Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

something he never wanted to feel again. Instead, his mate had been trying to save his life. She probably had. Now, it was his turn to do everything possible to save hers, starting with giving her all the information she needed to get in contact with his friends. With Percival being a traitor and not knowing if he still had any followers in the Council, they were the only ones he could trust with his life as well as his mates.
    “Listen.” Ben panted for breath as they ran. “When we get to the car, I need you to drive and get as far away from here as possible. Once you’re sure you’re safe and no one followed, I need you to call Mitch Ericson. He’s a council enforcer and one of my best friends. He will help us.”
    “Why are you telling me all of this? Where are you going to be?”
    Ben heard the panic in his mate’s voice and smelled the fear coming from her. Unfortunately, he needed to tell her the information because he felt his body starting to shut down. The drug she had given him was rapidly wearing off. His goal was to get his mate to the car. From there, he hoped she could handle everything else.
    “For some reason, I can’t shift to heal myself. I don’t think I’m going to be conscious much longer, so I need to know you can handle all of this. The only person you can trust is Mitch until we get to safety. Do you understand?”
    Before he could get Jacqi to answer, Ben led them out of the woods and into a clearing. There was a narrow lane of gravel that he assumed was the service road his mate had been talking about. He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a small silver SUV parked about two hundred feet to his right. Just a little farther , he chanted in his head as he ran toward the car.
    Once there, Ben opened the driver’s door and sat his mate in the seat. He kneeled down in the gravel and grabbed her hand. “I need you to trust no one but Mitch. Don’t talk to anyone and don’t stop until you’re sure we’re safe. Once you call Mitch, do exactly what he says. Promise me, Jacqi.”
    His mate nodded, and Ben had to accept that was the most he could do. For someone who didn’t hesitate to tell anyone who would listen to him that he’d never wanted a mate, it killed him that he wasn’t capable of taking care of her now that he’d found her. It took every ounce of his strength to stand and open the back door. He lay on his uninjured side and shut the door. He watched as Jacqi put her seatbelt on and started the car. The last thing he remembered was staring at the white knuckles on her tiny hands as they tightly gripped the steering wheel.
     
    * * * *
     
    Their escape had been way too easy, and with each mile they covered, Jacqueline grew more and more paranoid waiting for their luck to run out. She couldn’t stop looking in her rearview mirror as she drove. If she wasn’t looking behind her to make sure no one was following them, she was looking behind her to check on Ben. The man had passed out as soon as his body hit the seat, and he hadn’t moved once in the hour they had been on the road. If it wasn’t for her being able to see his chest move up and down with each breath he took, she would have pulled over several times to make sure he was still alive. She didn’t like his color at all, and judging by the amount of blood on the car seat, his wounds weren’t healing like they should have been.
    The fact that his wounds weren’t healing scared her the most. Jacqueline had grown up surrounded by shifters. She had seen injuries that would have killed a human healed in less than a day in shifters. If Ben wasn’t healing, then that meant something was wrong with him.
    Checking the mirror one more time, Jacqueline pulled off the highway and into the back parking lot of a gas station. She pulled some cash out of her bag and ran inside. Once she found the first aid section and its pitiful selection, she grabbed every bottle of peroxide off the shelf and all the gauze and bandages they had. Luckily the clerk didn’t ask any questions. Jacqueline wasn’t sure she could have come up with any answers if he had.
    Back in the car, Jacqueline climbed into the back seat and got to work cleaning Ben’s wounds. It worried her when he didn’t even flinch the whole time. Once she had him cleaned and bandaged the best she could, she climbed into the front seat and got her phone from the glove box. Thanks to her father and her hacking his files, Jacqueline had the