Gentry (Wolves of Winter's Edge Book 1)(53)

Blaire was crying, and her whole body was shaking. She’d probably never been in a wreck like this. She smelled like fear, and inside of him Wolf howled to be released. He was going to rip Rhett’s throat out, but first, he had to take care of his mate.

Her seatbelt was jammed. Too much pressure on it maybe, but he didn’t have time for this. No more hiding his strength from her. Blaire was about to see the darkness he was capable of anyway. Gentry ripped through her seatbelt with little effort and cradled her fall so she wouldn’t cut herself on the shattered glass more than she already had. She had a dozen cuts on her face. Every drop of her blood that spilled, Gentry would take a hundred more from Rhett.

Blaire’s window was crushed into an odd shape they would never escape from, so Gentry pulled her as carefully as he could toward his side. Gritting his teeth, he kicked his mangled door open and pulled her from the wreckage. The scent of smoke, gasoline, blood, and fur filled the air.

The wolves were still howling, getting closer, closing in, and Gentry was out of time. He rushed Blaire to the middle of the road and settled her on her feet. “Nothing’s broken?” he asked frantically, gripping her shoulders, her arms, her ribs.

“N-no. Gentry, what’s happening?”

A hunt was happening, but he didn’t want to scare her even more. Blaire was the prey, but the pack would have to go through him to get to her. “I’m gonna Change.” He cast a quick glance at Rhett, who was too fucking close to his mate now. “I’m gonna Change, and you’re gonna run. Run back to Hunter Cove. I’ll cover you.”

Blaire’s chest was heaving, and she looked around at the moonlit woods, now teaming with the Bone-Ripper Pack. “I’m scared.”

“Shhhh,” Gentry murmured, cupping her cheeks to drag her attention back to him. “Look at me. Listen to me. No matter what happens, Wolf will take care of you.” He leaned in and kissed her hard and then ripped away. “Run, Blaire.”





Chapter Seventeen




Gentry was bleeding, cut up bad from the glass. He hadn’t protected himself during the crash, but had thrown his arm over her lap instead and kept Blaire pinned against the seat. She hadn’t even stretched the seatbelt, and then he’d ripped right through it like he was pulling apart two paper towels.

Gentry was a lot stronger than she’d realized, but she could see the wolves, and there were many. Contrasting with the blue moon wilderness backdrop, most of the predators were differing shades of gray, but two were black. All had their teeth bared. All had their attention trained on her and Gentry.

How could Wolf protect her from all of these monsters and survive?

Trust me.

His blazing green eyes were begging her trust, and behind him, a dark-haired man in unlaced boots was striding toward them faster and faster.

“Run, Blaire,” Gentry demanded, his voice gone dead. The look on his face was terrifying in the moment before he turned away from her and peeled off his shirt.

“Oh, my gosh,” she said in a shaking voice as she bolted in the direction of Hunter Cove.

Nothing hurt yet. Warmth was streaming down her jawline, and she smelled like pennies, but the adrenaline was covering up the pain right now. The limp, though…the limp she couldn’t help. It was slowing her down. Gritting her teeth, Blaire pushed herself harder and faster.

Gentry had promised he would get her out of here, but she hadn’t missed it. He hadn’t promised he would make it out. If she did just as he said and was really fast, perhaps he could be okay, too.

Gunfire filled the air, and she ducked with a scream. But when she turned around, she realized it wasn’t guns at all but Gentry’s bones breaking and reshaping in an instant. His charcoal gray wolf shook his head hard as he charged a big gray wolf with light points. They were a match in size, both huge.

Blaire kept running as she watched them over her shoulder in horror. They clashed so hard she felt the powerful vibrations in the air. The wolves in the woods were following her though, closing in, angling toward her, and now the leader, a black wolf, was right on the edge of the road.

One bite and she was dead. They were so fast.

“Gentry!”

And he was there beside her for just a moment before he charged the black wolf. A gray wolf attacked his back end, and then another joined the pile. She wanted to scream. She wanted to find a log in the woods and take it to them all like a baseball bat, but Gentry was the bone-ripper here. He shredded them, and not one at a time. She’d never seen such violence in all her life, hadn’t realized what the man she loved was capable of.

His green eyes flashed at her as he slammed the black wolf against a tree in the woods. Run, Blaire.