Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins
Kade POV
I couldn’t sleep. Not that I really tried. The moment Sasha had run from the ceremony, something inside of me broke. I had told myself that I had done it for the pack. For Delia. For peace. But none of this felt right. I couldn’t help but think about Ronan. My older brother had returned. Why? And what the hell had come for us in the forest? It was close to midnight, and the fire in the Alpha Lodge burned low which cast long shadows across the carved wooden walls. Delia had fallen asleep in the next room, and the sound of her even breathing irritated the hell out of me. She slept as if nothing had happened. As if nothing mattered. But something had changed. Something was wrong. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. Kay, my wolf, paced inside of me like he was trying to claw out of my skin. He was restless. Alert and very angry.
“Sasha,” I stood up so fast that the chair cracked against the floor. The whisper had come from outside. I rushed over to the door, flung it open, and scanned the darkness. I couldn’t see anyone or anything. It was silent. I made a move to shut the door, but then I caught it. Her scent. But not just hers, Ronan’s as well. And there was something else. Something I recognized as older. Wilder. Wiser. But I didn’t know it. But I suddenly shifted before I even knew what I was doing. Kay exploded from within. My bones broke and healed in seconds as I shifted from human to wolf. I hit the ground on all fours and bolted into the woods. I followed the tabled scent trail like a bloodhound. It led toward her cabin. I moved faster. Branches whipped at my face. The night blurred. And then I saw it. The shattered window. The wide open door. Blood on the glass. Kay paused, and then I shifted.
“Sasha!” I called out as I approached, but there was nothing but silence. Then I caught the scent again. Fainter this time. She was alive. She had gotten away. But something else had been here too. I stepped inside, my eyes adjusting to the mess. A smashed lamp. A knife missing from the hearth. The smell of something wrong in the air. I ran a hand through my hair. Ronan had been here. I could still feel his damn presence, like it clung to the walls. But this, whatever attacked them, this wasn’t Ronan. I had a feeling it was what had chased us in the forest. I needed answers, and I needed them now. There was someone who could help, and that was the Elders.
"What is possibly so urgent?” Rowan questioned once we had gathered in the small meeting hall.
“Sasha was attacked,” I stated as I glared at him. “You know about it. What was it?” the three of them, Rowan, Jones, and Thelma, merely stared at me in silence. “Well?”
“What makes you think we know anything?” Thelma asked softly.
"Because your silence is screaming," I growled, and Rowan sighed.
"There are old things in these woods. Old things that never forget what was taken from them,” he said, and I literally rolled my eyes.
"I need something more than riddles,” I snapped.
"Then stop playing the fool and start looking at what’s in front of you. You chose another. Ronan has returned. And something shifted in the air tonight. None of that is a coincidence,” Jones said.
“And Sasha bears the mark,” Thelma added.
“What mark?” I questioned curiously. “What are you talking about?”
“There are legends we buried. Purposely. Prophecies we prayed would never awaken. But if the mark has returned, and Sasha carries it, then she is the key,” Rowan explained. Except it wasn’t much of an explanation. All it did was raise more questions than answers.
"The key to what?"
"To everything unraveling. Or everything healing. Depending on who claims her,” he said, and I groaned. That word again. Claim.
"She was mine," I said through clenched teeth. Rowan met my gaze.
"You gave her away. You chose another,” he pointlessly reminded me. I stormed out before I did something I regretted. My head spun. The wind howled through the trees, and something in the distance howled back. Not a wolf. Something else. And because I wasn’t in my right mind, I followed the trail. I didn’t go back to Delia. I didn’t go back to the pack. I needed to find her. The scent was faint but fresh enough. Sasha. Ronan. Blood. And something that made every hair on my neck stand up. They were still running. Or hiding. Either way, I had to find them first. A screech split the sky. I skidded to a stop. Up ahead, something dark and fast darted through the treetops, like wind given form. I caught a glimpse of Ronan, crouched low, blade in hand. Sasha beside him, eyes wide. I stepped closer, about to reveal myself, when that thing dropped from the trees between them and me. I couldn’t see it. Only the pressure. The wind. The way the leaves buckled beneath it, even though nothing touched them. Sasha screamed. Ronan lunged. And I ran. But it was too fast. In one blink, it vanished. In the next, so had Sasha. Gone. Just gone. I roared and crashed through the brush, but there was nothing. Only Ronan, bloody and bruised, panting as he staggered to his feet. He turned, eyes wild.
"Where is she?" I shouted. He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Because we both knew what had just happened. Sasha was gone. Taken. And whatever had taken her wasn’t done. “What the hell is that thing?”
“Something old,” Ronan said, and for a moment neither of us moved.
“Something old?” I repeated. “I want to know what the hell is going on!”
“We need to find her,” he said, and even though I knew he was right, I took a moment to just stare at him. My brother. “Now,”
“Right,” I agreed. There was no time for reunion. There was no time for anything else. We had to find her.