Chapter 21 ATTACKED
Chapter Twenty-One
ATTACKED
AVRIELLE'S POV
The silence of the car was no longer heavy with tension, but with a strange, shimmering afterglow. The humming of the engine and the blur of the passing forest felt like a dream. I kept touching the mark on my neck, the skin hot and throbbing with a heartbeat that wasn't entirely my own. It was Xavier’s—the bond humming like a live wire between us.
Xavier drove with one hand on the wheel and the other firmly anchored on my thigh. He hadn't let go of me since we left the Silver Moon territory.
"You're quiet," he murmured, his thumb drawing slow circles over the fabric of my dress. "If you're worried about the Council, don't be. I’ll burn that building to the ground before I let them touch a hair on your head."
I smiled softly, leaning my head back. "I’m not worried about them. I’m just... I’m tired. It feels like I’ve lived a hundred years in the last three days."
"Sleep," he commanded gently. "We’re still an hour from home."
I closed my eyes, letting the vibration of the car lulls me. But I didn't fall asleep. Instead, I kept feeling a prickle of unease crawled up my spine, almost like the air inside the car was suddenly thinning out or getting charged with static.
Suddenly, Xavier’s body went rigid beside me.
"Avrielle, get down," he hissed. I stuttered upward, my eyes peeling open.
"What..."
Before I could finish, a massive, dark shape slammed into the side of the SUV. The metal groaned and shrieked as the car fishtailed, tires screaming against the asphalt. Xavier fought the wheel, his knuckles white, but another impact from the roof sent us spinning.
The glass of the passenger window shattered into a million diamond shards.
"Stay in the car! Lock the doors and don't move!" Xavier roared.
He didn't wait for the car to fully stop before he kicked his door open. As he stepped out, his body shifted mid-air—bones cracking and snapping, fabric tearing—until a massive, midnight-black wolf stood where the man had been. Thorne was twice the size of any wolf I had ever seen, his eyes glowing like twin gold suns.
Through the cracked windshield, I saw the predators.
They weren't just wolves. They were also pale, unnaturally fast figures among them. I could my blood running cold as realization dawned on me.
Vampires.
They were vampires and wolves and were working together, a coordinated hit.
"Get the girl!" a voice screeched, high and cold. "Get the Alpha’s mate! Take her head!"
My heart stopped as cold sweat drenched my skin.
As if intimidating them, Thorne let out a roar that shook the very ground, launching himself into the fray. Tearing through their fur and cold flesh with his claws and fangs.
I huddled on the floorboards, glass digging into my palms, my heart hammering so hard I thought it would stop.
I squeezed hard on my dress, praying so hard I was safe in the steel cage of the car.
But... I was wrong.
Suddenly, a pale, clawed hand punched through the shattered window, reaching for my throat. I screamed, scrambling back toward the driver’s side, but the door was jammed.
Almost immediately another vampire appeared at the windshield, swinging a heavy iron crowbar. The safety glass spider-webbed and then exploded inward.
Suddenly I felt a sharp, burning agony in my side. One of them had lunged through the window with a silver-tipped blade, aiming for my heart. I twisted at the last second, and the cold metal buried itself deep in my ribs instead.
I gasped, the air leaving my lungs in as blood sprayed.
"Xavier..." I wheezed, my vision beginning to blur.
Outside, the black wolf heard my heartbeat falter.
It slowly turn his gaze to mine and the fury in them almost choked me as he went feral. He stopped defending himself, ignoring the claws tearing at his flanks as he ripped the head off the vampire leaning into the car.
Slowly, he shifted back into human form while the blood was still raining down. Xavier scrambled into the wreckage, his face a mask of horror.
"No, no, no," he choked out, his voice cracking. He pulled me from the floorboards, his hands trembling so violently he could barely hold me. "Avrielle, look at me! Open your eyes!"
He pressed his hand against the wound in my side, but the blood was flowing too fast, staining his white shirt, soaking into the champagne silk underneath. He was an Alpha—he was the Devil—but in this moment, he looked like a terrified child.
"I've got you," he sobbed, the tears streaming down his face and mixing with the blood on my skin. "I’ve got you, please. Don't do this. I just found you. I just marked you!"
I reached up, my fingers weakly brushing the wetness on his cheek. I wanted to tell him it was okay, that for the first time in my life, I felt like I was valued. I wanted to tell him I loved the way he looked at me.
But my tongue felt heavy, and the cold was starting to win.
"Xavier..." I whispered, my hand falling limp.
"Avrielle! No!"
His scream was the last thing I heard before the world turned black.