Tangled

57 Ava: Stunned

I scream, my voice raw with terror as the door beside me is wrenched open. Before I even look, I throw a punch in their direction.

But it’s not one of the armed assailants–it’s Phoenix.

My brother’s face is set in grim lines, his mouth a tight slash of determination. My fist is held by his hand as though I’m a child throwing a tantrum–with the ease of someone far more powerful than me.

He lets go and cuts my seatbelt with a knife before grabbing me in an almost painful grip.

Ivy is still slumped in the backseat beside me, a trickle of blood oozing from the gash on her forehead. She’s completely still, her head lolling at an unnatural angle.

My stomach roils violently, and I have to swallow back a surge of nausea. Is she…?

“She’s alive,” Phoenix says gruffly, as if reading my mind. “For now.”

“Come on, we have to move,” he growls, already tugging me out of the wrecked sedan.

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57 Ava: Stunned

I stumble after him in a daze, my mind whirling. Phoenix? Here? How-?

What’s happening, Ava? Selene’s voice, taut with concern, rings in my head.

I shake my head mutely, too shaken to articulate a response. Phoenix is already hustling me towards one of the blue sedans idling in front of Ivy’s car. The driver, a tall, powerfully–built shifter I don’t recognize, jumps out and rushes to open the rear door.

“Get in,” Phoenix barks at me, giving me a firm shove towards the open door.

I scramble inside without protest, my entire body quivering with a bone–deep chill. The rear door slams shut, and Phoenix is already circling around to the passenger side. “Airport,” he snaps at the driver as he clambers inside. “And step on it.”

We peel away from the curb with a violent squeal of tires, the force slamming me back against the seat.

Ava, talk to me, Selene urges, her mental voice tinged with a rare edge of panic. What’s going on? Who are those men?

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12:36

57 Ava: Stunned

The image of the driver crumpling

into the back of my eyelids, making

It

one who pulled me out of

to swallow hard, struggling to compose myself. I’d tried so hard to hide. How did they

me like

to make it in time. We’re heading for the airport. That means they’re going to fly me back to the

no point running. They have more people. They have cars. They have guns. Ones that can kill shifters.

face me, his gaze raking over me, assessing. “Why do you smell like a shifter?” he

<

57 Ava: Stunned

his stare, keeping my expression carefully neutral. “Probably because I’ve been living with other shifters,” I lie. “The girl in the

too.”

mouth tightening into a grim line. “No, it’s

He knows about

does he know?

don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say evenly, lying through my teeth. He knows damn well I don’t have a wolf of my own, and they can never prove that Selene exists.

doesn’t press further, turning back around to face the front. I let out a slow, shaky breath and lean back against

just got that damn burner

expecting to be

And now this.

12:36.

57 Ava: Stunned

punished for having a few months of peace in Cedarwood.

you been with Shadowpine this whole time?” Phoenix asks, breaking the silence

onto the interstate.

a trick question to see if I’ll lie to him, or if he

hope he doesn’t know.

means

town,” I say, deliberately misinterpreting his question. “I’m not sure if

“No!”

how tense he is by the prominent veins in his neck,

turns around to look at me again. “We’ve been worried sick about you, Ava. You disappeared

Gala without a

trying to hide my incredulity. That’s complete bullshit–they’ve made it abundantly

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