As I walked into the cave, my eyes adapted to the endless darkness. The pungent smell became stronger when the growls suddenly stopped. The sound of a high-pitched whimper makes my heart jolt for a second until we stumble across the bear. Torn to pieces, its fur lying in clumps on the cave floor.
Tim notices the dead bear a little too late as he trips over its fallen form. A shriek of fear left him before I gripped his arm, pulling him from the torn-up remains, his body drenched in the blood of the huge bear. Surely she didn't do that, as I looked down at its torn-out guts spilling over the ground, organs ruptured and on display. I could tell her blood had been spilled too, her scent everywhere as we continued our trek through the winding caves. Tim jumped at every noise irritating me.
"Why are you so jumpy, nothing to fear in these caves except myself," I tell him, and he stops looking at me.
"I would rather take on you than her," he says, making my brows furrow in confusion. He was scared of my little mate? Standing next to a hybrid, and he is scared of a she-wolf?
"Just hurry up, before we lose her scent," I tell him, pushing him ahead where I can keep an eye on him.
The cave comes out on another side of the mountain, a side that I actually recognized as Red River Pack territory. Looking out at the forest, I know she must have headed for the road crossing between packs. Jumping over a fallen tree, I listened, looking for any sound I could pick up, listening for the sound of paws on the dirt. Only I got nothing, not even a whiff of her scent. Not a single sound. I never met a rogue that wasn't happy to find their mate, especially one from a pack. Most would jump at the chance to be taken into the safety of being in a pack, instead of surviving off their hunting skills and ability to survive in the wild. I found it odd she was going to the extremes of taking on a bear just to evade me.
Slowly trekking through the forest, careful not to make much noise, though noise was inevitable in a forest this thick.
"How long have you known them for?" I whispered to Tim.
"Not long, they came with the hunters." He says, making me stop. So my mate is one of the ones helping the humans. I couldn't stop the growl that escaped my lips. Once again, the moon goddess cursed me with a dud for a mate. Bad enough, she is a rogue, now she is a traitor to our own kind.
"You know her name?" I ask him.
"Never spoke to her, never seen her either, only her wolf." He says, forcing me to stop again. Something was definitely amiss, exactly what is my mate hiding or, more importantly, who is she hiding from? We moved through the forest for around ten minutes, before I picked up her faint scent. She can mask her scent, but not her blood, and she was running directly toward Tate's Pack. Smart girl, she backtracked. Using the mind-link, I summon Tate and Drake.
"She is about to hit your Pack edge. I think she is heading for the road.," I tell them.
"On it, are you sure it's her?" Drake asks.
"Positive," I tell him before taking off, leaving Tim behind to follow my scent. If he is smart, he will follow or die by Tate's warriors.
Zipping through the trees and jumping over fallen debris and rocks, I can just see the road coming into my line of vision through the trees, Tate and Drake's black wolves running toward me when I spot her white fur. They herded her back toward me, and now I was going to catch her.
Picking up my pace, I manage to get right on her tail, tackling her, and we roll. She pivots just in time, her teeth sinking into my shoulder, her claws ripping down my bicep before we both hit a tree, sliding along the leaves. I tried to keep a grip on her, but she managed to slip out from under me and run for the road, which was about twenty meters away.
Tate and Drake were on her heels alongside me as we chased after her.
Lights illuminating the road signaling a car was coming down the road. I watch as she doesn't even stop, just keeps running. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Drake grab Tate by the scruff of his neck, ripping him back as they slide across the dew-covered ground, stopping just before the road, yet she keeps running. The screech of brakes on the Bitumen road squealed loudly as the driver tried to break in time.
The car narrowly missed me as it swerved around me as I tried to grab her. The back end of the car slid out and took her out. Sending her skidding across the ground. White fur covered the road along with a blood trail. Everything happens so quickly as I watch her wolf hit the ground, being flung like a rag-doll before rolling, her wolf being forced to shift, and I watch horrified as the road skins her before coming to a stop in a heap on the ground.
The driver jumped from the car in a hurry, and I noticed it was Elias, Drake, and Tate's Beta driving Drake's truck. "It came out of nowhere," He screams, rushing over to her alongside me. Drake, Tate and I could hear her shifting back as we approached her body, where it had stopped some thirty meters from the car.
She crawls to her hands and knees, and all I could see in the moonlight is the golden blonde hair drenched in blood cascading to the ground around her. I heard her groan when her head snapped in our direction. What I wasn't expecting was to see Amber and Emerald Green glowing eyes like a snake reflecting back at me. All of us were freezing on the spot. She growls loudly in warning as I find my feet and step toward her naked form. Under normal circumstances, I would be pissed she was naked in front of other men, but considering she was covered in blood and the circumstances, it didn't faze me. What I did however was watch her stand. Her left leg was clearly broken, the bone jutting out the side and protruding through her skin as she tried to stand.
One arm now hanging limply before I watch as she grabs it, yanking it back into place with an audible popping sound. Tate, Drake, and Elias fanned out to the sides as we tried to cage her in because staring at the beauty that is my mate, it was clear even in this injured state she was going to try and fight her way out.