“We could hear you, but the path down here is almost impossible to see,” Rex answers. “It doesn’t look like you needed us, anyway.”
“I could have used an assist a few minutes ago,” I snap, wiping my face. “We have to find Sara.”
Rex takes one last look at Jackson’s body, then turns to jog up the path.
“Did you get a confession out of him?” Rex asks.
“Negative,” I yell. “I was too busy kicking his ass.”
“I would have liked some intel,” Rex answers. “Maybe we’ll get something out of his guys. Let’s move!”
He shifts into his wolf shape, and I do the same, both of us nimbly leaping back up to the top of the ridge. Luke, Dan, and Brad are waiting.
“So, you figured it out?” I ask, shifting back. Rex and Brad also take on their human forms as Luke and Dan trot to the edge of the trees.
“Oh, we knew,” Brad says. “We weren’t letting you go off alone; we were tailing you.”
“And all this time I thought I had some privacy with the old dog,” I reply. “We have to find Sara!”
Luke barks, and Brad nods.
“We think we’ve got a scent. We weren’t sure that it was her, so we were waiting for you.”
I don’t even think, I just shift back and put my nose to the wind. Immediately, I catch it. Definitely Sara’s scent, but so thin it has to be far away.
As I take another deep breath, my heart goes cold.
Tinged with copper—blood!
I bolt for the trees, faster than I’ve ever run in my life. I can hear my buddies keeping pace with me, and the great magic of being in a pack floods through me.
There is nothing on this earth like running together as one.
The energy surges in me, and makes me want to howl, but we don’t want to announce ourselves in case the men have orders to kill Sara. With every stride, her scent gets stronger, and so does the metallic hint of blood.
She’s alive, though, I can tell…unless she’s dead, but still warm…
I push myself harder, finding a new level of speed I didn’t know I was capable of. With quick twitches of my head, I search the surrounding area, looking for a path or track, anything to guide me in the right direction. As we come to a high platform, I stop and spin around, looking desperately in every direction.
The smell is so thick here…where?
Rex barks, and I turn to look where he’s pointing. On the next ridge, I can see Sara tied to a tree, with Jackson’s goons all over her.
What are they doing to her?
Sara’s scream rings out across the mountains, and I take off so fast, my paws barely touch the ground. I have to swing left back into the forest because following the line of sight down the gulch, then back up to the next ridge, would take too long.
Around me, Rex and the others take up formation, flanking me. We hit the tree line and angle back through the forest, charging straight for the others.
Sara screams again, and I know I don’t have enough time to get there. No matter how fast I run, the guys have more than enough time to kill her.
As I put on another burst of speed, my muscles tighten and threaten to seize up. I stumble, almost fall, and feel my friends’ shoulders, supporting me as I find my stride again. The trees thin out around us, and I can finally see Sara up ahead.
Bruce is in front of her, one hand wrapped around her throat. Rafe and Axe stand on either side of the tree, and despair cracks through me as I realize I’m too late.
I will shred them into tissue paper!
A rough snarl creeps through my teeth as I try to force my body to even greater speed. My eyes stay locked on the scene before me, and then, Sara moves.
