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Will was on the hunt with Henry when he caught the scent of his lover. It was not possible for Maddox to be out here in the wild. And yet the scent was his, and it spurred Will into a mad dash toward the source before he had a moment to think about it.
Henry was by his side, the pack master slightly smaller than him, but still dominant in every way. If not for Henry, Will would have rushed headlong toward the scent, which grew richer and more disturbing with every bounding step.
He was paying no attention to Henry whatsoever, but the pack master had ample practice in the art of handling runaway whelps. Henry put on a burst of speed and lunged at Will, gripping him by the scruff of the neck, teeth digging into the loose skin there. Henry dragged Will down the same way he’d take down prey, forcing him out of his animal shape and back to his stark-naked human form. They shifted at speed; two rolling, scuffling wolves turning into two tumbling naked men sliding across the forest floor.
“NO!”
In his human form, Henry was unmistakably dominant. Larger, older, more practiced at handling trouble. Will was trouble, and so was that scent that had caused him to spook the prey and run off half a mile in the wrong direction.
“STOP!” He shouted the word down at Will, the order explosive and intense.
Will didn’t really have any choice. He was on his back with Henry right on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
“It’s a trap,” Henry said.
Will’s pretty blue eyes were wild. “It’s Maddox! He’s hurt. There’s Maddox, and there’s blood.”
“Yes, but it’s not just Maddox. Don’t you smell the other scents?”
Will’s focus on Maddox had scent-blinded him to the obvious. The scent of the Maker. Will had met him before, knew how he smelled like dark eternity. Out here in the wild, that scent very nearly blended in with the night. Gideon smelled like the destruction inherent in every part of nature, the end to every beginning.
“Why is he here? What’s he doing?”
“If I had to guess, he’s come to kill you. You can’t go to Maddox. You’re being baited.”
Will cursed. “He’s hurt.”
Henry didn’t move a muscle. “Yes. He is. And that means Gideon is willing to hurt his own progeny to get to you. And it means Lorien gave our location away.”
“He’d never have done that on purpose. He must have been…”
Maddox was injured, Lorien, very possibly dead. Henry and Will were being stalked by the essence of evil itself, and neither one of them had any assurance of the safety of their respective mates.
Will started laughing, and once he started laughing, he found that he couldn’t stop. He rolled about underneath Henry, giggling until he finally settled, several minutes later. Henry had done nothing but watch his hysterical outburst while waiting patiently for it to end.
“We’ve tried running,” Will finally managed coherency. “We’ve tried hiding. What is left to do besides fight?”
“That thing cannot be killed,” Henry said.
“I can’t kill it, and I can’t run from it. You have any suggestions?”
“Wecanrun from it. It is trying to lure us. As long as you refuse to be lured, it will be unable to catch you. I know this is an almost impossible request, but we have to go. Now. As far in the opposite direction as possible. We have to get out of range of the scent. They’re too close to us. They most likely have hunters stalking the area. We need to go now, before they catch us.”
Tears sprung to Will’s eyes. “I can’t leave Maddox. I miss him so much. I can’t take one step in the opposite direction. I won’t leave him. He’s hurt, Henry. I can’t leave him.”
“You have to. It’s what he’d want you to do.”
“You can’t make me leave him.”
“No,” Henry said. “I can’t. And I won’t. This has to be your choice.”
Will looked in the direction of Maddox’s scent, then looked back up at Henry. The pack master was right. This was a trap, and there was no way Maddox would want him to throw himself into it, no matter how much Will felt like throwing his life away in that moment.
“Let’s go.”
* * *
Minutes dragged on, turning very nearly into an hour. Maddox lay where he had been dropped, passively beautiful and elegant in spite of his humiliating circumstances. He looked up into the eyes of his maker as Gideon grew progressively more impatient. Will had not taken the bait. Either he wasn’t in this area, and Lorien had steered them wrong, which would have been very brave of Lorien, or Will had done the smart thing and run.
