Page 41 of Find Me Tracker
But nothing else. No third person.
As a light is lit inside the smell of terror explodes en masse, every wolf in the cave is terrified. There’s blood on every surface, splattered on the roof. Bits of the boy are scattered on the floor, his toes, his skin, his nails… I vomit and have to leave the cave, shuddering in fear.
Outside, Killian is being held back and the sounds coming from him will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. He can smell the pain and torment, feel the fear his son faced, and there’s nothing he could have ever done to save him.
All at once, I’m torn in two. I want to comfort him.
And I want to kill him for thinking my mate would ever do something like this.
When the snarling starts inside the cave, I know Moira has decided the fate of my mate.
Chapter17
Chase
I’m so distracted by the gore that I don’t realize it when Moira turns on me. Her snarl reverberates off the walls of the cave and she attacks, going straight for my throat. I dart away just in time and her body collides with the rock wall behind me.
“Murderer!”she screams.“He was just a child!”
“Moira, stop, think! Why would I do this? Why would I risk my future, my child, by killing this pup?”I try to make her see reason, but she’s blinded by rage.
She attacks again, viscously fast. She’s a small wolf but she uses her small stature and quick reflexes to fight. I do everything I can to dodge her, refusing to hurt her in any way, but as I back out of the cave even I can hear how menacing and brutal the fight inside must sound.
I fall out of the mouth of the cave in a tumble, and Moira shifts in front of me so everyone can hear her clearly without the effort of mind speaking. “His scent is here, his crime is confirmed. I have no doubt in my mind that Chase is the killer!” she declares.
Every Silver Dawn wolf crouches in preparation to attack.
“No!”I scream, staying in my wolf form for my own protection.“Do you not smell the third scent, Moira? It’s faint but it’s there! Someone went to great lengths to frame me for this! I’m telling you, I would not risk my life with Ruby, my life as a father, for this blood feud between packs!”
My pleas fall on deaf ears. Hackles all around me are raised to attack or raised to defend.
Cole is the first to attack, but rather than go for me he goes straight for Ryder. The moment he does, all hell breaks loose.
I watch in terror as wolf fights against wolf, the gnashing and tearing of flesh almost louder than the snarling and snapping of jaws. I stand dumbfounded, unable to move, staring at my mate from across the battlefield. What once was a place of beauty, of creation, has become a nightmarescape.
Ruby’s head is turning from side to side and her yelps of panic and fear reach me, jolting me into action. She’s trying to find a way to me, trying to find a way for us to escape. Except when I turn to run to her, I’m face to face with the sorrowful eyes of Killian.
“I’ve given everything to this pack…”he cries into my mind, his thoughts making my soul feel his pain.“I lost my mate, and I’ve done everything to protect Silver Dawn from ever losing another female again. Yet…on the night I’m called back to tend to the first pregnancy since my son was born, the man who impregnated the Princess is the same man who murdered my son!”
I back away slowly, my muzzle wrinkling. I don’t want to fight him but I will defend myself.“Killian, I didn’t kill your boy. I swear it!”
“I saw you come to the house, you were alone, in wolf form. You knew the bar would be empty because all your pack was gathering elsewhere, it was the perfect time. You tell them you’re going to get your mate, but you retrieve my poor baby from this cave and drag him to the bar only to hang him.”Killian’s body is trembling, his muscles taught as he growls at me open mouthed. “How long did you mutilate him? What joy did it give you?”
I remain still, cataloging he’s smaller than me. And he’s Doctor not a fighter. But his mind is altered by sorrow. His heart is screaming for justice.
His golden eyes are crazed as he leaps for me, no more a man or a wolf, but a rabid animal. I’m not fast enough this time, he lands on me with such a force that we both roll into the battling wolves. All at once I’m being bitten and dragged every which way by multiple mouths. I realize in horror that this is what we planned for the murderer when we found him. Death by the pack.
Silver Dawn is a smaller pack than mine, but even greater numbers aren’t enough to break through the attacking bodies around me. My skin rips, teeth sinking into my flank and shoulder as someone rips at my tail so hard it knocks me off my feet and onto my back. The pain is so excruciating that all I can do is scream blindly. Agony has me considering begging for the first time in my life.
As does the desperate need to survive this. To get back to Ruby and our baby.
The moment they turn away to fight my pack and leave me torn apart on the ground, I know what’s about to happen. Killian looms over me, jaws frothing and dripping with my blood. He’s here to deliver the killing blow, and my pack can't reach me. I close my eyes, finally accepting my fate, and reaching out one last time to Ruby to say goodbye, to say I love her.
My mind slams against a wall of rage.
Killian lunges, and I brace myself for pain, but it isn’t my cry that rings out, it’s Ruby’s. The silence that falls is more terrifying than the sounds of battle, and when a familiar weight falls on top of me my eyes fly open in panic. Ruby’s head is draped over my neck and I blink in confusion as blood pours over my eyes. She shifts, wrapping her arms around me even as she’s gushing blood. I shift with her, throwing myself over her still body, trying to find her wounds.
Killian screams behind me, and human hands pull me away as he drops to his knees and covers the gash in her neck with his own hands. Shaggy blonde hair falls over his tear-stained cheeks as he screams at my mate.