“Nice icing on the petit fours. L’Ami.” Right here.
That’s barely an alley.
Right.
I took the alley, but it was too narrow. My left side mirror hit a trash can and the garbage spilled into someone’s garage.
“Yes. That’s it. Is there something—”
Donovan didn’t wait for Stephen to finish. He hung up. “Right up here. Faster. Please.”
I hit the gas, thankfully leaving the alley for a bigger road. A huge truck came at us, and I wasn’t sure both of us would fit on the road. Shit. Maybe the alley was better.
Normall
y, I would’ve slowed and pulled over, but not this time. My right side mirror ran into the brush on the roadside. The truck honked, but I wasn’t slowing.
It roared past, and I took a breath, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “You people are nuts with your tiny roads.”
“Left here.” His panic was starting to bleed through our bond, making mine worse.
I tried to breathe through it. One of us had to stay calm. “Where?” There was nothing but fields on either side of the road. I didn’t see any intersections coming up either.
“Here.”
What? He wasn’t thinking clearly. “There’s no road—”
Donovan took the steering wheel and jerked it around. The car skidded, and I could’ve sworn we were up on two wheels for a second.
I glared at him as I corrected the wheel. “Don’t do that again.”
“Follow my directions then!” He snapped at me, his voice low and gravelly as his wolf rose up.
He was losing it. I got it. Apparently, he was close with his mother, even if he didn’t talk about her. “We’ll get there in time,” I said as the car bumped over ditches and rocks. “Can you feel her?”
He shook his head. “She’s not part of the pack. Hasn’t been for a while.”
“Why not?”
“She claims she didn’t like the drama, but it’s not that. Or not only that…” Donovan trailed off. “No. That way.” He pointed across the field.
By the time we hit a real road again, we were already at the row houses, which meant we were less than a mile away from town.
Donovan rolled down the window and stuck out his head. “I don’t hear anything.” That was a very good sign. The beast had been loud. If he were in town attacking Donovan’s mother, we would’ve heard something.
“Maybe I’m wrong.” I kind of wanted to be wrong, even if it meant that I was the beast’s next target. Knowing that Bhrunyz was coming after me made me want to hide in a cave somewhere until all of this was over, but I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t be a coward. And for some reason, protecting myself seemed easier than protecting someone else.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering wheel. “The fey beast could be coming after me next like we thought.”
“No. I think you’re right. Losing my mother would weaken me. Losing you would kill me. Whoever is doing this would want me weak first.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “If something happens to me, you can’t let that thing kill you. We haven’t had our ceremony. You can find another mate.”
“What?” Donovan growled the word. “You think that’s so easy? I’ve waited my whole, extremely long life to find you. And you think I’ll just move on?”
“I wasn’t…” Shit. It was so messed up that we even had to consider this.
At least his anger overrode some of the panic I’d been feeling from him. Anger I could deal with. But panic? From Donovan? That freaked me out.