“Hike.” I finish Einar’s sentence with an eye roll.
“Yes.”
“I hate it already. Can I go home?”
“You don’t have a home,” Kirin cuts in.
This is a variant on the ‘you don’t have a family’ comment, which I already hated, but this time we’re out of the van. This time I don’t have to put up with this shit.
I have learned a lot at the academy that is not my home. Specifically, I have learned that if you kick a guy between the legs really fucking hard, he’s got practically no chance of taking the blow well.
That’s exactly what I do to Kirin.
That beautiful, godlike man drops to his knees. I didn’t just kick him for the satisfaction of watching him suffer. That’s more of a side effect than anything. I want out of here. I don’t know these men, and just being horny isn’t enough to follow them into a dark forest.
So while Kirin is down, and the other two are making pained expressions of shock and sympathy, I grab the van keys from hishand, I get in the van, and I hit the locks. That takes less than a second to do.
“Open the door, Darcy.” Einar comes to the driver’s side and glowers at me through the window.
“No,” I say, starting the van. “Goodbye.”
I see the realization come over his face that he’s about to lose me. He tries to smash the window, but this van is made to resist explosions. The window isn’t going to break under assault from a fist. I laugh at him as I throw the van into reverse. I am getting the hell out of here.
The tires rut into the gravel. It takes a few seconds for them to really dig in and get traction. In that time, I watch several unimpressed expressions pass over the faces of my captors.
They thought this would be easier.
Nothing is easy when it comes to me.
CHAPTER 6
Rafe
“She stole our van.”
I’m trying not to laugh out loud, but it’s difficult. Kirin got what he deserved for being an arrogant prick, and Einar got what he deserved for thinking this was going to be simple. I knew the moment we saw that girl fight the cardinal’s guard that she was going to be the kind of handful we’re not ready for.
I was against this plan from the beginning, the abduction part of it anyway. She’s been raised by that academy for as long as she’s known herself. She’s not going to turn on them because three men she got into a fight with decided to kidnap her. I wanted to meet her next time she snuck out and try to befriend her slowly, but the other two didn’t think that was a good idea. They wanted her under their control. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that simple, and it turns out I was right.
“I know she stole our van,” Einar curses at me, spitting the words as if he wishes they were worse. He likes to maintain self-control no matter what the situation, which means I like to see himrattled. What we’re trying to do has always been an insane long shot. We’re outsiders. Rebels. We know the truth, but knowing the truth doesn’t mean anything.
“We should leave her alone,” I say. “She’s loyal to the academy, and she believes in the king. We’d have to un-write everything she knows about the world.”
“We can’t,” Einar growls. “She’s our mate. We can’t abandon our mate.”
“Abandon her? We can’t get her to stay,” I snort.
“She’s afraid and confused. None of this is being handled properly. Ridiculous situation,” Einar says.
Kirin is just trying to breathe. He’s managed to sit up, though he is still looking pale. Nut shots take some time to recover from.
“Let’s go get her,” he says.
“Long walk back down that hill.”
“Then we make the fucking walk,” he curses. “You can stay here in the woods and go feral if you want, Rafe. But I want a mate. I want to live a life. I don’t want to spend the rest of my days fighting a pointless battle. We just got handed a gift.”
“That gift kicked you in the balls.”
