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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?”
“We can run 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.
“I don’t think you’re in enough pain to make the wolf come,” Gideon said. “It’s a pity I will have to make you cry.”
He shook out a whip that had been curled at his waist, one of the many implements of pain he carried with him. He used the toe of his boot to turn Maddox’s bound body over, dumping him into the moldering leaf dirt.
Cracks of the whip echoed through the forest with a steady rhythm. Back and ass, back and ass, Gideon worked between the two locations without any kind of emotion. If he felt guilt, he did not show it. If he enjoyed it, he did not show that either. It was a businesslike beating, one that failed to find the mark no matter how many times the mark was struck.
Maddox did not make a sound, no matter how many times the lash landed, or how it began to raise welts on his flesh. He did not cry. He did not whimper. He did not so much as speak a word of complaint. He could not stop Gideon, but he could at least not become compliant in the trap.
“It was not the best idea to tear your throat out before I needed you to scream,” Gideon mused, finally giving up after well over a hundred lashes had landed. “I must be slightly sleepy still.”
Will and Henry ran until the sun rose. They covered many miles, over hills and through valleys, up a river and around the big mountain, not cresting it, but traversing around to the other side. Only when their paws were threatening to bleed did they stop and take human form again by the side of a river.
Trees rose thick around the river clearing, and the morning sun gleamed across the rippling rivulets of the stream as it covered rocks and silt and ran out toward the tamed world beyond the wilds.
“I’m a fucking coward,” Will cursed. “A fucking worthless coward.”
“No. You’re not. You’re finally getting smart. I’m proud of you.” Henry clapped him on the shoulder.
Will looked at Henry, surprised. “You are?”
“Yes. You’ve come a long way, Will. You’re finally able to act on sense, rather than pure instinct. Maddox will be so proud of you. I know, if he was here, he’d tell you that himself.”
