Hunt Me! (I Crave The Chase) - Page 197

“He’s awake.” I didn’t recognize the voice at first, the fogginess bleeding away for a moment as the world overwhelmed me once again. My eyes didn’t want to open, but I forced them to anyway. My lids felt heavy—so fucking heavy. Too bright, too fucking bright. I forced them shut again with a quiet whine.

Ow.

Fucking ow.

“Drink this.” Something cold pushed against my face, and I squinted, forcing my blurry gaze to focus as I grabbed weakly onto the—oh.

Water bottle.

I tried to jerk the cap off, but I was too weak. Too fucking weak.

The car wheels continued to crunch. Loud. Too loud. The woosh of my companions’ breath going in and out. The thump of three hearts, theirs and mine.

Stay open. Stay open, I willed my eyes to cooperate.

Slowly, slowly, the blinding white settled, colors returning, though they looked duller somehow. Less vibrant.

The back of Blair’s car seats were cleaner than they ever had been when I’d owned this car. And the orange soda stain from when we were kids was missing. I blamed Richard and his clean freak ways, probably.

“Here.” The bottle disappeared, and when it returned the cap was off. I grabbed it, jerking it toward my mouth, sucking it down greedily, the cool liquid soothing my aching throat. The taste of blood slowly disappeared as I chugged, and by the time I finished, I felt at least…marginally better.

“Little one, you have five minutes to wake up,” this voice was softer than the other one. Gentler. It hurt, but my head managed to move—at least enough that I could see the owners of the two voices. Everything came back in pieces as I stared at the back of?—

Theo and Butters’s heads.

Damn, had Butters’s hair always been that yellow?

Right.

We’d been at the cabin—Butters had challenged the hunters—and Theo had jumped in and I’d?—

Fuck.

“Did I…did I die?” I asked, voice cracking.

“No,” Theo said at the same time Butters said, “Yes.”

One of them was lying. I knew that. I just…wasn’t really sure how I knew that. It should’ve been logical but it wasn’t. It was something else. Thump, thump. There was a weird thudding sound echoing around in the back of my head.

“Five minutes…” I shook my head, attempting to sit up—and failing. “Five minutes?—”

“We’re going to see Silas.”

I didn’t know who Silas was.

But Theo did not sound excited.

“Silas?” I frowned.

“To help with Mutt,” Theo explained. “If we can get a Pack Alpha to claim him we can buy him some time.”

Everything came swimming back into focus.

Clarity hurt even more than the fog had.

“Harry called Dad and he’s on his way—but his flight got delayed. There’s a storm.” Theo continued to explain. “So Silas is our best bet—if we can convince him to take on a feral alpha that isn’t even from his own pack.”

“We’re going to have to be convincing,” I struggled up, heart pounding. Mutt. Mutt’s clock was ticking.