Fated to My Mate's Uncle novel · Chapter 21 of 32

Chapter 21: Stitches

Fraser stood up slowly on the dock.

He put himself between me and the shore without making a thing of it.

"Get behind me," he said.

"I am behind you."

"Further."

There was nowhere further. Behind me was the end of the dock and the green pool.

The enforcer from July stepped onto the first board.

"Give us the ring, Luna, and you can go home. Alpha only wants the exile."

"I'm not your Luna."

"Fine. Give us the ring, Carys."

I closed my fist around it.

"Come and take it."

Fraser made a sound in his chest that said he didn't love that answer.

"Carys," he said, very low, not turning his head. "Can you swim with the pup?"

"Yes."

"There's a truck on the track behind the cabin. I can smell it. Theirs."

"Fraser..."

"Pack trucks never get locked. Go."

The enforcers were coming.

Two of them had started to shift, their faces stretching, their hands curling into claws.

The one in front pulled a hunting knife from his belt.

"Go," Fraser said.

I put the ring in my mouth.

I went off the end of the dock.

The pool closed over my head, cold and green.

I came up and swam for the shallows, my boots dragging.

Behind me I heard the dock boom.

Somebody hit the water.

Somebody screamed, and it wasn't Fraser.

I got my feet under me in the reeds and ran.

Up the bank. Past the cabin's back corner. Onto a dirt track rutted from years of tires.

The enforcers' pickup sat there, pack plates, keys in the ignition.

Of course.

I spat the ring into my palm, shoved it in my pocket and climbed in.

I'd driven a stick shift exactly once, when I was sixteen.

It came back fast.

I gunned it down the track toward the water, horn blaring.

Fraser was holding the dock.

He stood at the shore end of it where the boards were narrow, with the water on both sides.

Only two could come at him at once, and two were coming.

One enforcer was already in the pool, floundering.

Another was lying on the rock where Gregor had cut his hand eight years ago, not getting up.

Fraser's shirt was dark down one side.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Fated to My Mate's Uncle from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.