Escaping Death

Ace

All four of us immediately alert to Solana’s shriek. Tate shadows the instant his feet leave the ground, I can feel the draft from his wings as he takes off to sweep the perimeter. Eli jumps out of the water like a fish and climbs up the waterfall’s rock face up to the ledge she had just been standing on. Dean sticks with me as I hover around the waterfall trying to sense her. The water makes her scent harder to follow and the sound of the falls make it harder to pick up on her heartbeat — but I know she’s close.

I can feel her.

Tate reappears next to Dean and me hovering in front of the falls. “She’s not shadowed anywhere within a mile. Someone could have teleported her out. Maybe it’s Rhys fucking with us again? He has a history of doing that to us.”

I shake my head at him, “normally I’d be inclined to agree with you but she’s here. I know it.” It’s as much a fact as the sky is blue, as the ground is beneath my feet. I just know she’s close.

Eli starts walking towards the center of the falls. The ledge he’s standing on becomes more and more narrow so he uses the rocks behind the falls to steady himself.

He only makes it a few more feet before he stumbles and falls off the ledge —behind the falls. “Ace! You’re going to want to see this.” Eli calls out from behind the curtain of water and when we follow his voice we find him in a cave hidden behind the falls.

Tate seethes silently beside me, making both me and his brother regard him with concerned interest. Tate doesn’t oscillate much between emotions, he usually remains neutral, if not a little cold. He won’t get angry at you, he’ll get even. He’s patient and calculating that way. So it’s more than a little eyebrow raising that he’s not only angry, but visibly angry, palpably angry.

“This cave is deceptively deep,” Dean says as we walk towards the back of the cave, quickly realizing that it could be awhile before we find an end.

“That’s because it’s not a cave, it’s a tunnel. Whoever grabbed her came in through the other side,” Tate growls.

I lead the guys quickly through the tunnel, running through the dimly lit passage on the hunt for my mate and the unfortunate who put his hands on her. I can smell her now more clearly, I can hear her heartbeat echoing through the cave. We round a sharp hairpin turn and discover Solana pushed protectively behind —

“Hunter? What are you doing here?” Eli chuckles with relief for all of us.

I want to extend my arm out to her and invite, but more like demand, her to tuck herself into my hold. My relief that she’s safe is being overshadowed by my irritation with Hunter’s actions. He should know better than to pull this kind of stunt and more than that he shouldn’t even be here.

“Apparently Tate put a hit on me,” he accuses with fragile control.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

“Tate,” I groan, rubbing at my forehead like it could make taking in this information any easier, “when you said you submitted a name…”

“I gave him Hunter’s name.” Tate admits coolly.

Solana curses under her breath and mutters something about Tate being an idiot.

“What the fuck were you hoping to achieve?” Hunter’s anger begins to crack open. He’s preventing Sol from pushing past him with one outstretched arm, and in his other hand a dagger materializes.

“I was curious,” Tate says cryptically before his eyes zero in on Solana, “and now I’m not.”

“Tate, English!” I don’t mean to snap but my wolf is too strung out after thinking our mate was kidnapped and then finding her in the arms of my right hand man, who snuck in here because another of our pack mates fucking put a price on his head, all within the span of a couple of minutes.

“Best case scenario I lured him out into the open by dangling Hunter in front of him as bait, then we kill him and collect our paycheck. Worst case scenario,” he tips his head to the side giving a sly smile, “I admit I was wrong. How’d you find out?”

Hunter heaves out an empty, incredulous laugh, “how’d I find out?That’s what you have to say to me?”

“It was necessary. If I handed him your name and nothing happened then I’d know that Solana was lying to us about how close she is to him. But your name did reach him. So now it’s a matter of figuring out if he knew who you were to Sol, or if she is more important to him than even she realizes.”

The low growl pouring from my chest reverberates through the tunnel magnifying the sound of my indignation. She will never be his.

If I wasn’t being paid to kill him already he’d still be number one on my list.

“Put the dagger away, Hunter,” Dean coaxes him gently and he acquiesces once I give him a nod of my own.

What a mess. I trust Tate with my life, we all do. But his threshold for recklessness is sometimes much higher than the rest of us naturally making him the one that handles the riskier aspects of our lives. Hunter has every right to be frustrated with Tate, but I am concerned by how quickly Hunter concluded that after all these years, after everything we’ve been through together as a pack, that Tate would have done this to betray him.

I need to talk to Hunter. Alone. Pull his head out of his ass and tuck him into bed if I have to. But he better have a good fucking reason for involving Solana in his bullshit with Tate.

“I’m going to bring H back home, I’ll be back before dinner.” I say, taking a step towards Hunter.

Dean grabs my upper arm, halting me from getting any closer to Hunter. “How do we know it’s safe for him to be there alone with his name in Nightshade’s hands?”

“If he was planning on going after Hunter he blew it the moment he sent that text, or the love note for Tate,” I look askance at Tate just as his eyes crest in a dramatic roll. “Regardless…I don’t know what games he’s playing or why, but until we do I want line of sight on everyone at all times.”

“C’mere Sunshine, I’ll keep both eyes trained on you,” Eli says with a suggestive waggle of his brows.

There’s a collective sigh of relief when she walks up to him, smacks him on the side of his head with a grin, affectionately calls him an idiot, and keeps on walking. The atmosphere is markedly less tense as we all walk back towards the entrance to collect our things and head back to the palace. Somehow, though, I can’t shake the feeling that all I’ve done is diffuse one bomb in a field of mines.

— — —

Solana

Ace teleports us down to the shore so we can get dressed before heading back for the dreaded family dinner. Dean and I use our heat to dry our clothes as well as Eli’s and soon enough the six of us are ready though none of us are in any particular hurry.

It feels more strained than usual being around them all. Now that I think about it I’m hardly ever surrounded by all five of them at once. Usually they pair off or I’m alone with someone. Having them all here standing around me in some pentagon configuration of pent-up emotions makes my skin heat and my heart ache.

My attraction and pull to Ace is organic and primal. My love for Hunter is bone deep, rooting itself in the marrow. I’ve given up fighting myself on what is simply fact. Because accepting it or denying it doesn’t change the reality that this is all temporary. I want neither Ace nor Hunter to have to choose between me and their pack. As far as the other three go, while there is attraction there, — on my part at least — I’m sure for them it’s just a bit of fun with the shiny new toy, the unobtainable.

Those three won’t miss me, and Ace and Hunter will eventually heal knowing they made the right choice to let me go.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I look up to see Dean giving me a gentle smile. “You’re so deep in thought I can practically see them moving across your forehead like a silent movie.”

“Just imagining all the great dinner conversations we’re about to have,” I hide behind sarcasm and quickly turn the spotlight toward Hunter, “are you staying in the Grove?”

Sneaking into the Grove through our secret tunnel, the one he and I built and dug ourselves, is easy. The breach to the shield is so small that it’s negligible and undetectable to the guards and my family alike. Staying here would require scent-blockers, which I know he must be wearing because I can’t smell him at all, and more importantly a place to stay out of sight. It’s not like I can walk him through the palace and hope people think he’s just another bodyguard. He’s the son of Beta Runidar, everyone knows his face.

“Like I said,” Ace interrupts before Hunter can respond, “I want eyes on everyone at all times. The scent-blockers are doing their job, no one will know he’s in the palace.”

Through our re-emerging bond I can sense how relieved Hunter is that his pack didn’t betray him like he feared and that they’re not dismissing him. Tate shakes his hand and then pulls him into a bro-hug, back slapping and all.

“Don’t think this means you’re off the hook, Tate. Nightshade is proving to be more elusive and possibly more dangerous than we first expected. We have to assume that he has access to everything we do and can move in the shadows. That alone makes him a more than decent threat.”

“We’ll deal with it when we get back home,” Hunter lets Tate off the hook and Ace doesn’t push the issue. We all grab ahold of one another and let Ace drag us through the void back into my room.