Unleashed By her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 19

“Rune!”

A chill shot down Rune’s spine as he heard Callie scream his name and he grunted as the male he had been fighting slammed a hard right hook into his jaw, knocking him off-balance. His heart lurched into his throat, painfully beating there as he dodged the dark-haired wolf’s next punch and smashed his fist into the male’s stomach. The wolf doubled over and Rune shoved him away, into a group of Rourke’s men.

Rune scoured the clearing for Callie, his senses stretching far around him as a desperate need to feel her, to find her, blazed through him.

Only he couldn’t sense her anywhere.

There were too many people around him, all of them muddying his senses enough that he couldn’t pick her out—if she was even near him. The dreadful weight that settled in his chest said that she wasn’t, said he knew the reason she had called out to him, and he got all the proof he needed when he scoured the battle and realised he couldn’t sense Carrigan either.

The bastard had slipped away and got his hands on her.

Gods, it was all his fault, he should have kept hold of the slippery bastard and killed him when he’d had the chance, but the male was wily, had used his men to overpower Rune.

Giving himself a chance to escape and reach Callie.

“Rourke!” Rune barked, placing half the blame on the white-haired male.

When Rune had realised he had lost sight of Callie, had grown frantic to find her, the wolf alpha had noticed and confessed he had ordered his sister to steal Callie away from the battle. If she had stayed at his side as he had intended, he could have kept an eye on her. He could have protected her. Rourke had meant well, but by trying to protect Callie, he had placed her in grave danger.

Rourke grabbed a brunet male by his hair and shoved his head down as he brought his knee up, smashed it into his face and knocked him out. His amber-lit gaze sought Rune as he shoved the unconscious male away from him, a flicker of worry in it.

Another male barrelled into Rune’s back and Rune growled as he elbowed him in the face, pummelling him with it until blood burst from the male’s nose and he released him, staggering backwards and howling in agony.

One of Rourke’s men was quick to leap on him, taking over as Rune pushed and shoved his way towards Rourke.

“Carrigan has Callie,” Rune snarled as he reached the white-haired male.

His eyes widened and he breathed, “Jessie.”

“Might have her too. I’m about to find out. Going to track that bastard down and put him in the ground once and for all.” Rage simmered in Rune’s blood, had the instincts he had honed in the cage veiling his vision in red, clouding his mind with a hunger to fight and to kill. He fought to hold it together, fearing that if he let the battle hunger take him that he would end up hurting Callie too. He would never be able to live with himself if he did.

Rourke wildly scanned the fray, looking for something. Or maybe someone. His gaze stopped on a towering male with short blond hair and bright blue eyes.

“Anders!” Rourke signalled to him and the male looked at him, still gripping the throat of one of Carrigan’s men. “You and Griffin handle this.”

Anders nodded, a grim look settling on his sculpted features as he shifted his gaze back to the male he held in a death grip.

Rune shoved through the crowd, pushing for freedom, his heart drumming faster as the feeling that every second counted rose inside him. He didn’t know where Carrigan’s pack was located, might never find Callie if the bastard was able to escape. At the very least, he would be forced to waste time by going to her pack and beating the shit out of her old alpha until he told Rune the location of Carrigan’s pack.

The gods only knew what Carrigan might have done to Callie by then.

Fear pounded inside him, a driving force that had him sprinting the moment he was clear of the fight, his senses scanning the route ahead of him as he inhaled deeply, trying to catch her scent. The strong odour of spilled blood overpowered everything and despair mounted inside him, the fear that he might be too late to save Callie rising to tear down all hope.

And then he smelled it.

Glacier-lilies.

Rune tracked the scent past several cabins, Rourke hot on his heels. He could sense the male’s worry as it mingled with his own and was thankful that Rourke kept quiet, not distracting him from tracking the faint scent he hoped would lead him to Callie.

Prayed would lead him to her.

As they reached the edge of the cabins, he realised they were heading back towards Black Ridge.

And he caught the scent of Carrigan’s blood.

Rune growled and broke into a sprint, switching to using his senses now he was free of the cabins, and Rourke kept pace with him.

“Ahead. I feel something.” Rourke glanced at him.

Rune nodded. “I feel it too.”

It was Callie and Carrigan and they weren’t alone. He could sense two other males with them, bringing up the rear. Carrigan meant to use them to cover his escape, a distraction for him and Rourke that would slow them down. He looked at Rourke.

“Go,” Rourke said. “I’ll handle them.”

Rune wanted to thank him, swore he would later once Callie was safely back in his arms. He focused ahead of him, beyond the two males as he and Rourke caught up with them, his senses locked on Carrigan as he ran with Callie held over his shoulder. The way her head lolled and bounced with each step and the fact she wasn’t fighting Carrigan told Rune everything he needed to know.

The son of a bitch had knocked her out.

Rage poured through him, had reddish-brown fur sweeping over his skin as he sprinted harder.

“Carrigan!” Rune yelled, charging him.

Carrigan looked over his shoulder and ran faster for a few strides before he changed tack and stopped, turned to face him and tossed Callie aside as if she was trash.

Rune stared him down, refusing to slow as his instincts got the better of him. The look in Carrigan’s eyes said the male knew how this was going to go down. They might not have a cage around them, but this was a fight to the death and it was going to be done in their human forms, just as it would have been in the arena.

Carrigan was ready for him when Rune barrelled into him, caught him and grappled with him, reared his head forwards and struck hard, cracking his forehead off Rune’s. Pain blazed across the front of his skull, dampening his senses, but Rune weathered it, growled and grabbed him by his throat, squeezing hard as he drew his other fist back.

The wolf swept his arm up, knocking Rune’s aside, throwing his blow off course, and then seized Rune’s wrist and twisted hard. The bone in his arm burned, the pain blinding as the wolf tried to break it, and Rune snarled as he brought his knee up and slammed it into Carrigan’s balls.

Grinned as the male grunted and staggered backwards, breaking away from him.

“You never did have any honour,” Carrigan growled.

Rune scoffed. “Honour? You’re going to lecture me about honour? You sold your own kind out. You killed Grace.”

“You killed Grace,” Carrigan countered and Rune bared fangs at him. “You killed her. You weren’t strong enough to protect her, and now you won’t be strong enough to protect this bitch either… and when you’re dead and she’s mine—”

Rune launched at him on a deafening roar, the thought of Carrigan touching Callie like that, of her being at his mercy sending an inferno blazing through his blood that blinded him, stole control and had him unaware of what he was doing. He was a slave to the violence that seethed inside him, knew only the taste of blood and the scent of it, only the burn of bones bruising beneath hard blows and the satisfying crack of his fists breaking them in return.

His own grunts filled his ears as the red haze descended, as he surrendered to the darker side of him, giving himself over to it, revelling in the pained cries that echoed in his ears.

Awareness came and went, rolling like high waves, revealing snippets of his actions on each great fall before he was swept up again. He growled as he gripped Carrigan’s throat. Snarled as claws raked over his chest. Grinned as blood burst from a wound, spraying him. Primal instinct roared at him to keep going, pushed him through the burn of pain and exhaustion as he clashed hard with his enemy.

He twisted and slammed the male into the grass, struck him again and again, lost in the hunger for more, fighting to claw himself back from the darkness that writhed in his mind, goading him into keeping going.

The scent of lilies reached him above the foul, tinny odour of blood and he stilled, blinked as sweat stung his eyes, dripped from his chin and drenched his back.

Or maybe that was blood.

Rune stared down at what he had done, looked away as he saw the state of Carrigan, bile rising up his throat. Fear gripped him, had him wildly looking for the source of that light intoxicating fragrance that had brought him back, shattering the hold the darkness had on him.

Callie.

Sickness swept through him as he scanned the gloomy night, the thought he might have hurt her while lost to the darkness, that he might have killed her too, seizing his heart in an iron grip that made it feel as if it might burst and squeezing the air from his lungs.

She wasn’t where Carrigan had thrown her.

That whole area was drenched in blood; the grass churned from the battle that had taken place.

Gods no.

He looked over his right shoulder as something moved behind him, every muscle in his body tightening in preparation as he tried to harden his aching heart, afraid of seeing what he had done.

Rourke kneeled on the grass a short distance away, hovering over Callie.

An unharmed Callie.

Rune sagged forwards, all his strength leaving him as relief poured through him. He tried to stand but his knees gave out.

Rourke looked as relieved as Rune felt as he glanced at Rune and then dropped his gaze back to Callie and said something to her.

Rune pushed to his feet, managing it this time, denying his trembling muscles and the pain that tore through him with each step. He needed to see Callie. That need gave him the strength to keep moving, had him edging ever closer to his beautiful wolf.

“You good?” Rourke looked him over and then dropped his amber-lit gaze back to Callie. “I thought it best to move her.”

Rune fell to his knees beside her. “Thank you.”

Rourke shrugged it off. “Thank you… for removing the threat to her.”

Rune wanted to tell him that he hadn’t killed Carrigan for her sake, but it hit him that he had. He had thought he wanted closure, had wanted to avenge Grace, but in the end, keeping Callie safe and stopping Carrigan from ever getting his hands on her again was what had driven him to kill the male.

Callie moved, her nose wrinkling, and her eyes fluttered open.

He had done it because he was in love with her.

Her amber eyes met his and then drifted to Rourke as the white-haired wolf helped her onto her feet.

“Let’s get you back to your cabin.” Rourke began walking with her and Rune realised they weren’t alone now.

A black-haired male and a female with white hair stood just beyond Rourke.

“Jessie.” Rourke handed Callie over to her. “Make sure she has everything she needs.”

Jessie nodded and helped Callie back towards the cabins. Rourke lingered, his eyes on the male now, tension building in the air as something passed silently between them, and then followed her. The black-haired male watched them go and then sighed and headed down the sloping meadow, towards the river to Rune’s right.

Rune stared after Callie, unsure what to do.

The threat to her was over and he had closed the door on his past. Some part of him said he should return to Black Ridge now, but he couldn’t.

Not without Callie.

His fight wasn’t over yet.

He was about to face his toughest one yet.