Page 61 of Chased

When they were all done, he walked back to the steps and faced them again as they Changed back. “No one hurts Madison,” he said. “Anyone even thinks about it, I will personally rip out your intestines and tie them in a bow around your neck while you bleed out.”

“Us, too,” Matéo called out. Cisco nodded vigorously.

There was still some growling and muttering as everybody started to get dressed.

“I’m not done.” His voice cracked like a whip. They all froze. “No one lets Madison get hurt, either. She’s one of us now, and she’s important to this place. So if a fucking pack of grizzly bears or a charging rhino is heading her way and I’m not there, you better throw your damn worthless carcasses in front of it and die for her.”

He let that sink in, and then said, “Now I’m done. You may resume your regular fucking programming.”

And he walked back up the steps.

Madison had woken just after dawn to find Sanchez gone, and at first she felt alone and bereft. Then she saw the coffee and the notes in the living room, and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They were so sweet, and so… utterly socially inept.

But she did know she had to find all the Sanchezes and talk to them. And she also knew she had to come clean to Gunn and the others.

The very thought of that made her stomach clench, because she loved it here and she didn’t want to see the betrayed looks on her friends’ faces when they found out she’d lied.

And she couldn’t face the idea of being told to leave. But keeping her secret wasn’t an option anymore—just the memory of what it felt like to be hunted made her dizzy and nauseous. She never wanted to go through that again.

She didn’t want the wolves to go through it either. Cisco and Matéo’s note made her think for the first time about how it would affect them or the other wolves if they did something awful to her by mistake, because she hadn’t told.

She texted Sanchez before she got dressed, but there was no answer. Then she heard the call over the PA system for the pack meeting.

Crap. Was that about her? Surely she didn’t rate a full pack meeting, just to get fired. But she dressed as fast as she could, grabbed her tablet and started over in that direction, anyway. With everyone there together, maybe she could catch her bosses before they all scattered to work for the day.

She hadn’t realized they would all be outside—or that they would almost all be in animal form. Was this a private thing? She ducked behind the nearest building, trying to hear what was being said so she would know when the meeting was about to end.

So she saw Sanchez walking around with her blanket, holding it so the wolves could get her scent. For one horrific, panicked second she imagined they were all going to hunt her.

But then she heard the last things he said—about how no one better hurt her. Heard Cisco and Matéo backing him up.

Heard him tell the whole pack that she was important, and that they damned well better be prepared to die for her.

The implication was unmistakable: He would. He’d throw himself in front of a grizzly bear or a rhino or a bullet to keep her safe.

Madison leaned back against the wall of the building, tears running down her face. After a few minutes she wiped them away. She had to get ahold of herself. It was obvious everyone already knew her secret—but that was all the more reason why she owed it to them to give them a decent explanation.

When she got over to the command center, everyone had mostly dispersed, but Sanchez was still on the porch talking to Gunn and Michelangela, with Cisco and Matéo still at his shoulders like bodyguards.

The Sanchez cousins, sticking together. Sticking their necks out for her, she realized.

The thought warmed her. For so long, she’d been used to being alone. Fighting from the shadows, tiny battles to remember who she was, and not let the Renards succeed in crushing her spirit.

But she couldn’t let other people take all the responsibility. She’d fought for the right to make her own choices, and now she had to own that. Hiding behind Sanchez and his cousins was the coward’s way out.

The younger ones tried to eat us, her lapin said. Not acceptable. We should bite their tender parts and make them bleed.

They didn’t mean it, Madison told her for the sixty-eleventh time.

Hmph.

Well, there was nothing to be done about Vixen for the moment. Like she’d told Sanchez, bunnies held grudges.

She just hoped Gunn didn’t.

Madison took a deep breath and walked over to them. Mikey caught sight of her first, and nudged Gunn, who stopped in the middle of what he was saying.

A split second later Sanchez’s head went up, and he turned and met her eyes.