On my way. Don’t engage alone.
I didn’t plan to, but I damn well wasn’t waiting around twiddling my thumbs, either.
I followed the scent trail into the woods, each step sinking me deeper into another predator’s territory. And closer to the danger my wolf had sensed since yesterday.
I wasn’t letting anything get near Alara again. Not ever.
The deeper I followed the scent, the more wrong it felt.
It looped around in an illogical pattern. Twice I circled the same outcropping of rock without meaning to, and the third time my wolf bared his teeth inside me.
Whoever sabotaged the trial knew how to lay a false path. They’d left just enough scent to draw me in circles while they focused on something else.
Or someone else.
A cold jolt slid down my spine as I crouched beside a patch of disturbed earth. The soil wasn’t scuffed from running or fighting. It was packed into a single, tight oval.
A waiting spot. They hadn’t just been lurking, they’d been anticipating. Someone had stood right here, watching the direction I’d come from.
My head lifted slowly, instincts flaring so violently my teeth ached. My wolf slammed against my skin, his claws scraping. The air was too still, and the silence too heavy.
Then the mate bond detonated through my chest. I sensed fear from Alara.
It slammed into me so hard that I staggered. My breath locked in my chest, and my pulse roared in my ears.
She was terrified.
“Alara.” The name ripped straight out of the place in my soul fate stitched together when it made her mine.
My wolf erupted, and I didn’t fight him this time. There was no room left for restraint.
Bones snapped, muscles tore, and fur burst across my skin in a violent surge. The scent of the unknown lynx still lingered, but it vanished behind the overwhelming pull of my mate.
I hit the ground on four paws and launched forward at a full sprint. Trees blurred in the edges of my vision, and rocks shattered under my claws. Every instinct screamed for me to get to her.
Hoping Keane was close to her, I sent him another frantic message.
Get to Alara. She’s in danger.
Not waiting for a reply, I drove harder, every breath a snarl. If the bastard who scared her was still on this mountain, he wouldn’t walk away.
I would tear the entire forest apart to get to my mate.
Her fear spiked through the bond again, and I ran like hell.
Branches whipped past as I tore through the forest, Alara’s fear pounding through the mate bond and spurring me on. Nothing else existed, only the instinct to reach her before her terror went silent.
A thunderous crash shook the earth to my left.
Keane burst through the trees in full grizzly form. His roar shook the canopy overhead, echoing my own rage.
To my right, another wolf exploded into view, even larger than mine. Kace.
They flanked me without hesitation. Three predators slicing through the forest in perfect formation.
My claws tore up moss and soil as we raced deeper into the mountains. A snarl snapped through the air from above, and I skidded to a stop, my head jerking up.
A shadow leaped off a ridge, landing on a lower ledge with the grace only a lynx could manage. Stone cracked under his weight before he pushed off again, launching straight down toward us. The lynx that hit the ground in a crouch was biggerthan any I’d heard of. His size meant he could only be Caelan. His eyes were wild, feral. He’d felt her fear too.
