And I can’t wait.
Ryker
10 Months Later
“He’s heading south!” I hear Sawyer shout through the speaker on my phone, his deep voice breathless as he continues to track the rogue wolf. “You should be able to cut him off at the mountain pass!”
“Got it. Don’t let him out of your sight!” I growl as I quickly correct my direction, turning my truck around. The sound of my tires squealing and engine roaring fills my ears. “I’m tired of this fucker having the upper hand.”
Sawyer and I have been tracking this specific male for the past two weeks all through Alberta, Canada. Every time we come close to catching up with him, he somehow finds a way to evade us.
The thing about rogue males is they are so blinded by the bloodlust they don’t even bother to cover their tracks. But this male has been diligent about staying under the radar. He’s so far under the radar I’m starting to think he has some help.
“I’m heading east, I can help you trap him at the pass!” A female voice comes through the phone. Avery is the occasional third to our group. She was attacked and assaulted by a rogue last year. After Sawyer and I were able to subdue him, she was the one to rip out his throat. She has quickly become quite a fierce warrior.
“Sawyer, you need to shift! There’s no way you’ll be able to stay on his trail in human form!”
A thumping noise comes from the phone, and then it goes dead, meaning Sawyer took Avery’s advice and shifted into his wolf form, dropping his phone somewhere in the Canadian woods.
I push my truck to its limit as it speeds through the back mountain roads. Usually, Sawyer is the one to drive while I track in wolf form. I’m faster and stronger in my wolf form than both Sawyer and Avery, but since he was closest when we caught the scent, he went ahead.
I try to keep my focus on the task at hand, I can’t help but let my mind wander to her.
This week would have been her twenty-first birthday. We should be celebrating. I imagine we would have gone to the local bar and ordered her first legal drink, something fruity with an umbrella. It’s the fourteenth birthday I have mourned her death instead of celebrating her life. And it’s another reminder my mate is dead and I will never celebrate a birthday or holiday with her again.
Fourteen years ago, my mate was killed by a pack of rogue wolves. At the age of thirteen, I never truly comprehended the importance of having a mate or how lucky I was to have found mine so early. I was too young then to understand death. But now I surround myself with it daily. I spend my days hunting and killing rogues, so no one else ever has to know what it’s like to lose their mate at the hands of a rogue wolf.
“Ryker, you still there?” Avery’s soft voice interrupts my thoughts. “I know it’s a rough week for you—”
Before she can finish her sentence, I cut her off with a growl more beast than human. “Stop talking, Avery,” I warn her.
“I’m saying I’m here for you.”
“I know, but I don’t want to talk about it.” She knows I don’t like to drag up memories of Grey and talking about my feelings. What is there really to say? My mate is dead, and someday soon I will turn rogue myself. But until that day happens, I will hunt down every one of these evil bastards as I can. I have nothing to live for anymore, but at least I’m making a difference.
That’s what I like to tell myself anyway.
Some would argue I still have my family and pack back in Montana. But it was never the same after Grey died. The place I called home all my life no longer felt like the loving, warm place that it was. It’s more like a graveyard to me. It’s the place where my mate died, taking our future with her.
“But—”
“Avery, I’m not having this conversation with you again,” I snap, trying desperately to end this uncomfortable topic.
Ever since we found Avery beaten and battered in that motel room last year, she has desperately tried to comfort me. At first, I thought she believed she owed me something for saving her life. But I quickly realized she was interested in being more than a shoulder to lean on. I’ll admit, I may have taken her up on her offer once, but the guilt that overwhelmed me waking up in her bed was enough to make me vomit. I wasn’t meant to be with anyone but my mate. And even if she is no longer here, it still feels like cheating. Since that night, months ago, I have tried to distance myself from Avery and set up more boundaries with her.
“Sheesh, no need to bite my head off.”
“I’ve warned you about this. I don’t know why you continue to try to broach the subject,” I argue, but as I’m about to lay into her, Sawyer stumbles into the road, naked and bloodied and back in human form.
I slam on my breaks and barely swerve enough to avoid crushing my best friend. “Son of a bitch!”
Once safely on the side of the narrow road, I open my truck door and jump down onto the pavement. My heavy boots pound into the ground as I jog to where Sawyer is hunched over. I smell the blood, and the copper scent overwhelms my senses. “What the hell happened?”
“He got the jump on me. The redheaded fucker is on my last nerve,” Sawyer wheezes. His breath is short, and his face ashen. He is obviously in an immense amount of pain but trying to
