Probably because he didn't have to. Sloan waited until his grill was barely past Cade's taillights and then wrenched his wheels to the right, smashing hard into the side of Cade's truck and sending them into a spin.
At this speed, there was no way to correct. "Hold on!" Cade bellowed as his truck slid across the two-lane road as though it was covered in ice, bracing for the impact he knew was coming.
There was a sudden, deafening sound of twisting metal and breaking glass. The last thing Cade saw was a massive redwood trunk looming straight ahead.
Then nothing.
"Cade…"
It hurt to speak—Emily could manage no more than a choked whisper that made everything hurt. She blinked away the swirling black fog in front of her eyes. When her vision cleared, she saw smears of blood on her arms and legs, seeping from what seemed like dozens of tiny cuts. Most of her body ached, but the worst pain stretched across her chest and deep into her rib cage.
The seat belt.
No doubt it had bruised the hell out of her ribs, but it had also saved her life, keeping her from flying through the windshield.
But Cade hadn't been wearing one.
"Cade!"
Emily tried to shout, clawing at the buckle, ignoring the pain until she managed to free herself. She twisted to look in the driver's seat—then wished she hadn't.
Cade was slumped forward over the steering wheel. One arm dangled limp, the other splayed at an unnatural angle onto the dashboard. Blood splattered the console, great splashes of it, and more seeped from a deep gash on his head.
Emily tried to crawl over the seat toward him, ready to shake him back to life if she had to—but before she could make her limbs move properly, the passenger door was wrenched open, and a meaty hand grabbed her arm. Her scream was cut short when she felt herself yanked out of the truck and into a pair of arms covered in battered leather.
She didn't need to see his face to know who had her. "Let me go, Sloan!"
She had to get to her mate. It was the only thing that mattered. But another hard yank was her only answer.
"I said, let me go!" Emily fought with a strength she never knew she had, hammering Sloan's forearms with her fists, kicking at his shins. But it wasn't enough.
"I heard you, whore," Sloan growled, his arms unyielding. "I just don't fucking care."
With what seemed like barely any effort, he dug his fingers so deep into the muscles of her arm that she howled as he dragged her away from the wreck. She dug her heels into the ground but succeeded only in carving twin furrows into the dirt.
"You don't understand," she screamed, as Sloan tossed her into the cab of his truck, the impact taking her breath and adding to her bruises. "I have to go to him. He could be dying."
"Good." Sloan slammed the door shut. "Saves me the trouble. Now I only got one of you left to get rid of."
Tears stung Emily's eyes as she kicked at the door, but he'd locked it from the outside. She scrambled over to the driver's side, but before she could escape that way, a burly alpha in a hunting jacket appeared and blocked the door with a mocking grin.
"Don't think so, bitch," he taunted. "We came a hell of a long way to get you back. We ain't gonna let you go that easy."
Emily frantically tried to get a glimpse of Cade but was blocked by the three alphas clustered around the truck, who were howling with laughter at her pain.
"Oh, don't be sad, slut," the burly alpha said, grinning to show a mouth full of crooked teeth. "We'll make sure you're not lonely, now that your lover's dead."
"That's right," the third alpha, a red-haired man with a florid face to match, joined in. "Sloan says that since you've taken up whoring, we can get a taste of that sweet omega slick of yours before he destroys your ass."
"Don't know why you'd want to," Sloan observed, cracking his knuckles. "That fat pig ain't much to look at."
Emily kicked harder at the door, thinking of Cade, alone and bleeding. She delivered an especially savage blow to the window, putting all her strength behind it, and a spiderweb of cracks covered the glass.
"You bitch!" Sloan roared. "What the fuck do you think you're doing to my truck?"
He appeared to be about to throw open the door and beat her right then and there…but something stopped him.
All three of the alphas stilled and raised their heads to the wind.
"Shit!" Sloan slammed an open hand against the window, sending broken glass raining down onto Emily. "Company's coming. We gotta go."
He stormed around to the driver's side as the other alphas scattered to their own trucks. He started the engine and took a moment to scowl at her, angrier than she'd ever seen him before.
"Don't think this is over, bitch. You've been more trouble than you're worth, and now you're gonna pay."
Chapter Seventeen
"He's not dead. I can hear a heartbeat."
Cade struggled to put his finger on the voice. It would be easier if he could see who was speaking, but for some reason, everything was dark. Were his eyes even open? Cade tried to blink but was rewarded with a searing blast of pain behind his eye sockets.
Still, there was something familiar about the voice. Cade felt like his mind was full of dense fog that was slowly dissipating. He was pretty sure he knew the speaker—and that whoever it was, he didn't like Cade all that much.
"Of course he's not dead." A different voice—one Cade had no trouble naming: his neighbor, Zeke. "We'd never be that lucky."
"Hey, Cade.” The first voice sharpened just as Cade managed to pry his eyelids open, the light feeling like knives stabbing his eyeballs. He found himself staring at the windshield of his truck, the image fuzzy and wavering. It was at an odd angle.
Oh—no, wait; he was at an odd angle, lying on the steering wheel, his arm on the dashboard. Weird place for a nap. "He's coming around."
The memory of the giant tree hurtling straight for them flashed into Cade’s head. Alarms blasted in his mind as he braced his hands on the dash and pushed himself back, rewarded with stabbing pains all over his torso and arms. His palms slipped on something slick.
Shit. He had to be fucked up pretty bad to have such a hard time just sitting upright. He wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands to clear them—and they came away red with blood.
Cade fought the cottony feeling in his mind. Standing outside the open driver's door of the truck were two of his alpha brothers, Zeke and—it came back to him with a flash of clarity—Aric.
"Welcome back, brother," Aric said, letting his hand briefly rest on Cade's shoulder. "We were worried we might have lost you there for a second."
"'Worried' is probably too strong a word," Zeke grumbled. "You've made a hell of a mess of your truck."
"What the hell happened?"
Cade twisted his head painfully to see Maddox—the only alpha in the settlement whose reputation for hostility exceeded Cade's—glaring at him.
Three fucking alphas. But where was—
"Emily," Cade croaked. "Where's Emily?"