Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
R afe froze.
Ruby.
Another scream.
And then, on the soft breeze of a November’s night came the scent of blood.
His Mate ’s blood. Rafe was shifting faster than he could think, howling like his own heart had been ripped from his chest. He raced to the back of the house, a lone wolf once again.
Theo was gone, already on the road back to his cabin.
It was up to him to save Ruby. It was up to him to succeed where he had once failed.
He turned the corner of the house into the backyard and his world crashed down around him.
Ruby was on her back in the grass. A huge brown and white wolf growled as he tried to drag her toward the woods.
Rafe nearly choked on the smell of her blood.
It stained the grass around her, and his reality flipped, circling back to the most horrific moment of his life.
Scarlet dead. Murdered by wolves. Except this was worse.
So much worse. Because it was Ruby that lay in the grass.
It may as well have been his own life that spilled out into the night.
“Rafe!”
Ruby’s voice yanked him back to the present. She was alive! She wasn’t lying in the grass , she was fighting, struggling against the giant wolf. He could have killed her by now, but he hadn’t. Of course he hadn’t. They wanted her alive.
“Rafe, get this bastard off of me!” Ruby tore at the wolf’s fur, ripping out tufts of hair with her fists.
He leaped, a growl escaping his lips, and he knocked the other wolf off Ruby’s body. She rolled away, panting and holding her arm. Blood, bright red and smelling like Ruby and life and eternity, seeped through her fingers.
He would kill him. He would kill this wolf and any others that dared to hurt her. He would fucking kill everyone.
His mind went blank of everything except the burning desire to destroy anyone that came near Ruby.
He was only vaguely aware of her yelling at him.
He only distantly heard her words pleading with him not to chase this bastard of a wolf into the woods.
He only barely understood that she stood at the edge of the tree line, begging him to come back.
Rafe saw nothing but the wolf in front of him. He smelled nothing but the fear coming off the animal as he tore through the woods. He heard nothing except the wolves behind him panting as they closed in on him.
He knew their scent. It was Wyatt and two of his Highland lackeys.
Some distant human part of his brain realized that he shouldn’t have run after them, that going after these wolves would only make everything worse. But he couldn’t hear that part anymore because the rest of his brain was screaming for blood.
These bastards had attacked his Mate. Over and over again they’d come for her, and they wouldn’t stop until he made them.
He hadn’t let a single one stay behind. He’d attacked and they’d followed, taking the bait like the mindless animals they were. He’d lured them away from Ruby.
He opened up his stride, gaining ground on the first wolf, dirt and pine needles flying beneath his paws.
The coward should turn and fight him, not make Rafe chase him down like a fucking chipmunk, but he nearly had him now.
He was nipping at the first wolf’s heels when Wyatt pounced from behind, landing hard on Rafe’s back.
He rolled through the dirt and crashed into a tree.
The impact slammed the air from his lungs and left him gasping for breath.
The first wolf, the one with Ruby’s blood still on his lips, stood over him now, the other two by his side. Rafe growled low in his throat. A warning.
Wyatt growled in return and pounced, but Rafe rolled and avoided his gnashing jaws. The two other wolves circled him as Rafe pushed to his feet, the trio surrounding him.
Again, a distant part of his brain warned that it would be worse if he ended up dead, that it would hurt Ruby more if he never returned. But his wolf side howled for revenge.
These wolves had threatened Ruby and neither side of him could let that go. He’d lost one woman in his life to the savagery of his kind, he sure as fuck wasn’t going to lose another.
Rafe bared his teeth and pounced.