Chapter 10
BOOKER
Iwoke to the soft rise and fall of Alara’s breath against my chest. She was curled into me like she’d been doing it her whole life. My wolf settled for a fraction of a second, soothed by the feel of her tucked safely in my arms.
But the peace didn’t last.
A low, uneasy growl rumbled through my ribs, his reminder that yesterday’s ambush wasn’t finished business. Something had been wrong out there.
I brushed a hand down her back, memorizing the weight of her against me and how her fingers clutched unconsciously against my stomach. Leaving her now felt wrong on every instinctual level but letting a threat linger near her was worse.
“I’ll be back soon,” I murmured, barely audible.
Her lashes fluttered but didn’t lift. She shifted closer, nuzzling the spot where my shoulder met my collarbone. That nearly kept me in bed, but her safety came above anything else.
I brought my mouth to her temple and pressed a lingering kiss there, letting her scent steady me one more time before I eased away. Then I dressed quietly and slipped out her door, shutting it softly behind me.
When I made it outside, the mountain air woke me all the way up. I crossed the courtyard and cut into the tree line toward the location of the ambush. Without warriors around to stir the soil or confuse the scents, I was hoping to catch a trace of whoever had attacked.
I crouched near the slope where the fake attack had started. The scuffle marked the earth, but beneath the obvious signs were claw marks that didn’t belong to any of the warriors who’d participated.
My brows furrowed when I noticed the pattern was similar to the other warriors but not quite the same. There was only one logical explanation for what I was seeing.
My wolf pushed forward with a snarl of recognition, every hair on his body standing on end.
The challenger was a lynx but not part of the trial I’d faced.
I stood slowly, scanning the surrounding trees. Something out here had waited, watching for their moment.
A breeze shifted, carrying a scent that made my whole body go rigid. An unknown lynx male.
Not anyone who’d been in the courtyard yesterday.
My wolf’s teeth scraped the inside of my skin, begging to shift so we could hunt whoever this bastard was. I forced him down and tipped my head toward the deeper forest.
If he was still out here, I needed reinforcement before I went barreling after him. Luckily, Keane was an alpha who had a telepathic connection to his pack, including me. I sent him a quick mental pulse of warning and urgency.
Wake up. There’s someone else in these mountains. A lynx who tried to sabotage the trial.
His response was immediate, a deep rumble across our shared link.
On my way. Don’t engage alone.
I didn’t plan to, but I damn well wasn’t waiting around twiddling my thumbs, either.
I followed the scent trail into the woods, each step sinking me deeper into another predator’s territory. And closer to the danger my wolf had sensed since yesterday.
I wasn’t letting anything get near Alara again. Not ever.
The deeper I followed the scent, the more wrong it felt.
It looped around in an illogical pattern. Twice I circled the same outcropping of rock without meaning to, and the third time my wolf bared his teeth inside me.
Whoever sabotaged the trial knew how to lay a false path. They’d left just enough scent to draw me in circles while they focused on something else.
Or someone else.
A cold jolt slid down my spine as I crouched beside a patch of disturbed earth. The soil wasn’t scuffed from running or fighting. It was packed into a single, tight oval.
A waiting spot. They hadn’t just been lurking, they’d been anticipating. Someone had stood right here, watching the direction I’d come from.
My head lifted slowly, instincts flaring so violently my teeth ached. My wolf slammed against my skin, his claws scraping. The air was too still, and the silence too heavy.
Then the mate bond detonated through my chest. I sensed fear from Alara.
It slammed into me so hard that I staggered. My breath locked in my chest, and my pulse roared in my ears.
She was terrified.
“Alara.” The name ripped straight out of the place in my soul fate stitched together when it made her mine.
My wolf erupted, and I didn’t fight him this time. There was no room left for restraint.
Bones snapped, muscles tore, and fur burst across my skin in a violent surge. The scent of the unknown lynx still lingered, but it vanished behind the overwhelming pull of my mate.
I hit the ground on four paws and launched forward at a full sprint. Trees blurred in the edges of my vision, and rocks shattered under my claws. Every instinct screamed for me to get to her.
Hoping Keane was close to her, I sent him another frantic message.
Get to Alara. She’s in danger.
Not waiting for a reply, I drove harder, every breath a snarl. If the bastard who scared her was still on this mountain, he wouldn’t walk away.
I would tear the entire forest apart to get to my mate.
Her fear spiked through the bond again, and I ran like hell.
Branches whipped past as I tore through the forest, Alara’s fear pounding through the mate bond and spurring me on. Nothing else existed, only the instinct to reach her before her terror went silent.
A thunderous crash shook the earth to my left.
Keane burst through the trees in full grizzly form. His roar shook the canopy overhead, echoing my own rage.
To my right, another wolf exploded into view, even larger than mine. Kace.
They flanked me without hesitation. Three predators slicing through the forest in perfect formation.
My claws tore up moss and soil as we raced deeper into the mountains. A snarl snapped through the air from above, and I skidded to a stop, my head jerking up.
A shadow leaped off a ridge, landing on a lower ledge with the grace only a lynx could manage.
Stone cracked under his weight before he pushed off again, launching straight down toward us.
The lynx that hit the ground in a crouch was bigger than any I’d heard of.
His size meant he could only be Caelan. His eyes were wild, feral. He’d felt her fear too.
The four of us had a shared purpose—to protect Alara.
We lunged forward, a snarl ripping from my throat when the mate bond pulsed again. She needed me. Now.
The trees thinned all at once, and I exploded into a clearing just as Alara’s fear hit me like a punch to the throat.
She was backed against a boulder, her chest heaving and eyes blazing.
She didn’t seem to be hurt, but she was cornered by a male lynx who stood between us.
Her gray eyes were filled with fury, and her hands were clenched in fists at her sides.
He was gaunt, with matted fur. The desperation in his eyes was mixed with hatred.
He whipped toward me with a snarl, his lips peeled back over yellowed fangs. When Caelan crashed through the brush behind me, he snapped his head toward the lynx alpha before shifting to his human form.
“The chain is rotten. The alpha is weak, and she”—he jabbed his chin toward Alara—“will pay the price for his failures.”
I raced forward, faster than I’d ever moved before, placing my body between him and Alara and shifting to human so I could warn him off. “You will not touch my mate.”
His gaze snapped to mine, his pupils blown wide. “Then I challenge you both.”