Free The Better to Bite by Cynthia Eden Page B

was torn, almost ripped away entirely. I touched his arm. “Brent, wake up!”
    He didn’t stir.
    I shook him. “Brent!”
    His eyelashes fluttered. “Wh-what?” He blinked. “Anna? Why are you bleeding?”
    He could tell I was bleeding in the dark? It had taken me a while to be able to see anything.
    Rafe stood behind me. I was glad to have him close. Right then, I was totally subscribing to the safety-in-numbers idea.
    “She’s bleeding,” Rafe snapped, “because you drove your truck off the side of the road and nearly killed her, you asshole.”
    Brent’s eyes widened. He shoved up in a flash. A really fast move for a guy who’d been dead to the world a moment ago. He swore and touched the back of his head. This time, I was the one to see the blood that stained his fingertips.
    But he just wiped the blood on his jeans and pushed to his feet. When he tried to take a step, he stumbled as his right leg seemed to give away beneath him.
Very bad sign.
I caught him before he hit the ground again. Rafe didn’t move to help Brent.
    “You’ve got to get her out of here,” Brent said, wincing, and I knew something was wrong with his leg. The kind of something that would make getting out of there extremely hard. “Rafe, man, take her back up to the road.”
    “There are wolves out here.” I looped his arm over my shoulders. “No one is staying behind, got me?”
    Rafe and Brent looked at each other. Okay, what was up with that almost angry look? If I hadn’t been bleeding and hurting and scared, I would have yelled at them both. Oh, why not? “
We’re all moving!”
My voice was definitely close to a yell.
    “Let me have him.” Rafe gently pushed me back and pulled Brent’s arm away from me. “Is it your ankle or knee?”
    “Both,” Brent gritted. “But just give me some time, and I’ll be fine.”
    Right. Some time, a doctor and a hospital stay. “Tell me your motorcycle is close by,” I said to Rafe.
    He shook his head. “Not close enough.”
    What? “Then how’d you find me? How’d—” Never mind. I was bleeding, wolfie could come back at any moment, and priority one was to get to safety ASAP. “Tell me who owns the closest house or the name of the closest gas station or—”
    “What?” Brent sounded lost.
    Good. Soon, I wouldn’t be. “
Tell me
.”
    “Brent’s house is the closest,” Rafe told me. “It’s up to the—”
    Brent’s house.
I closed my eyes for just a second. “I know.” Then I scrambled back to the truck. Found my trusty mace—a girl couldn’t leave home without it—and I started walking. “Come on!” My voice definitely snarled then. Couldn’t help it. I was running on fumes. “Follow me!”
    “She doesn’t know where she’s going,” Brent said, his voice low. “You need to take her—”
    I glanced over and met his stare. “I know. Now just trust me, and come on. I bet I know how to get there faster than you guys do.”
    They didn’t speak.
    But Rafe inclined his head. Good. Relief had me feeling a little light-headed. Or maybe that was the blood loss.
    I took up a position under Brent’s left shoulder, wanting to help, and we started moving.
    My breath seemed too loud in my ears as it sawed from my mouth. Rafe and Brent were almost too silent. I glanced at Brent and saw the lines of pain on his face.
    I guided them, taking them up higher, higher, as we twisted through the trees.
    “How do you know where to go?” The question was Rafe’s. I didn’t answer. Just kept walking. Explaining then would have taken breath and energy that I just didn’t possess.
    Soon we could hear the faint beat of music and see the lights from Brent’s house through the trees. I called out, yelling for help, but no one came rushing toward us.
    “They won’t hear you,” Rafe said. “Not with the party going on.”
    I yelled for help anyway. There’d been no sign of the wolf again, but I’d sure been looking over my shoulder a lot. The goosebumps on my arms