Chapter Seventy-Two
“Daddy…I don’t want to leave you like this.” I tried one last chance.
“I know, pup. But your mom needs you.” He looked worried. “She wouldn’t have asked for you unless it wasn’t important. And she has been pretty insistent. In all the years she sent you here, she has never once acted like this. We always had this unspoken rule that we would never keep you from the other.”
“I know.” I started to worry about my mother, too, “But I don’t like leaving you with this mess.”
“I’ll be fine. I have Ronnie, and the rest.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs of the pack house. “But your mother is alone. So I need you to go back and take care of her for me, since I can’t.” I stumbled as we went and he stopped and picked me up.
“Dad!”
“Sorry pup. I know you’re tired. I am too.”
“Then why don’t you go to bed too?” I huffed as he nudged my bedroom door open and dropped me onto the bed.
“Because I have to take the rest of the night and copy my grandma’s spell book so that when you leave, you can take it with you.” He kissed my forehead. “Where is the book?”
“In my safe.” I pushed deeper into my bed and pulled the surrounding blankets. I would worry about the bloodstains later.
“Code?”
“Momma’s birth year, yours, and mine.”
“Got it.” My dad punched in the code and pulled the book out. “I’ll get this back to you by morning.” He kissed my head again, but I was already falling asleep. “Goodnight baby.”
I mumbled something back, but I was lost in the darkness. I was running through the dark trees. I knew that if I stopped, I would be caught, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be caught, not yet anyway.
“I can smell you, mate.” I heard a dark voice call through the trees. A voice that sounded familiar but not. Like if I tried, I could figure out who it was, but right this second, my body pushed me to head away from him. “I will give you a few more minutes to run and hide. But once the time is up, I will find you. And you will be mine.” His deep voice called to me and I stumbled. His words weren’t a threat, they were a promise, one that made my middle clench with a newfound need.
I wavered in the deep night. I had the urge to turn back, to run to the voice, to see the face that called to my soul. But my wolves were pushing me to run, to play, and I listened.
My body shifted from my two feet to Nix’s four, and she ran between the trees. Her smokey voice called out, “Catch me if you think you can.” Her laughter filled the darkness with a challenge of her own and I could hear his responding pur. Another jolt of need shot through my body. This was a man that would claim us.
“I know I can catch you, little rabbit. You can run as fast as you want, but you will be under me before the night is up.” I could hear the need in his voice. “I’ve waited long enough to find you and I won’t be letting you leave this forest unmarked.” The deep voice bellowed out, “Three.” I could feel goosebumps break out along my body. Nix pushed faster, dodging the trees at a breakneck pace. “Two.” His voice was far, but I couldn’t let up. We knew that as soon as he gave chase, he would be fast. “One. Time’s up, rabbit. Here I come.” I heard the distant sound of a shift.
A thrill went through our body, and Nix pushed harder, her claws digging into the dirt for more leverage. I could hear someone crashing through the trees behind me, and it pushed me to my limits. Whoever was following me was fast. Very fast. Megan and I were pushed to the back of our mind so that Nix could solely focus on the chase. She pushed herself and our body to the very limits.
We ran for what felt like hours. Every once in a while, there was a flash of silver through the trees, and I knew that once we broke through the trees, there would be a lake. We were so close to the water that the air grew heavy. We were almost out of the trees, at the edge of the play area. If we breached the trees, the chase would be over.
“There you are, mate.” I heard the deep voice from my left and the smell of pine and cinnamon hit me right before I was tackled to the ground. “Got you.”