The Hunted

Thirty-Three

Red

Something was terribly wrong.

Red knew it before he even opened his eyes. It was a pressure on his chest, suffocating his lungs and constricting his heart. He felt as if he was missing a limb.

The other side of the bed was cool. Not quite ice cold but long past warm. His fingers reached blindly for his Mate but found only sheets and blankets and the pillow she'd rested her head on as they'd fallen asleep staring at each other.

His eyes flew open and there was the empty side of the bed. The covers thrown neatly back, pillow empty. No sign of Blake anywhere in the room.

Her backpack – the one that had been sitting by the closet door – was missing.

Red was moving before he'd consciously given his body instruction. Tugging on his shorts and t-shirt, shoving his feet into shoes which he'd kicked off by the end of the bed. He followed Blake's scent out the door and down the stairs. It wasn't stale but he could tell she'd been gone for a little while. An hour or two at least.

His heart began to hammer in his chest, thundering as panic began to set in. The trail led him outside where the beginnings of a rising sun was just starting to become visible to the east. He had only made it down the edge of the steps when Henry came thundering through the treeline.

He was all grey fur and teeth, his lips pulled back to expose his canines as he snarled. In one smooth motion, he jumped and Shifted and then he was in Red's face. "Where is she?"

Red didn't have to ask who and given the fury in his Alpha's eyes, he wasn't sure that he wanted his Mate to be found. "I don't know."

"Annalise is missing and I picked up Blake's scent outside of her window," Henry growled.

The ice in Red's heart spread out to the tips of his fingers and toes. He swallowed thickly, choking back the horror of what his mind was unfurling.

It's not possible, Red thought. Blake wouldn't. Not to Annalise. She loved the werewolf child. He knew that she did.

But she was a hunter by trade and had relived a horrible attack only the day before. Had something changed in the night? Had Blake stared upon his face in the dark and found herself regretting everything? Because they had...

They'd completed the Mating process and accepted the bond in full. Red could feel it in his chest, deeper and stronger than what had existed before.

Months ago, when he'd realized that Blake was his Mate, a tether had appeared between them – a steel cable bridging their souls. Red realized now that the cable was actually a string, delicate and thin, compared to what had solidified as he and Blake had put it all out on the line last night. As they'd pressed against each other, moved with each other, skin-to-skin. Her name had been a symphony on his lips and every time she'd gasped and moaned had spoken to Red on a deeper, primal level.

She'd sent him reeling but the moment that changed everything for him was the after. As she'd let him slide his arms around her body, pulling her close. And then they'd only stared at each other, open and honest, as they breathed the same air and took the time to survey the other in greater detail than they'd ever done before.

Blake had fallen asleep first, her breathing evening out as the lines in her face quieted. Became younger, almost. The maturity and strength that she carried with her every waking moment dissipating, leaving behind a woman who actually looked and felt twenty-three.