Shifters

Chapter 20

Kayla couldn't stop crying, the crate she was in bounced wildly around the back of the truck. She had watched with horror as the fight took it's deadly turn for Raul, and now only one thing echoed in her mind.

It's all my fault.

Her cousin had been torn apart, right in front of her. She couldn't save him, she was hopeless and weak and useless. He died protecting her, now his new wife, no more than two weeks into their marriage, was left a widow. She knew that she was next. The heir of her pack, and Raul, the next in line if something should happen to her, were both gone. That meant the Pelisian family would surely fall. Anthony would try to lead them as long as possible, but with no heir to eventually take his place as alpha, the delicate balance would be tipped. The pack would be left in disarray and confusion, fights would break out, and eventually they would dissolve into other packs, and Pelisian would be no more. Unless the Serius pack murders them before they can dissolve.

"No!" She cried out sorrowfully.

She tremored, and choked on her sobs, as she lay flat on the floor of her crate. The bars of it swallowing her up and putting her to shame, tied to the floor so she couldn't stand and get the attention of people in the cars. But even if she wasn't tied down, she probably wouldn't get up. She couldn't even muster the strength to howl anymore.

She heard the high pitched squeal of tires and smelled the putrid scent of burning rubber. It reminded her of when Raul had first started driving, and he took her into his car and spent hours drifting and burning rubber, laughing incessantly at Kayla's panicked face. Her memory snapped to a close when Damian jumped onto the truck bed.

At least, she believes it was Damian, she couldn't be sure. It was tough to see through her tears and focus over her hyperventilating. His musky scent entered her nose seconds later, and confirmed what she thought.

He knelt down by the bars of the cage and pulled at them. They wouldn't move. Then he narrowed his green eyes at her. Her shoulders were shaking as she cried, and the cuffs that held her were so tight that her wrists were turning purple.

"This is no time to be feeling sorry for yourself!" He spat out.

She growled. "You try watching your cousin die!" She shrieked. Then her heart broke, as Raul's blood, some of it splattered on her dress, flashed over her eyes and she buried her face into her arm. "It's all my fault!"

Damian sighed deeply, staying low so the hunters wouldn't see him. "Look, you can't think about that right now." He assured confidently. Though in all honesty, he knew that was near impossible. "He was still alive when I found him, and Amarie got help for him. Either way, I need to get you out of here, now, so you can tell your father what happened." She peeked at him from under her arm. Her eyes were bloodshot, and stained with the brutal fight she had witnessed. "They'll never believe me. They'll smell me there, and assume that I caused all of this, then there will be a war. They need to know it was the hunters."

"He was alive?" She asked quietly, with a shaky voice.

"Last I saw, yes and getting help. He begged me to get you back home. So, please, listen, so we can get you back to him and your pack."

She nodded obediently. Home. She wanted desperately to get back, make sure Raul was okay, and run into her parents' arms. She needed her parents. He crawled around to the front of the crate, they hadn't put any extra locks in place, so he opened it easily. There was a hacksaw laying on the truck bed, he used it to start slicing at the cuffs. He realized that the reason her wrists were turning purple was not only because the cuffs were too tight, but because they were silver. They were burning her this entire time. When he got through the first cuff, and her arm was free, he quickly began working on the second. The car hit a pothole, and he bounced with it, losing his grip on the hacksaw and sending it into her arm. She screamed in recoil.