Page 32 of Wolf's Fate

I took my wolf form, my body moving and running as if on autopilot as I ran to the clearing. I needed to get to Willow and make sure she was safe. I feared that whatever was coming for her was connected to me, and the idea that she would pay for something that had nothing to do with her, I couldn’t have that.

Quickly, I checked the ground I had slept on for weeks. The cabins I had never gone inside. Those homes were not mine. I’d returned to this mountain, driven by the need to be here, to defend it, but now every fiber of my being was telling me I needed to protecther.

I didn’t understand this or what was happening between us, but I couldn’t shake the sight of that bastard holding her underwear to his nose, and I knew one thing was very clear—I couldn’t stay here.

Willow needed me.

The descent downShadowridge Peak was no less brutal than the climb up. It didn’t matter what form you took, it’s not for the fainthearted. Which is why Shadowridge Peak was such a dream to defend.

The rock shifted underfoot as the cold wind needled under my fur. I felt the pull to get to Willow, but I could also feel the tug in my bones to turn around and head back up the way I had just come.

But I wouldn’t turn back. I couldn’t do that, not after seeing the fear on her face.

The tall pines that I had moved so effortlessly through now felt claustrophobic as they closed around me. The wind shook them, and the shadows gave the impression the branches were claws reaching out for me. My serene solitude now felt wrong.

I could see her as I hadseenher. The frightened look, the unshed tears as she struggled to accept what had happened to her. The danger that surrounded her. I closed my eyes, and I could see her. With my eyes wide open, I could see it. See her, standing in the middle of her house as police questioned her. She stood straight and tall, trying so hard to be brave, trying so hard to hide how vulnerable she was.

Wherever I looked, I could seeher.

Whoever it was that had walked into her home and destroyed it, they were still out there.

I knew it. I couldfeelit.

I could feel the link between Willow and me. It was stretched so tight, but the moment I accepted it was between us, I felt it become thicker. Stronger. The more I saw her clearer in my head, the tighter and stronger the link became.

It no longer felt fragile. No longer like it could snap at any time.

I felt like I could reach out and touch her. Was that how it was for Willow? When she drew me, was that how real I felt toher when she painted? I wished it were as simple as being able to reach out and touch her and pull her to me, to safety.

Instead, I knew there were many miles between us.

The ground beneath me moved, and I was brought back to the present, to the uneven ground beneath my paws, as the rubble and debris of the mountain warned me to slow down as my descent became steeper. My back paw slipped on a stone, and I skidded, catching myself sharply before I went sprawling. Tentatively my wolf became still, claws digging into the ground below.

I needed to focus. I would be of no use to Willow if I lost focus and ended up bloody and broken at the foot of the mountain. I ignored the reminder it wouldn’t be the first time. You don’t grow up on Shadowridge Peak without taking a tumble down the mountain one or two times.

It would take me days to get to Whispering Pines; did I have days? I’d come here believing that it was for the best, but now the distance between us felt like a curse.

The ground evened out so suddenly it caught many unprepared, but not me. I knew every crag of this mountain. Picking up my pace, I ran to the lower slopes of Shadowridge Peak, knowing soon the densely packed trees would even out.

Voices on the wind whispered to me as I ran, trying to slow me down, urging me to turn back, telling me that I wasn’t ready. That I wasn’t the hero Willow needed. That I didn’t deserve to return to her. Maybe I should’ve listened, but I didn’t.

I’d never wanted to be a hero.

What tied us together needed to be understood, but I hadleft, the past too heavy for me to confront, and now my cowardice was costing her. Willow needed me.

The morning that I kissed her flashed in my mind. The way she’d responded. The taste of her on my lips. I shouldn’t have left. I’d thought I was doing the right thing. Seeing her draw the darkest moments of my life had been too much. Closing myself to those old memories, I concentrated on getting to her now. What if by leaving her, I was the reason she was in danger?

The very idea of it made me feel sick. It also made me run faster, and soon I was descending the last steep incline.

The shadows of my past called for me, desperate to cling to me, but I felt a different darkness now. Something cold, and obscure, skirting the edge of my awareness. I’d seen it in Willow’s house as she looked at the damage to her home. I felt it within me now. A new darkness, so different from the one I was used to, and I hated it. Hated that it was closing in on her, reaching for her, ready to tear apart her life.

And I had already wasted so much time.

Finally, I reached the bottom of the mountain, and I headed south towards the nearest town. It was miles from where I was, but it was the first place I would find clothes. I’d need to steal a car. That also wouldn’t be the first time, and I doubted it would be the last. All that mattered was that I got to Willow before anything else happened to her.

I had a fleeting thought that I would be better off contacting Cannon and his pack and telling them I needed them to protect her, but the lingering doubt that they couldn’t be trusted still clung to me.

I didn’t have any confidence in them. I wasn’t ready to face them. Right now, I only cared about getting to Willow.