Page 49 of Blade's Battle
“Let him be,” Callen said as they headed toward Damien’s house.
“After you debrief, how about we have a beer by the lake and hang out for a while?” Frank asked.
Blade ground to a stop. “Why?”
“You need it.”
Leave it to Frank to be blunt. “Not tonight.”
“Move off,” Callen finally ordered Frank and Pryce, with that tone they all knew meant business.
Blade didn’t wait for Callen as he bounded toward Damien’s house. He needed to get this over with so he could haul off and wallow in self-pity somewhere private.
“Where is she?” Tess asked. The beautiful shifter with red-brown hair and green eyes came flying down the steps of her and Damien’s house.
Shit.Blade wasn’t sure he could handle speaking with Tess right now. She had been unrelenting in ensuring Hayden and then Damien sent him out to rescue Anna. During her month at Drake’s compound as his ‘guest’, Tess had befriended Anna and risked her own safety by bringing her food and water when the guards were distracted. She had even slipped Anna a knife.
Tess’s smile was as wide as the sky, a close second to Anna’s. “Where is she?” Tess asked, her voice dropping as she scanned the crowd of shifters who gathered to welcome him home. Tess’s hands went to her mouth as she assumed the worst. Damien appeared behind her and pulled her against his chest.
Blade got choked up at seeing his alpha and Tess. They had been through their own hell, but they had survived and they had each other.
“She’s still alive,” Callen said. “Liam is taking care of her.”
“Really?” Tess said, wiping back her tears. “She’s safe then?”
“For the moment.”
Tess’s emotions were easy to read, and if Blade waited any longer, she would start asking a ton of questions about how Anna was, how the escape went and so on, insisting he recount every single moment over the past week. Blade would lose control to his wolf for sure if he had to talk about Anna.
“I need to get out of here,” Blade said before anyone could object.
Bones popped and elongated. Shredded clothing fell to the ground. Within seconds he shifted. He’d given in to his wolf, letting him growl and leap through the crowd of shifters, not even waiting for them to get out of the way. He didn’t care that he knocked over a few, including several kids. That right there should have been a red flag to him that he had given up too much control to his wolf. He wasn’t even sure he had the will or strength to force his wolf back under his control.
* * *
Blade stayed away from his pack for several days, not trusting himself or his wolf near any of them. From time to time he scented Frank or Callen in the wind and knew his brothers were watching from a distance. They were either waiting for him to go feral or giving him time to return on his own.
One morning his wolf pointed him in the direction of the compound, the growing need to find a female to blood-bond intensifying. It was as if the wolf knew the reality and had given up on having Anna. Unlike his wolf, Blade would not give up on her. She was gone, somewhere far away, where Drake couldn’t find her. WhereBladecouldn’t find her.
“Blade?” Damien called from a few feet away.
Blade’s wolf snarled at the intrusion of his alpha. No, not just Damien. Several familiar scents reached Blade. Damien had backup. Blade didn’t want any of them here, and he was doubly pissed off that he had let the alpha get close without noticing him. The morning air was crisp, with the smell of pine needles and cool earth wet with dew, a perfect morning, as perfect as it could be if not for the intrusion.
“We need to talk. About Anna.” Damien’s voice was harsh, serious.
The clawing within started anew. His mate was gone, and it was Callen’s fault.
Blade slugged his wolf into submission, though he found no need to shift. He could listen just as well in his wolf form.
Damien was the only one in human form, with an all-white wolf to his right and a tan wolf to his left. Hayden and Frank, protection. The very idea that Blade’s brothers had lost trust in him hurt. All the wounds he’d suffered at the teeth and claws of Liam’s guards started to ache at once even though they had healed. It was as if he was always doomed to remember the pain, to carry it with him longer than love. Even the pain of the loss of his birth pack seemed stronger than the good memories these days.
Given the way Damien, Hayden, and Frank stood across from him as if he was the enemy, Blade would lose this pack soon too.
Blade shifted to human form. “There’s nothing to talk about. She’s gone, and unless you can convince Liam to tell me where they took her, I’ll never find her again.”
“Is she the one for you and your wolf?” Damien asked.
“Yes.”
