Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Chase

Luther marched through the forest, his muscles aching from the brutal fight he had just endured. Every inch of him was covered in dirt, blood—some his, but mostly belonging to others. His body ached, but the exhaustion didn't bother him nearly as much as the fury boiling in his veins.  

Two of his wolves had been lost tonight.  

Lucas and Carter.  

Their names burned in his mind like a brand, searing with the weight of failure.  

The rogue wolves from the south had been easy enough to subdue—emaciated, desperate, weak. But as soon as they had been rounded up, another group of wolves—twenty of them—had stormed their eastern border. A coordinated attack.  

Alpha Raymond.  

That bastard had sent his wolves into their lands without warning, hoping to weaken them further. And it had worked. They had taken two of his men before Luther and his pack could turn the fight around.  

It was still undetermined whether the wolves from the southern pack were in on the attack from Alpha Raymond, but Luther didn’t believe that they were. A person couldn’t fake the amount of fear that leaked from the skin and bones of the wolves that they had originally rounded up. The scent of their terror still clung to them now, and added dose likely due to them not knowing whether we would kill them or not like Alpha Raymond’s wolves.

Luther had torn through their ranks with ruthless precision, fueled by rage and bloodlust. They had managed to kill ten of Raymond’s wolves before the remaining ones fled into the night. He had been tempted to pursue them, to rip through every last one of them and leave their carcasses to rot in the dirt along the border.  

But he hadn’t, because his duty lay elsewhere. He had to get these people situated and get back to Charlie.  

His wolf, Rex, whined in the back of his mind, equally exhilirated and exhausted from the fight and longing for their mate. They missed her warmth, her scent, the softness of her body against theirs. ‘Just a little longer’, he told his wolf. They would be home soon.  

A breeze rolled through the trees, ruffling his fur. Luther paused mid-step, inhaling deeply. For a fleeting moment, he swore he caught her scent on the wind. His pulse quickened, his wolf snapping to attention, sniffing the air in search of more.  

But all he found was the thick stench of blood and death.  

With an annoyed snort, Rex curled up in the back of his mind, ignoring everything around them now that the fighting was over and he was no longer needed.  

Just before they reached the southern outpost, Liam’s voice crackled through the pack link. ‘Did everything go okay? Did you catch them? Is everyone safe?’ Liam always asked too many questions when he was nervous. Normally, Luther found it amusing. But tonight, he had no patience for it.  

‘Everything did not go okay,’ Luther growled. ‘Lucas and Carter were killed after that wretched Alpha to the east sent a group of twenty in after we handled the group that came in from the south.’ Liam sucked in a breath. Luther could already hear another question forming in his twin’s mind, but he wasn’t finished.  

‘We killed ten of their wolves before they turned tail and ran. We would have given chase, but we still had the wolves from the south to get sorted, so we let them go. For now.’ Luther clenched his fists. He would make sure Raymond suffered for this.  

‘How is Charlie? Did you get her to safety?’  

Luther gave orders to his wolves on what to do with the emaciated wolves that they brought back with them, barely paying attention to whether they obeyed or not as he waited for Liam’s response.  

‘Charlie was running a bath when I left her in our room.’  

Luther’s entire body stiffened. His breath turned to ice in his lungs. ‘What do you mean when you left her in our room?’  

A warning growl ripped from his throat, not just through the pack link but aloud, sending the remaining wolves around him into panicked whimpers. But Luther didn’t care about them right now.  

All he cared about was her.  

‘You were supposed to stay with her. Keep your eyes on her to make sure that it wasn’t a setup to get to her. What if more wolves came in from the north or west while we were busy dealing with the east and south?’ Luther began to pace in agitation and worry, making his wolves, and the new wolves nervous with each turn of his step. 

‘She is fine, Luther. She is in our room, taking a—’ Liam’s voice cut off suddenly. Then— ‘What the hell?’  

Luther’s heart slammed against his ribs. Every muscle in his body coiled tight, ready to spring. ‘What the hell WHAT? What the fuck is going on, Liam?’  

Liam’s voice stuttered through the link, filled with confusion and growing panic. ‘She was here when I left and I didn’t go far... I don’t understand.’  

Luther let out a mighty roar, the sound echoing through the silent night like a war cry that sent every wolf nearby scattering for cover.  

His body shifted before he could stop it, his fur bursting through his skin as he sprinted toward the packhouse. His shredded shorts that he put on along the way fell in tatters behind him, forgotten.  

‘Where the hell is she, Liam?’  

‘I don’t know.’ Liam’s panic was thick now. ‘The bathtub is overflowing... and the window is open.’  

Luther’s vision blurre* with fury. Charlie was gone. He was going to murder his twin if anything happened to her. He had ONE job and he couldn’t even do that correctly! 

Rex howled in his mind, demanding blood. He didn’t care if it was an enemy’s blood or Liams.  

Luther pushed himself faster, tearing through the trees at a speed that made the world around him a blur.  

‘Dammit, Liam! Why the hell did you leave her alone?’  

Liam didn’t answer. Luther could hear the sounds of his twin tearing through their bedroom, searching for a clue, anything that would tell them where she had gone.  

Luther wasn’t going to wait for answers. He would find her himself.  

\---

By the time Luther reached the packhouse, his paws barely skidded against the ground before he shifted back mid-stride. He didn’t stop moving as he stormed up the stairs, barreling toward their room.  

Liam was standing in the middle of the bedroom, his jaw clenched, his hands curled into fists. The bathtub had overflowed a lot, causing water to pool onto the floor and leak into the bedroom.  

The window was wide open, curtains billowing in the wind. Charlie’s scent was still strong in the room, but it was fading. Without giving it much thought, he jumped out of the window, landing on the ground with a loud thud that richetted around him. Liam was quick to follow him out of the window, landing behind him with another loud bang.

Luther inhaled sharply, trying to catch the direction she had gone, but the wind had been shifting in every direction tonight, sending her scent in too many directions. His wolf howled in frustration, unable to tell for sure which way she went.  

Liam turned toward him, his expression grim, coming to the same conclusion as him.  

"Her scent leads into the woods. But I can’t tell in which direction.”  

Luther didn’t wait to hear more. He shifted again without thought, the repeated shifts taking a toll on his already tired body and making his exhaustion worse. But Luther didn’t care about his exhaustion, as long as he got his mate back where she belonged. 

His paws dug into the dirt as he sprinted forward, nose to the ground, tracking her. She hadn’t been gone for long. The scent was fresh, but scattered.  

She had moved fast through the woods. Too fast. Luther’s blood ran cold, not knowing whether she was moving fast because she was in danger, because she was taken, or just because she wanted to run.  

She was in her wolf form, something she hadn’t had many opportunities to be in since shifting on her birthday. He could understand it if she felt the need to break free and run, the moon was nearly full in the sky and was calling to them all, but to go off alone…  

His mate, his fragile, reckless mate, was out there running through the night alone, while rogues and enemy wolves lurked near their borders.  

A snarl ripped through his throat. He would find her. And when he did—  

He didn’t know if he wanted to hold her… or punish her. Or maybe both. 

Because whatever she was doing, it was dangerous and reckless, and went against everything that they had talked about only two nights ago.  

Luther didn’t let anyone—not even Charlie—risk their life without consequences