Fated Magic (Claimed by Wolves #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,66
poking from his neck. He tugs it out of Ridge’s skin and holds it up to the light.
“Fuck. A tranquilizer.” His voice is stark with fear as he looks up at the house.
Dare and I both rush inside at once, nearly getting jammed in the goddamn doorway as we race into the kitchen.
It’s empty.
He heads toward the front of the cabin while I sweep the bedroom and bathroom. When he meets me back in the hallway, I can tell by the devastation on his face that Sable is gone.
“Nothing.” His voice sounds dead, blank almost, like he has to turn off every emotion inside him just to get the damn word out.
“Fuck. Fuck.”
I could punch a hole through the wall. I could tear this cabin down with my bare hands right now. But neither of those things would get us closer to getting Sable back, and that’s the only thing that matters right now.
She’s the only thing that matters.
I jerk my chin toward the door, and the two of us rush back out into the night.
Outside, Archer is helping a woozy Ridge sit up. I’m surprised at the rush of relief I feel that he’s okay. Although we’ve never been enemies, I wouldn’t have called us friends either until recently. But I’m thankful as fuck that he’s not dead.
Ridge groans, rubbing the back of his neck where Archer yanked the dart out. “Someone snuck up on me. I heard a noise out here, and I came to check it out…” He trails off and looks up, his eyes so wide I can see the whites all the way around. “Sable?”
“She’s gone,” I tell him, my voice rough as fucking gravel.
Ridge launches to his feet so fast he almost keels right back over, but Archer grabs him and steadies him.
“We have to find her.” Ridge shakes his head, looking half-drunk as his body fights off the tranquilizers in his system. “I didn’t like the smell of this guy. Fucking sociopath.”
“You don’t think her uncle…” Archer lets the half-formed question die out.
Fury blooms through me, and I snarl.
Yes. I do think. Witches wouldn’t have used a fucking tranq gun, they would’ve used magic. “We have to find her.”
As one, the four of us immediately shift back to our wolf forms. Ridge is unsteady on his feet, but he gives himself a good shake and pushes Archer’s golden wolf away as he tries to help.
You’re too drugged to go with us, I tell him. Don’t be an idiot. Go lie down.
I’m going, Ridge snaps back.
Dare puts his head down near the edge of the cabin’s clearing, sniffing the ground erratically. Then he stiffens, his hackles rising and his nose turning into the wind. His howl pierces the night, and then we’re all racing after him.
We fly through the shadowy forest, following Sable’s scent and the scent of the man who took her. I can tell where she gave up walking and he picked her up to carry her through the woods. Where there were once two scent trails, there's suddenly only one on the ground, with Sable just a hint on the air, already dying away.
Just the thought of that man’s hands on her makes me see red. My jaws itch to rip his throat out.
I’ll fucking destroy him.
The trail takes us out of the woods and onto a small, dirt service trail. These exist throughout the mountains, placed here by the government or by thrill seekers looking to have an adventure in the wilderness. The wolf packs typically avoid them—out of sight, out of mind, and all that. The last thing we need is a thrill seeking hiker with a GoPro on his helmet catching footage of a shifter transforming.
But the scent trail ends at fresh tire tracks. The fucker put Sable in a car and took off with her.
Archer speaks up in my mind. A big white farmhouse on the outskirts of Big Creek. That’s what she said.
Ridge nods once. It’s about twenty miles from here.
Dare shakes himself. You know where we’re going?
I do, Ridge says.
Then lead the way, I tell him, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth to save her. We’ve got your back.
The moon is rising over the mountains as we settle into a full-on sprint, following Ridge on a straight line for more populated areas.
Fear eats me alive. I never knew I could be so attached to someone, but Sable is one of the fiercest, sweetest creatures I’ve ever met.