Page 20 of Renegade Queen
Neither of them had a chance to fight back before the bite sank deep. Arlow was enjoying this way too much and released Ryder with a laugh of amusement. Silas at least had the good grace to look like he felt bad about the whole thing.
Impressively, Maddox managed to stay on his feet for a few moments as he stepped back, staring at Silas with wide eyes as he saw the blood staining the other man’s lips. By the time his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed, he’d impressed more than a few of the MC members present. He’d be a strong shifter if he could withstand the venom for that long, and given that Silas was no mere wolf, it was probably for the best.
Chapter 10
Alyssa
Alyssa
We’d been driving for nearly sixty hours. Tank and I had swapped out the driving, so the other could sleep, but we were starting to hit our limit even with that. We both needed proper rest; walking through the portal in our state wouldn’t end well. And by well, I, of course, meant a terrible, painful death. I wasn’t entirely sure about the rest of them, but getting eaten, tortured or abused wasn’t on my bucket list.
I really should be questioning why I was even doing this in the first place.
Tank made his way out of the back of the RV and sat in the passenger seat beside me.
“They’re still out, but they’re alive. I think we should see signs of them waking up soon,” he told me, securing his seatbelt and pulling the map across his lap. “We’ll be pulling into Fairbanks shortly. We should probably think about finding a place to stop for a few hours. I don’t know about you, but I could do with some proper sleep.”
“I want to get us closer before we stop.”
Having this much urgency about this whole thing didn’t make sense. I’d meant what I said to Maddox back at the bar. There was no way Damon was still alive after all this time. Humans didn’t just wander into the fae realm without something noticing, and once they drew the attention of any of the creatures of Nymeria, they were as good as dead.
“Alyssa, we need to discuss what happens once we get there. How do we know the general isn’t waiting to ambush us as soon as we pull up at the portal? It would be madness to walk into a situation like that half asleep. We need to make sure we’re alert and ready.”
“He won’t be at the portal.” The smile on my face was enough to clue Tank in that I had a reason for being so sure in that statement.
“What did you do?” He didn’t sound even remotely disappointed in me. In fact, the rumble of his bear in his voice sounded nothing but amused.
“Nothing recently,” I objected. “He doesn’t know about this portal. He only knows about the one in Siberia.”
Tank laughed that deep, delicious masculine chuckle that had my insides tightening at the sound. We really should talk more about what was happening between the two of us, but perhaps when we were potentially heading to our death wasn’t the right time. Or was it precisely the right time?
Gah, this was why I shied away from things like relationships. They made every decision more complicated.
“So instead of taking him to either of the three portals I’m aware of on the American continent, you made him trek all the way out to Siberia?”
“Hmm, bit me on the ass when he decided to leave me there, though,” I pointed out.
The growl out of Tank was decidedly less amused that time. “I’m kind of hoping he is waiting for us at the portal. My bear has a few feelings he’d like to express to the dear old general.”
“I don’t think you’re the only one,” I murmured, my mind turning back to the three men currently unconscious in the back of the RV.
It was a minor miracle we’d found this thing when we had. As soon as the guys had dropped, Arlow had left, telling me he’d be in contact when he figured out what I owed him. It wasn’t a conversation I looked forward to, and even now, I had no fucking clue why I was going to these lengths for these three.
Tank had been able to salvage the RV from his old sleuth. They’d done a clean sweep when they left this version of their lives behind. Meaning, they literally left their entire lives and walked into new ones. That meant most of their clothes, documents, vehicles, homes, everything got left behind. It was the sad reality of never ageing and trying to keep it a secret. Sometimes, you outgrew the life you currently had.
It had only been a few days since the sleuth had moved on, so no one had noticed. The RV wouldn’t be used by anyone, so we appropriated it for our cause. Besides, it would do the sleuth a favour. The RV travelling the country would look like they’d just gone camping or whatever people did in these things. It would give them more time to settle into their new lives before someone started asking questions.
“Are you surprised all three of them made it through the change?” Tank asked, changing the subject. He clearly wasn’t very good at this whole lighten-the-mood thing, though.
“No. They’ve got too much riding on this. They’d have made it through from sheer pigheaded determination if they had to.”
“Well, that’s not very nice,” a voice said behind us. “I prefer to think of it as grit and badassery.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see a very pale-looking Maddox standing in the doorway to the back bedroom area. I was kind of surprised he was awake already, let alone actually standing up in a moving vehicle.
“You’re going to want to sit down. I have neither the skills nor the willpower to deal with a head injury right now,” I snarked, even though I was happy to see him moving around.
Tank moved out of his seat and pointed to one of the side benches, “Sit,” he barked.