The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 502

“It’s too far,” she breathed. “I-I can’t—my ribs—”

“We’re almost there,” I said, “just one more—”

Her hand slipped as her ankle rolled. She tripped and fell, her hands slamming into the dirt. I whirled around, starting to run back toward her, but it was too late.

It happened between one step and the next. The spotlight swung back faster than it should have, faster than the pattern we’d timed it against, and it landed full on Mia’s back.

A shout went up from somewhere behind the fence, and then the alarm split the night open.

“Run!” Zane shouted.

Nodding, I hauled Mia to her feet and pulled her after me, nearly dragging her across the ground. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her sobs nearly lost below the glaring sound of the alarm and shouts. Zane doubled back, taking her other side, but cursed and ducked just as something whizzed past his head.

For a moment, our eyes met, wide and full of shock, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

They were fucking shooting at us.

Zane managed to catch Mia’s other hand, helping me haul her along. She was limping now, her rolled ankle swollen, but we couldn’t stop to hoist her up. Arrows whizzed past on either side, striking the grass around us.

Finally, the trees swallowed us, and I kept running. Branches caught my arms and my face, stinging my injuries, but I kept running, following a path that only my feet knew.

Behind us, I heard the sound of guards crashing through the brush. They’d cleared the fence.

“Left!” Zane said, cutting hard. We followed. The ground sloped downward and I nearly lost my footing on the wet leaves, momentarily losing Mia. I reached back and grabbed her hand and she grabbed mine and squeezed, and we ran together through the dark until—

She stopped.

The sound was dull. Like a solid piece of something hitting the trunk of a tree.

Slowly, as if in slow motion, I turned.

One arrow jutted from Mia’s spine.

Callum’s face appeared in my vision, one arm above my head, caging me against a tree. His face went tight with pain, and I saw feathers sticking out of his shoulder, but I didn’t have a chance to register it before he was standing and hauling me to my feet along with him.

“We have to go,” he said. His lips formed the words, but I hardly heard them over the sounds of the alarm blaring through the forest and distant shouts and my blood rushing through my ears.

“Mia—”

“I’ve got her.” Zane’s voice was low, thick. I looked over to see him carefully lifting her, and she looked so small, so fragile, so…

“We. Have. To. Go.” Callum grabbed my hand. Steely eyes were shining in the moonlight, his wolf pressing just beneath the surface.

I swallowed. Nodded.

In a swift movement, he shifted. A moment later, his wolf, dark and angry, shook off the arrow and nudged me forward with an enormous muzzle. I stumbled, catching myself. Zane was already racing into the forest, Mia’s head lolling over his arm.

Callum gave me another nudge, and I followed Zane deeper into the forest, leaving the chaos far behind.