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But no sooner had she turned than there was an explosion of movement behind her. Something huge blasted out of Jenna's cabin in a blur of speed, splintering the door right off its hinges. Zach screamed. His gun went off again, the bullet ripping audibly through the thick, snow-laden canopy of pine boughs overhead.
Alex grabbed Luna and hit the ground, her face buried in the warm fur of the wolf dog's neck. She didn't know what just happened. For an instant, her mind struggled to process the guttural snarl and the sickening, wet sounds that followed.
Then she knew what it had to be.
Slowly she raised her head. The scream that crawled up to her lips died as her gaze locked onto a deadly creature that eclipsed anything she'd ever seen before.
The Ancient.
Through the steady fall of snowflakes in the darkness, his amber gaze burned laser bright, searingly savage. He was naked, hairless, covered from head to toe in dermaglyphs so dense and intertwining they all but concealed his nudity. His enormous fangs dripped with blood--Zach's blood, taken from the gaping hole that had once been his throat.
A terrible thought slammed into her: Had this monster also gotten to Jenna?
Alex closed her eyes, whispering a prayer for her friend and hoping desperately for some kind of miracle that might have spared her from the brutal savagery that had just befallen Zach. Luna growled in Alex's arms and the creature cocked its head at an exaggerated angle, staring at the animal. He started to prowl away from Zach's lifeless body, a low growl ticking in the back of his alien throat.
Alex's lungs compressed, squeezing out what little air was in them. She thought for certain the Ancient was about to kill her, too, but its questioning stare lingered for an agonizing few seconds. Time during which the distant buzz of more snowmachines carried on the wind.
Alex sent a nervous glance toward the sound.
When she looked back again, the Ancient was gone, nothing but the sway of a few low-hanging branches at the edge of the forest to tell which direction he'd fled.
The knowledge of Alex's fear hit Kade like an anvil driven into his gut. He and the other warriors were hauling ass on their snowmachines, nearly to Harmony when the feeling gripped him that they were moving farther away from Alex, not closer. He quickly redirected the group, leading the way along a game trail that rambled to the west of town.
Fresh sled tracks told him he was on the right path, but no more so than the homing strength of his blood bond to Alex, which pulsed more powerfully as his snowmachine chewed up the trail, heading toward a small log cabin up ahead in the dark a few hundred yards.
Kade's heart soared that he had reached her, only to crash an instant later when the copper stench of human blood tickled his nostrils. It wasn't hers--he'd know her honey-sweet bloodscent anywhere--but the idea that Alex was near any kind of death sent fear arrowing through his veins. Kade goosed the throttle of his sled, but the damn thing was still too slow for his liking. He steered off the trail and ditched it, vaulting in a fluid leap before hitting the ground running, using every ounce of his Breed agility to reach her.
"Alex!" he shouted, speeding past the carnage in front of the cabin and glancing around only long enough to note the brutalized corpse of Zach Tucker and the splintered ruins of what had been the cabin's front door. "Ah, God ... Alex!"
He ran inside and found her on folded knees beside her friend Jenna, who lay on the floor of the darkened cabin. Kade flicked on a lamp, not so much for himself as for the two women. Jenna seemed confused, her eyes drowsy, her voice groggy as though she were just coming to after having been unconscious.
"Alex," Kade murmured gently, his voice breaking with emotion. She turned to face him then, and slowly rose to her feet. She took one hesitant step forward, and that was all he needed. Kade went to her and pulled her against him, wrapping her in his arms. He kissed the top of her head, so damned relieved to see that she was unharmed.
"Alex, I am so sorry. For everything."
She drew back and glanced away from him. He could read the emotion in her eyes. The quiet uncertainty that said she wasn't sure she could trust him fully yet. It crushed him to see that doubt in her eyes. Even worse was knowing that he was the one who put it there.
She led him away from Jenna, who was still murmuring incoherently, in and out of wakefulness. Alex's gaze held his with bleak calm. "It was the Ancient, Kade. He was here." He swore, though he was unsurprised, given the condition of the body outside. "You saw him? Did he touch you? Did he ... ah, Jesus ... did he do anything to you at all?" She shook her head. "He must have been hiding in Jenna's cabin when Zach and I arrived a few minutes ago. He exploded out the front door after Zach tried to shoot me--"
"What?" Kade's blood went from the icy chill of his fear to the boiling heat of rage. If Tucker wasn't already dead, Kade would have torn his lungs out. "What the hell happened? Why did that son of a bitch want to hurt you?"
"Because I realized what he was up to. Zach and Skeeter were in business together, dealing drugs and selling alcohol to the dry Native settlements in the bush. I knew something was wrong when I saw Skeeter's cell phone and a lot of cash at Zach's house today. He tried to lie about it, but I knew."
"He picked the wrong person for that, eh?"
Her smile was faint and fleeting. "I don't want Jenna to see ..." She gestured toward the front yard as her words trailed off. "She'll have to know the truth, of course, but not like this." Kade nodded. "Yeah, of course."
As they spoke the rest of the warriors roared up to the cabin on their sleds. Kade went out to intercept them, informing them that the Ancient had been there just a short while ago and that the victim outside was the brother of Alex's friend.
Chase and Hunter fell in to perform a discreet cleanup, while Tegan and Brock walked with Kade back inside.
"This is Alex," he said, making quick introductions to the two warriors. It was difficult not to touch her as he explained what had occurred before they arrived, just to reassure himself that she was whole and unharmed.
"Are you and your friend all right?" Tegan asked, the Gen One's voice deep with respect despite the fact that he'd come there to assess a situation that had gone from mildly screwed up to fucked up beyond all recognition.
"I'm okay," Alex replied. "But I'm worried about Jenna. I didn't see anything wrong with her, but she doesn't seem quite right to me, either."
Tegan glanced at Brock, but the big warrior was already heading over to have a look at the woman across the room.
