Soul Bound

by Holly Hook

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Soul Bound (The Alpha Legacy #6)

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  There's More!

  The Dragon Born Trilogy

  The Abnormals Underground Series

  The Alpha Legacy

  Book 6

  By Holly Hook

  Soul Bound

  The Alpha Legacy #6

  By Holly Hook

  Copyright Holly Hook 2019

  Chapter One

  “Are you sure I'm going to be okay?”

  Callie looks up at me as the chains that connect her to the forest ground dangle from her wrists. My heightened senses let me see every drop of terror in her eyes. As if she knows I'm seeing it, my Hunter cousin looks own at the pair of concrete blocks we had poured last week. Silver chains hug her ankles, too.

  “You should be,” I say. But my voice box trembles.

  Fading light peeks through the tree trunks. We're alone out here: me, Cayden, and Callie. She didn't even want her husband Earl here just in case things hit the fan and she turns out to be infected by the Savage Wolf. The full moon rises soon. Then we're going to see the truth, whatever it is. Callie's metallic adrenaline fills the air. I don't want to sniff and see if the rotten wood smell's coming off her, as it did with Matthew right before he turned, but the fear in the air's so strong it would drown it out anyway.

  “Brie, she should be fine,” Cayden says, slipping his hand into mine. He sends me a small smile. Lately he's been casting off his broody suit and I'm not sure what to think.

  And we're alone. It's just us and the trees. No one will hear Callie way out here if she does turn. In fact, we're so far out in the woods we're near the border of our territory.

  “Will you attack me if I turn?” Callie turns her eyes up at me.

  “We won't, even if you do,” I say, mouth dry. “Even if you were to turn from a shallow scratch, Cayden says you wouldn't go completely bad right away. Well, you would be in Wolf form, but not in human form for a while.”

  Callie looks at me and Cayden like we're idiots. “But I'm descended from Romulus, and you said that one guy Matthew was too. He went bad fast. They all become pure beast, and as a Hunter I believe it.”

  Cayden shakes his head. “He was a bad human already. And it felt good shoving him down.”

  “You're not making me feel much better,” Callie says, standing all the way up. Four sets of chains bind her to the concrete under her feet. “You wanted to attack him before he even turned, Brie.”

  “Well, I haven't wanted to attack you yet. If you were going to turn, I would have sensed it by now.” I hope I'm telling the truth. Things changed since I took over the pack. First for the better, and then for the worse.

  “I know you haven’t. But there could be other reasons for that,” Callie says. She eyes the fading light between the trees. “I’m probably all right.”

  “Those chains are silver,” Cayden says. “I’d know, because neither me nor Brie want to touch them.”

  “Consecrated silver, too,” I say. “The Russells did some magic rites with them to put their protective spirits on them, or something.”

  But Callie’s grimacing.

  My heart stops.

  She eyes the sky, pupils widening, and bites her lip so hard it bleeds. The smell of iron joins fear.

  “Are you okay?” I blurt, but my question falls to the ground.

  She coughs like she has something stuck in her throat, and at the same time, horror blooms in my chest. “I think I’m fine,” she says. “I think I’m okay. Just got something caught—“ She coughs again and puts her hand over her mouth like she’s trying to mask something else.

  “Callie, you have to tell us right now if you’re okay. Cayden and I will need to leave if you’re not so we don’t hurt you.” My heart’s racing and I’m breathing heavily. Great. My own panic dam is cracking as two weeks’ worth of water is gets ready to burst through.

  Callie trembles. “I'm fine!”

  And Cayden, as if sensing my distress, grips my arm so tight he cuts off my circulation.

  “We need to go,” he says, dead serious. “Now.”

  “Callie, look at me!”

  She does. The darkness within her irises looks ready to expand and swallow her. “If I am infected, go! Just leave me alone!”

  My paralysis breaks and I turn away, holding back a choking sob. I don't understand. Callie doesn't smell Savage. But she grunts with building pain, with terror and grief, as she begins to endure a Hunter’s worst nightmare.

  “Come on!” Cayden shouts, pulling my arm. Now it doesn't matter if he’s below me on the social ladder. And I don’t care, either. I want to stay and comfort Callie, but this is something she has to face alone.

  The whole world expands and contracts, pulsing with evil.

  This shouldn’t be happening.

  It was only a scratch. A shallow scratch—

  “Run,” Cayden says.

  Already the moon peeks over the horizon, and the pressure to give in to it builds inside me, too. The animal begs to be set free for the night and I won’t be able to remain in human form much longer. Neither will Cayden. And then we’ll want to fight any invaders in our territory. Callie will be one in a few minutes.

  I break into a sprint, jumping over fallen logs and ancient tree stumps. We leave Callie farther and farther behind as she bites in screams of not just physical agony, but bewilderment and terror.

  We're going to have to tell Earl--

  “Keep going,” Cayden says.

  I do. The air cools as the sun abandons us. At last Callie's cries and grunts vanish into the background, leaving just chirping birds and the distant sounds of town. I stop in a small clearing not far from the Lowe cabin, skin itching. I rub my hands over my bare arms.

  My mate and I look at each other. A growl emerges from Cayden's throat. He's not going to hold out much longer, either.

  “She promised her husband she’d be back home by midnight,” I tell Cayden. “She promised him, and now she’s not going to show up and we’re going to have to tell him.”

  “We’ll figure out how to do it,” Cayden says. He grips my arm, expecting me to give in to my ultra-Noble instincts. And those will be to kill Callie.

  Far back, she lets out an ear-piercing scream.

  A growl tries to rip out of my throat. Cayden tightens his grip and we run together again. This will haunt me forever. We cleaned the scratch. She wasn’t supposed to have the infection.

  “I can’t hold out much longer,” I say. The pesky moonlight pokes through the trees, and each beam of silver light makes my skin itch. Pine needles hang in my face as I swat them away, and my phone buzzes with a text that I ignore. We put another half mile…a mile…a mile and a half between us and Callie. I can’t feel my hand anymore with Cayden cutting off the circulation. The pressure builds to a peak as I stop under the first stars of the evening.

  “I can’t go anymore,” I say.

  “Neither can I.” Cayden releases my hand as he sheds his spring jacket and throws it to the ground. “There’s nothing more we can do right now. Everyone will have to wait.” Cayden kneels and lets the moon overtake him.
Black with red highlights sprouts from his skin as bones pop and rearrange. His face shifts quickly into that of a Wolf as he drops to all fours, wiggling out of his baggy jeans. He looks at me with deep hazel eyes, and though I can’t hear his thoughts yet, I can read the meaning. Follow him. Hunt elsewhere. Join the rest of the pack and lead them away from Callie’s secret spot. At least I have control over that.

  The pressure inside pushes against my skin and a wave of itching spreads over my whole body. There’s no holding back anymore. I sink to my knees and let the shift overtake me.

  I will think only of deer, rabbits, and leading the pack to dinner. That’s all that matters tonight, and all we can do. I lead Cayden, Everly, Aunt May, and Remo through the woods, to the east side of town, farthest from where there's no prey. I won’t even think of her name.

  A deer runs terrified through the woods ahead, and we give chase. The doe doesn’t get far and we take her down—

  --this could be Callie—

  And feast.

  The night drags on. Somewhere in the distance, I know the other part of our pack is hunting in Colling, for the first time without Lawrence or Abigail. Earl is waiting—

  I won’t think of her now.

  Somewhere back in the woods, my phone buzzes again. And again.

  And I lead the pack away from it, up to the foothills where the sound can’t reach.

  * * * * *

  The sun rises an eternity later.

  Cayden and I split from the pack and wander back to our clothes, still as Wolves, which we thankfully haven’t ruined. The pressure to hunt eases the higher the sun gets in the sky, and we reach the small clearing where my phone begins a new round of buzzing. It's still inside my pants.

  I’m able to reach for the human inside now that the moon has sunk under the horizon, and the pain sweeps over me as I change shape. Now released from the moon’s command, I pull on my clothes as Cayden rushes to do the same beside me.

  “Story of our life,” he says. “We don’t even have time to help each other dress.”

  I sigh. “No kidding. Something has to block any fun we have every. Single. Time.”

  I smile at Cayden and try to lift the mood, but now that our night of mindless hunting is over, we have business to attend to. And that business is Callie. If the chains held—and I have no reason to believe they didn’t—she will be out there now, bare and in the cold. I swallow as my throat dries and my stomach turns over, threatening to heave out deer and rabbit. While in human form, I don’t want to see that.

  Once dressed, Cayden frowns at me. The broody guy is back.

  “Let me check on her first,” he says.

  “You’re always trying to protect me,” I say.

  “Well, I’m your mate. And something has to make me feel like a man.” He flexes his biceps.

  “Are you learning from Noah?” I ask.

  We’re stalling. My stomach threatens another heave as saliva fills my mouth, warning me I might be sick.

  As the alpha, I’m in charge and I know what I should do, but this is Callie. My only family on my mother's side. And the fact that Alex, also my only other family (though he doesn’t know it) will kill her if he finds out about this. Alex is still staying in Colling with a camp of other Hunters, and Earl will have a hard time hiding Callie’s absence from him. Sure, I made Alex swear not to hurt Callie or me, but even us saving his life might not stop him from doing his job.

  Callie could be—

  “Brie, let me check her first,” Cayden says.

  Give me back my purpose.

  But I don’t say that out loud. So I nod. “I would love that. Thanks, Cayden.” I kiss him right on the lips and drag it out.

  “That gave me the guts to proceed,” he says. “Brie, we don’t know how things went with Callie after we left. I’ll soften the blow as much as I can, but I have to warn you, I can be blunt sometimes.”

  “Trust me, I already know.”

  I should tell him that I give him permission to face Callie for me, but I keep those words back and let Cayden lead the way back up the hill. I sniff, but smell no trace of Savage. That alone sets some of my nerves at ease but ignites others.

  My heart races faster and faster as we scale the hill we fled down the night before. Sweat forms under my clothes, making me lightheaded, but I continue and take deep breaths. Soon Everly and the others will be up, and Everly will not like this. Neither of us let the rest of the pack know about Callie failing the test. Or even about the fact that she got scratched by a Savage.

  To protect her, I’ll have to lie to Everly. To everyone.

  “Callie? It’s me,” I ask as I’m climbing the final hill.

  “Brie, let me go first,” Cayden says. “Remember?”

  I stop on the hill and face him. “Oh. Sorry.” Curiosity grows and begs me up the last of the hill. Something's not right. There's no sound and I should hear breathing, but I don't. And I smell nothing but the woods, either.

  “Callie?” Cayden asks, louder.

  No answer.

  Just that alone propels me to the top of the hill despite Cayden's protests. I stand there, eyeing the pair of concrete slabs we poured two weeks before, and the warped silver chains that lie on the ground, broken and bent. Beside them, Callie's torn clothes lie as if they exploded away from her.

  And worst of all, Callie is no longer here.

  Chapter Two

  Cayden and I stand there, eyeing the four chains and manacles that lie on the ground, victims of incredible violence. No Wolf should have broken out of this.

  “She...” Cayden says. “Brie, why didn't you stay back?”

  “Because I knew something was even more wrong than what we knew,” I say. I cup my hands over my mouth and scream, “Callie!” My phone buzzes again, which puts me into rage. I pull the phone out and silence it. I don't have time to tap out texts.

  “She broke out,” Cayden says. “Don't tell me she's another Matthew. That means she might have run into Savage territory and to top it off, she couldn't help herself. I bet she doesn't even remember what happened by now, and she's in danger.”

  I eye Cayden and let my jaw drop. Just like Matthew, Callie's descended from the Savage King. She would be close to his strength, and even our whole pack had trouble casting Matthew out of town. Theconsecrated chains didn't hold as the Russells guaranteed they would. “If the Savages see her over there, they'll kill her. She's a Hunter and they know. Callie shouldn't have gotten out of these.”

  “That's my fear,” Cayden says. “We need one of the quads. Then we roar in and get her out.”

  “What if Callie went in another direction?”

  “She could have.” Cayden paces around the broken chains and sniffs.

  I do the same. My terror blocked out my ability to pay attention and sample the environment. I breathe. Rotting wood lingers on the underbrush and the trees, even though it's fading quickly in the evaporating dew. I follow the scent trail for a few feet, and my fear's confirmed when it veers straight towards the Savage territory.

  “We need the quad. Now. Text Remo and have him drive it to us,” I order. As we stand here, time's running out. “Two quads would be better. And tell Leonora I'm not making it to their meditation this afternoon. She'll know what that means.”

  Cayden gets on his phone and calls Remo. Remo picks up, having already made it back to the cabin and dressed. “Two quads. Now. North of town and up the hills. The wind's blowing from our direction, so you should smell us. We'll explain later.”

  “We're not going to hide this from them,” I say, pacing.

  “You, me, Earl, your aunt, and Callie are the only ones who know,” Cayden reminds me.

  “The others will smell that she's changed. And that's if we get her back,” I say. “Callie lives in Colling with the rest of the pack. And we still don't know them all that well.”

  My heart races as we wait for the others to bring a pair of quads. I've never driven one before, but as Remo and Au
nt May drive them into the clearing and stop, I feel more confident. Cayden drove one like a pro without ever doing it before, and as a Noble Royal, so should I.

  “Why do you need quads?” Remo asks, getting off his. “Is this not Everly safe? I had the feeling.”

  “Then you know me pretty well by now,” Cayden tells him. “No. It's not Everly safe, or safe, period.”

  He didn't have to say that last part. Aunt May eyes me and frowns. “It was Callie, wasn't it?”

  “How'd you guess?” I eye the broken chains.

  “What's going on?” Remo asks. This is news to him. “Why are there busted chains on the ground?”

  I speak with finality. “Callie's missing and we have to get her back. Do not tell Everly or anyone about this. Leonora and her parents know but that's because we needed the chains and had to tell them. I mean it. Tell nobody.”

  Remo flinches from my order. “I won't. Why didn't Leonora tell me Callie got infected?” Hurt and confusion come over his face. This mess is getting bigger by the second.

  “She will if you ask her,” Cayden says quickly. “We have to go. Now.”

  I take Aunt May's quad. Her blue eyes billow with worry for me, a worry she hasn't been able to let go. But I have to turn away and board the quad.

  I take a second to figure out which lever to push forward, but after watching Cayden do it, I rev and speed ahead, crushing branches and underbrush. There is no trail here so the going is slow at first.

  But we cross the border to our territory and into the neutral woods, leaving the familiar scents of Cayden, Everly, Remo, and Aunt May behind. I dodge trees as we trudge uphill and over boulders, but these quads that used to belong to Lawrence get the job done.

  “We shouldn't have left Callie,” I shout to Cayden.

  “It was all we could do,” he yells, revving over some small boulders and over the top of a hill.

  The morning sun rises higher as we near Savage territory. I sniff and catch a whiff of Callie ahead. She smells like pancakes and bacon. Her restaurant. She's alive and even has a hint of Earl's aftershave. It could be wishful thinking, but I pick up no rotten wood from her. Her scent's gone as soon as it came.