I shift.
My enormous midnight colored wolf takes shape fully, and I run.
“What’s happening?”I send to Ambrose.
I get nothing in return.
Fuck, I may hate the bastard, but if he’s dead, we’re all fucked.
I connect our minds, letting myself feel what he’s feeling. And an incredible wave of fear washes through me, making me want to run faster and faster.
I don’t know what has them both so scared, but the fear is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
I run faster, trying to sense what I’m about to face—witches, vampires, wolf shifters. Something else entirely.
Whatever creature attacked them managed to do so in complete silence. I don’t hear their footsteps as I approach. I don’t scent their fur, blood, or heartbeat.
Witches—it has to be.They must be using their magic to hide themselves and attack under the cover of darkness. The sky is dark now, but the woods are completely shrouded in darkness, so not even the light from the stars or the moon shines through the trees. It’s the kind of darkness that neither my wolf shifter nor vampire eyesight can penetrate. The kind that’s created by magic.
I consider my options, then howl as loudly as I can. My signal to the rest of my pack that I need them. Howls echo through the woods, Sylara’s being particularly close, telling me help is on the way. But I can’t wait for help.
I run through the darkness on hyper alert, trying to find her.
I howl again, hoping to hear her voice. Hoping to hear anything, really. The cold silence is all that greets me.
I can’t hear them. I can’t find them. But I know I’m in the right place.
I huff out a breath, hoping that maybe they can smell me, hear me. Maybe she’ll realize I’m here and find a way to speak to give me some clue as to where she is in this endless blackness.
“Lumi,”I call out in Ambrose’s mind. But I can barely find the snowflaked trail. It’s flickering so softly. And Ambrose must be unconscious because I can’t find him anywhere, even though I’m speaking in his mind.
“You came,”I hear her soft voice back in my head.
I turn in circles, trying to make out where she is.“Where are you?”
“I’m right here,”she says as if I know where the hell she is.
My legs start moving as if on instinct. Maybe I actually do know where she is. I let my instincts take over. Turning off my brain, I move.
And then I hear him.
Danger, my instincts scream at me.
But he’s not the current threat. Just the love of my life’s mate. And right now he’s lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
Fucking hell.
I can’t leave him. I need him to break the curse to keep Lumi alive.But where is she?
“Lumi!”I scream in Ambrose’s head.“Come to Ambrose!”
I know she can sense him if she can’t sense me.
I know the moment she’s near.
“On my back!”I shout at her.
She’s on my back a second later. I can take a breath knowing that whatever injuries she has, it’s not bad enough that she couldn’t climb on my back on her own accord. And then I grab the back of Ambrose’s shirt, and I drag him as fast as my legs can carry me.