Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2) by Mary Hughes

short on the sound of squealing tires behind them. “Damnola and milk.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Bruiser T. Ballsbuster. That truck that just passed? It made a U-turn and is on our tail.”
    “He followed me to Wisconsin?” Stomach dropping through the floor, Emma turned in her seat. “How did he get here so fast?”
    A string of headlights lined the road behind her, but one set were higher than the rest. She was about to concentrate her night vision to pick out details, when the monster truck roared out, passing cars like a kid playing leapfrog.
    In moments, the massive vehicle would be crawling up their tailpipe.

Chapter Eight
    Emma turned front, clutching her shoulder harness tightly enough to permanently kink it. “This makes no sense. Bruiser couldn’t beat us. We took the shortest path, straight across the lake.” She glanced at the time. Nearly three in the morning.
    No, that was Eastern time. It would be two a.m. here.
    “You’re right. And he’d have come from the east, not the west.” Gabriel’s hands remained calm and steady on the steering wheel. “I don’t know who that is, but we’re on a good road. We’ll lose him.” Flicking gears, he put on the juice.
    The car roared and leaped forward, widening the gap between them and the monster truck.
    A high whine pierced her ears—and a searing light streaked directly overhead, like a rocket.
    Ten feet in front of the windshield, fireworks exploded, with sparkling colors and billowing smoke.
    At the loud bang, Emma jolted in her seat, reflexively covering her head with her hands. Somehow Gabriel drove steadily, cutting through the smoke in a flash.
    The truck burst through the smoke after them.
    “Damn it, Light!” the driver of the truck shouted, leaning out his side window. “That’s not a car, that’s greased lightning. By my paws and claws, you need to slow the fuck down.”
    The voice was not Bruiser’s. Calling on her wolf’s vision, Emma turned in her seat and beheld a black-haired, golden-eyed, very pissed off he-wolf. She couldn’t see him well, but he looked familiar.
    “Crunchberry crap,” Gabriel muttered under his breath. “What’s wrong with him? Did he forget how to pick up a phone?”
    She turned to him in surprise. “You know that guy?”
    “Yeah.” He slanted her a sheepish grin. “That’s my brother-in-law.” He steered into the emergency lane and slowed.
    That made more sense. She didn’t think Bruiser would leave his pack to come after her in person.
    As Gabriel stopped, Emma realized the he-wolf in the truck had thrown magic like a witch. She rapidly put together the startling facts. Gold eyes, black hair, looked familiar… Add in her mother’s gossip, and the male in the truck was most certainly new alpha Noah Blackwood. In fact, his marriage to witch-princess Sophia Blue was all Emma’s mother seemed to talk about, when she wasn’t talking about Elroy. Their beautiful wedding, the gorgeous house Noah was building them, their upcoming babies. They were the William and Kate of the wolf world.
    And Noah was Gabriel’s brother-in-law…which meant Gabriel’s sister was Sophia, a witch, and he…
    Emma swallowed hard. That most probably made Gabriel a witch too . Top of the food chain, magically speaking.
    And here she was, a little iota wolf, thinking she stood even a chance with him. No wonder he’d never been interested in her.
    She should have known by his incredible irises. It wasn’t a certain sign, but magic showed in the eyes; even filtered by the glass of his spectacles, Gabriel’s star-shot blue-green gems were full of it. She cursed herself. She would have known, if her stupid infatuation hadn’t blinded her, made her see what she wanted—him available to her.
    Brakes squealed behind them. Emma dared a glance out the side view mirror. It was filled with a very large, very angry truck grill. Objects in mirror are too damned close.
    “What the hell.” The metallic boom of a slammed door