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“You’re Garrett’s mate,” he says as if that’s supposed to explain everything.
It doesn’t.
If anything, it only confuses me more because I already knew that, yet I still don’t understand why it’s important.
“And…” I say, trying to coax an answer from him.
“He’s looking for you…,” he says more to himself. “We have to go now!”
Something about his tone keeps me from resisting. I’m not sure what has him so freaked out, but I don’t like it, especially not when he was so sure of himself the night I met him. He’d seemed to believe he was the scariest thing in those woods, so what could he seem so frightened about?
We ride in silence. I can’t see much, but I don’t feel like I need to. Call it stupidity, or maybe I’m naive, but I trust Ryker.
I hear them even before we reach the other village: the strong flap of Garrett’s wings in the sky, Pike’s howl, and a deep hiss I know belongs to Blair.
My heart rate picks up, and I sit forward, anxiously waiting to see them, needing to see them all in one piece.
The trees begin to thin, and I can’t wait anymore. Swinging my legs to one side, I literally slip from Ryker’s arms without a struggle. After riding for a while, he seemed to realize I was no longer trying to run back into danger and loosened up a bit. My feet hit the ground hard, and my knees buckle, but I don’t let that stop me. I roll forward, scrambling up to my feet before I take off toward the sound of them.
I can feel them, Garrett, Storm, and Blair, our bonds in my chest, but that connection already let me down once tonight, and that doesn’t do shit for the others.
“Rena!” Ryker yells, and I hear him behind me, the snap of twigs and crunching of leaves under his feet, but I can’t stop.
They’re so close, I just need…
“Rena! Stop!” Ryker roars. It’s so unlike his usual gentle tone, and I cringe at the intensity of it. I’m not sure, but I bet that was an alpha command. I have no doubt I should be rooted to the spot, would be, if only I had a beast to command.
His growl of frustration only makes me more sure that’s exactly what it was.
I break through the last of the trees, but I don’t make it far as Ryker catches up with me, literally catching my wrist, just as my feet go out from under me.
The wind whips at my face, and it takes my brain a second to catch up as I dangle off the side of a very steep cliff. The only thing stopping me from going splat is Ryker’s very tight grip on my wrist as he hauls me back up and drops me down onto solid ground once again.
“If you would have listened,” he grumbles, dropping out of the air to stand beside me, looking less than amused.
I know he’s serious and that I should probably apologize or, at the very least, thank him for saving me, but I can’t. All I can do is stare at the massive black and purple wings attached to his back.
I’ve seen Garrett’s wings dozens of times, and while Ryker’s aren’t quite as large, they’re damn close. Ryker’s appear thinner, like a bat, but not as wide and almost tattered. I’d never met anyone else who had a beast with wings like that, and as far as I know, Garrett is the only wyvern left.
“What are you?” I ask, unable to help myself. I wrack my brain for an explanation, trying to recall if he had told me what his beast was.
His eyes cut to the side, almost as if glaring at his wings before he recalls them, turning away from me without an answer. I push up to my feet, intent on asking again, but my question is quickly forgotten when I see what lies just past the cliff's edge.
From up here, we can see the whole northern village. It’s easily seven or eight times the size of the one we just came from, but it’s not in any better shape; if anything, it’s worse.
Whereas there were only a handful of chimeras there, I can see at least fifteen from here, and who knows if the guys already handled any or if there are more hidden.
I watch in horror as Pike and Storm rip into one while Blair coils around it, dragging it away from a group of villagers that Sol is leading into the woods.
A loud, broken growl mixed with a howl fills the air, and I know it’s one of the beasts by the way the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I scan the village, looking desperately for Lyle, and find him fighting with one of the largest chimeras I’ve ever seen. His teeth sink into the flesh of it as he tears and rips into it, dragging it back away from the center of the town and a few straggling villagers.
The beast turns and takes a swipe at him, and I gasp aloud before slapping a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming out to him. I doubt he could hear me from here, but even if he could, all I would do is distract him and make this worse.
Lyle dodges the hit, but just barely before he jumps back, leaving the beast on his own with his attention set on Lyle. A moment later, Garrett dives down from seemingly out of nowhere, digging his claws into the beast’s shoulder. He bites down on its head, and I hear the sound of its flesh ripping and bones breaking even from here as he yanks its head off. Black blood gushes out, coating Garrett in a thick layer of it as he spits its decapitated head to the ground and once again takes flight before the body hits the ground with a thud, the beast so big I feel the ground shake even from up here on the cliffside.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Ryker says from beside me, making me jump. I’d been so focused on the guys I’d forgotten he was here. He stands close, and when I look up at him, his lips are turned up in a slight smile that, I swear, almost looks proud.
He looks down at me, and his smile melts away, his lips pulling down in a frown.
