Savior of the Wolves
Chapter 41

Aiden’s POV

I hadn’t seen Jess for a while. I would be wasting my time guessing how long it had actually been. But the last time I heard from her she had picked up on Bailey’s scent.

I needed to hear her voice, but it wasn’t safe for me to be inside her head, distracting her. I needed her to hear something other than me…for her own safety. She knew to turn back and call for me if she felt in danger. So, I kept reminding myself that we’re wolves. She’s a noble and faster than anyone here. She was going to be okay.

The detail was closer to Jess than I was. They linked to me that Jess passed them a few minutes ago. They had followed soon after Bailey had broken out of the main house, so they all believed Jess would catch up to Bailey any minute now.

No one could believe how fast Jess could run. She seemed even faster than before.

One thing that I was certain of was Jess was still in pursuit. Her scent wasn’t getting closer, it was getting further from me. I would know if she stopped.

The detail was trying to reassure me that they could smell her. That the scent wasn’t weak. I grew irritated with their rantings. Tell me something I don’t know. She’s my mate after all. Of course I smell her. I’d smell her with an ocean between us.

My breathing seemed loud to me, the wind too. I wanted everything quiet. I wanted to hear her breathe through the link. I wanted to hear something.

The silence was driving me crazy.

“Jess?” I called out to her softly. I just needed her voice. Just for a second.

Nothing.

I called her name louder.

Nothing.

“Jessica,” I begged.

My wolf began to howl in agony. He was expecting her immediate response also. Why didn’t she answer?

Did she turn off the links? Did the detail chatter make it too difficult for her to concentrate? I mean she’s new to all of this. That could be what she did.

But…did I even explain how to turn it off to her?

Damn it. I couldn’t remember if I told her.

Then as though I had been struck by a limb in the face, one singular thought came to mind, “Scourge.”

“Detail. There could be a scourge near her if she can’t hear us. This happened to your Alpha in the last attack. Be on alert.”

There was no response.

“Pack!” I yelled.

I could only hear my own heart racing out of control.

“Lennox, answer me,” I demanded.

The only sound was my last command echoing in my thoughts.

My wolf began to grow angrier and angrier by the second. It was like a nightmare. I had sent my mate off to help a sickened wolf. It was the right thing to do, but now she might as well be missing. I can’t catch up. I can’t see her or touch her.

My wolf was angrily thrashing his head at my allowing her to leave us. I made myself run faster.

“I will never let her out of my sight again,” I promised us both.

Suddenly, I smelt a change in the air.

I howled as loud as I could. I needed a response. I instantly heard my pack respond. They were just a couple of miles away.

As I ran, I knew I was quickly closing on my pack. Their scents grew stronger and stronger.

They had stopped.

Why wasn’t I closing in on Jess?

Limbs began to lash at my body as I no longer tried to avoid anything that could slow me down. I jumped things that I would normally go around and went through thickets, briars and thorns.

Howling grew in intensity just up ahead and I knew I was close.

As I sprinted up a hill, I nearly ran full speed into my pack. They were crouched in a circle ready for an attack.

As I broke through the line, they all began to close our ranks. I was their priority.

Everyone here knew that the scourges could impede our communication and as I followed the gaze of my friends, they knew that was exactly what had happened now. To us.

Standing in front of me was a line of at least fifty scourges. All standing eerily still. I could easily hear their teeth grinding even though their faces seemed frozen forward.

But Jess and Bailey weren’t here.

I had no way of communicating unless I transitioned to human. However, if I changed to human, I wouldn’t immediately have access to my gift.

I had to make a decision and my wolf was happy to assist. He grew frantic over the distance that still grew between us and our mate. He wanted to act now. He wanted to tear them apart. I reminded him that we could do better than that.

We could burn them alive.

I growled angrily at my pack to force them back. I hoped they understood my warning.

I took a step forward and faced the threat.

The burn began almost instantly. It was small but excruciating. I tried not to grimace. These cowards preyed on the injured when possible. Like a shark to blood. I couldn’t let on that anything was happening. I had to let it grow.

There was so much I tried to reason out. Scourges were immortal. They had been since their curse hundreds of years ago. I didn’t know why my gift had changed that. But I knew it had.

They just didn’t know it yet.

A wolf can sense the death of a soul. It was different with scourges. It was just their physical body that left…temporarily. We could sense their return. We never knew where or how that worked.

A wolf agonizes over ending a life. We were born protectors. It’s perhaps a curse for us that we feel a death so emotionally. And we didn’t feel it with them.

But the day I burned them, I felt their evil fill the air around me and vanish as though someone blew out their flame. I had extinguished them. Permanently.

I felt it.

As I crouched before them again, I locked my eyes on them, I saw the slightest twitch of a hand and that’s all it took.

Just like before, there could be no survivors. I wouldn’t let the secret of my gift get out to our enemies.

The burn raced up my throat like it knew I needed it in that very moment. It left my mouth as fast I could think of which one to destroy first.

As I fanned the flame over the line of them, one after another dropped to ash in front of me as three along the furthest edge quickly turned to retreat. The three were clearly the strongest of the group. Slightly bigger in size and speed that I hadn’t seen before. Their retreat caught me off guard.

I took off after them.

Their agility was as impressive as their appearance was grotesque. I knew I had never seen scourges that had survived that many deaths. This made them somehow more advanced than I thought.

I should’ve caught them easily. Of course I was gaining on them, but any wolf could catch a scourge…in the past. I was faster than most because I was a noble.

These scourges were different.

I ran faster and took another breath. My lungs were on fire, but I had to do it once more.

The pain was more intense than the first. My throat had never healed from the burning that the first had left behind. I grimaced as I lept into the air, the fire streaming from my mouth.

I should have known better.

I knew better than anyone, never take your eye off your enemy. But I was distracted by the scent of my mate growing further away and the ache and burnt flesh smell coming from my own body.

As I focused on the closest scourge, the other two quickly turned and were in the air on top of me before I could alter my ascent.

The pack was already on my heels and quickly got them off me but not before one sliced through my neck.

As I fell to the ground, the burn in my neck only intensified but I had to finish them. I managed enough fire to finish them as my body made its contact with the ground.

I collapsed and laid there.

I reveled in feeling the last of their repulsive life energy dissipate in front of me, so I cried out and prayed she’d answer.

“Jess!”

“Aiden!” She screamed back surprised.

My wolves surrounded me. I could hear muffled voices all around me. No one was overly clear.

Except for her.

“Aiden. What’s wrong?”

“Come back to me,” I whispered, and I could hear Zeb urge her to hurry.

“He’s hurt badly,” Zeb explained.

“What? How?” She screamed through pants that were pleasing to my ears.

I began to feel cold. I had never experienced being cold before. Some was oddly welcoming about it, and I relaxed fully on the floor beneath me.

“His heart is stopping,” Zeb screamed. “Somebody do something.”

I could see the pool of blood that was spreading out further and further from my neck. It was so much darker than I imagined it would be. I guess I had never had this close up of a view of it.

The pain was all but gone.

My wolf was giving into the peace that was overcoming us. But even then, we knew she made it back to us. Our mate. We could sense her.

I could let go now. She was safe. She was with our pack.

“I love you, Jess.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- End of book 1 -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

* * * IMPORTANT INFO ON BOOK#2 in this series * * *

The sequel...Savior of the Wolves - Reborn has been published on Amazon.

I am writing Book #3 now

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Loren

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