A Small Victory

A Small Victory
Logan

My head whipped around to glare at Milton. Annie was my mate, and I hadn’t smelled Annie at all! How in the hell had he scented her? I took a threatening step toward him with my fists balled.

“What do you mean, you smelled her? Why in the hell didn’t you tell me?! And an even better question: how in the fuck can you smell her, but I couldn’t? I didn’t smell her at all!” I growled.

He rolled his eyes before holding out his arm to me. When I saw the tiny vine moving under his skin, I narrowed my eyes at him angrily.

“YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS TO ANSWER ME! WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON BETWEEN YOU AND MY MATE?!” I roared.

“We exchanged blood, Logan. Every alpha sow does it with their guard. I’m hers. She asked me not to tell you because she didn’t want you to be upset since you hadn’t been marked by her yet, but the vines told her to do it in case something like this happened. Having mutually exchanged blood with her it allowed me to have a bond with the vines too. While it will never be as strong as the one that she has with the vines, they have guided me, and while we were running, they guided me toward the east, but we ran into Gerry before I could follow the trail,” he explained, but I didn’t care.

It still pissed me off that he had a connection with my mate. “I’ll deal with this later!” I hissed. “Your punishment will be lighter if you lead us to our mates!”

He bowed deeply. “Yes, Alpha. Let’s go get our alpha sow and beta.”
We all shifted, and within seconds, we were running through the woods again. I was beyond livid, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from finding her. We ran for about eight minutes before Milton skidded to a halt outside a series of caves. He lifted his snout into the air and inhaled deeply as his eyes fluttered closed. As he slowly moved past the caves, Gerry and I followed him, stopping when he did. He pawed at the ground as he opened the link with me and Gerry.

‘She was here, but she’s gone now. There’s another female inside. What do you want to do, Alpha?’ he asked me.

Luge narrowed his eyes on Milton before stepping past him into the cave to verify what he said. As soon as we entered, we saw the young wolf chained to the wall by her ankle, and one long, deep inhale later, Luge stomped out of the cave, slamming his shoulder into Milton’s.

‘You are to escort this wolf to the sleuth house! Put her in the dungeons until I get home to interrogate her, but give her some food and make her comfortable. I don’t think she was in on this with Kirkland, but until we’re sure, I want to keep her imprisoned.’

‘Yes, Alpha.’

I lifted our snout into the air, inhaling deeply before anger surged in our veins. ‘Do you smell Giselda, Gerry?’

‘No! Can you smell Annie?’ he replied, digging his claws into the ground.

‘Barely. Come on! They went this way!’ I told him.

Luge took off, sprinting even more east, following the faintest trail that I had ever used to track someone. Fifteen minutes into our run, Annie’s scent grew stronger, guiding us even deeper into the forest. I ran without caring if Geoffrey was by my side. It didn’t matter to me. The only thing that mattered to me was getting to Annie. I urged Luge to go even faster, following Annie’s delicious honey almond scent as I leaped over fallen limbs and dried leaves. Luge’s paws pounded over the ground, crushing leaves beneath them and scattering them in the air behind us. Luge let out a loud growl that echoed around the forest as we barreled into a clearing, where Giselda and Annie were on their knees with cloth bags over their heads and hands tied behind their backs. They swayed back and forth, telling me that they were barely conscious, which didn’t surprise me, but it did piss me off. I narrowed my eyes on Kirkland, who stood behind our women, holding a knife to Annie’s throat with a smirk on his face.

“I told you that you should have given her to me! Now I will take her, and while I’m doing so, I will take your mate from you too!” he spat as he lazily dragged the dagger over Annie’s clavicle bone, drawing another whimper from her.

She whimpered, and I lunged forward, unable to resist the urge to tear his throat out for having the balls to touch her. He pressed the blade into her neck more, making blood well up on her flawless white skin, while he clucked his tongue, which only served to anger Luge even more.

“Back up or I will kill the little tramp!” he hissed.

I forced Luge backward, causing him to pace agitatedly as he pawed at the ground, desperately trying to figure out how to save Annie from an early death, while simultaneously panicking over the thought of losing her before our life could even start. Kirkland wrapped an arm around Giselda’s throat, while holding the blade to Annie’s neck as Geoffrey skidded to a halt beside me, growling just as angrily as I was. Kirkland’s smirk widened as he turned his attention to Geoffrey.

“How does it feel to know that even after how hard you tried to keep her from me, she became mine, anyway? She is going to be a good, obedient little alpha sow! She’s going to call me master and wait on me hand and foot! And after she works all day being the good little alpha sow, I’m going to take her to bed and fuck her raw until she no longer remembers that she had a fated mate!” he cackled, making Geoffrey leap forward.

I made Luge tackle him to the ground. We couldn’t afford to have him piss Kirkland off before we could save our mate, or his, for that matter. We stayed in front of him, growling warningly while our fur rose on our back.

‘Stop! He will kill Annie!’ I linked him before letting our a deep breath. ‘And Giselda! He’ll do it without hesitation. And you know that!’

‘No, he won’t because the vines won’t let him kill Annie! Giselda is the one in danger!’ Gerry snarled. ‘Now, move out of my way or you will be viewed as an enemy too!’

As I was about to respond, an ear-splitting cry of pain made my head snap around toward the sound. I let out a bellow of agony when I saw Annie lying on the ground, bleeding from a long, deep neck wound with her hair spread out behind her like a halo, framing her head. Luge sprinted across the clearing, shifting back at the last second to stumble to a stop beside her, while Geoffrey rushed past us, chasing after Giselda, who I had barely managed to see had been thrown over Kirkland’s shoulder as he ran, before all of my attention narrowed until all I could see was Annie, bleeding out. I lovingly brushed tendrils of hair out of Annie’s face, begging her to come hang on. Her eyelids fluttered open to reveal pain-filled green eyes.

“Logan?” She whispered.

I put her hand against my cheek, pressing mine against hers as my tears ran down my face to roll over her skin. “I’m here, Annie. Tell me what to do. How do I save you? Please tell me!”

Blood bubbled up out of her mouth. “Bury me, and then go find Giselda.”

She coughed, and her blood sprayed all over my face. Before I could even shift back into Luge, vines came up from the ground to wrap tightly around Annie. As her hand slid away from my face, she whispered, “Find our beta.”

She was pulled under the soil, leaving me all alone in the clearing. I tossed my head back to let out a pain-filled cry of loss before I fell forward, my fingers burrowing into the warm soil where Annie had disappeared. I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing hard as I fought to get myself under control before letting them snap open as our power surged through our body. I buried my fingers deeper.

“We’re going to find her, my love,” I promised quietly, my voice edged with violence. “You just heal so you can come back to me.”

I stood up, suddenly eerily calm, but before I could even take a step, Vinekeeper Marissa stepped into my path, stopping me in my tracks.

“My daughter asked me to pass on a message. She said, ‘Be safe,’ and that she loved you. She also wishes for you to be here when she is healed in three days time.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “It’s going to take three days for her to heal?”

“Yes.”

“Can we speed it up? I need her back as soon as possible!” I growled.

She gave me a stern look. “You’re lucky we can even heal her! If it weren’t for her love for you, she wouldn’t be here! Don’t rush us and count your blessings!”

When I opened my mouth to respond, the ground opened up and swallowed her whole, leaving me angrier than I was before she appeared. I threw my hands up in frustration.

“FUUUUUCK!”