DAYNE
Was there nowhere in this fucking forest that wasn't filled with the scent of Talis' pain or fear?
Grimly, Dayne darted through the trees, swift and strong in his agile wolf form.
He'd long since left the rest of his pack behind as he'd surged ahead, with everything in him warning him that Talis needed him. That every second counted.
But for the moment, his wolf's fury wasn't riding him as hard as it had before. Likely because now Talis was close-close enough to scent, close enough he'd have her back again, and soon.
As long as he got to her in time.
Dayne couldn't help but notice that while he was tracking Talis, he had yet to come across any of the Merrick pack.
Which was strange. He should have bumped into at least one of them by now, but he hadn't. Not one.
Every now and again he heard them, but it sounded like they'd veered off to the right at some point instead of staying on Talis' scent.
It couldn't have been them losing her because she was running in a straight line. Impossible to miss.
So why had they stopped hunting her?
It was a mystery. But it was one he'd work on unpicking once Talis was safe, and the wolves who were hunting her were dead.
There were about five recent wolf tracks and scents he'd picked up as he flowed through the forest.
Of them, there were two he recognized at once. Or rather, it was the distinct lack of scent that warned him who was pursuing Talis.
Glynn Merrick and his beta Abel.
He tried not to think why they'd have covered their tracks with the same scent blockers they'd used when they'd been in Hardin, but he had every reason to think it was just another way to inflict more fear on Talis.
Dayne suddenly paused when he picked up the scent of another wolf. This one was female, though that hadn't been what'd caused him to halt.
It was the faint trace of blood in the air, and if his nose was right, on a rock on the ground.
Not Talis' blood, thank fuck.
But the fact this wolf was heading back toward the house and injured if he could believe the evidence of blood on the rock, it looked like Talis had fought back and won. At least in this altercation.
He grinned at the thought.
The shifter had been lucky. If she hadn't changed course to head back to the house, she'd have come face to face with Dayne.
Still, the best he could hope for was that she might stumble into the path of one of his pack since he had no intention of going after her.
He was close now. He could feel it.
A soft sound had him swiveling his head before he knew what it was. And it was a good thing he did because he turned in time to catch a wolf launching itself at him.
Dayne didn't hesitate to launch himself at him, and they went down in a tumble of snarling, furious wolves.
But no matter how furious this shifter was, when Dayne caught the wolf's scent, he knew the wolf didn't stand a chance.
This wolf. This scent had been one tracking Talis. Hunting her.
Dayne shook off the wolf's attack like it was nothing, and then he went for his throat.
When the wolf had stopped moving, Dayne lifted his head from the dead wolf and continued after Talis.
He was close enough now that her tracks weren't only recent, they were right there. She was right there.
Dayne had a second to feel relief that she'd shifted, even as a growl emerged from his throat at the sight of her furiously attacking a naked shifter with shaggy ash-blond hair.
Abel.
But at his growl, Talis half-turned from the man, just barely holding her back as she went for his throat.
That second of inattention cost her.
Abel snatched something from the ground and struck at Talis. Hard.
She flew back from the force of his attack.
And even as Dayne tensed to lunge at the man who'd taken one look at Dayne and tore off in the forest, Talis struggled to her feet and sank back down again in a way that told him all he needed to know.
Abel had hurt her, and badly.
Deliberately, he turned his back on his fleeing enemy. He'd come back for him later, once Talis wasn't lying in a crumpled heap on the ground.
Dayne shifted as he rushed over to her as she lay on her side, with blood pouring from her head and her breaths panting out of her.
"Talis?" He reached out to touch her, but before he could, her fur was rippling as she shifted.
As more and more skin replaced fur, Dayne's fury increased until he was shaking with the force of it.
There wasn't one part of Talis not covered with a bruise or a cut, or both. And her hand? He saw where Glynn Merrick had cut off the tip of her finger, and he was ready to set the world on fire with his rage.
"Dayne?" Talis' soft voice helped him to focus.
He smoothed the hair back from her face as gently as he could as he gazed down at her.
Two days.
It had been two days, and this was what they'd done to her? Then, how much had she suffered in the ten-plus years she'd called this hell home?
He was going to have to pick her up. He would have to carry her, which meant hurting her because he didn't doubt she wasn't hurting everywhere.
"I'm here, baby."
Her eyelids slid shut. "Good," she murmured. "That's good."
And then she fainted.