Not when I’d leave her behind anyway, because if I fall, she falls too.
I grip the siding of the house, my knuckles white. Fuck. Fuck.
My mind races. Call someone? But who? 911 will be swamped, every available unit stretched thin across Driftwoodtrying to keep the town from burning to the ground. Even if someone picked up, by the time they got here?—
Her scream rips through the window. My body jolts like I’ve been electrocuted.
Gus barks from the car, sharp and urgent, the sound carrying down the street.
The heads inside snap up. Scott rises slow, dragging his hand over Sadie’s jaw before he jerks her upright by the arm. They haul her with them, her feet scraping across the floor, her body straining against their hold.
My stomach caves.
“No…” The word slips out, strangled.
The door bursts open, and the night swallows them. Four massive shapes spilling into the street, Sadie dragged between them, her hair flying as she twists, kicks, fights.
Her voice cuts through the smoke, raw and furious: “Let me go!”
My breath lodges in my throat.
I can’t move. My legs are locked, my body pressed into the shadows as they pass. The streetlight catches the sharp angle of Scott’s grin, the cold amusement in the last youngest-looking Alpha’s eyes as he tosses the mug aside and it shatters on the ground.
Her eyes flick up—just once, just enough. Wide, desperate. She sees me. I know she does.
And I do nothing.
The horror of that truth claws down my spine.
My chest heaves, panic flooding every nerve as they shove her toward one of the waiting cars. My fists curl, nails digging into my palms until I taste copper in the back of my throat.
I can’t die here.
But fuck if I can let them take her.
My hand fumbles for my phone, fingers slick, screen glowing against the darkness. My brain screams to pick a name—Boone, Gabe, anyone—but the words blur, my vision swimming.
Gus barks again, frantic, as if he knows what’s about to happen.
And I feel it too. True fear, sharp and consuming, as I watch them shove Sadie into the backseat and the car doors slam shut.
They see me.
I know the second their heads snap in my direction, four sets of eyes cutting through the dark, locking onto me where I crouch in the shadows.
My lungs seize. My legs want to run but I can’t move.
“You think we don’t smell you?” the tallest one snarls, his voice a low rasp that vibrates through the night. “Come out.”
My heart slams so hard I feel it in my throat. My hands shake as I fumble for my phone. My thumb slides over the screen until I find the camera and hit record.
The red dot blinks back at me, the only thing between me and disappearing without a trace.
I force my voice out, rough and cracking. “Let her go.”
Sadie’s scream cuts from the backseat of the truck, muffled by the glass but sharp enough to slice through me. My stomach turns over.
The biggest one laughs. He’s built like a wall, shoulders filling the frame of the streetlight. “Or what?” he sneers, stepping forward.
