Somewhere far away, she knew Jakob would be searching for her. And for the first time since this nightmare began, Mallory wasn’t sure he could save her at all.
CHAPTER 25
Jakob
Jakob felt it before he saw anything.
The fear slammed into him like a blade between the ribs, both sharp and absolutely not his own. The same fear he had felt when he first met her dangling from the cliff.
Mallory.
The bond he refused to name and hadn’t dared examine too closely flared hot and violent in his chest and stole the air from his lungs. It wasn’t panic though that spurred him forward. It was worse. It was knowing. Knowing she was terrified. Knowing she was hurting. And knowing he was running out of time.
Hurry up, his dragon growled with claws that scraped restlessly inside his bones.
“I am,” Jakob snarled. His breath burned in his throat as he pushed himself harder.
He’d been searching for over an hour and following every sign he could find from scuffed dirt, snapped twigs, to trampled snow. The faint metallic tang of fear that clung to the air like smoke helped. The mountain had gone unnaturally quiet ashe climbed, the way it did before violence. No wind, no night sounds. Just the crunch of his boots and the pounding of his heart.
He reached a path that had several pairs of footsteps and knew he was on the right trail. She was close. And she was in trouble.
Jakob broke into a run. His lungs screamed as he raced up the narrow mountain trail. The incline bit into his calves, but he didn’t slow. He couldn’t. The pull in his chest grew stronger with every step and dragged him forward like a hook sunk deep beneath his ribs.
Ahead, the trail funneled into a narrow opening between jagged cliffs. Voices echoed off the rock walls, harsh, mocking tones layered with low, threatening murmurs. A woman’s voice that was not Mallory’s reached his ears and he frowned. The Ruecrags usually didn’t travel with their women.
Then his confusion was cut short when a sound cut through it all.
A slap. The crack from the blow echoed off the highest peaks of the Silver Snow Mountains.
Something inside Jakob snapped as he slipped through the chasm into the clearing just in time to see it happen. Everyone had their backs to him so his entrance was unnoticed as he took in the scene before him.
Mallory was knelt on the frozen ground looking up at a man who loomed over her. His expression twisted with satisfaction as his hand cracked across her face. Her head snapped to the side and she collapsed onto her shoulder and didn’t move.
Jakob’s heart stopped when she didn’t try to get up. He couldn’t tell if it was intentional or if she was unconscious.
Blood roared in his ears. The world narrowed until there was nothing left but red and the raw, feral need to destroy. There was no time to wait for Sven and the others to arrive. Mallory needed him now.
His dragon wasn’t helping.Kill them. Kill them all. Save our mate.
“That’s what you get for disrespecting her like that,” the man growled. He lifted his boot and lined it up with Mallory’s ribs.
The ‘her’ he referred to let out a giggle and she grabbed the man’s arm. Rage obliterated Jakob’s vision so he couldn’t tell if she was going to stop him or encourage him.
He didn’t wait, and he didn’t announce himself.
He just struck. Hard.
The distance vanished beneath his feet. Dragonfire surged through his veins and burned away restraint and any mercy. Jakob hit the man with enough force to lift him off the ground. There was a sharp, wet crack as Jakob’s hands twisted and the body went limp before it hit the dirt.
The woman skittered off to the side. Another man shouted and reached for his weapon.
Too slow.
Jakob tore the blade from his grip and drove it clean through his chest, the impact shuddering up his arm. He yanked it free and turned as the clearing erupted into chaos. Men yelled.Steel flashed. Someone fired a shot that went wide, the bullet ricocheting off stone.
Jakob moved like a force of nature, fast, precise, and merciless. He ducked a swing, broke an arm at the elbow, slammed his fist into a throat. Bones cracked beneath his grip. Blood sprayed hot against the snow and steamed in the cold air.
His dragon roared inside him, furious and unleashed, its claws itching beneath his skin but he couldn’t let it out. Not here in front of the enemy.
