Chapter 93
Chapter 93
*Xander*
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The caves spat us out into colder air, the kind that carried damp and rot and something sharper I couldn’t place.
Azrien pressed hard against my ribs, restless and antsy which was making me exhausted.
His claws raked at my skin from the inside. He wanted speed. He wanted teeth and ground and blood. And for once I didn’t have the strength to leash him.
The phantom thread that I could now identify as some connection to my mate-than the moon goddess- yanked me forward. It was sharper now and insistent. Every pull scraped along my chest like wire.
She was here.
Rory was here. I would bet every scar I carried that she had just passed this way.
“Slow down,” Matt called, though he was the only one who could match my pace. His hand came up, pointing toward the ground. “Look.”
I forced myself to stop, my breaths coming out harsh and ragged. The dirt showed smears where boots had slipped. There were broken branches bent low where bodies had pushed through. What made it even worse, was that the air reeked of blood.
Fresh blood.
Matt swore under his breath. “This was a fight.”
No kidding.
“It’s fresh,” Dhara murmured. She crouched, pressing her palm against the soil. “Less than an hour.”
Mona crouched near her, fingers brushing at a darker patch. She sniffed then frowned. “It’s wet. But it hasn’t rained in weeks.”
My throat tightened as Azrien growled low.
“It’s not natural,” Dhara said as she stood. Her eyes flicked to mine, unreadable but knowing.
I didn’t need her to explain. This was done by a Tidal wolf. That meant Rory wasn’t the only gifted wolf with Durnham. But I knew for sure that he wasn’t going around collecting them. He paid little to no attention to the ones exposed at Azure Crest days ago.
So what was his connection and what did it have to do with Rory?
“No doubt they encountered scouts like we had. If it were assassins, we’d see bodies, not aftermath,” Matt said, and the thought of Venatorum assassins being near Rory made my insides boil. There were still no bodies, which meant the scouts escaped or they took the bodies with them.
13:22 Wed, Sep 17
Chapter 93
៩០
39
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I surged forward again, dragging the others into a run. My legs burned, but it didn’t matter. The phantom thread wasn’t just a hum now-it was a pulse, beating in rhythm with my heart. Every throb screamed she was
close.
We broke through the trees into a clearing, and the world stank of iron and ash.
But the place was empty.
“She’s gone,” I rasped. “She was moved again.”
Rage tore through me before grief could. I slammed my fist into the tree trunk, causinng the bark to split. Blood ran from my knuckles, but I ignored it. Azrien surged, begging for release, begging to rip apart anything in reach. My skin rippled with the shift, bones threatening to snap.
“Xander!” Matt shouted, his voice cutting sharp through my senses. His hand closed on my shoulder, dragging me back. “Not here. Not now.”
“I could’ve had her,” I snapped, shaking him off. “If those scouts hadn’t slowed up, we would’ve been here in time.”
“Yes you’re right. But it happened, it sucked and it slowed us down. If you shift now and go on a rage, leaving us behind, you’d only slow us down and yourself too. You wont see clearly through rage. Let Azrien know that too,” Matt shot back.
Azrien growled so loud that it echoed through my chest.
But Matt was right, though Az wouldn’t see it that way.
‘Easy boy. He has a point. We can’t go on a killing spree until we find Rory,’ I told him, causing him to scoff loudly.
‘I am not a dog, was all he said, but him not opposing meant he got the point, which was really all that was important. You’d be bleeding out instead of standing,”
Matt rested a hand on my shoulder, his jaw was tight and his eyes locked on mine. “Do you want to be dead when she needs you alive?”
The words cut deeper than I wanted to admit. My breath came out ragged and uneven.
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