The Hunted

Thirty-Nine

Red

There is a moment when a life is about to change forever where the world just grows...still. Quiet. Seconds passing as if in slow motion.

Red's world slowed like that as he saw Blake again. Slate grey eyes, brown skin, night-black hair that had been tied back but still looked knotted and as if it hadn't been brushed in days. There was a long, red gash made from some sort of blade along the right side of her face – running from brow to jaw.

From the way she was standing, he could tell that she was in a bit of pain. Though from the expression on her face, she didn't seem concerned about it. Truly, she only looked as if she were expecting to be ripped to shreds by their packmates. Many were in their wolf skins; had Shifted hours ago as they'd begun the preparations to go to war against the hunters.

Juliet had narrowed down the location with what she could recall and then Monroe and Toby, who had made their return in the cloak of the late-night darkness to the pack only a few hours earlier, had confirmed it. They'd found the community of hunters but hadn't dared to linger long after feeling Chandra's death. Not when there were so many humans near that wouldn't hesitate to kill a werewolf. Better to return when they had the numbers.

Henry had given the command to begin preparations and so Red had begun organizing his warriors. Ensuring that those trained and bloodthirsty enough were ready to go and leaving just enough behind to defend the pack in their absence under Monroe and Toby's supervision.

Yet now, with Blake and Phillip returned, Red didn't know what his next step was. He could barely manage a breath as he regarded her.

Truly, he'd thought that he would never see her again. Had resigned himself to that fact only moments after feeling Chandra's life fade away. Red hadn't been able to fathom a situation where Phillip made it out alive. And with what Juliet and Annalise claimed Blake had done for them...Red hadn't truly thought that she would survive either.

Though both of them looked like they'd been through the wringer. Phillip was bruised and battered and covered with gashes and blood. Blake was hardly better.  Her clothes were drenched in blood, some of it hers but most of it...Most of it he could scent belonged to someone else.  Someone who smelled of Sanguis Ridge.  Chandra, then.   

But even as a ripple of pain and grief pulsed through his veins, Red's mind was overtaken by the injuries that coated his Mate's skin. Red could understand how a werewolf had been tortured by a hunter but the humans had left their mark on Blake, as well. Aside from the slicing wound on her cheek, there was also an engraving on her right forearm. It was a wound that was perhaps the most telling indication of what she'd experienced since she'd left him a week ago.

TRAITOR.

Traitor on her arm. Monster on Annalise's.

And yet they'd both survived. Had each made it home.

Blake knelt down in front of Annalise and brushed her hand across the child's face, wiping away her tears. "You did so wonderfully, sweet girl. You were so, so brave."

"I was so scared," Annalise admitted to Blake, sniffling. It was more than anyone else had been able to get her to say about the ordeal she'd been through.

Gently, Blake cupped Annalise's cheek and her dirty, bloodied hand was stark against the cleanliness of Annalise's.  "You had no reason to be scared. I wasn't going to let anything happen to you. Not then, not now, not ever. I promise. Okay?"