Page 96 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

KNOX

Audrey!

I woke with a start, shifting into my wolf form before I was fully conscious. I’d passed out after my mate had saved me from my furious wolf and, just like the last time my wolf had taken over, my brothers had left me in the private sacred grove behind the Residence to recover.

Except this time, instead of waking groggy and exhausted, a burning urgency screamed through my veins.

Audrey was in trouble and I had to get to her. Her emotions roaring inside me were stronger than Bishop’s when he was upset, but I didn’t know how that was possible.

A mating bond didn’t connect two people like my twin bond connected me and Bishop. Mates were more attuned to their partners, but not to the extent that they felt each other’s emotions like they were their own.

Surely, I would have noticed something before now, especially during that moment when she’d yelled at me for hurting her. She’d been conscious for five days, angry with me, and almost drowned, and I hadn’t noticed more than a hint of emotions that weren’t mine or Bishop’s. The emotions couldn’t be hers…

Except I knew in every fiber of my being that the panic and pain coursing through me was Audrey’s.

It didn’t matter if it made sense or not, I had to go to her.

She was the piece of my soul that I hadn’t realized was missing until I’d thought she was going to drown in that flash flood. Even if we hadn’t been bonded and her death wouldn’t have affected me like it did now, I’d go after her.

She was mine. My fate. My mate. My responsibility to protect.

My wolf had known the truth the moment he’d caught her scent, and he was still furious that I’d denied him for so long. And while I didn’t know exactly what had happened in the arena, I knew he’d have completely taken over if she hadn’t begged him to release me.

I didn’t deserve her kindness. She’d have survived fine if my wolf had completely taken over, probably lived a better life than the one she was facing now. He’d never hurt her, not like I had, and surely would in the future.

I had to make it up to her, had to figure out how to be a good mate. Except I wouldn’t be able to do that if she died, and I feared, from the emotions coursing through me, that that was about to happen.

I didn’t know why I believed that. I could only feel her fear and heartache. But something about that fear, how it ran so cold and deep, cutting into my soul, told me she was in immediate danger.

Bishop, I said, reaching out to him mentally as I bounded out of the grove and followed the pull on my soul, praying it would take me to Audrey.

Knox? His mental voice was groggy as if he was barely awake. Then he registered the urgency in my voice and I felt our connection strengthen. What’s wrong? How are you—? I ? —?

A confusing muddle of emotions and half thoughts rushed through me but I couldn’t understand why he was confused.

Of course, I also didn’t remember anything after Cyrus and Bishop released the collar containing the wolf half of my soul and before I was staring down into Audrey’s wide brown eyes with the knowledge that she’d asked my wolf to give me back to her. Anything could have happened. I didn’t even know how long my wolf had possessed me.

And none of that mattered.

Audrey is in trouble.

A flash of panic snapped through our twin bond, now second in strength to my bond with Audrey, something I hadn’t thought possible. Where? How?

I don’t know, I growled back, frustrated that I couldn’t answer those simple questions.

The pull on my soul compelled me through the Residence’s gates and into Old Town, and my frustration grew stronger. Why the hell isn’t she in the Residence?

She isn’t—? Cyrus? Bishop asked, adding our older brother to our telepathic conversation. Where’s Audrey?

I— He paused for too long and even though I didn’t have an emotional connection with Cyrus like I did with Bishop, I knew something was up.

What did you do? I demanded, the pull taking me out of Old Town and drawing me north, following the outside edge of the towering Old Town wall.

Nova, Cyrus said, not answering my question. Where’s Audrey?

She wasn’t in her suite, the grove, or the gardens. I figured she didn’t want to be found right now, Nova replied. I told Finn to keep an eye out for her. She’s probably exploring her new home and wants a little space.

Why would she want space? Bishop asked, his worry growing.

You know— Nova began but I released my connection with them, not bothering to hear whatever excuse they were going to come up with. If they didn’t know where she was, they couldn’t help her.

Clearly, she was outside the Residence walls, and it looked like she was in the northern part of Stonehaven, a part that despite all our initiatives was still a seedy part of town. It was closest to the road connecting the town to the mountain pass and was near to the market and housed the warehouses and cheap inns and bars that poorer traveling merchants liked to visit. Foreigners weren’t restricted to the area, but most of them stayed where the food and lodging wouldn’t eat into their profits.

Finn, I barked, praying he was within reach of my telepathic ability.

I was a strong alpha so I could communicate with someone farther away from me than most shifters, but I still wasn’t strong enough to talk to someone on the other side of town. Not even Cyrus could do that, and he’d worked to extend his ability beyond what anyone else in the pack could do.

Knox? Finn asked, surprise coloring his mental voice.

Yeah, I didn’t usually communicate with the pack’s betas except for Nova who was really more like a sister than a beta. Technically they were my betas as well, not just my brothers’, but I never wanted the responsibility of being one of the pack’s alphas. I was the person least suited to the job because I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Except if it saved Audrey, I’d talk to the whole damn pack and deal with the emotional fallout later.

Anything to protect her.

And the first guy who might know something was the beta in command of the town’s watch.

Audrey, I said. I couldn’t let his surprise pull him off topic and I needed to know where she was. Now. Where’s Audrey?

Nova mentioned something, Finn replied. Why ? —?

Where is she? Do any of the watchmen have eyes on her? I asked and a burst of alpha power escaped my control and blasted out around me.

The half dozen people on the street, some barely in sight at the far end, dropped to their knees in submission while Finn groaned, my power reaching through our telepathic connection.

Fuck, Knox, Cyrus snapped. Pull your power back. You just dropped everyone in the kitchen.

The kitchen? He was still in the kitchen? Why wasn’t he looking for Audrey?

Fury roared through me and another blast of power broke through my control.

What the fuck are you still doing in the Residence? I demanded, not caring that my power slip was big enough that it reached all the way to the Residence. You should be looking for her! Audrey’s in trouble and she’s somewhere in the north end of town.

Where in the north end? Cyrus asked.

I don’t know! I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know what kind of trouble she was in or if she was already hurt.

All I knew was that she needed me and I had to go to her.

Vida says she saw her near Jaxon’s smithy about an hour ago, Finn said. I’ll send a team to bring her in.

You’re not arresting her, I snarled.

Sending a team would scare her. Even I could tell people in authority made her nervous, especially if it looked like she was going to be accused of something. Anyone who’d spent two seconds with her would know that, and I was furious that Finn automatically jumped to the conclusion that she’d done something wrong.

I doubted she’d put up a fight, not in her current emotional state, but that would still erode the trust Bishop and Cyrus had built with her during our journey to the death god’s temple. She’d be afraid again and I couldn’t stand to see her afraid.

I’ll get her myself, I added before Finn could ask any questions. I didn’t want to have to explain why I cared about Audrey. Sure, we’d traveled north together, but everyone knew I didn’t like people and wouldn’t express even a casual interest in a woman.

The terror racing through our mating bond surged, stealing my breath, and I ran as fast as I could, narrowly avoiding running into people and carts.

It didn’t matter that I was making a spectacle of myself, that these pack members were seeing me for the first time in years. I had to get to her.

I barreled around a corner and climbed half a dozen stairs to the northern terrace, following the pull on my soul.

The reek of alcohol, rotting food, and piss was strong, and the street was lined with refuse. The two inns, three bars, and one brothel that took up this block still hadn’t kept their part of Stonehaven clear. It was an ongoing cycle where Cyrus fined the owners, they did their part for a month and then slacked off again.

If any of them had been shifters, he could have compelled them, but the inns and bars were owned by humans and the brothel by a Dedearc — a being supposedly originating from the mythical dragons and demons — and our alpha power didn’t work on them.

The pull jerked me toward a narrow alley between the last bar on the row and a blocky two-story building with a clothier on the first floor.

There. Audrey was there.

I raced to the alley’s mouth afraid of what I’d find?—

Fuck! It was worse than I could have imagined.

She stood at the back of the alley beside a dented garbage bin, screaming and sobbing, and swinging a broken bottle as if she were being attacked.

Blood poured from her body and pooled beneath her feet. Her left arm had been cut so many times it was impossible to tell if her injuries were a few deep cuts or dozens of shallow ones. More cuts sliced through her dress over her left breast and across her right thigh as well as a few shallow ones close to the artery in her neck that turned my panic into frozen horror.

“Get out,” she cried, tears leaking from her closed eyes as I raced to get to her. “Get out, get out, get out.”

With a scream, she slashed the broken bottle across her already bloody left forearm then jerked as if she’d been struck and sucked in a sharp breath. Her eyelids fluttered open, her expression dazed, then her gaze slowly dragged down her body to the bottle, her ruined dress, and the too-large pool of blood around her feet.

“Sterling,” she gasped, saying the name of one of the monsters from her old pack who’d tried to kill her.

Horror flooded our bond then her eyes rolled back.

“No!” I leaped toward her, shifting into my human form, and caught her before she crumpled to the ground.

There was so much blood. Too much blood. I could feel her life draining out of her as I clutched her to my chest.

My mate was dying. I didn’t know what had happened, but I’d failed her.

I’d. Failed. Her.