Page 15 of Shifted Existence

“Last I heard,” chuckled the other, “In the past five hunts, they’ve only managed to bring two women back and keep only one.”

Talon grinned. “It’s not my fault she preferred one of our warriors and our pack to his.”

“It didn’t help that when challenged, our warrior defeated his and claimed the right to take her to mate and had her with child within the month after his had failed to sire a child on her for close to a year.”

“I’m telling you, Blitz,” So, now she had another name. “You can’t treat a she-wolf or a human the way they treat their females and expect them to conceive or carry a child to term.”

“Bardulf has never forgotten your challenge…”

“From which he backed down.”

Blitz nodded. “I warned you about making him look bad. I think he’d do just about anything to strike at you.”

“Strike at me? Not with honor. Stab me in the back? Perhaps. But he’d be the first one any would suspect.”

“I know you need to find your mate, but you need to deal with this. Bardulf is insisting that as alpha it is your responsibility to do so.”

“He’s going to try and find her first,” growled Talon. “Double our border patrols. Tell our men to bring down anyone who violates them. Shoot first and ask questions later. I will make it clear to the Council that if anyone so much as breathes in my fated mate’s direction, I will kill them.” Talon looked around the clearing and inhaled. “She’s here Blitz. I can feel and smell her. Bring a small group and tell them to surround this area. If she’s here, we can keep her safe.”

“For someone who always professed not to believe in fated mates and didn’t want one from the Conquered Realm, you’ve gotten awfully possessive over this one.”

Talon looked toward the river and back toward Blitz. “I had a vision or an apparition or something. It appeared in the surface of the river…”

The rest of what he had to say was lost as Bailey clasped her hands over her mouth to keep from gasping loud enough for one of them to hear it. How could he have had the same vision… heard the same voice. It wasn’t possible, was it?

When she opened her eyes, Talon was looking around, scenting the air again. “She’s here, Blitz.”

“You said you thought she was.”

“No. I mean here. Now. Go back to the village, get a band of warriors to ring this area. Nothing gets in or out without my say so. Be quick.”

“Yes, Alpha,” was Blitz’s automatic response.

When he had left, Talon looked around, still not discerning her hiding spot. “The Hunt is over. Even with all the trouble you have caused, and there has been plenty, you have been caught. Show yourself.”

Bailey barely allowed herself to breathe. This couldn’t be happening! After all she’d done to escape the Conquered Realm to then fall into his hands in less than a day? No!

“I know you are here. I can feel your presence,” Talon said with confidence. “Show yourself.”

He might be able to feel her, but there was no fucking way she was just giving herself up.

Talon walked back to the river. “Reveal her location to me.”

Was he talking to whatever entity had spoken to them both? Thankfully, there was no response.

“She has caused a great deal of damage which I now must undo. Show me where she is.”

“I cannot betray her in that manner,” said the same voice she’d heard at the lake’s edge.

“It is not betrayal to tell me where she is. She doesn’t yet understand that she is my fated mate. Where is she?”

“I cannot.”

Talon walked to the water’s edge and knelt down. Bailey watched as slowly a face began to form on the surface of the water. It wasn’t a face that you would recognize on a human, but rather two empty eye sockets, a nose and two lips. What the hell was that thing?

“Then what is your purpose? Were you sent here to torture me? Are you in league with Bardulf?”

“My purpose is to bring together those souls who find themselves in a different reality than that of their fated mate. In my past I did terrible things in the name of love. My way to atone for all that I have done is to exist within the Void and help fated mates find each other.”

---