Page 16 of Beta Hybrid

After only twenty minutes or so of running, I get a deep wave of anger from Zenna through the bond. I slow to a stop up on a cliff, Vale beside me. He crooks his head, asking what’s up, so we shift back.

From this point, we’re high above the encampment. It really is a beautiful area. If I look down, at the right angle, through the tree branches, a silver dot and a black dot are next to each other in a clearing.

‘Is that Zenna and Divina?’ Vale asks.

I nod. ‘Yeah. I just got a huge surge of anger from her.’

Vale glances at me, weary. ‘Another one? Why do you think she’s been so angry lately?’

‘Could be anything. Being abducted by vampires and constantly fearing for her life. Wondering if I would come for her. It could be my dumbass cousin and his ilk making her feel like shit for being a hybrid. Could be that I’m forcing to train her for a war she shouldn’t be a part of.’

Vale’s eyes are a storm. Sadness, anger and empathy chase each other across his features. ‘I think it’s since she started training with Divina.’ He nods over the cliff. ‘Zenna wasn’t like that before.’

‘Maybe.’ What would I know? I think. ‘I wish I knew what to do. My training with her isn’t going well. She’s… clumsy, unfocused. She’s fighting with anger.’

Vale lowers his voice. ‘She’s been through a lot. You should announce it. Accepting her as your beta. Or, shit, just talk to her.’

‘I don’t think I should announce that here. It would stir Noah up.’ I lower myself onto the ground, hands and knees, edging toward the cliff, wishing I could see her better.

‘Look, she’s been angry for the last week. Clearly, something’s going on. What’s the matter with you? Talk to your girl. She’s your mate, for fuck’s sake.’

I raise a brow as I turn to look at my Second.

‘Alpha,’ he adds respectfully.

He’s not wrong. I just have the awful feeling that whatever is going on with her is my fault. I should be treating her better. Somehow. I hang my head. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

Before Vale can answer, a wave of magic passes through the woods. We’re usually the only ones out here this early in the morning, but it sends a flurry of life around us, animals scattering at the cracking sound.

Vale swears, rocking back. ‘The hell was that?’

‘I felt it.’

‘Yeah, me too.’

I turn to face him, padding away from the edge of the cliff. ‘No. In here.’ I hold a hand to my stomach. ‘It was Zenna. Something’s wrong.’

As we shift, a howl echoes around the woods.

Something Lexie said at dinner last night rings in my head.

Yeah, my boys will go out hunting early in the morning. They promised their father they would catch something. Fish or rabbit, she laughed. They always hunt together, the three of them.

Another howl, this one young and small. A third.

My head whips to Vale, and we’re running toward the young cries.

Chapter Eight

Zenna

I stare, open-mouthed, as Divina’s eyes glaze wholly black. No whites. She raises her hands and folds them to her chest, palms flat against her dress. She twists into the air, black smoke rippling from her raven hair, twirling into the wind that spurs her up, up, above the ground. Without a word to me, she turns, somehow steering, toward the high-pitched sound of young, crying wolves.

Zenna, was that you? Cai’s voice thunders down the bond, making me flinch.

It—it was an accident. I spin on the ground. Divina is already out of sight. Which way did she go? What do I do?

Gravel and dirt grind together as another familiar howl sounds close by. In two large leaps, Cai bounds down the face of the stream from up above. In wolf form, he takes the long cliff easily, then races to me, silver eyes burning. He shifts as he slows.

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