His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Kade

By the time we reached the western border, the patrol had already lost control of the line.

The smell of blood reached us before the trees opened ahead.

Knox surged forward.

One Moonhaven wolf was down near the creek, while another dragged himself through the leaves with one hind leg twisted badly beneath him. Rogues had pushed the remaining patrol back from the border markers, and more movement flashed between the trees behind them.

Ryan had reported six.

There were more now.

Knox hit the first rogue before he could reach the injured wolf. They collided hard, rolled once across the ground, and came up snapping at each other. A second rogue rushed us from the side, but Knox twisted away from the teeth aimed at his ribs and drove his shoulder into the wolf hard enough

to knock him off balance.

Liam came through the trees to our left, Jasper already fighting.

Ryan was farther ahead, blood darkening one side of his wolf.

The pack link was crowded with voices.

North side moving again.

Two more west.

Then another voice cut through the rest.

We lost Carter.

Knox’s anger surged with mine, but I forced him forward.

The rogues weren’t trying to break through toward town. They were keeping us occupied along the border, striking hard enough to cause damage and then giving ground before we could surround them.

I understood what they were doing.

That didn’t help the wolves bleeding in front of me.

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Alive?

There was a pause.

Two.

My stomach turned cold.

Knox drove another rogue away from one of the wounded and followed Ryan deeper throughne

trees.

Another link came almost immediately.

North needs help.

Knox turned.

By the time we reached them, one Moonhaven wolf lay motionless against the base of a pine while two others struggled to hold the line. Liam arrived almost beside us, and for the next several minutes there was no room to think about anything beyond teeth, blood, and keeping our wolves alive.

We pushed the rogues back. They came again. One of ours screamed.

Then something changed in the air.

At first I thought smoke had drifted between the trees.

A thin gray haze moved low across the forest floor, sliding around roots and gathering between the

trunks.

Knox slowed.

Something’s wrong.

I felt it too.

Pressure gathered behind my eyes while the fog thickened around us.

Ryan’s voice came through the link.

What is-

The connection cut out.

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The forest had lost its scent.

Visibility dropped until the nearest trees became shifting gray shapes, and sound seemed to come from the wrong direction. A snarl somewhere to our left echoed strangely enough that Knox turned twice before settling.

Something moved through the fog.

A wolf lunged out of the gray

Knox reacted on instinct. We hit him hard enough to send him sideways, and Knox caught him by the shoulder before I saw enough of his coat to recognize one of our own patrol wolves.

I pulled him back immediately. The Moonhaven wolf scrambled away.

My heart hammered.

That was when the real danger became clear.

Without scent, sight, or the pack link, we couldn’t tell friend from enemy until they were almost on top of us. Charging at every shadow would only make things worse.

Knox moved more carefully.

A shape crossed ahead. Another moved behind us.

I held him steady.

Then a wolf burst through the fog from our right and slammed into us. For one violent second, both

wolves reacted.

Then Knox froze.

The other wolf did too.

Jasper.

At this distance, enough familiarity remained for Knox to recognize him.

Relief hit hard enough to loosen something in my chest. Jasper pressed briefly against Knox’s shoulder.

Liam was alive. I couldn’t hear him, and he couldn’t hear me, but we didn’t need the pack link to understand what came next.

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A wolf emerged from the gray ahead. He hesitated when he saw two wolves in front of him. This ime we knew what we were looking at.

The rogue.

Knox drove into him while Jasper caught his flank. The rogue tore free and disappeared in the fog

before we could hold him.

We let him go. Following would have separated us, and that was exactly what the attack was designed to do.

Another howl carried through the trees. Jasper’s ears turned. Knox followed the sound.

The pressure behind my eyes had become a steady ache by then. Whatever this fog was, it wasn’t natural. Some kind of sorcery had been worked into the attack. I didn’t know who had created it or

how. That could wait.

Somewhere beyond the few feet we could see, Moonhaven wolves were fighting blind. And I had no way to reach home.

Abby could have been calling the through the mind-link at that exact moment, and I would never

know.

Knox surged forward. I made him slow. Running blindly toward Moonhaven wouldn’t help her if we never made it out of the fog.

Jasper bumped our shoulder and drew our attention toward movement ahead.

Two wolves emerged through the gray.

One Moonhaven.

One rogue.

They were circling each other cautiously, neither apparently certain what he was looking at.

The rogue recognized us first and turned. Jasper chased him only far enough to drive him away, then came back. We stayed together.

Time became difficult to judge. It might have been five minutes. It felt much longer.

Then the fog began to thin. A tree appeared several yards ahead. Another took shape behind it.

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Alpha!

Ryan?

North is retreating.

Two injured near the creek.

Where’s Liam?

Here.

Jasper was still beside us.

I barely had time to register the relief before I reached for Abby.

Abby.

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Nothing.

My heart gave one hard beat.

Abby?

Still nothing.

Knox pushed against me.

I reached again.

Abby, answer me.

Silence.

Jasper turned toward us.

Reach her.

He understood immediately.

A few seconds passed. Then his answer came through.

Nothing.

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The pause that followed was too long. Then confusion came through the link.

he was here.

Every muscle in Knox’s body tightened.

What do you mean, was?

She was downstairs. I thought she went to her room.

Find her.

Around us, the last traces of fog were breaking apart.