Mated to the Warrior Beast

241 Predator

~ TARKYN ~

Word came back that the other trail—the bears and Rika—had been found. The decision was made for Gar to lead half the fighters to the place where the trail split. They would wait there until the scouts and trackers found out which direction Rika had been taken.

As a fist of Owls—including Kyelle—launched under strict instructions to give the area where Harth was a wide berth, to fly around and high up the mountain, then circle down slowly to try and catch sight of what was going on on the mountainside.

Tarkyn, along with Zev, led a mixed bag of both Anima and Chimeran wolves, and several of the Ibex who were sure footed in the mountains and would be able to move off-trails easily, towards the clearing where he and Harth had started.

‘We’re coming, Harth. Just stay still.’

‘I’m moving,’ she replied quickly, but even through the link her voice was tight with fear.

Tarkyn’s heart almost stopped. ‘No, Harth! You can’t—’

‘I can hear voices, Tarkyn. I’m afraid they’ll walk straight over me—’

She broke off and Tarkyn’s heart flipped.

.....

‘Harth? HARTH!’

‘I’m here! I’m just... Tarkyn, I can hear them now.’

He blew out a breath and ran a hand over his face. ‘What are they saying?’

‘It is the bears they’re working with…’ she trailed off and Tarkyn wanted to bite something.

‘Harth, what’s going on? What’s wrong?’

‘I’m just… I’m trying, Tarkyn. They’re talking. I’m… they’re planning to meet the bears. The bears are on their way from the southwest. They’re all converging... And Rika—they’ve got Rika. The bears—’

‘Harth, stop moving now. Just hide! We’re going to be there in half an hour. We’ll get you out of there!’

‘I know you will, Tarkyn,’ she said, whispering in the link again. ‘I believe you.’

She sounded fainter. More frightened. It made Tarkyn rage. Gritting his teeth, he growled, pressing forward as fast as he could in his human form.

He cursed the need to stay in this slower body, but it was the only way to stay in touch with her and gain any more news she might have as they traveled.

Behind and beside him everyone jogged impatiently, especially Zev, who’d shuddered after giving up his son as if he might shift—or explode. But while he’d stayed quiet, he was right at Tarkyn’s shoulder, his eyes flat and focused on the ground in front of them.

“What’s wrong?” the wolf muttered as they jogged side-by-side.

“She’s afraid. But Sasha’s definitely there, and it’s definitely the bears they’re working with. Planning to meet them on this side of the WildWood.”

“Why did you growl?”

“Because my mate is getting too close—she’s putting herself in danger to try and hear what they’re saying and I’m terrified if they find her before we get there, they’ll…” Tarkyn trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought. Unwilling to let his mind envision it.

Zev nodded, his face pale. “I know the feeling.”

Of course. Of course he did. Tarkyn could have smacked himself for the thoughtlessness.

“We’re going to get there, Zev. And we’re going to get them out of there. Both of them. And anyone else these fuckers have. I give you my word.”

Zev turned to look at him, as if examining him, but didn’t immediately speak. And when he did, his voice was a little less tight. “I know you will,” he said. “So do I.”

“You can’t run into this in a blind rage—”

“I know,” Zev said through his teeth. “I heard the plan. I will follow. But I’m a part of the fist moving for Sasha.”

Tarkyn nodded. “Of course.”

Then they ran on, side by side, neither of them speaking anymore. Tarkyn was too busy trying to keep Harth talking, who kept being distracted by what she was hearing. And Zev too focused on whatever went on in his dark mind.

Twenty minutes. That was all they needed was another twenty minutes.

*****

~ HARTH ~

As she slid past, Harth tried to reach for the underbrush, to grab it for traction, but her entire side went up in flames when she so much as breathed deeply.

There was an arrow in her shoulder, and an enraged Tiger dragging her down the path.

Stupid. She’d been so stupid. That thunk had been an arrow, lobbed high to drop near her. They’d known she was there since almost the moment she arrived. She should have known they wouldn’t leave their flank so exposed. Not when the air blew up the mountain, so anyone who crossed above them would smell them.

She should have known they had scouts on outcroppings overhead.

She’d already warned Tarkyn that there were sentries above, babbled her way through the warning so he wouldn’t ask—he’d assumed, as she’d intended, that she had seen them before they’d seen her.

He was coming. He just kept repeating that. Stay down. Stay silent. He was coming.

Tears pricked at Harth’s eyes.

She couldn’t let him know she was hurt. Taken. He would… she didn’t know what he’d do. And that was the problem. She needed his mind calm and his body focused. There were more Tigers here than she’d expected—the camp much bigger than it looked from the small cluster of tents she’d gotten sight of before they pinned her to the ground with an arrow.

She groaned as she was dragged over a sharp rock and her good shoulder screamed. She tried again to kick the Tiger’s grip off her ankle, but between the pain radiating through her body from the arrow, and the fucker’s death-grip on her, dragging her along the ground so she could never get purchase, never raise more than her head, she wasn’t going to make any progress until she could get her hand on something and delay his progress.

She had to delay him, she was sure of it. Because while Sasha held some leverage for them, and was their former Alpha—even these idiot Tigers would have some concern about the retribution if they were to kill the much-beloved Sasha—to them, Harth was a low-level wolf who meant nothing. Even if they knew she was mated to Tarkyn—and they might not have heard if they’d been separating from the wolf-pack—she held little interest for them, she was sure. And certainly no intimidation.

She was surprised the male hadn’t slit her throat on the spot when he’d reached her, growling about nosey wolves.

She’d fought at the beginning, but without the use of that side of her body, with that arm slung useless at her side, she hadn’t been a challenge for the powerful cat.

“Go ahead and scream,” he’d muttered, before taking hold of her ankle and beginning to drag her. “No one will hear you up here.”

That was true… if the only people who might have taken an interest were in the valley below. But what these tigers definitely didn’t know was that Harth could link with her non-wolf mate from this distance, and that Tarkyn and the others were already so close.

He was coming, and he’d save her. She was sure of it. If she could just stay alive long enough.

They took a hairpin turn in the path, Harth’s temple taking a glancing blow from a boulder beside the trail. Then they’d hit a shale slope. The Tiger kept his feet, effectively skating down it, but Harth simply fell, first sliding, then rolling—the arrow slammed deeper into her shoulder so that she screamed.

She ended on a muddy patch of ground, trembling and trying not to cry, unable to move or even lift her head at first as she tried to keep herself under control so she could answer Tarkyn without letting him know the pain she was feeling.

It was an immense mental exercise to keep him cut off from her body—one she hadn’t practiced much because she’d so enjoyed the intimacy they’d shared. But she couldn’t cut him off entirely. He was feeling her adrenaline and fear. She had to keep him convinced that she remained hidden and unhurt so he could focus.

“What the fuck?” a growling voice muttered from just feet away.

Heavy footsteps were followed by a pair of thick, male feet appearing just in front of her face. Harth tried to look up, to identify the male—her nose didn’t seem to want to work, suddenly—but when she tried to twist her neck, her shoulder screamed again, the arrow sticking out from her back, broken halfway down the shaft, but not snapped off. The almost-severed fletching dangling in her peripheral vision.

“She was hidden above the trail. She’s a tracker. Must have been sent as a scout. That means they’ll miss her in an hour or two.”

“Kill her.”

“She’s the Anima Captain’s mate.”

Well, shit, Harth thought with a grimace. They did know.

The gruff male cursed. “Tie her with the other.”

Harth didn’t have time to brace before rough hands hooked under arms and lifted her.

She screamed with the pain of the arrow grinding in her shoulder.