Chapter 3

The window on the passenger side shattered. Glass sprayed inward and cut a line across the driver's forehead.

He screamed and slumped in his seat, not moving.

Outside, the crowd let out a cheer. Thick arms reached through the broken glass, feeling around for the door locks.

I still had the bloody letter opener in my hand. I slashed at the arms without flinching. Wherever the blade landed, skin split open and the smell of burning flesh filled the car.

One arm pulled back, and another shoved in from the side to replace it. There were too many of them out there. I couldn't keep up.

Willa had one hand pressed to the gashes on her arm, using the other to help me shove back the hands reaching in. Her hands were slick with blood, and her grip slipped. A claw closed around her wrist.

I drove the blade in and the claw let go.

"Forget about me..." Willa's voice was shaking. "Watch your own side."

Calder stood by the front of the car, watching us struggle, something sick and pleased in his eyes.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

An Alpha's pressure exploded off him a second later.

Willa's whole body swayed. She grabbed her chest, her face going purple. The driver, still slumped in his seat, started convulsing.

The pressure hit me like a wave. My vision blurred. My ears rang, my knees buckled, and my grip on the letter opener went loose, the blade tipping downward.

Calder watched me sway and smiled.

"Kneel." His voice carried through from outside. "Kneel and beg me, and I'll go easy on you."

I clenched my jaw.

I didn't kneel.

I braced my hand against the back of the passenger seat and held myself up.

Calder's smile faltered for a second.

I didn't look at him. My hand crept up to a plain black cord around my neck.

A whistle carved from wolf bone hung on it. My brother Declan had pressed it into my hand before I left.

"If something happens, blow it."

I hadn't thought much of it at the time.

I pulled the whistle off and lifted it to my lips. My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped it.

The driver's side window went next.

Calder shoved half his body through the opening, his hand covered in black fur, fingers curved into claws, reaching straight for my throat.

"Blow all you want. There's nobody out here to hear—"

He didn't finish.

Because I already had.

The whistle cut through the air, sharp and piercing, tearing through every sound outside and bouncing off the walls of the valley.

Calder froze.

For one second, everything went dead silent.

Then, from deep in the forest, something answered.

Not an echo. A howl.

One. Two. Three. More kept coming.

The ground started to shake. Trees cracked and fell somewhere in the distance, the sound getting closer with every second.

Calder's hand stopped halfway to my throat. His pupils narrowed to slits.

Three black armored trucks tore out of the treeline, crushing the logs blocking the road, and drove straight into the clearing in front of the pack hall.

The three trucks pulled up in a triangle, boxing my car in the middle.

A door kicked open from the inside.

"Who the hell thought they could touch my sister?"