Suddenly, Kane was no longer supporting me. I was weightless and careening backward toward the ravine. I had a sickening moment of revelation then. Kane hadn’t been agreeing to fight Ace fairly. He was doing what he’d always done: taking the cowards way out. Like that day on the hillside, he was casting me toward danger to create a diversion so he could save himself.
The only problem was, this time, I wasn’t going to just break a bone or two by falling. This time, I would absolutely break myneck, shatter my body. The chasm was far too deep. The only sure thing that rested at the bottom was my demise.
The plan worked exactly as Kane had wanted it to. He dashed toward the woods as everyone was watching me. In the distance, I heard Ace scream my name. Then, I was tilting backward, into the yawning maw of the ravine as Ace and Mad Dog tried to reach me before the dark void swallowed me whole.
“Cat! No!” Ace screamed, as he raced toward me.
Even in my drugged-out haze, I could tell that he was too far away and wasn’t going to reach me in time. Then, the strangest thing happened. It was like I was hovering on an invisible cloud in midair.
“Hurry, Nathan!” Kierston shouted from the treeline, her concentration so fixed on me I could see her shaking even from a distance. “I can’t hold her for long. Go stop Kane!”
Doubling his efforts, Ace ran so fast toward me he was an actual blur. Snagging my arm, he pulled me up and away from the depths of the ravine. Some rock debris tumbled into the abyss behind me, and it took several seconds before I heard it reach the bottom. The fatal depths my own body would have fallen into if Kierston and the pack hadn’t been here to save me from it.
I crumpled into Ace’s arms as Kierston collapsed in exhaustion onto the ground. I didn’t know much about witches and spells, but I could see the one she’d just cast had taken all of her energy.
Too exhausted to do anything but cry, I clung to Ace like he was a lighthouse in the eye of a storm. My rock, my soul mate, was here and I was alive in his arms. His scent and embrace were what I needed most in this world, would always need most, and I’d almost lost him after we’d only just found each other.
“You’re safe, baby, you’re safe. I’ve got you,” Ace soothed, as he held me tenderly.
“He escaped,” I wailed. “And he never told me where Anna was. This was all for nothing!” Sobs wracked my body, my heart broken that my best friend’s nightmare was still going on and there was nothing I could do to end it.
“The club found Anna, Cat,” Ace revealed, rubbing my back while he cradled my head against his chest. “One of Kane’s men sold him out in exchange for cash and immunity from our club’s retribution.”
Leaning back, I gazed up into Ace’s handsome face. “They found her? Really? Is she okay? Where was she?”
Stroking my head, Ace did his best to answer all of my questions. “She was being kept in the basement of one of their shops. She’s been through a lot, Cat, but she’s going to be okay.”
I was devastated by what my friend had gone through, but I was overjoyed that Anna had been rescued. Tears of overwhelming emotion continued to pour down my face. “When can I see her?”
“Soon,” Ace told me. “She’s seeing a doctor and has been given some meds to help her sleep for a bit.”
I shuddered at that. “I need to see her as soon as she wakes up. She can’t be alone at a time like this.”
“She’s not,” Ace promised, “the club’s Doc is with her.”
Lifting me in his arms, Ace began to carry me back down the mountain. He stopped where Mad Dog was kneeling beside Kierston, checking her vitals to make sure she was okay.
“I’m fine,” she was telling the ware, who was fussing over her like a mother hen. “I just need a minute to recover, is all. Some spells are harder on a girl than others,” she jested, but her fatigued tone gave away how wiped out she was.
The attentive ware snorted. “You’re coming back to the clubhouse where Doc is going to give you a thorough exam. No arguments.”
When the squabbling pair had grown quiet, I said, “You saved my life, Kierston. I’ll never be able to repay you for that. Thank you.”
Kierston’s cheeks grew red-stained at my heart-felt words. “It was nothing. Really. I’m just so happy you’re safe.”
“It was her life,” Ace empathically stated. “It’s everything.”
Mad Dog scooped the petite woman up and began walking a few steps behind his president. I was listening to the pair chatting in hushed tones when I spotted some movement up ahead.
“Where have you been?” Ace queried into the dark, one arm scooped supportively under my legs while the other was wound protectively around my back.
A deep male voice answered, “We got here as fast as we could, Prez. Cage and Gunner were pulled over by the cops on the way over. They’re a few minutes behind us, but won’t be long,” Domino answered, his voice a deep base.
I’m not sure if was all the foul venom my system had been flooded with, or the trauma I’d been through in the last several hours, but in my woozy state, I suddenly got an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. It was as though the universe was telling me I was exactly where I was supposed to be, at exactly the righttime. Before I could explore that thought further though, my stomach clenched, and I cried out, instinctively cradling it with my shaking hands.
“What’s wrong? Did Kane hurt her?” Blitz demanded with concern.
“I think I’m changing,” I moaned, as I tried to deal with the pain. “My stomach! It hurts so bad!”
