Rhylan

by Emilia Hartley

  But, she couldn’t move.

  ***

  No.

  He heard the crack of underbrush, human footsteps. Their enchantress had returned to them and they were on the hunt again. And, they’d been tracking the two wolf shifters the whole time.

  Thalia ran ahead, eager to escape him and run to her brother. He had no voice to tell her she was running head first into a trap. His heart lurched, and his stomach rolled. He fumbled forward, but it was too late.

  He watched Thalia’s body waver and wobble. She collapsed to the ground, and a man burst from the brush to lift her into his arms. He looked down at her with a scornful expression, tugging his gloves higher onto his hands as if he could catch some kind of disease from Thalia.

  That was how they saw the shifters: as a disease.

  Rhylan wanted to howl. His beast screamed and roared. No one was allowed to hurt Thalia. No one was allowed to touch her. As badly as the wolf wanted to race forward and fight back the small army of hunters, Rhylan pulled the reins. There was another way. A smarter way.

  He could use the magic that swirled around him. He knew it was there, had seen it bend around him like water around a stone, but had never tried to grasp it before. Not since the attack in the ER. He licked his lips and remembered where it came from. His mother. Her stories.

  Rhylan had never tried to reach into the magic, but he knew his need would sing to it. The power did not bend to his will, but spoke as an equal. There was a chance it would do as he asked, and the wolf knew it.

  There was also a chance it would all fail.

  The beast regarded his weak voice with contempt before looking back to Thalia. To Rhylan’s surprise, the beast relented. It would do anything for Thalia. Even if that meant giving Rhylan power. It would trust him and the years he’d spent on this earth.

  The choice left Rhylan shaken for a moment. He wasn’t expecting the beast’s compliance. It usually raged against his better senses, leaving him trapped and often at the beast’s will. But, when it came to Thalia’s safety, all it wanted was for her to be back in their arms.

  In their arms…

  It was a strange thought considering she was nothing more than an acquaintance to him. She’d turned him inside out from moment one, but never dropped her walls to let him become anything more.

  Rhylan shook free the mess of thoughts rumbling through his mind and lowered his body in the brush. Across from him, the man carried Thalia back to a van. He had to slide along his stomach to stay beneath the spring brush, to stay out of sight.

  The van’s engine came to life, the whole contraption shaking and emitting a cloud of exhaust. That meant there was another hunter in the driver’s seat, he realized as another hunter approached on foot. That made three.

  Rhylan knew he should have gone back to find Sydney and Jax. Maybe, even Nora. But, the moment was unfolding before him and he needed to do something now. There was no time to run for his Pack members. They would be mad at him later, but that wouldn’t matter as long as he saved Thalia.

  Rhylan crouched in the brush, watching the men tuck the unconscious wolf into a silver lined cage in the back of the van. His stomach turned for her. She was lucky the dart had knocked her out, because the trip back to the farmhouse would have been unbearable. Had she ever experienced anything like it before? Would she know not to panic when she woke?

  There was no time to waste. Rhylan set off before the van could move. He knew where they would take her. He and Jax had liberated one of the enchantress’s soul batteries and she was on the hunt for a new one now that she was out on bail. They would undoubtedly take her back to the barn.

  Thalia was not passing through that doorway. Not if he could help it.

  Chapter Seven

  The world poked and prodded at Thalia. She woke in fits and starts, segments of reality returning. The first thing to return was sound. Silence droned around her, filled only by the rumble of an engine. Then, came sight. It was blurry, at first. Shapes loomed around her, unidentifiable and imposing.

  Her heart thumped, slow and antagonizing, and she struggled to get her feet beneath her when she realized her form had slipped back into human. A groan escaped her lips, her head throbbing and her thigh pulsing. She slapped at the pulsing pain to find a dart embedded in her skin. Her trembling fingers wrapped around it and she jerked it out, throwing it away from her.

  The small motion seemed to drain her energy, her arm giving out beneath her to drop her to the floor. Her skin ached, and her head throbbed. She wrapped her hands over her head, ready to beg for it to stop.

  The last thing she remembered was seeing Rhylan. He’d done nothing. He’d let them take her. Tears burned her eyes. Her body shook. Rhylan had led her into those mountains. He’d watched as they shot her and carried her away. Sobs threatened to overcome her.

  Where was she now? What was going to happen to her?

  She blinked away the fog that clung to her vision. Little by little, it cleared to reveal a chicken wire cage. There was a thin wire wrapped around the steel, looping like jewelry. She lifted a finger to touch it and snapped it back when the metal stung her skin.

  Silver.

  She groaned. Silver was something she’d come into contact with a few times before. Always a friend’s cheap jewelry, rubbing her chin against it while she hugged someone or bearing the sting while a friend patted her back. Now, she lay, naked and alone, in a cage wrapped in silver.

  Was this what happened to her brother? It was hard to believe this was how he’d fallen. Who could have gotten the upper hand on him? Who could have lifted his massive body and jammed it into a cage as small as this? It gave her hope. Wherever she was headed, her brother would not be there. He would not be in the hands of these monsters.

  Slowly, she pushed herself up again. She ducked her head, careful of the silver above. Peering about, she found no clues as to where she was headed. There was a bin of tools, carefully locked, a few feet away. Twisting, she found a small window flooded with daylight. The frosted glass showed two shadows, but three voices drifted into the back of the van.

  It jerked to a halt, the momentum throwing her back. Her bare skin grazed silver, and she hissed. Thalia scrambled away from it like an animal. She curled into herself. A sob worked its way back up her throat. She wanted to fight. To run.

  But, when she reached for her wolf, it was nowhere to be found. It frightened her. She’d never felt that kind of silence. Thalia dug deeper and deeper, clawing at her own mind for the voice that’d always been there. She needed it. She begged for it. Tears burned their way down her face.

  The men spilled out of the van. There was a cacophony of noise beyond the van walls. She lifted her head, setting aside the urge to dig and claw at herself as she strained to listen. The men shouted, sounds of alarm and confusion.

  “What the hell?” one grunted.

  There was the familiar sound of the tranquilizer gun. Thalia cringed. Her skin crawled, thigh itching where the dart had hit her.

  A man shouted. Howls split the air. Her heart leapt. The sound was as familiar as her own voice. It was pained and wild, but it was her brother’s song. Thalia leapt to a crouch. She shook the walls of her cage, ignoring the way her fingers burned. If she fought hard enough, if she was strong enough, she could free him.

  He was here, wherever they’d taken her. She’d finally found him.

  “Javi!” she screamed his name.

  The howls did not stop. He couldn’t hear her.

  The door swung open. She expected her brother, but saw one of the hunters. He scowled at Thalia and raised the tranquilizer. Her heart stopped as she stared down the barrel of the gun.

  It was the tranquilizer.

  Right?

  ***

  Rhylan struck. He leapt from around the side of the van and swung the crowbar in his hands. It struck the man in the temple and he crumpled to the ground. Thalia gasped. Rhylan’s head shot up. She was awake and in one piece, though there were dark c
ircles beneath her eyes. Her pale skin was creeping with gray.

  Glancing back to make sure the other hunters were dealing with the shifters he’d released, Rhylan reached for the clasp on her cage. It was coated in a thin layer of silver, but he shoved past the stinging pain and yanked. The metal beneath groaned and snapped free. He flung it away from himself and reached to open the cage around Thalia.

  She fell from the cage, tripping into his open arms. He pulled her close, but she fought against him. Her limbs were heavy, moving slow and weak. The tranquilizer and silver had done a number to her, but she pushed back with a determination that could have stopped him. Instead, he clutched her close and turned toward the forest.

  “No!” she screamed. She pounded against his back and pulled his hair. “Javi, I hear you!”

  The monster’s howls rose in response. His heart flipped.

  “Put me down. I need to save him.” She slammed her fists into his back, no real strength in her blows other than her desperation.

  “Not right now,” Rhylan whispered.

  She didn’t listen. Or, she didn’t hear him over her sobs. He ran, pulling the earth’s magic around him. It responded to his call, singing through his blood. The earth shrouded him. Trees moved to block the path behind him, branches shifted their foliage to hide him. The world did as he begged.

  It was unlike anything he’d done before. It was the power that whispered to him when he’d first been changed. He hadn’t understood it until this moment.

  The spirits of the natural world sang to him. They spun around him and spoke to his magic. Like his mother had once said, they were always there for anyone who could see. It seemed becoming a shifter, the magic that now ran though his body, gave him the ability to see them. It gave him the ability to speak with them.

  As much as he wanted to ask Jax about it, he had a feeling he was the only one who could see them. Jax had certainly seen something, but Rhylan had a feeling what Jax saw were ghosts. Maybe not true spirits of the once-living, though he could be wrong, but what Jax saw were not the spirits of the earth.

  All Rhylan knew was that he was thankful for them. He was thankful that they’d helped him rescue Thalia. He clutched her close, fearing what might happen if he didn’t.

  Chapter Eight

  Thalia stirred in his arms. Her moans turned into a grumbling groan. She slapped a hand to her head.

  “We’ll get some ibuprofen into you when we get back to your place.”

  Her lips twisted into a scowl, pressing her eyes shut as if the sound of his voice rattled her brain. He wanted to think it rattled her in a good way, but after being tranquilized and shoved in a box of silver, he was sure her head hurt.

  “Do you mind pointing me in the direction of your house?”

  Her frown deepened. She kicked out her legs, fighting to be free of his grasp. “I’m not taking you back to my place.”

  “The Lodge has too much traffic. Someone is bound to see us sauntering up to my room butt naked. It would be better if we went to your place.”

  She shook her head and kicked again. This time, he let her down, gently placing her on her own feet. At first, she swayed. Rhylan reached out to steady her, but she shoved him away. The gesture hurt, but he deserved it.

  He licked his lips, part of his mind still speaking to the spirits of the earth around him. He asked them to clear a path through the mountain woods, and they answered eagerly clearing a narrow path.

  “We need to find somewhere to rest. We’ve been on our feet for hours. I’m getting tired and I’m sure you’re not feeling too great.”

  As if prompted by his voice, she stumbled away from him and heaved. She emptied her stomach in the brush, heaving over and over. Her breath came fast. Rhylan moved to rub her back, trying to remind her there was no one hunting them in that moment. For the time being, they were safe.

  She shrugged him off, straightened herself, and strutted forward. Rhylan couldn’t help but watch the sway of her hips and the determined set of her shoulders. Her long hair, now twisted into waves, danced along the pale skin of her back. It beckoned his fingers, begged him to reach forward and feel the silkiness of it.

  Rhylan wanted to pull her back into his arms and carry her, but he knew she needed to freedom of her own feet. Since the first day they’d met, she’d rebelled against everything. There wasn’t a damn thing she hadn’t fought against. He remembered the pain of that first day. It’d been his own fault. He’d lied and forced her hand.

  How would he make it up to her? Saving her from the hunters was nothing. She’d only been in that position because of him. It’d been his fault that they’d been able to find her and Rhylan at all. How would he ever convince her that he could be trusted?

  The brush and trees parted ahead. They stepped out into a clearing, the smell of metal and exhaust revealing a nearby road. Ahead of them was a trailer, falling apart and missing many of its decorative shutters. The porch was crooked, leaning hard to the right as if it might topple over any second.

  “I said take us back to your place,” Rhylan repeated.

  She cast a sad, defeated glance over her shoulder. “I did.”

  Thalia bent to retrieve a key hidden beneath an empty plant pot and rose to unlock the back door. Rhylan’s words died in his throat. He scanned the trailer once more. There was rust and dirt dripping down the outside of it. The smell of mold tickled his nose inside. A group of ladybugs circled the light above the entryway.

  “Don’t say shit,” she grumbled. Thalia stumbled through the trailer, heading toward the bedroom at the end.

  Rhylan followed, watching her fall face forward onto a mattress that sat on the floor. A nice set of sheets wrapped around it, but that seemed to be all she’d splurged on. Her laundry burst out of broken laundry baskets in the far corner.

  Thalia wrapped the comforter around her body, unable to hide the way she shook from him. He sat on the edge of the bed, shoving aside the appalling feeling slithering through him to reach for her wrist. She pulled away, but only halfheartedly. He checked her pulse. His training kicked in, taking over because her health was what really mattered.

  “Why are you still here?” she growled from beneath the comforter.

  “Because this mess is my fault. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to you because of that.”

  She snorted.

  “Do you have an ibuprofen or acetaminophen?”

  She waved her hand. “Bathroom.”

  He nodded, pausing a moment. He didn’t want to leave her alone, but he also didn’t want to risk her health. In the end, he shoved off the mattress and went in search of a bathroom. At the door, he heard her voice.

  “You look good naked. You should try it more often.”

  He laughed. The wolf stirred inside him, rising with a possessive growl. He would walk naked every day for her.

  The bathroom was a small room just around the corner from her bedroom, flanked by a beat up washer and dryer that had to be nearly twenty years old. He pried open the mirror cupboard, dust and rust falling into the sink below.

  Thalia lived like this because she threw everything else she had into finding her brother. She worked just enough to pay for the roof over her head and used the rest of her time to scour the mountains for Javi. He felt regret roil through him. It slammed into him and made him grip the counter.

  He’d strolled into her life and treated her mission lightly. Sure, he’d meant to help, but wasting her time the way he had was beyond forgivable.

  “You get lost?” Thalia shouted after him.

  He grabbed the acetaminophen and ducked out of the bathroom. His hand was tight around the plastic bottle. When he knelt beside the bed, he found her brows knit together and another scowl on her lips.

  “Why didn’t you let me stay?” Her voice broke with the pain in her heart.

  He wanted to crawl onto the bed beside her. He wanted to cry as he hugged her tight and whisper that he couldn’t stand the t
hought of her pain. But, she was already in pain.

  “You don’t know them like I do,” Rhylan said, instead. He pulled on his most official sounding doctor voice, leeching any emotion from it that might have given away what he felt for her. “These people are trained to hurt and use shifters. If they’d gotten the both of us like they wanted, we would have faced something worse than death.”

  “What could be worse than death?” her voice was wistful, as if she were drifting away.

  “Having no soul.”

  Her eyes snapped open, meeting his. The weight of his words suddenly hit her. She sat up, throwing away the blankets. “Javi.” Her voice strained. Her hands covered her face.

  Rhylan could have told her that her brother was okay. He could have said her brother’s soul was in one piece. But, he refused to lie to her any longer. He couldn’t keep feeding her lies if he wanted to earn her trust, even if that meant showing her the horrid truth.

  He swallowed and looked to the floor, trying to get his words in order. There was no easy way of saying it. When he looked back, she watched him with watery eyes, clutching the comforter to her bare chest. He reached to touch her face, wishing he could ease away the pain he saw there, but his hand hung in the air. Her brows flattened, the hopeful look gone and replaced with a shield against whatever he had to say.

  Good.

  She was prepared.

  He let out the breath he’d been holding and began to tell her about the past few weeks. Rhylan filled her in on everything, from the missing shifters, to the den of shifter hunters nearby, and how he’d been pulled into the fight against them. He left out Sydney, but not the creature that attacked her. She needed to know what her brother might have gone through. By the time he finished, she lurched from the bed and raced toward the bathroom. He could hear her emptying her stomach.

  Rhylan stood, uncertain. Should he go to comfort her? Or, should he give her space while she came to terms with what he’d said? There was no easy way of telling a person their brother might be a soulless monster.