"Remember the night I killed you?"
Her voice, the velvet touch of a consummate courtesan, whispered into his ear with a softness meant to distract before plunging the concealed weapon into the unsuspecting lover.
Not that she needed a weapon to carry out her nightly escapades. That was for the weak.
The darkness concealed her, and although he couldn't see her clearly through the numerous tree branches she hid behind far above, her sneer bristled his fur. Fangs extended, large eyes over high cheekbones, legs so long and strong she ran and leaped from tree to tree with ease looking for her next victim to sink her teeth into and rip apart.
Looking up into the treetops, his lips curled back in a snarl, exposing his razor-sharp teeth.
She continued to taunt him. To get under his fur. Her tone casual, as if conversing over the dead was as mundane as talking about the weather. "I remember it quite well. Like it was yesterday. How many years has it been? At least a hundred, if I'm not mistaken."
He hadn't forgotten. How could he? The blood. The severed heads of his soulmate and firstborn son. A part of him died that day.
The loss affected everyone in the pack. His mate was their Luna, the heart of the pack. A pack could not function without a Luna and an Alpha. It crippled them all and nearly destroyed them.
He never fully recovered.
"Talk to me, Sten," she cooed as her bare feet slipped soundlessly over a thick branch. It groaned under her weight. "Tell me how it feels. Tell me how your soul aches for hers. Tell me how it feels to lose your own flesh and blood because you couldn't save them."
Growling, he lunged at the tree. His huge claw-like paws grasped the lowest branches that snapped immediately under his weight. The bark cracked and chipped away as he grasped to the trunk.
Cackling met his ears as he pulled himself up one arm-length.
She jumped effortlessly to another tree as his claws tore through the bark and he began to slip.
Carina was always slipping out of his grasp. She took to the trees knowing that he would never be able to reach her. She moved with a swift grace that his huge form could never muster.
"Always one step behind, aren't you, Sten? Such a pity you can never reclaim what you desire."
A smug humph, and she took off in the treetops.
Dropping to the earth, he took off after her. Her scarcely heard movements would have enabled her to disappear in the blink of an eye, but trees were not so silent. Their branches rustled, small twigs snapped, and evergreen pine needles flitted to the ground, their spicy scent following them.
She was practically odorless, the scents of the forest masking her own. The only way he could keep up with her was to follow the sharp scent of pine needles as they fell to the earth.
She zipped to the right, and just as quickly turned sharply to her left.
Nearly losing his footing and crashing into a tree, he dug his claws into the soft earth, grabbed hold of a root, and just barely twisted around the trunk by the skin of his teeth.
The near slip cost him precious seconds that enabled her escape as she pivoted around and began to backtrack through the treetops again.
Mentally cursing, he reached out through the mind-link for everyone's positions.
His beta, Alistair, was the closest, trailing behind Gerald in the trees from the west toward him, while his head warrior, Gunner, was running north after Adranus.
YOU ARE READING
Heart of Stone (Parts I & II)
Werewolf[COMPLETE] Some bonds can't be broken, even in death. -- He couldn't endure another heartbreak. "Accepting her would be a mistake," he said. "She's a human. I can't afford to have her blood on my hands." Gwen looked away, and he knew she saw the ima...
