Page 17 of Into the Fire: After

“Motherfuckers!” I shouted as I pulled at my chains hard enough to rock the van. “Fucking end you!”

Through the window, Taryn ground to a halt, fighting against Asshole Number Four. “Caine?” she called out, trying to pull toward our van.

“Hey!” Lin was up now, closer to the back and able to bang on the window. “Taryn!”

“Lin! Caine!” she yelled out as her captor dragged her to the van next to ours. “Brea!” She struggled against the beta thug, who tossed her into the back of the nearby van.

I couldn’t calm. I couldn’t sit. Even with Taryn out of sight, likely locked up the same way we were in the neighboring van.

I’d break every goddamn finger that touched her. Before sawing them off. Shove them down the bastards' throats. Make them choke.

“Caine!” Lin yelled. “Caine, breathe!”

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t see.

Omega in trouble.

Omega hurt. Omega hungry. Omega nearby and I wasn’t holding her.

“Caine, fuck, fight it!”

Yes, fight.Fight the assholes who touched my omega.

Wrists ached from pulling. Ankles too. Didn’t care. Would pull until I was free.

“Stop!”

Strong bark. I froze. Stopped pulling. Stopped yelling. Stopped breathing. Heart couldn’t stop beating though. Beat so fast. Like a sprinting wolf. Sprinting for omega.

“Sit.”

My legs bent. Cold metal under my ass. Eye throbbing. Hands shaking.

Can’t stop. Can’t sit. Omega needs me.

“Breathe.”

I inhaled against my will, and my nostrils burned with the smell of acidic blackberry and rancid honey. Lin. My head alpha. My best friend and packmate.

Fuck.Lin needed Human Caine.

With everything I had, I pushed my alpha down. Panting, sweating, I met Lin’s eye, only for the vision of him to blur as tears rose to mine. “They can’t have her,” I said, my words thick.

“They won’t,” he replied, steel in his voice. Ice in his eyes.

But they did. Our omega was at the mercy of half a dozen guns-for-hire, on her way to being at the mercy of a corrupt research corporation who’d use her up and discard her without a care.

Just the thought had my alpha nudging within me for control. I grunted, wrestling him down.

“She didn’t call Brooks’ name,” Lin whispered. “She called Brea’s, but not Brooks’.”

My hands shook in the shackles before me as I fought to suppress the feral alpha inside. Did that mean Brooks was safe, but Brea wasn’t?

What the fuck had happened out there the last three days?

The passenger door opened, and a hand came through the slot separating the cargo—us—from the driver. It let loose a canister leaking gray smoke. It retreated and the door shut again.