Page 65 of Mated
“So we will dedicate tonight’s run to her. May her spirit soar along with ours,” Callus continues.
There are many heartfelt resounding cheers, and I echo them in earnest. Bonnie grips my hand and squeezes. But I can’t look away from Tanner. His silver eyes beckon me. It’s like the call of the moon above.
“Come on,” Bonnie says in my ear. “It’s better to be one of the first ones inside the trees.”
I glance at her and then follow her gentle pulling guidance. The pack is moving as a whole, traversing the stony floor of the basin toward the creek’s edge. Across it, the darkness of the trees is not as sinister as it once was. It’s brighter. Or maybe that is just me.
All around me mist and smoke begins to swirl. Even Bonnie pulls away, her fingers slipping from mine as her hands turn to claws. Gage and Caine move closer to me, their muscular frames like walls of flesh as they seem to keep the others back.
“Stay close,” Gage tells me.
Callus steps to the edge of the creek, his eyes burning. “Silver Rock!” He booms. His Alpha tone rips through me. I whimper. Gage grips my arm, holding me upright as my head threatens to split in two. “It’s time to hunt.”
The beast inside me moves and shifts under my skin. And a trace of dark mist cools my feverish skin.
Callus throws his head back as the mist boils around him. He roars, the sound odd from his human throat, and leaps through the trees. The pack dives headlong in behind him. But many of them hover just across the creek, their bodies in odd mixes of human and beast.
Gage and Caine press against me.
A lean shadow flows under the trees, and a pair of vibrant silver eyes watch me off to one side. I don’t need him to speak to know who it is.
Tanner continues to pace with the others, waiting on me to come to them. His restlessness makes me shiver.
“You either need to run or go to the cars,” Gage says mildly. “We can keep them back long enough for you to get away.” Caine rolls his head on my other side and nods
I climb down the bank and into the creek. The water flows over my feet, ankles, and shins, cooling some of the fire in my veins.
I smile, but my eyes never leave Tanner. “I was giving them a head start,” I say.
Several of the shifters sprint a few feet into the trees before facing me again. Only Tanner does not move, leaving every direction around him wide open.
Ruin’s words fill my head.“He’s never chased a woman, Nisha. They always come to him.”
I smirk. Tanner stops moving, going as still as the predator I know him to be.
My feet dig into the opposite bank and I let my toes shift in the soil as I climb out. “Ready?” I ask. His eyes shine in answer, but he never makes a sound.
“Then come get me.” I take off like a rocket and his roar leaves me quaking. But not in fear. In need. I want Tanner to catch me.
And that means I have to run like the devil himself is chasing me. Because tonight, he may very well be.
Chapter 28
Nisha
Decaying leaves and small branches snap with each step I take, but I can’t feel it. Everything is vibrant, alive. Icanfeel the earth under my bare feet. The soil is rich, pungent. Cool. Trees sway with the evening breeze and even the cicadas have come out to play.
Tanner crashes through the trees behind me. Every rumble that pours from him only adds to the ache inside me. I want to stop. To let him take me.
From out of the dimness, a large male leaps for me. I shriek and stumble. He skids beside me, reversing his path. Tanner seems to fall from above, his eyes luminous and his teeth glistening. He slams a fist into the man’s face.
I keep running.
The woods grow less inhabited, more overgrown with thick shrubs and high roots. I leap, duck, and dodge as much as I can, but several branches find purchase in my dress and my skin. Every line burns. But I can’t stop to worry about it.
Inside me my beast is panting, needing to run. To leap as I do. She pushes at my skin, raising mist in her wake. In my mind, she is little more than a long, lithe shape. Sensuous and predatory.
All around me the forest is alive. Several groups of the pack have already fallen to beast form. Wolves and large cats band together in a mix that cannot be seen anywhere else on Earth. A small brown body darts away from the ones closest. They give chase, heading north on pack land after the small morsel.
