“She’s going to hurt herself!” Benji called to me.
“Then catch her!” I barked.
“I’m trying!”
Another flash of white through the trees. She cut left and ducked under a low branch that nearly took my head off. Bark tore through my shirt as I plowed through it.
“Violet!” I roared. “I’m sorry!”
I hoped that would be enough, that she’d stop and glare at me from behind a tree and flip me off like she did when she didn’t know I was watching.
But she didn’t stop, if anything, she ran faster.
Sounds in the forest always seemed louder at night. The snapping of branches echoed, and my own heartbeat felt like a war drum echoing inside me, it even felt like I could hear every ragged breath Violet took.
Then, she veered left. Away from the forest and towards the old dirt road that bisected my property. I had no idea if she knew it was there, but considering her track record of getting hit by cars, I wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of her hitting that line.
Headlights cut through the trees and Violet stumbled to a stop. Her chest heaved as she looked back at us, hair tangled, bunny held so tightly I was surprised its head didn’t pop off. For a second, I thought we’d catch her, but the second my shadow closed in, she took off again, this time faster than before.
She all but vanished into the night.
Against my better judgement, I stopped running. Benji panted as he slowed.
“Where–” He bent over, bracing his palms to his knees as he heaved in a breath. “Where’d she go?”
“You think I’d have stopped if I knew that?” I hissed. “You have the bond,find her.”
Benji straightened slowly.
His chest was still rising hard, but his expression had shifted from exertion to focus.
“I’m trying,” he snapped back, lifting his head and drawing in a slow breath.
Seconds crawled like decades as he sniffed the air, looking side to side, and I listened foranything.
The world had gone quiet, but I’d refused to lose my omega. Something close to recognition crossed Benji’s face. He turned his head and his lips parted, but before he could speak, a scream pierced the air.
The sound stopped too abruptly, and my blood ran cold.
Benji bolted before I could even process which way to go. He shoved through a thick wall of brush and I followed. But, when we broke through it, there was nothing.
Just a small clearing not far from the byroad.
No Violet, no screaming, no obvious sign of a threat, just silence.
“Violet!” I called, stumbling forward.
The second my feet met the clammy surface of the road, I noticed something odd. Lifting my foot, I noticed an oval of furry brown fabric shoved into the dirt.
Slowly, I bent down and pulled it from the earth. At first, I couldn’t place exactly what I was looking at, then I instinctively brought it to my nose. Vanilla and brown sugar filled my nose, and the world narrowed to a pinprick.
Violet.
My fingers tightened around the scrap of fabric as my brain finally caught up to what was going on.
This wasn’t just fabric. It was an ear from Violet’s stupidly expensive bunny. The one she cared for as if it were a beloved pet.
“She wouldn’t willingly drop that,” Benji said.