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It was a risk I was willing to take. I had to put down whoever had taken her, anyway, and if they came to me now…well, that just spared me the effort.
I threw my head back and howled at the midnight sky, the Milky Way twinkling overhead as if it heard me. My call seemed to echo forever, as if traveling endlessly around me. I arched my tail high over my back, embracing every ounce of my alpha strength as I called, leaning into the Lunar Lord’s power. I would summon the other creatures of the north to me.
My howl still echoing around me, I only started to move when it was truly quiet, even to my ears. The other shifter wasn’t close enough to come at once, but I’d find them later. I trusted my feet to lead me in the right direction. Standing around waiting was something I could not abide.
The world became a blur as I started running again, and I noticed very little until a faint, familiar scent stopped me dead in my tracks.Orange blossom. It was barely noticeable, even to my heightened senses, but when I lifted my nose to scent the air again, it was there, clear as day. That was no coincidence. There were no blossoms here.
Hope threatened to surge in me for the first time in weeks, and I paused only long enough to determine the direction of the breeze before I was off again, running even faster than before. I didn’t care if my paws bled. I would not leave Celeste in danger for one second longer than I physically had to. The scent grew stronger the further I ran, as did a strange, charred smell.
It was putrid. Burnt plastic, or some caustic, chemical odor. Maybe even smoldering flesh. Whatever I’d felt moments before was crushed, burned away by whatever flame had struck there before I could arrive.
My heart almost stopped when I came across the scene. It was clearly a holding facility, if the chain link fence on the perimeter meant anything. That was easy enough for a wolf shifter to bound over, but the building…all that remained was the foundation and piles of rubble. Heat still radiated from them, indicating one of two things: I’d only just missed the inferno, or this blaze ran so hot that I could still feel it hours or days later.
I hoped it was the first scenario.
I could still sense Celeste, but she wasn’t among the corpses here.Maybe she set this fire. Maybe she made her escape.
I had seen my mate practicing fire magic beneath the moonlight before. Perhaps she’d waited for an opportunity, and once it presented itself, she made her move. I knew I was grasping at straws, but there were no survivors here, no one to interrogate.
I circled the building’s remains, almost choked by the overwhelming stench ofburning. Celeste’s fragrant, gentle scent was lost to the man-made smell, but I couldn’t give up just because sensing her had become more difficult. I lowered my snout inches from the snow, carefully surveying the ground. Strangely, I didn’t see any tracks leading away, which meant that the attack had come quickly. No one had a chance to escape.
Perhaps that meant whoever had attacked had already been inside, or—
Paw prints!
I sucked in a breath as I recognized a shifter’s prints, or what I thought looked like them. Scorch marks warped the tracks, but I followed them, ears pressed flat as I ran down their path. Once I put some distance between myself and the wreckage, I realized I was still on Celeste’s trail. It was orange blossom I smelled, and—
I huffed, unable to pick up the rest of the smell. There was something strangely antiseptic about it.From the facility?But then, whose tracks were these? Why hadn’t they answered my call?
How dare another wolf carry her away?!
Fury gripped my senses, rivaling my sheer relief that Celeste had gotten away from the scene. Fear still permeated our bond. Whoever this other wolf was, they clearly didn’t know who they were messing with.
I had almost caught up with them, and Celeste’s scent was strong now. So was the presence of another shifter. There was an old hunting cabin not far from me.
That must be where they’re hiding.
I crested a hill and charged toward the building. I threw my weight against the door before it slammed open, nearly ripping off its hinges. I stormed into the dilapidated shack and almost collided with a white wolf as I burst over the threshold. She yelped as I threw myself into the air at the last second, hurtling over her and landing on the other side, my claws clacking against the old wooden floor.
As I whirled around, my hackles standing up, I realized the other shifter was crouching against the rotting floor, her belly quivering, her tail firmly tucked between her legs as her ears went back. Silver eyes stared back at me, almost blind with fear.
The shock knocked all the air from my lungs.Celeste?!
I couldn’t stop to think about it, afraid she might take off. It was clear she wasn’t processing who I was. Most shifters had family members—or at the very least, pack members—present when they shifted for the first time, but Celeste had apparently shifted all on her own. She might not have even known what was happening until it was too late.
I made myself take a few breaths, trying to calm down. My wolf wanted nothing more than to bound over to his mate, but I worried that would only scare her into running again. I had to be careful.
Once I’d finally pulled him back, I shifted into my human form, barely aware of how cold it was. My usual business-casual attire wasn’t exactly appropriate for the Alaskan wilderness, but I didn’t care. I was a shifter; that sort of pain barely registered. Even if I were human, I wouldn’t care if frostbite was in my future. All that mattered was her.
I took a step forward, holding out both hands in front of my body so she knew I was no threat. Not to her.
“Celeste,” I murmured gently, trying to extend one hand.
The wolf growled softly, folding her ears further back. She got her feet beneath her frame and tried to push herself a little further away from me. I didn’t need to be a wolf shifter to know the animal in front of me was terrified. I’d seen this reaction before, but I’d never expected it to see it from my mate, who was now on the other side of me, nearly shaking with adrenaline. I took a breath and tried again.
“I know you’re in there, Celeste,” I said, trying to soothe. The only thing she needed right now was calm. Stability. “It’s odd to have someone else in there with you, too, isn’t it? Sharing your thoughts with a stranger. But she isn’t a stranger. You and your wolf, you’re both Celeste.”
That was what the Lunar Lord had ensured for his shifter subjects when he took on the curse.
