Taylor rolled his eyes and headed towards the ring. He was waiting for the match to start when Delma came running over.
“Taylor…” she said, panting.
“Rose. Have you seen Rose?” she asked.
Taylor frowned. “She said she was going to meet up with you guys.”
“We can’t find her. She hasn’t shown up. We went to her place to look, but it’s all trashed and destroyed. There is blood everywhere. We looked, but we can’t find her,” Delma said.
Taylor felt himself pale, the earth disappearing from under his feet. He ran off, shouting, “Tell Dominque!”
He ran as fast as he could and reached Rose’s cabin. The door was torn from its hinges, and the cabin itself was a complete mess. On the bed lay a single note that said,“I got your girl. Find me if you can.”
Chapter 19
Taylor
Taylor ran through the forest, his mind in overdrive. He knew he needed to find Rose. He had no idea who had taken her or why, or what they wanted from her. He found Dominque and told him what happened.
“I don’t know who took her. I went to the cabin and she is missing. There is blood everywhere, the entire cabin is trashed, there has obviously been some struggle. Whoever took her, left this note,” Taylor said, handing Dominque the note.
Dominque read it and said, “Call the warriors. Have them search every inch of the forest. Contact the humans and see if they saw anything important. Deploy the eagles, have them scour the lands.”
It took half an hour for the pack to assemble, time that Taylor spent running around. Yet, no matter where he looked, he could find no sign of her. Eventually he returned to ask Dominique for further instructions. Dominque was briefing the pack, giving out orders and taking control of the situation.
“My wolves!” he roared. “One of us has been taken. One of our numbers has been attacked! We will not stand by and let anyone just take one of us! We are the wolves, and no one should dare threaten us. One of us gets harmed, all of us do. Scour the forest! Leave no stone unturned! Leave no cave darkened! Let’s go!”
The wolves all howled in union and sprinted of in different directions. Taylor turned towards Dominique and said, “We need to hurry. There was so much blood all around. I don’t know where she is, or how she is. You should have seen the amount of blood, Dominique. She must be so severely injured. It was all hers, I could smell it.”
“Look. Calm down. We are going to find her, okay?” Dominque said. “Just calm down. Go with Taylor and Jacob, take the east part of the forest, use the eagles. We will find her.”
Taylor nodded and started running. He looked high and low, running constantly for the entire day. It was like she had somehow disappeared from off the face of the earth. The last time she had been seen was with Taylor, after which there had been no sign of her.
Her friends were going crazy looking for her, but they didn’t have any more success than Taylor had. Eventually the search was called off for the day, but Taylor refused to give up. He spent the night running through the forest, using his sense of smell to find any sign of her.
Dawn was near and Taylor was exhausted, but he knew he couldn’t give up. He decided to investigate the mountains bordering the forest when a sharp voice penetrated his mind.
“Taylor!” the voice said. Taylor recognized it as Rose’s and realised she was communicating telepathically. There was a case of mates out there who could talk to each other mentally.
“Rose! Tell me where you are,” Taylor shouted in his mind.
“I don’t know. In some cave. Taylor be careful, he is going to kill you!” Rose shouted back.
“Who… Who is it?” Taylor shouted.
Rose didn’t need to reply, because Taylor got his answer. In front of him stood Harry, carrying a weak Rose. He threw her on the floor and Taylor ran up to her. She was bleeding furiously; her breathing was laborious.
“I poisoned her. With pure silver. Can you imagine the pain she is in right now, Taylor? Can you imagine the agony of pure molten silver flowing through your blood stream? It’s already been a day, Taylor. She has only a few hours left before the effects of the silver become irreversible,” Harry said, laughing cruelly.
“I don’t understand. Why did you do this?” Taylor asked.
“Why? You dare to ask me why? You humiliated me! You were my friend, and you betrayed me for that whore. You made me a laughingstock in front of everyone! You forgot years of friendship for this slut, who just magically turned up in your life! Nice game you two were playing. Seems like a perfect fairy tale that you two ended up reaching the finals. You destroyed my reputation in front of everyone. This is payback!” Harry said, growling.
Taylor was burning up with anger and fury. He wanted to lunge at Harry and tear his throat apart. He controlled his anger and pulled Rose closer to him. He needed to get her to the healer. She was running out of time.
“I am taking her away, Harry. This isn’t over,” Taylor said.
“No, you are not. I broke into the healer’s cabin and stole all the silver antidote. It takes a month to brew it, so there won’t be any more in time to save her. You want it, Taylor? Come and get me.” Harry snarled.
