Walking up the steps to Everly’s apartment, I push the door open and call out to her, “Everly!” I got no
answer, and Valarian ducked off to his room, and I could hear Zoe coming up
the steps behind me. Walking through the place, I walk into her room to find her uniform on the bed. As I
walked back to the living room, Zoe walked in, dumping Casey’s stuff on the table.
“Have you seen Everly? She didn‘t answer when I rang on my way here,” I asked her.
“No, she was in the restaurant earlier; I thought she would be here.” Zoe shrugged.
“Maybe ask Tatum, wasn’t he on guard duty today?” Zoe asked while flicking the kettle on
“No, he had to go to a border patrol meeting today,” I tell her when Zoe picks up her phone. “A h, she has
gone on a run at the reserve,” Zoe says, and I walk over, snatching the phone from her fingertips. The
text message was sent two hours ago. My heart skips a beat, knowing the borderlines aren’t secure.
“Watch Valarian,” I tell her, taking off and jumping over the guardrail on the balcony. Landing on the
ground, I raced toward the back end of the Hotel. I had been ringing her for over two hours. She
shouldn’t have been gone that long, she told me herself. She can’t last long in her wolf form.
I ran for the back of the property and heard Zoe call out to me, but I didn‘t stop. Instead, I hit the gate that
hard it flew open and smashed into the fence, Sniffing the air for any sign of her as I run. I find her scent
coming to a log before reaching into it and pulling out her bag. I opened up the mind
link, ordering all my men to this side of the border to find her as I frantically looked between the trees.
“Everly.” I scream out to her. My chest squeezes
painfully as something feels like it is tugging, goosebumps rising on my arms,
and I just know something terrible has happened. I didn‘t even get three steps before the shift took over,
and I was racing through the forest, looking for any sign of her. Cursing myself that she wasn’t marked
because I would have found her in seconds. Partway through the woods, I heard a scream, and my
stomach dropped.
Adrenaline courses through me as I race toward the sound, her screams becoming louder and the
sounds of snarls and fighting reach my ears. I skidded into the fence, my paws digging into the earth as I
slammed against it.
Three Forsaken were tearing into her, and she was
covered in blood as she tried to shift, Racing along the fence line, I try to find a way out when she yelps,
shifting when a brown matted one rips into her neck, flinging her across the dirt.
Backing up, I look at the fence, coils of razor
wire wrapping around the top. I shift back before backing up further and running at the fence, grabbing th
e mesh with my fingers and
climbing the mesh before jumping over the top. The wire tangled around my arms, torso, and legs.
Tearing at my flesh, I felt it drag across my entire body before my weight ripped me to the other side.
My entire body sliced to pieces as I hit the ground mid-shift. My paws hit the dirt, and I
growled viciously, the sound more of a roar. They freeze, all spinning towar intruder, and my eyes went to
Everly, who was trying to crawl away. One of her legs was broken, her shin bone jutting out past her skin
and I couldn’t see a clear speck of flesh that wasn’t drenched in blood.
The forsaken turned their full attention on me, snapping and snarling as they tried to circle around me.
Not giving them time, I attacked, ripping into one while the other two ripped into me. I barely felt their
bites as I pulled them apart, utterly numb with my rage as I tore into the brown one’s neck and shook my
head. 1
Fur and blood flying everywhere, including mine, coated the ground. I could feel my men getting closer
as I killed the first one before pivoting and sinking my teeth into another one’s face, tearing his ear off
before biting his muzzle.
The crunch of teeth breaking and his blood getting into my mouth made me lock my jaw while the other
tore into my side and back leg, trying to get me off him. His wails and screams echoed when I felt his jaw
snap and pop. I let go, turning on the other and ripping into his rear hind leg, the bone cracking between
my teeth under pressure, and I shook my head.
He yelped and howled as I ripped his leg off just as the other one hit me from the side, he had no control
of his jaw as it hung limply, I tore into his neck, slamming him down into the ground before tearing a
chunk out just as snarls echoed through the air.
Tatum was running toward us, and I gasped when I saw John’s giant gray wolf lock its jaws around the
forsaken’s neck-snapping it in one bite before he repeatedly slammed it on the ground.
My men come from everywhere. Blood drenched me, my wounds weren’t healing quick, but I had one
aim, and that was Everly. Rushing toward her. I find her leg was indeed broken, her side torn open
severely, and a chunk from her thigh was gone. I started licking her wounds, and she pushed my face
away. “Stop, you‘re injured,” she said, pushing my head with her hand, and I snapped at her fingers,
ignoring her.
“Tatum help Emily,” Everly cried, and I lifted my head from her hip to see her point toward the fence line.
Tatum rushed over, and I saw my men help him rip at the panel to get to her. Everly’s hand dropped, and
so did the rest of her as she passed out, almost as if her body just gave up on her now she knew she
was safe.
I keep licking her wounds, sealing them, so they stop bleeding before shifting back when I notice her
father come over. He sniffed her neck, and I snarled at him before scooping her up i n my arms. He also
shifts back, looking everywhere but at his daughter’s naked body in my arms. I tuck her closer, shielding
her nudity.
“What are you doing here?” I growled at him.
“Your men rushed out of the meeting, I figured something had happened and followed,” he snapped back
at me. His eyes go to Everly’s face, her head falling back in my arms.
“She going to be alright?” he asked before clenching his jaw and looking away. “She will be,” I tell him,
turning my back on him and stalking off to the pulled-down fence
“Get your men to fix that fucking fence, John; they were supposed to be on patrol today,” I called over my
shoulder. He growls but says nothing as I step through into the reserve. One of my men scoops up Emily,
and I stop. “She good?”
“No idea,” he says. The girl didn’t look too good
“Get her to the pack hospital,” I tell him, and he takes off running with her.
“Already mind link for ambulances. They will be waiting out front. I told Marcus to hang back for them. He
is out there flagging them down,’ Tatum says, and I nod before looking at my other men.
“Guard the fence until John’s men get here to fix it,” I command
“Yes, boss,” I hear them say just before I take off Running.
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