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As I heftedmy heavy pack from where I’d tossed it across the chasm, a splinter of pain shot through my chest down to my gut. I set my jaw, trying not to let the discomfort show on myface.
Even with all the rest I’d gotten yesterday and the slow pace we’d set after, the poison was still in my system. Still making me weaker than I should have been. I hated it. We might have gotten all the way to the end of this cave yesterday if we could have kept up our usual pace. Hell, if I’d noticed the off smell in the biscuits when I’d first grabbed one, I could have stopped Marco from eating themtoo.
I’d been complacent, and my mate was suffering because ofit.
Ren was taking it all in stride. She adjusted her own pack against her back and smiled at me when she caught me looking at her. That quick gesture warmed me even with the twist of pain and guilt in my gut. Remembering her hands on me last night, her soft sighs of pleasure, the sweet taste of herskin...
Okay, that line of thinking wasn’t going to help her either. Someone was out to sabotage our journey here—to kill us if they could. They’d literally torn the ground out from under us. I had to stay focused on the present, on defending Ren from our enemies. How could I be worthy of our mate-bond if Ididn’t?
If I’d waited all this time only to lose her now... I couldn’t stand that thought. It made me feel sicker than the poisonhad.
Marco shot one last glance down the chasm and sauntered over. “I say we send bear boy ahead from here on,” he said in his annoyingly jaunty tone. “If the floor holds under all that bulk, the rest of us won’t need toworry.”
West snorted. I glowered at Marco. “I’m happy to take the lead if you’re a scaredycat.”
“Ooh,” he said, grinning. “The bear got in a burn. Not bad,Nate.”
Ren rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys.I’lltake the lead if the rest of you are going to stand around debatingit.”
She moved to set off, and I strode ahead of her. For the first few steps, I wasn’t aware of much except the need to assert my intentions and Marco’s mocking chuckle. Then a faint scent reached my nose that didn’t fit the cold rock aroundus.
I stopped, holding out my arm. “Stay back. Something’s notright.”
West came up beside me as I inhaled again. His wolf’s nose was the strongest out of all of us, but I could hold my own in that area when I concentrated. A faintly musky smell lingered in the air—something living. Somethinganimal.
And we hadn’t seen a single animal since we’d descended into this cave, other than our glimpse of that weasel the fae had taken careof.
“You’re right,” West said with a frown. He stalked a little farther ahead, scanning the cave around us. I wasn’t going to be left behind. I followed him, testing the air myself. If anything, the scent got fainter. I turned and paced back the way we’d come. Ren watched me, her brow knit with concern. My stomach twisted tighter, seeing herworry.
“It’s strange,” I said. “It’s strongest right around here. Whatever animal left that smell, it must have stopped here for a while. But then where did it go? We didn’t pass anything on our wayhere.”
“There’s nothing I can pick up farther this way,” West said from the spot where I’d left him. “It’s so faint I can’t get a clear read on it. Maybe it’sold.”
He sounded doubtful, probably because it didn’t smell stale to him any more than it did to me. The faintness was more as if it’d been washed over somehow to try to remove the scent, with just a few lingering traces remaining. And that would mean someone had tried to cover their scent trail on purpose, so we wouldn’t catch on. My shoulders tensed. You couldn’t get much more suspicious thanthat.
“Can you tell what kind of animal it was?” Aaronasked.
I shook my head. It didn’t really matter. If even a little weasel could pose a threat, we couldn’t trustanything.
“We should walk close together,” I said, motioning the other alphas over. “All of us around Ren, so there’s no way anyone can get at her without going through us. If the rogues are planning another ambush, we have to beready.”
“I don’t need a human shield,” Ren protested. “Why don’t wejust—”
With a snarl, a blur of fur shot through the air toward her from the wall above. A bellow of warning broke from my throat. I leapt in front of my mate, pushing her backward and bracing myself to shift to meet thethreat.
* * *
Ren
The forceof Nate’s shove sent me stumbling back toward the wall. I gritted my teeth, feeling my dragon wake up with a scrabble of claws in my chest.Noone got to push me around, not even mymates.
What the hell was even happening? The flashlight had fallen after the snarl I’d heard. Its light rotated around the cave as it spun. It caught on Nate, already shifted into his grizzly bear form. He was trying to pin down a spotted wildcat that had come out of nowhere. It kept squirming out from under his paws. Aaron’s eagle dove down to add his talons to themix.
Across from them, West’s wolf and Marco’s jaguar were facing off with a big, black weasel-like creature my mind vaguely registered as a wolverine. It hissed and snapped at them with razor-sharpfangs.
Nate gave the wildcat a smack as it clawed at him. The impact sent it careening over the edge of the chasm. The last I heard was a feline shriek as it plummeted into thedepths.
A harsh pant of breath behind me made me spin around. Not a second too soon. A coyote lunged at me, teeth snapping at my throat. I barely managed to dodge out of the way before it took a chunk out ofme.
