The tears had stopped long ago, and I could finally see who had taken me. A wolf with matted and ratty fur, dead eyes, and dulled canines. Though he had scars lining his brown-furred torso, some of his body parts weren’t brown at all and didn’t seem as if they belonged. He had a white hind leg that looked to be sewn onto him, a black tail, and an ear that was half-bitten off and sewn back together with a fox hide.
A monster made of innocent animals.
He gazed at the puncture wounds in my wrist and then at my leg, inching closer to me.
I pulled my knees to my chest, my eyes widening in realization. He was the same wolf that had saved me the other day from Jeremy’s killer.
What was going on? Was he saving me?
After whimpering softly, he nudged my leg. I swallowed hard, having just an ounce of trust in him, and slowly let my leg down to the ground. Blood gushed out of the wound, all the raw muscle exposed. The wolf dipped his head and licked my wound.
Almost instinctively, I jerked my leg back into the air, and a stinging sensation shot through my entire body. He growled at me, and I hesitantly placed my leg back onto the ground, watching a thin layer of skin heal over my gash. My eyes widened in amazement, and I held out my wrist for him to do the same.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked, rubbing my healing wrist. I didn’t know if he could understand me.
He lowered his head, almost in submission, and that was when I saw it. Under his fur, just where his C7 and T1 vertebrae met, something glowed the faintest color white. My eyes widened, and I drew my fingers across the back of my neck, feeling the stone underneath my fingers.
“You … you have the stone …” I breathed. “That’s why you’re helping me?” I drew my brows together. “Wh-what are … who are you?”
Without giving me an answer, he walked to the front of the cave, gazed down the hill, and waited. I pushed myself to a seated position and swallowed hard. If he had the stone … that meant we didn’t need Tony anymore.
But who the hell was this guy? Did the stone connect us somehow? Could I trust him not to hurt me more?
“What do you use it for?” I asked, hoping that he’d give me some indication that he could understand me, but instead, he continued to ignore me. I sighed through my nose and rested my head against the cave wall.
Cries from my old and new pack echoed through the forest. Everyone I loved was being slaughtered by his kind. I had to do something about it. I couldn’t just wait here until the end of my days.
After grasping on to any part of the rock wall that I could, I stood and hobbled toward the exit. The wolf turned around, baring his teeth at me, foam dripping from his mouth. I swallowed hard but continued forward, needing to help my mate and my pack.
The hound growled again and stood in front of the cave in a menacing manner. While he didn’t make eye contact with me, he lowered his head and stared right at my hips, watching my every move.
“I need to go help my friends,” I said, stepping forward. My mind became fuzzy, little stars appearing in my vision. I must’ve lost too much blood.
He stepped toward me, and I stumbled back and fell right onto my ass. I hit the ground with a thud and grasped my wounds, a searing pain shooting up my limbs. I felt helpless. Absolutely helpless … just like Mom had thought I’d be. I couldn’t even make it past a stupid hound, who was locking me in this damn cave. How could I ever lead? Who would even follow me?
Chapter 40
Ares
Hounds.
Hounds everywhere.
Saliva dripping from their teeth. Black eyes as dark as a new moon. Claws ready to rip into our fur.
There were so fucking many of them that I didn’t know which to kill first. They had emerged from the forest, surrounded us, trapped us in.
A growl ripped from my throat as I killed hound after hound. Aurora’s pack had to have set us up. How else would the hounds have known to attack while we were here? But how had they known we were coming? Who had fucking told them?
Pools of blood covered the forest floor. My fur was matted. Bodies of wolves from both our packs lay lifelessly on the ground around me … but the deadly hounds kept coming. They didn’t stop. Ever.
All I needed was to protect Aurora behind me. I trusted my pack to kill and to get back home.
A wolf swiped their claws across my chest, and I growled. Instead of another hound, it was Aurora’s mother. When she leaped at me, I dug my claws into her underbelly and ripped her into two. She fell at my feet, her eyes glazing over and her body shifting back into her human form.
Turning back to Aurora, I froze.
Where was she? Where the fuck did she go? Why wasn’t she here?
“Aurora,” I said through the mind link. I ran through the entire pack, desperately trying to find her among the wolves, trying to pick up her scent, anything. “Aurora, answer me.”
But I couldn’t pick up any scent of lemon in the midst of all this chaos and bloodshed. My chest tightened.
No. No. No. No. No. This couldn’t be fucking happening. I didn’t fucking believe it. My mate couldn’t be
