Chapter 41
All through the night, Kayla moved steadily toward the border. Sometimes she sprinted, other times she walked, but her speed remained intact.
Her heart beat in rhythm with her footsteps. Her focus was on the narrow path ahead, though her mind remained heavy with worry about Zayron.
Kayla felt like something bad had happened to him again. However, she had gone too far.
She couldn't go back to the Azure Moon Pack to find out what had gone wrong with her mate again. Kayla continued moving forward.
Every step she took felt like she was walking away from something she couldn’t name.
By the time the early morning mist began curling through the trees like thin ribbons, she was almost at the border between the Shadowpine Forest and the Drakemore Valley.
The soil beneath her boots changed, the air felt different, cooler, denser, and then a familiar scent brushed her nose. She stopped abruptly.
Her breath caught in her throat as she sniffed again and again. Zayron's scent lingered faintly in the wind, raw, familiar, and potent like fresh pine and storm clouds.
Kayla inhaled again just to be sure, and her chest tightened. It was definitely him.
"What in the name of the Moon Goddess is Zayron doing here?" Kayla whispered under her breath. "Where is he going?"
Kayla thought her wolf was restless because Zayron was coming after her, not that something bad had happened to him.
She heaved a sigh of relief, but to make sure he was safe, Kayla vowed not to let him see her.
Kayla crouched low and pressed herself behind a thick bush. Her eyes scanned the trees ahead, but she saw no movement.
She looked at the ember she was holding. The Kelsari ember Seraphina had given her, an incense meant to disperse her scent and was supposed to keep Zayron from tracking her.
But clearly, it hadn’t worked as well as it should have. Or maybe he had forced his way through the cloud of it because he knew her too well.
Whatever the case, if Zayron was truly there, she needed to avoid him. She couldn’t risk him interfering with her mission.
She tiptoed forward carefully, moving like a shadow through the trees. She kept her body close to the ground, weaving between tree trunks and thick ferns.
Every time she heard a twig snap or a bird rustle its feathers, she froze. She didn't breathe until the forest settled again.
She kept going like that until she crossed the border into Drakemore territory. The moment she stepped past the thick line of blackened tree trunks that marked the divide, Zayron's scent vanished completely.
It was like someone had wiped it from the air. Kayla paused. Her heart beat faster. She looked back.
For the first time since she embarked on the mission, Nyra, her wolf, spoke.
"What if something is wrong?
"What if Zayron isn’t just chasing us, but running from something? What if he needed our help?"
"We can’t just walk away."
Kayla turned her head, her brows pinched in worry. She stared back the way she came. The forest was still. Too still.
Her heart gave a tight squeeze, and before she could talk herself out of it, she spun around and ran back toward the border.
Kayla stopped at the last place she had caught Zayron's scent. She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and picked it up again.
It was faint, but still fresh. She followed it carefully, tracking it down a narrow slope that led to the banks of a shallow river that bordered Drakemore and Blackthorn Gorge.
Kayla’s eyes widened. Zayron was lying on his side near the water, half-hidden by a thicket of reeds.
His body was slumped, motionless. His body was unclad, and deep wounds lined his arms and chest.
Dried blood matted his hair. Long blackened streaks marked his skin, spreading from puncture wounds where he’d been struck.
Kayla ran to him, dropping to her knees.
"Moon Goddess," she breathed. "My Zayron..."
She touched his chest. His skin burned with fever, but his heart was still beating, slow and weak, but steady.
She checked the wounds more closely and immediately recognized the source. Silver and wolfsbane.
The scent was unmistakable. Whoever had come for Alpha Zayron knew exactly how to bring an Alpha down.
The dart wound in his shoulder and thigh had been dipped in poison. Wolf hunters, most likely.
Perhaps even the Silvershots group trained to sedate powerful Alphas. If he hadn’t escaped, they would’ve taken him alive.
Or killed him if they couldn't take him alive. Kayla’s hands shook.
"No, no, no. You’re not dying like this, Zayron. Not you."
She slung her bag off her shoulder and dug through it quickly, pulling out a small leather pouch that held her emergency herbs.
Among them were three Moonflower petals. Thanks to the Goddess she’d remembered to pack them.
She crushed the petals between her fingers, releasing the juice. Then she reached into her own sleeve and made a shallow cut across her palm.
Blood welled immediately, and she mixed it with the Moonflower sap in a small clay bowl she’d tucked away.
Her hands moved fast, but her breath was tight. The mixture wouldn’t work unless heated. And the leaves around her were too wet to burn.
Think, Kayla. Think.
Kayla reached into her satchel again. Her heart beat madly. Her fingers brushed something hard and warm. The Kelsari ember.
Seraphina had insisted she carry it. The ember was small, but it held the heat she needed. All she had to do was feed it air.
She pulled it out, blew on it gently, and it glowed bright gold.
"Yes," she whispered. "Come on... burn."
She held the clay bowl above it. The potion hissed softly, then began to bubble.
It shimmered as the blood and Moonflower fused together. When the mixture turned violet and the scent turned sharp, she knew it was ready.
She dipped her fingers in and rushed to Zayron’s side. She smeared the mixture across his wounds, pressing it into the poisoned darts and gashes.
His body jerked slightly at the contact. Then she tilted his head back and poured three drops into his mouth.
"Please, Zayron," she whispered. "Please come back."
Kayla moved quickly behind a tree and crouched low, keeping her eyes on him. She didn't want him to see her.
At first, nothing happened. Then his body twitched. His fingers curled against the soil. He groaned.
A low growl rumbled in his throat. His back arched, and suddenly, his muscles flexed tight.
His breathing came in short, sharp gasps. Then a shift rippled through his body, fast and violent.
And in seconds, Alpha Zayron was gone. In his place stood a massive black wolf.
His body rippled with newfound strength. He sniffed the air and turned his head toward where Kayla hid, but he didn’t see her.
Zayron knew someone was hiding there, and he was determined to find them. However, the sound of people heading towards him halted his search.
He turned away and ran very fast. So fast that Kayla's eyes could barely follow.
Zayron's wolf darted through the trees, powerful and wild, vanishing into the thick underbrush.
The moment he disappeared into the forest, distant howls erupted behind him. Whoever had attacked Zayron hadn’t given up.
Kayla turned and saw shadows moving fast between the trees. Uniformed figures. Armed. Trained. Tracking him again.
Kayla stood frozen in place, her eyes locked on the figures darting through the woods. The thick forest couldn't hide the sharp silver lines that marked their uniforms.
Even from this distance, she knew who they were. The Silvershots. The elite hunters trained to take down even the most powerful wolves.
Kayla had never seen them before, not in person. Only in old storybooks and the history lessons back at the academy.
The kind of books teachers brought to school during history lessons to scare young wolves into obedience.
Wolves in dark suits with eyes like steel, trained to hunt anything with a heartbeat. They were always described as silent, ruthless, and impossible to escape.
And now she was watching them hunt the one person she never thought would be a target, Alpha Zayron.
Kayla's heart pounded against her chest as she watched the chase. She knew Zayron's speed was the fastest she had ever seen.
She knew his strength. He had taught her everything she knew about running in the woods.
But none of that mattered to her at that moment. Not when her body refused to move because of fear that Zayron might still be caught.
She wanted to run after him, to help him, to scream at him to keep going. But she also knew the mission she was embarking on mattered.
Still, every instinct in her screamed to follow him. Kayla’s breathing grew shallow.
The forest around her swayed, as if the weight of her choice had tilted the entire world.
And then a voice spoke behind her.
"This is the first blood. It can’t be anything else."
Kayla spun around quickly, heart lurching. What she saw made her take three steps back.
A tall man stood among the trees, half-shrouded by mist. He wore a long cloak fastened by a silver clasp, and his eyes glowed faintly in the shadows.
He was not one of the Silvershots. He was something else entirely. Something older and darker.
Kayla opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. The man tilted his head slightly, as if amused by her shock, or perhaps he was simply amused that he had finally found the she-wolf he’d been searching for all these years.
"I've been searching for you everywhere for the past twenty-three years," the man standing before Kayla said.