Echoes of Fire (The Mercury Pack #4)(76)

And Madisyn did the one thing that any slightly crazy female would do in this situation. She laughed.

His eyes narrowed. “Something funny?”

“Well, yeah.” She shifted gears and drove forward, shaking her head. “This isn’t gonna end well for you.”

He just grunted. Reaching a junction, he said, “Turn left here.”

She didn’t. She kept on heading toward Mercury Pack territory, which was only a short distance away.

“I said, turn left.”

“I heard you.”

“I have a gun here.”

“Well, then, I guess you’re gonna have to use the fucker, aren’t you?” But he didn’t, just as she’d known he wouldn’t. Dead, she couldn’t give him whatever it was he wanted. And it wasn’t wise for him to shoot the person driving the car he was riding in anyway. That was just asking for trouble.

At his growl, she soothed, “Easy, hyena, just sit back. Relax. No one has to get hurt.”

“Make a U-turn,” he ordered.

She didn’t.

A large hand reached around and pricked razor-sharp claws at her neck. “Don’t test me. Make. A. U-turn.”

She sharply swerved the Fiat to the left, bashing him into the side of the car and causing him to curse loudly. Smile grim, Madisyn brought the vehicle to a screeching halt on the shoulder, yanked up the lever at the side of her seat, and sent her seat zooming backward to ram into his legs. She heard something heavy hit the carpeted floor and suspected it was his gun. Good. Then she shifted.

Vision clouded by fury, the little cat scrabbled up her seat and launched herself at the hyena. Hissing, she wrapped herself around his face. Dug her fangs and claws through cloth, skin, and muscle. He roared and wildly shook his head, trying to dislodge her. The cat held on tight, snarling and tearing through the balaclava to shred his face.

Hands grabbed her body. Tried yanking her away from her prize. She sank her claws and fangs deeper, tasting more blood. He roared again. Clawed at her flanks. Punched her head. Yanked at her tail. She held on, determined.

He twisted her leg, almost snapping it. Yelping, she loosened her grip, and he flung her aside. She righted herself. Sprang. And once again wrapped her body around his face, sinking her claws and teeth through the balaclava and deep into his flesh.

He yelled, striking at her hard again and again and again. The cat ignored the pain, tearing strips out of his face. The smell of blood and rage filled the car, feeding the cat’s desire for vengeance.

A hard blow to the jaw sent her sprawling onto the seat. Batting her away, he snatched the weapon from the floor. With a feral hiss, she latched onto the hand holding the gun, biting and slicing at the veins there. Another guttural roar. The weapon fell to the floor again.

“Let go, you fucking freak!” The hyena shook his arm hard, his other hand scrabbling to open the car door. It flew open, and he tumbled out with the cat still clinging to him. Before he could rise, the she-wolf was there, clamping her jaws around his neck.

Bracken tightened his grip on the steering wheel as he abruptly jerked it to the side, barely avoiding colliding into a Volvo. He didn’t slow his pace. Couldn’t. According to the GPS signal, Madisyn was only a ten-minute drive away from his territory. He’d been driving for four, but as he’d been speeding like a maniac, they were extremely close to her location. That was good, sure, but a lot could happen in four minutes.

When Derren had called him about Ally’s vision, Bracken’s heart had stopped. Panic and terror gripped him tightly, wrenching at his soul. But those emotions were swiftly buried under an avalanche of ice-cold rage that vibrated in his gut, pricked at his skin, and stiffened his jaw. It swallowed the other emotions, numbed him, and became more of a state of being. A state in which he could think, reason, focus. But since the deaths of his family, it wasn’t a state in which he often chose to act rationally.

He’d sprinted into the parking lot just as Derren, Ally, Nick, and Zander were hopping into the SUV. Bracken had insisted on driving, not trusting anyone else to get him to Madisyn fast enough. No one had argued.

“Jesse said we’re almost there,” Derren announced. He was speaking with Jesse over the phone while the enforcer monitored the GPS signal using Nick’s computer.

Sitting in the rear of the car with her mate and Zander, Ally leaned forward and put her hand on Bracken’s seat. “Is she doing okay?”

“She’s not dead,” said Bracken, the words crusted with frost. It was the only reason he felt even remotely sane. “But she’s pissed.” Her anger kept pulsing down the mating bond. Pissed he could handle, though. A scenario in which she was badly hurt or afraid would send him postal. Whoever had targeted her had only succeeded in infuriating her. “You have no idea who the carjacker is?”

“No,” replied Ally. “I just saw someone in dark clothes and a balaclava slide into her car and dig a gun into her back through the seat.”

Bracken’s wolf raked at his insides, furious that someone had targeted their mate. Unlike Bracken, the beast’s rage was hot and explosive.

“According to the GPS signal, her car didn’t move far after she pressed the panic button,” said Derren.

“That only means her phone didn’t move far,” Bracken pointed out. “The GPS signal isn’t coming from the car. Her phone could have been tossed out the window.”