Page 11 of Hellhounds Never Lie

"Couple of miles."

That was doable. As long as Ash managed to keep us ahead of the others and out of the ditch, we should be fine.

"The wolves up in the hills are assholes, but I've never heard of them hunting people down. Or do they do this all the time and no one's ever found the bodies?" Ash paled at the idea.

"I know something the alpha doesn't want me to tell anyone else. That's why they're after me," I said. It was weird how much I wanted to ease the little witch's worry. I couldn't imagine Ash sleeping at night if he thought the hills were full of werewolf serial killers.

Ash grunted and clenched his fingers around the steering wheel as he guided us around another bend. As soon as we survived the turn, the witch peeled his fingers off the wheel and fished for something in his pocket. He pulled out a phone. He fumbled with it for a second, unlocking it, then tossed it to me.

"Look for Van Clark in my contact list. Call him and tell him what's going on."

I didn't want to take my eyes off the other truck that long—particularly when the damn thing was getting closer—but having backup might be a good thing.

The call was answered on the first ring.

"Ash? Did you find him?"

"Hey. This isn't Ash. He told me to tell you we're being followed—"

"Chased." Ash shouted, presumably so the guy on the other end of the call could hear. "Not followed, chased. By a truck. Along the old Spruce Road."

The guy on the phone—Van, presumably—swore.

"Did you hear all that?" I asked.

"Yeah… I'm coming."

Our pursuers rammed into our bumper. The phone flew from my hand, landed on the floorboards, then tumbled out of sight beneath the seat. The truck skidded. Ash cursed.

"Are they trying to kill us?" Ash shouted.

I laughed. "Yeah. Pretty sure they are."

"I'll haunt those fuckers and make their lives miserable." Ash laughed then too. It sounded desperate and not at all happy.

Well, that thought sobered me up. I mean, I wasn’t concerned about myself. I was hard to kill, but a witch was more fragile. Sure, this guy was powerful, but a witch’s body wasn't built to withstand physical trauma and fights like a shifter. A strange pain cut through my chest at the idea of this witch being injured because of me, because of the trouble I brought, however unintentionally. I'd barely even met the guy, but I didn't want to see him harmed.

"Shit, I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have gotten in—"

"Shut the fuck up," Ash growled. It was a surprisingly menacing sound coming from a witch. "I'm concentrating and don't need your sorry ass apologies when we both know this is on that dumbass wannabe alpha."

I bit back a grin at the witch's command, I’d always had a thing for the feisty ones. Yeah. Like now was the time to think with my dick. I eyed our tail. Ash had pulled ahead by a few feet, but the others were gaining on us again. I twisted and peered into the back seat. If I crawled back there, I could fit through the window closest to the other vehicle. Probably. If I jumped onto it, I could… do what? I wasn't sure. But it'd at least get the attention off Ash.

"Don't you fucking dare," Ash shouted when I started to crawl into the back seat.

Then over the cacophony of country music, revving engines, and gravel clunking against the undercarriage was the shrill whine of a siren.

"We're almost there and I can hear sirens," Ash said.

Apparently, the wolves in the other vehicle could hear the sirens too because suddenly they dropped their pursuit. Then they spun a one-eighty and raced back down the road.

Ash didn't slow. We flew past theTown of Willow Lakewelcome sign. An unexpected jumble of unfamiliar magic enveloped me. Two cop cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring shot past us in pursuit of the wolf pack's vehicle. Another car threw a quick U-turn and followed us.

"Hey," I said, "we made it. You can stop now."

When Ash didn't respond, I risked touching him to jolt him out of his panicked flight through town. The witch blinked, like he was finally aware of his surroundings.

"Shit," Ash muttered, but he pulled the vehicle over and stopped. He was still white knuckling the steering wheel when the cop exited his vehicle and walked alongside the driver's side.