Shattered

Chapter 40: Invisible Force

Kaden's POV:

"Some cry with tears; others with thoughts." - Octavia Paz

I called Violet four times, and every time it said it couldn't connect. I tried not to let panic take over. Sometimes the places she went, she didn't have service. That was probably all it was. Probably. Hopefully... Goddess, let her be safe.

"Are you coming or not?" Thaddeus asked, peaking his head in the door. "We have to go."

"I'm..." I stared down at my phone, sighing in frustration before dropping it on the counter so hard it bounced off and landed on the floor. There was nothing I could do and it was the worst feeling. I couldn't help Violet, but right now I knew of another danger. Alpha Viktor and his pack had been good to me, I wasn't going to leave them to hounds. "I'm coming."

Tess and I shifted and Thaddeus ran ahead of us. Cass and Renzo were on their way from their hotel room and Thaddeus guessed Kane and whoever he was bringing with him weren't far behind.

The sprint to Alpha Viktor's territory was easier since it was dark. There were way less trees to hide us from humans like we were used to, but the night helped. At least going back from his territory would be a lot less risky because it would most likely be in the middle of the night, if not dawn depending on how long this took.

I wasn't sure how Thaddeus knew when and where the hounds were going to attack, but their rotted scent hit me before we even made it on the territory. Remembering what it was like to take those things on had me pushing faster and Tess matched my speed. She remembered too and lost a lot more than I did that first time we encountered them. The problem was, all of this would be hard for her. We only needed one alive and that was fine, but what ate at Tess was the fact there was no way to know if she was killing her own pack members tonight without realizing it.

We passed the border and even if I didn't smell them, their snarls were loud. Following that sound, we veered to the right, spotting eight hounds surrounding four wolves from Alpha Viktor's pack. Tess jumped in on the right and I did on the left. We lost our ability to link when she moved to Kane's pack from ours, but that didn't take away the years of cooperative training, the way we knew what the other's move was in a fight like this.

I pounced on one of the hounds, sinking my teeth into its neck and clamping down until it stopped moving. Tess did the same but I could see it in the way she wasn't as focused as usual, the way her eyes darted around to all of them that this wasn't easy. As soon as we finished off those hounds with the four from Viktor's pack, I went up next to her and nudged her shoulder with mine. It was rare for Tess to show vulnerability at all, she always put up a tough front, so I knew it must've been hitting her even harder than I knew when she let out a quiet whimper and nuzzled me with her muzzle before taking off farther into the pack.

I sped after her and they seemed to be coming from everywhere, from every direction. Every time I thought we cleared them out from one area, more would arrive. Tess and I got separated when I went after one that was chasing after a limping wolf. I tackled it and we rolled into a tree, not managing to get my teeth sunken in. It scrambled to its feet before I could and pounced on me with a ferocious growl. I kicked my back paws into its ribs, knocking it to the side. I charged after it again, tackling it to the ground and managing to sink my teeth in its back, near its spine.

It thrashed around, trying to shake me off. I waited until its neck was in the right place to let go and move my teeth to its jugular, biting down and feeling the blood pour out. It struggled and squirmed until it finally bled out and I released my hold.

A force hit me from the side and knocked me into a tree so hard, the tree cracked and started to fall. I scrambled away from it but a stray branch clipped the back of my leg. Pain shot up my back left leg and I ignored it, planting myself firmly in place as a hound charged at me with eyes red and seemingly soulless but I knew a shifter was under there somewhere, a real shifter that went through Goddess knows what.