?

She thought hard about snippets of conversations about nearby Crews.

Where were they right now? She looked for signs and cursed herself for not paying more attention last night.

Maybe it was the Stone Edge Crew? Stone Blade?

Something like that? Or she’d heard Grave talk about a War When Crew?

Warren? Something like that? Clearly Grave had coordinated her pick-up with that orange-eyed guy back there.

He’d allowed Grave to pick her up, but not Dylan?

“What will you do with me,” she asked.

“It’s not what I’ll do. It’s what you’ll do,” he growled out.

His voice couldn’t pass for human right now.

“You will dance every shift, just like you did last night. Two-thousand-dollar nights will be a minimum from here on out. I like that cash, Rox. Five nights like that and I can buy a Turn dose. I’ll buy one every week with the money you make me!

” he was screaming now. “I knew you could do that. I knew it all along, but you have this goddamn notion that you need to be somewhere else, doing something else.”

“Why did you keep my resumes?” she asked. It had bothered her. She needed to know.

He flashed her a furious glare as he turned out of the parking lot, and then he uttered an empty laugh. “You found the resumes. Good. I kept them as a reminder. I knew you would need it someday.”

“A reminder of what?” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

“That I will always own you. You could run to Alaska, and I would drag you back here by your fucking hair.”

“Why?” she demanded. “Why me?”

“Because you are my mate!” he roared. “You’re mine. You’re mine. You’re mine! There is nothing you can do to change that, my animal chose you the second I gave you your coyote, and you belong to me. And if you can’t accept that fast, I will fucking kill you. If I can’t have you, no one will.”

To her horror, she could hear the absolute truth in his voice.

So then why did he leave Dylan alive back there? This wasn’t adding up. He’d seen her claiming mark. He’d commented on her smelling like Dylan. So why?

She wanted to ask, but she would never draw attention to Dylan.

Maybe Grave was in a frenzy of fury and not thinking straight.

Good. Dylan had until noon to talk with the Cold Foot Crew.

Maybe Wreck could talk him out of whatever they were planning, especially if Dylan thought she just left him on a whim.

She had to hope. Noon could save him still.