The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(21)

The rasp of my breath hurt my lungs.

“Anna!”

I thought I’d imagined the voice at first, but I still called, “Brent?”

Then hope hit me. He was awake. He’d just been thrown from the truck, maybe knocked out for a moment, he was—

Rafe appeared just a few feet away. Even in the darkness, I knew it was him, not Brent. He was taller, his shoulders broader, and he was running fast as he raced toward me.

I dropped the mace. “Rafe!” My eyes wanted to tear but I blinked them away. “Brent…he’s out there, near the pine trees on the right! He was thrown from the truck and, oh, God, a wolf was here! It tried to bite me and—” My words tumbled out too fast. I couldn’t help it. “I sprayed the wolf, and it burned.”

“Shh…easy.” Rafe was beside the truck now. “If a wolf is around, we damn well don’t want to call the thing back.”

No, they damn well didn’t.

“Are you hurt?” He asked me, his face hit with shadows and darkness.

“Nothing too bad.” Scrapes would heal, the blood would stop. I’d be okay. “I just can’t get out. The door won’t open and my legs are pinned!” Rafe wouldn’t be able to help me. I’d probably need the jaws of life to get out of that truck. I needed to get a grip and think. “You need to get to Brent. Make sure he’s okay. You can check him and then go get help for me.”

His hand came through the window and caught my chin. “I’m not leaving you.”

“I’m stuck!” He had to leave me. There wasn't a choice. As much as I wanted to grab him and hold on tight…that wasn’t an option. “I’ll be okay.” I hoped. “Just—”

His hand fell away from me, and he stepped back.

I lifted my chin, and my voice trembled when I said, “Th-thank you.” I didn’t know how he’d found us, but I was so grateful, even if he was about to leave me alone in the dark.

But I’m not afraid of the dark. Or at least, I hadn’t been afraid before.

Rafe’s right hand shoved glass away from the window, and he gripped the door. His left locked around the handle.

“Rafe?”

Metal groaned and screeched and the door—it just seemed to fall back against him.

No way.

I realized I wasn’t breathing.

“Must have been loose from the crash,” he said as he shoved the door to the ground. “I just had to get it at the right angle.”

I still wasn’t breathing.

Then he leaned into the vehicle and put his hands against the dashboard. “I’m gonna push,” he said, “and when I do, you pull your legs up, got it?”

I nodded.

He pushed. No, shoved, and that dash dented in a good foot.

My legs flew up, and he had me. Rafe locked his arms around me and pulled me out of the truck. I held on to him as tightly as I could. I was probably bleeding on the guy, but I didn’t care. He was strong and warm, and he’d gotten me out of that twisted wreck.

He hadn’t left me alone.

His hold was just as tight on me. “You have to get out of here,” he told me, his words whispering into my ear.

I glanced over my shoulder. Oh, wow, that truck was totaled. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually gotten out of that tangled heap alive.

“Brent,” I said, shaking my head a little. “We have to help…”

Rafe’s head lifted, and he stared down at me. His eyes were hard, glittering.

I swallowed.

“I saw Brent when I came for you.” Rafe pointed toward the cluster of trees. “He’s alive, but out cold.”

My shoulders sagged, and I tried to pull back. Rafe’s hold tightened. “Rafe?” Worry or fear or something had me tensing.

After a tense moment, he let me go.

I hurried over to Brent. He lay sprawled on the ground, a good fifteen feet from the truck. His shirt was torn, almost ripped away entirely. I touched his arm. “Brent, wake up!”

He didn’t stir.

I shook him. “Brent!”

His eyelashes fluttered. “Wh-what?” He blinked. “Anna? Why are you bleeding?”

He could tell I was bleeding in the dark? It had taken me a while to be able to see anything.

Rafe stood behind me. I was glad to have him close. Right then, I was totally subscribing to the safety-in-numbers idea.

“She’s bleeding,” Rafe snapped, “because you drove your truck off the side of the road and nearly killed her, you *.”

Brent’s eyes widened. He shoved up in a flash. A really fast move for a guy who’d been dead to the world a moment ago. He swore and touched the back of his head. This time, I was the one to see the blood that stained his fingertips.

But he just wiped the blood on his jeans and pushed to his feet. When he tried to take a step, he stumbled as his right leg seemed to give away beneath him. Very bad sign. I caught him before he hit the ground again. Rafe didn’t move to help Brent.

“You’ve got to get her out of here,” Brent said, wincing, and I knew something was wrong with his leg. The kind of something that would make getting out of there extremely hard. “Rafe, man, take her back up to the road.”

“There are wolves out here.” I looped his arm over my shoulders. “No one is staying behind, got me?”