Page 57 of Shifter's Dream

He ran, too. “Reed, please, you don’t-,” he called, but then he stopped speaking. She threw a look over her shoulder. He was following, but without warning, quicker than she could track, he leapt into a thick pile of bushes near the entrance to the trail and flailed around back there. She faced front, eyes wide. He really was out of his mind. What had she been thinking?

She ran faster, the branches whispering past her face, but none of them touching her. She could hear him behind her. His footfalls heavy. “Reed,” he called, his voice pitched low. “They’re in the forest. You can’t run from me. It’s not safe.”

They? Who in the hell was they? She shook her head and put on a burst of speed. “Stop him,” she whispered, not knowing who she was talking to, a crushing weight rolling onto her heart as she did so. “But don’t hurt him,” she added, just under her breath, the weight rolling off just enough that she could breathe.

Reed ran, even when she could no longer hear his footsteps.

34 – Foes in the Forest

Troy sprinted after his female, desperation lodged in his chest like a sword, but before he got close to her, he scented fucked-up, covered-up bear smell, but he knew what, andwho, it was.

Zane.One of Grey’s lackeys, and now possibly one of Khains’. He’d been sprung from jail by the demon himself and they’d all been on the lookout for him, ever since. Oh no, this shit wasnotallowed.

Troy zeroed in on him quickly, a too-thick man lump doing his best impression of a rock inside a thicket of stickers. Troy ran right on by like he didn’t see him, twisting at the last moment, coming in on a running leap, catching Zane around the neck in the air. Zane was hauled backwards by Troy’s momentum. Zane grunted and tried to get his hands up but Troy twisted his thick bear neck until he dropped.

Troy had no time to check pulses. He was up and after his female immediately.

Trevor, bad bears in the forest!he yelled in his mind.I need backup.

Where are you?came the instant reply.

Behind Remingtons! Down the trail across from the purple door, but heading northeast on foot!

He ran down the path, but his female hadn’t gone this way. He tracked her, peeling off to the right, through the underbrush, catching her scent again.

The forest did something no forest should ever be able to do. An impenetrable row of slim trees like a fence sprung from the ground like a freaky-fast time-lapse video, pushing out of the dirt in front of him, blocking his way, making a sound like ripping the actual earth in half.A trick of Khain’s to keep him from his female?His wolf told him,no. Troy put on a burst of speed and cut to the left, all out, trying to get around the trees. They moved between him and what he wanted in an eerie, should-not-be-happening way.If not Khain, then who or what?Troy launched himself at them, shimmying up one like an islander up a coconut tree, getting no answer from his wolf. A branch grew above him so fast he conked his head into it, making him woozy, making him lose his grip and fall to the ground, but he never hit it. Branches grew instantly beneath him, catching him before he could go splat. In his mind, all he could hear was Rizzoli saying,“don’t get her flowers.”For some reason, the contents of her fridge played back in front of him like a movie.

Troy twisted, grabbing the traitorous tree branches like parallel bars and trying to swing off of them. They impeded his every movement. His thoughts were a mess, distracted by the words of Trevor, assembling a team in his head, and the ground ripping all around him in a sound that was too much like fingers on a chalkboard for Troy’s liking. Troy levered his body forward and let go of the tree, sailing for the ground. He couldn’t go over the trees, so around was his only choice.

“Reeeeed!” he shouted. “Please,” he whispered.

He could see no way around, either, but he took off at a run to the left anyway, looking for any hole he could squeeze through. Slim tree after slim tree blocked his way, making him growl and gnash his teeth.He had to get to his female.

His female.

She was causing this.

She was so powerful.

The thought slowed him a little, but not much. “Reed,” he called again. “Please, I’ll stop chasing you, just please don’t run from me.” He slowed to a walk, hoping the trees would retract. They didn’t, instead, their line curved him farther to the west, even farther away from Reed. He growled and turned around, but the trees had ripped through the ground behind him, blocking him in, herding him the way they wanted him to go.

Away from her.

Troy held onto himself with a strength of will he did not know he had. He jogged down the line of trees, calling his female again, and again.

Until he reached a tree that caught his eye and stopped him short.

It was easily the biggest tree in the forest, one he’d never seen before, somehow hidden out here in the woods. Something told him it was just like these fresh, new, slim trees that should not be ripping from the ground, that should not be able to corral him like they were. Which meant it was one ofhertrees. One that Reed had touched, but a long time ago.

This tree was massive, so big around it would have taken four or five men to encircle it, arms stretched wide, and near the bottom, at chest level with Troy, the upper and lower trunk were divided in a way that could not have been natural. The opening in the trunk looked like a cage, only about four feet high, but cut six feet into the trunk, easy. It looked like it had actuallygrown intooras part ofthe tree, the “floor” of it, which was actually several feet off the ground, covered with a thick layer of dirt. Troy examined the crazy-looking tree, his heart with his mate, but his wolf telling him this was where he needed to be. He walked toward it warily, eyes and ears and senses completely open and ready.

When Troy got close enough, he reached his hand out and touched one of the ‘bars’ of the cage, which was really just a tree root, thick and twisted and placed in a row with other roots, all stronger than they had any right to be. His wolf leaned in close, directing his gaze to an opening, and through that, to a portion of dirt in the far corner of the cage. Troy pulled himself into the hole, crawling his way across the dirt floor, staring at that spot. When he reached it, he dug with his bare hands, moving mounds of dirt out of the way, and in only a few moments, he had a hole almost a foot deep. The forest was silent around him, no more sounds of ripping and groaning and growing, but no birds either. No small animals were moving in the brush, not even any insects droned on and on about nothing. The stillness was unnatural, and it ate at Troy’s composure. Something was coming.

Troy’s fingers struck something hard. He dug around the object and lifted it out, wiping dirt from it, knowing from the feel of it what it was.

A pendant, with an angel on one side, and a wolf on the other.

His mate’s pendant,and he instinctively knew that when he found out how it had gotten out in the forest, he was going to have to kill someone.

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