Chapter 56 — Rainn

When I give the signal to stop running, we finally slow enough for the forest to take solid shape around us again. We’re close to Falling River, and around us, the trees are tall and ancient, the grass soft, damp, and untouched. It’s an ancient forest. Far from human civilization.

Closing my eyes, I try to ignore the sounds in my ears, the wind, the breaths of all the wolves I brought with me…I push them out of my mind and search for Bree.

I can’t find her. Her wolf is as silent as before.

I exhale. Disappointment and fear threaten to take over my mind, and it takes all my strength to keep them at bay.

I can’t lose her.

I love her.

I search again, and I’m still unable to reach her wolf.

Yet, these woods feel as familiar to me as my own. I know which tree has a fallen branch. I know which path will lead me straight to the trailer park where Bree grew up. I know the way to all the springs, streams, and waterfalls.

I’m seeing the forest through Bree’s eyes. Through her mind.

We’ll start with the trailer park. I let the words flow from my mind to the shifters following me. I mean to say more, but something stops me.

I sniff at the air.

Bree.

Desperation, excitement, and panic swirl in my blood. I can smell her. Resisting the urge to bound through the forest to find her, consequences be damned, I turn to Caleb.

“I smell Bree a few miles up ahead. It may be a trap.”

“What do we do?”

With no words, we agree to separate into three groups and approach the scent from three directions. I lead one group, Leah another, and Zack leads the rest. I reach our destination first, a large clearing. The air is thick with the smell of wildflowers…

And Bree’s scent.

And something else. Hugo’s alpha smell.

I spot him as soon as I step out of the trees. He’s seated on a log in the middle of the clearing. Waiting. Aside from the angry scar on his face, he looks like he has no care in the world and isn’t bothered that he’s surrounded by enemy shifters. He meets my gaze and smiles mockingly. With one hand, he twirls a piece of fabric around. Bree’s jacket.

Anger and desperation blur my vision. If he has hurt one hair on her head, I’ll make him wish for death. Already, I want to pounce on him and snap him in two. I want to torture him until he tells me where she is. I want to…

“Alpha.”

Caleb’s whispered thought cools my emotions somewhat. I need to be cautious. Fixing my attention on Hugo and the surrounding woods, I advance with a growl. I expect Hugo to shift, but he doesn’t.

“Where’s Bree? Where have you taken her?”

He cocks his head, then rises and looks around the clearing at all of us. “Is this all the army you could gather?” His tone is mocking. “I expected more.”

“We’re more than enough to tear you apart,” I snarl.

“Are you?” He laughs cruelly. “Your mother thought the same. It’s not often history repeats itself so perfectly.”

Hearing him talk about my mother fills me with a blinding rage, but once more, I restrain myself from attacking him and tearing out his throat.

Suddenly, Hugo leaps onto the fallen log, standing tall and making a show of surveying the entire clearing. His eyes land on Derek and his scar reddens, betraying his anger. “Derek,” he barks. “You were always a traitor. Are you ready to die with these strangers? With this rabble of angry, immature wolves?”

“I’m ready to fight with them,” Derek counters. “To make you pay for what you’ve done.”

“And what is that?” Hugo asks. “What is it I’ve done? Defended my territory from the scum of the shifter world?”

“You think you’re going to get somewhere with these insults?” I cut in. “You’re not. I don’t care what you call us. You, Hugo of the Falling River Pack, are a murderer. I am accusing you of murdering an alpha of the Mountain Ridge Pack along with many members of her pack. I’m accusing you of covering up those murders and conspiring to kidnap the chosen mate of an alpha of the Mountain Ridge Pack who you’re now holding against her will.”

“Big accusations.”

“You also kidnapped an innocent human girl.” Somewhere close, I hear Derek growl. “It is now time for you to face justice,” I continue. “And we are here to deliver it.”

Hugo fakes a shudder. “Is this the moment where I act scared and beg for my life? You underestimate me, Rainn. Your mother did the same and look what happened to her.”

“Don’t talk about my mother,” I snarl. “Surrender, or you will be taken by force.”

“I won’t surrender, and I won’t be taken by force.” Hugo sneers. “And maybe I’ll stop talking about your mother. You’ll join her soon enough.”

He stretches one hand in front of him, as if to check the time. That’s when I notice the band he’s wearing around one wrist. I don’t know what it is, but something tells me it can’t be anything good. As the fingers of his other hand reach out to touch the band, I lunge for him, but I’m too far away. He presses a button on the band, and I freeze as a bloodcurdling roar splits the entire forest.

Hugo meets my eyes and smiles and evil smile.

Around me, it feels like the forest is shaking. Something is running toward us, splitting trees, roaring in pain and anger. With a sound like bones splintering, it tears into the clearing and roars.

It’s the most fearsome creature I’ve ever seen. Not wolf, not mooncursed either, maybe a mixture of both, but far larger, with fangs and claws like long sharp knives. It roars again, shaking the trees, and I see the band around its neck.

That’s how Hugo controls it.

That’s Hugo’s weapon.

Hugo flicks his finger, and in a movement that even with a wolf’s eyes I see as only a blur, the creature is at his side, snarling and growling.

What on earth is it? How does it move so fast?

“You wanted to know how your mother died?” Hugo says. “Well, now you can share her fate.”