Faith (6 page)

“Alder didn’t tell me he had a daughter. I ended things with him when she showed up.”

Olivia remained skeptical. “You think I’m going to believe that you broke up with Alder just because he had a pup he didn’t tell you about?”

“No. That was only part of it. I’ve always wanted to be with Hale anyway. All I did was take an easy out.” Taylor pressed her lips together. “Look, I’m only telling you this stuff because I owe it to Alder not to let anything happen to her. If you want Hale
and
Alder, you’re going to need us both.”

Olivia scrutinized Taylor for a long moment. Taylor kept her expression neutral, but inwardly, she wondered why they were acting as though they had all the time in the world. Taylor hadn’t gone that far from her cabin. The Whiteriver wolves were deep in enemy territory and Halcyon could find them at any moment.

God, I hope they do
.

A slow smile spread over Olivia’s face. She looked to the man behind Taylor.

“Let her go.”

The man complied at once and the sudden release caused Taylor to stagger. Olivia caught her with one arm.

“Thank—”

Taylor was cut off by a hard blow to the side of her face. White hot pain seared her cheek as she fell to the ground, hard. As she reeled with shock, she was only vaguely aware of the others talking.

“Make sure she bleeds, then scrape her up off the ground and let’s go.”

***

Her words must have swayed Olivia, because when Taylor came back to awareness, she could see that Snow was still alive. Like Taylor, one of the males was carrying her over his shoulder and she appeared to be disoriented.

The side of Taylor’s face throbbed with pain. She brought a shaky hand up to touch it. It was slick with blood. Nausea assailed her, but she took comfort in it, as it was a sign that, at least for now, her baby was okay.

As she became more aware of what was happening around her, Taylor realized that the man who was carrying her was running, as well as the other Whiteriver wolves.

Evening had just begun to set in and there was a light rain falling. She could hear the wolves talking in hushed voices and from their tone she, could sense an urgency to their tones. As she collected herself, Taylor began to tune in to their conversation.

She heard Olivia hiss, “They were supposed to be gone until nightfall.”

Tulip sounded defensive. “She promised me she’d keep them busy. Something must have gone wrong.”

Somewhere within the forest, a wolf howled. It was obviously not one of Whiteriver’s, because all of them skidded to a halt.

The male carrying Taylor spoke first. “What the hell do we do now?”

Olivia pressed two fingers to her temple. “We have to split up. They won’t be able to track us both, not in the rain.” She nodded at Tulip. “You and Gren take the human. The rest of us will go with Alder’s bastard.”

Gren apparently didn’t like that idea. “Why the fuck do we have to take her?”

“Why the fuck to you think?” Olivia asked, getting up in his face. “She’s bleeding all over the place. They’re going to be able to track her no matter what we do.”

“She’s bleeding because of you,” Tulip pointed out.

Olivia rounded on her. “I wouldn’t have cut her if I’d known you fucked up. Now go! Take the river. It’s your best chance.”

Taylor could only watch, helpless as they made off with Snow. Gren and Tulip faltered for a moment, before taking off in another direction.

Branches whipped and scratched at Taylor’s body as Gren ran through the forest at a breakneck speed. She moaned a few times, but was too weak to put up any real protest. Once, she implored Gren to let her go, but her request went ignored.

The rain picked up, and before long, they were running amidst a downpour. As they made their way down a muddy hillside, Gren lost his footing but managed to regain it at the last second.

“Please,” Taylor said. “Let me go and I promise they won’t chase you.”

Gren’s reply was sharp. “Why don’t you shut your mouth before I fuck up the other side of your face?”

Taylor winced, both at his tone and at the knowledge that her face was probably as bad as it felt. Would she have a scar? Was she going to be disfigured?

A familiar shriek from above was music to Taylor’s ears. Even with all of the pain she was in, she managed to feel a moment of pure euphoria as Fenix swooped down from the sky. His powerful talons were embedded in Gren’s face before the werewolf knew what was coming.

In his panic, Gren flung Taylor from his shoulder. She hit the ground for the second time that day, this time landing on a rotted tree stump. Pain lanced her back as a piece of splintered wood pierced her flesh. She cried out, but could barely hear herself over the sound of raindrops pounding against fallen leaves.

After a brief spell of confusion, she managed to stand. Gren had shifted to a large, gray wolf, while Fenix had taken his human form. Fenix called out to her, saying something she couldn’t discern, but was soon distracted by Gren, who lunged at him from behind.

While Taylor looked around for something to aid Fenix with, Tulip arrived at her side. She latched a hand onto Taylor’s arm and began to drag her from the clearing. Taylor tried to resist, but even when not suffering from blood loss and disorientation, she was no match for the shifter’s strength. She tried calling out for Fenix to help her, but when she looked back, she saw that Gren had Fenix pinned beneath him, his huge jaws snapping at the hawk shifter’s neck.

It was the last Taylor saw of Fenix before she was dragged farther into the forest, at the mercy of Tulip.

Taylor said nothing as Tulip dragged her down to the river. Instead, she offered no resistance whatsoever, allowing Tulip to become complacent. When they reached the bank of the river, Taylor gave her hand a hard jerk. As she’d predicted, Tulip didn’t react quickly enough.

Knowing there was no way she could outrun Tulip, Taylor opted to outlast her instead. She dashed to the nearest tree, wrapping her entire body around it as tightly as she could.

Tulip stormed over to her. She managed to wrench both of Taylor’s hands free, but had no way of holding her hands while also loosening her legs. Growling in frustration, she gave Taylor’s leg a hard kick.

“Let go!”

“Screw you,” Taylor shot back. “I’m not going anywhere with you, you bitch.”

Tulip’s lip curled as she kicked Taylor again. “I’m not going back to Whiteriver empty-handed. They’ll kill me.”

“Yeah, well maybe you should have thought about that before you led them to me in the first place!”

Tulip kicked her again. “I didn’t have a choice!”

“You had a home here! You could have stayed.”

“I’ve never had a home anywhere,” Tulip shouted. “I spent years waiting for Silas to notice me and almost as long waiting to be with Hale. Then, after I betray all of my friends to be with him, he doesn’t even give me a second glance.”

She kicked Taylor again. Taylor scowled and kicked her back.

“Maybe you should reconsider your definition of ‘home,’ moron. You don’t have to be screwing someone to belong somewhere.”

“Like you’re one to talk!” Her grip on Taylor’s wrists became painfully tight. “You can’t just be happy with Alder—you have to string Hale around, too. I saw the way he’d look at you. He’s in love with you and you probably don’t even give a damn about him.”

“I do care about him,” Taylor said through gritted teeth.

Tulip twisted Taylor’s arm at an awkward angle. “You can’t possibly be in love with two people. Which is it? Alder or Hale?”

Taylor stood there, tears of pain running down her cheeks as Tulip bent her arm to the point of breaking. It was officially the lowest moment of her life, and this fact was only driven home by the knowledge that she couldn’t answer Tulip’s question. She couldn’t even force a lie past her lips, because somehow, she just knew that whichever name she uttered, it would be the truth.

Narrowing her eyes on Tulip, Taylor bit out, “What the hell does it matter? Either break my damn arm or just fucking kill me like you did Hol—
Holly
!”

Although Taylor couldn’t have been any less obvious, both in her exclamation and how she was looking past Tulip, the she-wolf didn’t catch on. Like everyone had said, Tulip just wasn’t that bright.

“That fox? She lived?”

“Damn right I did, bitch.”

Tulip turned, but not quickly enough. Grabbing her by the head, Holly silenced Tulip with a simple twist of her hands. Tulip’s slender body slumped over and fell to the ground, her neck snapped.

Taylor fell to the ground beside Tulip’s corpse. Her entire body was shaking, but not from shock or hunger. For the first time, she became aware of how freezing cold it was. Icy rain had plastered her chiffon dress to her body like a second skin.

Holly crouched down to examine her handiwork. “I’ve been waiting a week to do that.” Her gaze moved to Taylor. “Christ, what the fuck did they do to your face?”

Taylor squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the question. “Where are Alder and Hale?”

“Glenn disappeared earlier in the day. Everyone went out looking for him.”

If it was possible, Taylor felt even colder. She remembered Penny, Glenn’s friend, lying dead on the forest floor.

“Did they find him?”

Holly offered her a hand, helping Taylor to her feet. “Not yet.”

Taylor was surprised to see that Holly actually looked a bit sad over this.

“Come on,” she said, taking Taylor’s hand. “We have to get you back to the den.”

Taylor resisted. “They have Snow.”

Holly’s grip became firm. “And I have you. Now, let’s go.”

Hale pressed his nose to the ground. It was faint, but there.

Taylor’s blood.

His mate’s blood.

As abruptly as he’d stopped, he was running again, following the direction of the trail. The rain didn’t help. In fact, he had never hated rain so much in his fucking life. It poured down from the sky, diluting Taylor’s scent in some places and completely washing it away in others.

Often, he would find himself going long stretches without catching the barest trace of her scent. Those times, he had to rely on intuition to guide his feet. If he were the Whiteriver bastards who’d captured her, which way would he go?

Apparently, he was rather good at this, because he always picked her scent up again. But each time her scent faded, it never became any easier. Apprehension assaulted him, bringing with it an endless stream of ‘what if’s.’

What if I can’t pick up her scent again?

What if I can’t find her?

What if no one finds her?

What if they take her prisoner?

What if they hurt her?

What if they kill her?

Amidst all of his apprehension was a hot coal of anger that burned in his chest. Anger at Whiteriver, anger at himself, and even anger at Taylor.

Hale had never wanted a mate. Unlike Alder, who was always pining over what he didn’t have, Hale had been perfectly content with his life. Then, Taylor had come crashing into his world, making him desire things he had never wanted before.

If it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t be running around in the rain like a rabid animal, searching for the most important part of himself, hoping that it was still whole when he found it.

Her trail had been cold for a while and Hale was just about to sink further into despair when he saw her. His mate. She was at the bottom of the hill he was on, hobbling beside Holly.

The sight of her had him surging forward. He shifted as he ran down the hill, coming into his human form in time to throw his arms around her and pull her into a tight embrace.

Taylor screamed.

Hale released her at once, assuming he must have frightened her. After all, it was very dark out and her human eyes were useless without light.

But as he pulled back, words of consolation died in his throat. He wished, in that moment, that his own eyes were not so keen. That way, he could remain ignorant for a little longer.

Her dress had been torn, revealing skin that was mottled with bruises and marred with lacerations. Worst of all, and what he couldn’t tear his eyes off of, was the gash that ran the length of her left cheek. It was a deep wound that, even with stitches, Hale knew would never fully heal. Judging by the distraught look in his mate’s eyes, it would not be the only scar she carried from this night.

She whispered his name, bringing him back to reality. The reality in which it was still his job to protect her. Gingerly, he pulled her into his arms again.

“Who did this to you?”

Hale hardly recognized his own voice.

As Taylor’s body began to tremble in his arms, Holly answered for her.

“I found her with Tulip.” Holly inclined her head towards Taylor. “She said Fenix was nearby, but I couldn’t find him. Your niece is out here, too.”

Hale cared for Snow, more than he had ever cared for any of his other nieces and nephews, but with Taylor in his arms, the choice wasn’t difficult.