Page 44 of Red

He looked around for his mate, expecting Arie to be working on some project or another, or to be curled near him on the furs. He frowned as he realized she wasn’t there. He breathed in to track her scent in the cave but the only trace of her was hours old. He shot to his feet, alarm filling him.

How long had she been gone without him knowing? Where did she go?

“Arie!” he shouted as he spun around the cave, some part of him illogically hoping that she was playing some sort of game and had found a way to deceive his senses. His panic level spiked at the silence that greeted him. He rushed out the entrance, calling her name repeatedly as he darted through the snow to the nearest places Arie enjoyed lingering when he took her to walk around the den. She had walked there recently. He could see the path of her footprints through the snow, but it was the only sign that Arie had been that way hours earlier, disappearing into the trees where any number of dangers awaited her. His mate was gone to who knew what fate and with her absence all the terrible memories from his youth came rushing back as horror tore into him with relentless teeth.

Would he lose her, too, to the dark realms of Efru?

The past swam up before him, bringing with it all its remembered pain. He had been a youth returning to his parents’ den with a fresh kill to show off to his fathers and mother, but there had been no welcoming smiles. The only greeting he had was the sight of their dead bodies burning in a heap just in front of the entrance. He’d fallen to his knees in front of the pyre, overwhelmed by grief. The stench and smoke had made him tear up, and he’d gagged and vomited helplessly where he had crouched but he’d been unable to summon the will to move from that spot. Nothing had stopped the agony of their absence, and nothing would stop it now. In his vision, his Arie was lying there amid his family, her sightless eyes staring up from where her body slowly burned away among them.

Invisible hands gripped and shook him, pulling him free from his memories so roughly that Rager blinked up at Warol in shock. The male was gripping his scruff as he held Rager upright and meeting his eyes with a look that was wide-eyed with fear. Beside him, Kyx whined softly, his ears pulled back as he glanced around.

“Rager, what has happened? We heard your bellow of anguish from some distance and hurried back as fast as we could only to find you out here alone, writhing in the snow as if in agony. Where is Arie?”

“Gone,” he choked. “I don’t know where to. Arie had been getting restless more often lately, she must have decided to go for a short walk along our familiar route while I was sleeping and got confused.” He gestured to her tracks dispiritedly. “I think she was following your path through the new snow, Warol, not realizing that it drew her out farther from the den than she was accustomed to. Now she is gone—lost out there if she’s still alive. She doesn’t answer my call, and all scent trails, including the one along this path, are faded and hours old.” His head bowed with the weight of his misery. “This is my fault.”

Kyx shook his head and sighed. “I do not accept your self-blame. This could happen to anyone. I know that I’ve become disorientated and lost while taking adventures from my den in my youth. It happens, especially since we can’t keep Arie locked within the cave at all hours. We’ve all been allowing her freedom to move about more since the immediate dangers seemed to have passed—for the time being anyway since the heavy snow arrived. Arie is resourceful, Rager. I’m sure we will find her safe.”

Warol made a noise of agreement. “Kyx is right. She doesn’t like to be inside when the weather is nice and none of us wish to keep her prisoner. She simply got a little confused with the new snow, mistaking our paths in the snow as you said. That doesn’t mean that harm has come to her. That is your trauma speaking, and I know this because I’m trying hard to ignore it myself. I’m certain that she is out there waiting for us to find her. You know Arie is more cautious by nature than to continue wandering farther once she realizes that she’s lost. We will recover our mate, brother.”

Drawing in a deep, cleansing breath, Rager closed his eyes and willed the ghosts of his past to draw back and fade away. Arie was not among them. He wouldn’t allow them to torment him with images of her suffering among the dead. Warol and Kyx were right. He’d been blinded by his past grief and had reacted instinctively. Now that he was thinking more clearly, he refused to believe his mate was anything other than alive and well. Opening his eyes again, he met the concerned looks of his brothers and gave a sharp nod of his head as he rose to his feet.

“We will find her. And if anyone happens to find her before us and is caught holding our Arie against her will, we destroy them without hesitation,” he growled. Although there had been no signs of humans in the Northern Forest, he knew that there were old paths that cut through the forest. If Arie got close enough to one such path, there was a chance, as small as it was, that someone might come across her. His brothers’ ears perked at his words, and their bodies stiffened in preparation for the hunt. A high energy seemed to buzz around all of them born of desperation to find her and bring her safely home.

Tipping his head back, Rager let out a long howl in hope that it might reach Arie, wherever she was, and reassure her with the knowledge that he was coming for her. The birds in the trees ceased singing and stilled, and the entire area went quiet as his brothers joined his chorus as they sang together to their mate. They would find her, and not even the gods would be able to help any who kept her from them.

Kyx leaped to the fore, his head whipping around to catch the direction of her fading scent as he set his course along the path she’s broken through the snow as he bounded forward in a high-paced pursuit. The smaller male was the best tracker among them, and Rager trusted him to lead them to their mate without error if there were places that she crossed where the snow receded, or her trail was disturbed.

Rager could barely keep up with the smaller red male as he whipped through the trees, his fur a blur in the distance. He wasn’t the only one who struggled to keep up. Warol panted at his side, his own gaze focused on their brother as they raced together among the trees.

Rager burst forth with renewed speed, his heart hammering out a song of need. He needed to find their mate. He needed her. He needed. The refrain beat inside of him ceaselessly, pushing him ahead so he never lost sight of his brother. His body and lungs burned from maintaining the brutal speed, but he refused to relinquish his need. Arie was the culmination of all that he needed, and if he relinquished his need to reach her it would be as if he were willingly surrendering her.

He refused!

Snow scattered beneath their feet as they ran among the trees, the wind whistling in his ears. The temperature was dropping as the shadows lengthened. He didn’t feel the bite of the chilled air, nor did he hear any of the sounds of the forest. All his being was focused on his mate and her scent that seemed to disperse quicker than they could follow it until it finally thickened, drawing him in to her location. Despite the many possibilities that had occurred to him of what they would find, the sight of the merchant wagon caught him off-guard. It was old and painted such a dark green that he almost missed it. An animal was hitched to it, yanking its head nervously as it sensed their approach. Kyx had slowed and was circling as he waited for them to approach but the male’s fur bristled at the same time all of Rager’s senses sharpened on their mate at her fearful cry.

Driven by pure desperation, Rager’s stride lengthened so that he quickly bypassed Kyx as he plunged toward the human path. His fury rose, and with it a bitter taste flooded his mouth. Snarling, he leaped effortlessly onto the wagon, and peered down, enraged, from its height at the sight that greeted him.

Five men surrounded the delicate form of his mate sprawled on the ground between them. She fought, kicking and clawing at them as she tried to get away. One of the male’s faced was scored deeply from her thin fingernails tearing through the skin, the cuts a bloody mess, though nothing compared to what a Ragoru’s claws could do. The mocking laughter of the males, however, ignited his fury, making it burn hotter, even more so when he caught sight of the dark cloaks of the Order. Another savage growl tore free from Rager and he leaped down with a roar, determined to be the harbinger of their destruction.

Flat male faces with various amounts of fur on their cheeks and chins looked up at him in surprise. They twisted around, their hands on their weapons, and Rager laughed. The sound was cruel even to his own ears. He couldn’t think of what it might sound like to his female. He didn’t want her to know that he enjoyed the terror on the faces of the huntsmen, or that he reveled in the fact that one of their number had immediately urinated on himself when Rager landed among them. Nor did he wish her to know that he enjoyed the taste of their blood welling in his mouth as he sank his teeth into the male on whom he landed with enough force to drive them into the snow.

The vicious snarls that rose on either side of him as his brothers leaped into the fray were punctuated by screams and sharp cracks firing from their weapons as blood sprayed across the snow and wagon. Rager destroyed one and then another. He turned in his frenzy to find another target, but found that Warol had also dispatched two humans, the remains of which now rested in lumps of bloody flesh around his feet. The silver male’s breath came out in ragged pants as he made an obvious effort to control the lingering effects of his rage. He had several shallow cuts, but otherwise seemed well.

Rager winced at the pull of muscle where a huntsman had stabbed his side. It hadn’t been deep enough to cause significant injury, but it hurt. His head swung around in response to Arie’s shout. Kyx’s growl followed. Rager turned just in time to see Kyx pull a grizzled human in simple attire away from where he was crouched over their mate, a blade held against her delicate neck. The blade left a faint trail of red against her skin when Kyx ripped him from her and tossed him several paces away. As Kyx stalked over to where he’d thrown the male, Rager rushed to Arie’s side, anxious to assure himself that she was safe.

Drawing her into his arms, Rager held her close in a protective embrace with his upper arms as he ran his free hands over her to check for any injury. Relieved to find none, he enclosed her in those arms as well, holding her tightly within his embrace. Her arms curled around his neck as her small body shuddered against him. He made soothing sounds to her and opened up space for Warol who nuzzled her from the other side. She released one hand from Rager’s neck to awkwardly pat the male’s cheek, but her head turned toward the sound of commotion, drawing their attention as well to the remaining human. The male feinted to the left and brought his weapon up, but it did him little good as Kyx lunged with a single-mind intensity and clamped his teeth onto the human’s arm. The male screamed in agony as the weapon dropped to the ground, but their brother wasn’t done yet.

He braced two hands at the human’s torso while his other pair of hands wrapped around the arm on which his teeth were clamped. Kyx released the male from his teeth and, with a show of strength, pulled with all his might until the ligaments and flesh of the arm tore. Only then did Kyx release it and leave it hanging as a bloody, pulverized mess at the human’s side before attacking the other arm that the human drew up to protect himself. When both arms were rendered useless, Kyx broke the bones of the legs, making the human howl in misery before slashing his claws along the male’s belly so that his bowels fell into the snow. Only then did Kyx show mercy and break the human’s neck, allowing the male to die.

Cradling Arie in his arms, Rager pressed their mate’s face against his fur as he and Warol drew up beside their brother, inspecting the remains. They stood side by side staring dispassionately down at the pitiful sight.

“He had a lingering scent of lust upon him mingling with his fear when he was crouched over Arie,” Kyx offered as an explanation. “It told me enough of what he’d intended to do to her if we hadn’t arrived in time.”

That was all he said, and that was all that needed to be said.

Arie pushed against Rager’s chest as she pulled back, her neck craning as she attempted to look around. Reluctantly, he relaxed his hold so that she could see. She looked around, her eyes taking in the scene without fear or disgust. Instead, her lips were pinched together and there was a certain satisfaction in her eyes as she lifted her gaze to meet his and those of his triad brothers.

“I don’t enjoy this, but I cannot find it in myself to feel anything but relief at their passing.” She leaned into him and sighed. “Not when I know that they wanted to hurt me—I could see it in their eyes and heard every word of it as they laughed and talked among themselves. All they were required to do was to bring me alive. Nothing written within their orders prevented them from having a little fun. What all that would have included, beyond the obvious, I don’t know and don’t want to know.”

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