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Chapter 11
Lucien
The woods around me bleed with shadows. Dušan trots alongside me, both of us in wolf form and carrying our clothes in our mouths. My jaw tightens, as I’ve been carrying my boots as well. They once belonged to my father, and there is no way I am leaving them behind. He had this obsession with the cowboy boots that he found on the side of the road. He took them, and they strangely fit perfectly. I lost him so long ago, and the boots are all I have left of him.
Morning brings blessed heat. The storms stopped just before dawn, but it was a wicked night of heavy rains pissing down and cracking thunder. Dušan and I had sheltered in an old abandoned shack, and in our wolf forms, we chased away the cold.
The rain washed away most scents, but when we discovered the fallen bridge, we knew we were definitely on the right path. There’s a smaller rope bridge farther along the canyon’s ridge that I discovered on my last visit to this area of the woods, which Bardhyl most likely wouldn’t know about. That means they’re still on the other side of the gorge. We move fast and cross over the narrow bridge made of rope and old wood panels.
Bardhyl would have shit his pants crossing this. Dušan takes rapid steps ahead of me, making the whole damn bridge wobble and shake.
Then we’re running along the gorge, well aware Bardhyl would be headed in the direction of our home. My heart beats faster at the thought of seeing Meira again. I intend to keep her by my side every minute of the day until she accepts what she means to us and that being apart isn’t going to work. She belongs to us and we to her. She just doesn’t seem to realize that yet.
A twig snaps, and we freeze. I lift my nose and sniff the air, Dušan doing the same. Fresh rain. Muddy soil. And wolf. A she-wolf, more specifically, carrying a heavy air of slick. Meira. My heart gallops at the thought of finding her.
The cold wind blows directly in our faces, so she’s ahead.
One look at Dušan, then we’re off. We each spear outward to cover more ground.
The air thickens with her scent when I spot her racing alone through the woods at least fifteen feet away. My muscles ease at having found her, the tension rolling off me. Thank fuck! All I want now is to snatch her and kiss her until she sees sense.
She glances over her shoulder then keeps going. Has she ditched Bardhyl so easily? He’s getting sloppy—or is something else chasing her? I wait a moment, studying the forest behind her, listening, but nothing comes.
She’s running away. That’s what she’s good at, what she’s always known, and it breaks me to see her doing it again after we offered her everything.
Fear strangles people, I get it, but she’s our fated mate, and for that I will fight to the ends of the Earth to make her believe we won’t let her walk away from us.
Not again.
Never again.
A growl rumbles through my chest as I watch her running. On the other side of her, Dušan moves in her direction. That’s my cue, and I dart toward our girl.
We travel like the wind.
Minimum sound.
Hunting what is ours. What belongs to us.
Dušan reaches her first, and she startles, a cry falling from her lips at seeing his wolf form. She backs away, hitting a tree, but she slips past it only to arrive face-to-face with me. I drop my clothes in front of me and call back my wolf.
“No!” she mutters as she looks over to Dušan standing before her as a man, naked.
“You are not supposed to be here,” she continues, her voice quavering. Defeat finds her—it’s written all over her face. And my heart aches to see her disappointment that we’ve found her. That’s not the homecoming you want from your fated mate.
My body shakes, bones stretch, skin splits, and I bear the excruciating pain because it’s gone as fast as it starts. Pain comes hand-in-hand with being a wolf, and I learned a long time ago that being afraid of it makes it worse. Now I embrace it. The more the change aches, the stronger it’ll make me.
I rise to my feet in human form as Meira swings her attention my way, the tears in her eyes breaking me.
“This wasn’t meant to happen,” she murmurs. “Why can’t you all see? I’m nothing.”
With three long strides, Dušan reaches her, taking her arm. But she pushes him away.
I drag on my jeans, then pull on my long-sleeved tee and shrug into a jacket as I step into my boots. I stroll over as I straighten my shirt and jacket, my gaze again scanning the area for any sign of Bardhyl. Nothing. He’s not around.
When Meira looks my way again, our gazes clash as mixed emotions crawl over her face. She’s so scared that it’s driving her decisions.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” I say as I stretch out an arm to her, but she just shakes her head.
