Escaping Death

Chapter 53

Ace

All four of us immediately alert to Solana's shriek. Tate shadows the instant his feet leave the ground, I can feel the draft from his wings as he takes off to sweep the perimeter. Eli jumps out of the water like a fish and climbs up the waterfall's rock face up to the ledge she had just been standing on. Dean sticks with me as I hover around the waterfall trying to sense her. The water makes her scent harder to follow and the sound of the falls make it harder to pick up on her heartbeat — but I know she's close.

I can feel her.

Tate reappears next to Dean and me hovering in front of the falls. "She's not shadowed anywhere within a mile. Someone could have teleported her out. Maybe it's Rhys fucking with us again? He has a history of doing that to us."

I shake my head at him, "normally I'd be inclined to agree with you but she's here. I know it." It's as much a fact as the sky is blue, as the ground is beneath my feet. I just know she's close.

Eli starts walking towards the center of the falls. The ledge he's standing on becomes more and more narrow so he uses the rocks behind the falls to steady himself.

He only makes it a few more feet before he stumbles and falls off the ledge — behind the falls. "Ace! You're going to want to see this." Eli calls out from behind the curtain of water and when we follow his voice we find him in a cave hidden behind the falls.

Tate seethes silently beside me, making both me and his brother regard him with concerned interest. Tate doesn't oscillate much between emotions, he usually remains neutral, if not a little cold. He won't get angry at you, he'll get even. He's patient and calculating that way. So it's more than a little eyebrow raising that he's not only angry, but visibly angry, palpably angry.

"This cave is deceptively deep," Dean says as we walk towards the back of the cave, quickly realizing that it could be a while before we find an end.

"That's because it's not a cave, it's a tunnel. Whoever grabbed her came in through the other side," Tate growls.

I lead the guys quickly through the tunnel, running through the dimly lit passage on the hunt for my mate and the unfortunate who put his hands on her. I can smell her now more clearly, I can hear her heartbeat echoing through the cave. We round a sharp hair-pin turn and discover Solana pushed protectively behind —

"Hunter? What are you doing here?" Eli chuckles with relief for all of us.

I want to extend my arm out to her and invite, but more like demand, her to tuck herself into my hold. My relief that she's safe is being overshadowed by my irritation with Hunter's actions. He should know better than to pull this kind of stunt and more than that he shouldn't even be here.

"Apparently Tate put a hit on me," he accuses with fragile control.

Oh for fuck's sake.

"Tate," I groan, rubbing at my forehead like it could make taking in this information any easier, "when you said you submitted a name..."

"I gave him Hunter's name." Tate admits coolly.

Solana curses under her breath and mutters something about Tate being an idiot.

"What the fuck were you hoping to achieve?" Hunter's anger begins to crack open. He's preventing Sol from pushing past him with one outstretched arm, and in his other hand a dagger materializes.

"I was curious," Tate says cryptically before his eyes zero in on Solana, "and now I'm not."

"Tate, English!" I don't mean to snap but my wolf is too strung out after thinking our mate was kidnapped and then finding her in the arms of my right hand man, who snuck in here because another of our pack mates fucking put a price on his head, all within the span of a couple of minutes.