I’m so lost in my thoughts that I’m barely paying attention to my driving. The roads wind through the wilderness, but now that it’s daylight, I can see pretty clearly and there haven’t been any obstacles.
Another vehicle approaches from the front, but even that doesn’t concern me. I’ve taken several turns and passed hundreds of turn-offs; they could be going anywhere. I ease my vehicle to the side to give them space to pass and just keep my eyes forward. My next turn is coming up and I don’t want to miss it.
And so I am utterly unprepared when the oncoming driver veers his vehicle left, hitting me head-on.
twenty-five
AMBER
Time is tricky. The split second before the other vehicle crashed into mine is burned into my brain, seeming to last a lifetime. In reality, it happens so fast I don’t even have time to gasp before I feel the impact.
Instinctively, I spin my wheel to the right, causing my SUV to veer into the ditch, rolling onto its side as the other pushed me toward the trees.
My body jerks with the impact, my head following and whipping on my neck with a sickening crack as I hit the side window. Everything goes dark for a few seconds.
I open my eyes with a gasp, my vision blurry. Pressure grips my chest as my seatbelt pins me in place, being the one thing that prevented me from flying from the vehicle. Blood rushes to my head, and I stare at the smashed windshield as I’m left dangling by my seatbelt.
Ringing echoes in my ears, the sound of metal crunching metal replaying over and over in my mind. I can see warnings blinking on the car’s display but it’s as if someone hit the mute button—I can’t hear a damn thing.
I blink in confusion, struggling to process what happened. A faint pitchy noise begins in my left ear, gradually growing louder and louder until it bursts, and with a flash of pain, I can now hear again.
Shouting voices. A door slamming. Glass crunching. It’s too much at once, I can’t separate out enough to make sense of anything.
Because it doesn’t make sense—why did that car swerve into me? Did their tire go flat suddenly? Regardless, I get the impression from the excited voices that they’re coming down to rescue me. Thank fucking God. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of here otherwise.
I wait patiently as a pair of booted feet, topped with muscular male legs sheathed in jeans, descends the hill in front of my wreck.
It isn’t until he crouches down and peers inside that I realize the real trouble I’m in.
Fuck. I can’t believe it’s Vette, from Jade’s pack.
My mind spins rapidly to catch up as he consults with another guy on kicking out the windshield.
It was no accident; they hit me on purpose.
We’re so far out that they must’ve been on their way hours ago.
I was not being handed off to Pack Fernando as their plaything.
My mother sold me out to Jade’s pack as recompense.
An instant rush of adrenaline courses through my system, and I start struggling to get free before they reach me. Maybe there’s a gun somewhere in this car. If I can just wriggle out of the seatbelt and find it, I can protect myself better. In this state, I’m no use. I’m an easy victim for them to destroy.
The thing they never tell you in fancy car commercials is that it’s impossible to get the button to release when you’re hanging from the belt.
I refuse to give up, thrashing and fighting, doing everything I can to break free. They smash a hole through the windshield and grab me with rough hands, restraining me. A knife lashes out, and I cringe away only to discover they cut my seatbelt and free me from the car.
And now I want anything but to leave the safety of its destroyed shell.
“Let’s go.” Vette grabs me as the seatbelt releases, yanking me roughly from the windshield. It’s a weird paradigm that reminds me of trippy music videos where the room spins around the artist. However, he doesn’t give me time to reorient myself before he drags me up the embankment.
Steam rises from their engine, the front corner damaged from the wreck. Two more men are standing around, and they wait for Vette to shove me in the middle back seat before they slide in beside me.
Vette climbs into the driver seat as his pack mate takes the passenger’s seat, and we continue in the direction they were heading: back to the house I just escaped from.
I know I’ve killed any goodwill I might get from my mother by scalding her with hot coffee, so if I’m going to have any chance of survival, I need to make my move now, before we get back there.
Without a doubt, if I set foot in that cabin again, I’m never walking out of it.