The Awakening Series Book 2

I’m curled in Colton’s arms in bed, my head on his chest as I listen to his heartbeat’s steady rhythm.

I doze in and out of peaceful and contented slumber as something keeps waking me when I start to fall deeply, and I can’t seem to put my finger on it.

It’s like a dream or a feeling that’s just out of reach, and it appears to haul me back whenever my consciousness drifts away.

Maybe it’s an unease or a threatening nightmare—it’s a sense of wrong, and try as I might, I can’t seem to sink into blissful darkness for any length of time.

It’s almost dawn, and I have barely dozed longer than twenty-minute blocks at a time. I’m frustrated and exhausted, yet I can’t seem to rest.

Colton, however, is completely out cold, wrapped up around me protectively, his face buried in my hair as he silently inhales and exhales so peacefully that it at least brings me a sense of calm.

His front-facing body is wedged against my side as I lie on my back, held in his arms, and I’m using his bicep as a pillow.

He seems oblivious to my restlessness, and his flawless, smooth expression, that of a vulnerable snoozer, soothes me a little.

My inner anxiety is swirling, and that strong sense of foreboding is slowly chipping away at my mental state. I can’t figure out why or what it is.

The night is quiet, the patrols have reported nothing untoward, and the air is just right in temperature for once. It should be a comfortable slumber.

I screw my eyes tightly shut, knowing that soon the sun will rise, Colton will get up, and the rousing noises of the village will take away this sense of being alone.

I will just lie here and hope to catch a few more slots of shut-eye before that happens, leaving me shattered all day.

Colton’s a way early riser and always likes to patrol the grounds with the changeover of sentinels at the first sun to check and ensure nothing happened in the night.

He seems to survive on bare minimal sleep, and yet I can never rise before seven nowadays. Even nine is becoming hard.

My ability to be as up and on form as he is daily has dwindled lately, and I often wonder if I am getting spoiled and lazy.

I want to sleep and curl up in bed way past his leaving me alone, and the first thing I want to do is eat with Sierra when I wake.

It’s rare for Colton to stay in bed for any length of time, but he does come back before I wake and usually seduces me into some morning affection before we stroll in search of food.

A blue light catches my attention through my closed lids, glowing insanely close, and I instantly open my eyes, knowing what it is.

Colton’s hand rests gently on my neck and is illuminated in the telltale glow of his gift.

I squint at his face to see if there are any hints of distress, my heart rate elevated that he may have had a vision or another of those horrifying dreams he mentioned at breakfast.

I reach out to touch his face and hesitate as the glow intensifies to an almost blinding light, and I have to screw my eyes closed with the sudden prick of searing pain at its sheer intensity.

He dreams of things sometimes, and this is usually the signal I see if I am awake when he’s not.

His hands warm my skin as the light travels up his wrists and makes his forearms gently glow before fading out as it reaches his upper arm.

His hands are enveloped in a bright azure orb that lights the whole room, yet he’s still motionless, and I wonder if this is the dream he says he keeps having.

He seems calm and motionless, expression still and youthful and not at all like he’s having a nightmare.

I know how much the nightmare distresses him, and I don’t want it to progress. So I gently drag my fingertips across his cheek to rouse him from the deepest part of sleep.

“Colton…wake up.” Whispering, I try to stir him out of his vision state, but he only opens his eyes impulsively. Blinding blue glows like neon lights, making me squint, and he stares blankly through me.

His body responds to me, but his mind is submerged wherever he is. He is not awake and focuses on nothing out here with me. There is no depth, only a blank and rigid gaze, disconnected from reality.

He still hasn’t decided if this gift is a curse or something positive, as he’s yet to find the use beyond disturbing dreams.

He likes that he’s learning to heal ailments and wounds with a touch, and it has great advantages, especially for the children who come to the med bay with scrapes and bumps.

He healed a broken wrist in a three-year-old a few days ago, so he’s getting stronger in his ability to do it. Yet he hates the dreams, visions, and their vague and sporadic nature.

It would be freaky and unnerving if I weren’t lying beside him.

He’s motionless as I lie, surrounded by eerie light that casts shadows on the furniture around us, lighting up only parts of the room; the rest falls into odd grayness.

It feels like a surreal fairy room and a little ethereal, reminding me of my memories of Sierra when she came to me as a child.

Colton gives me a heart attack by gasping out loudly as though suddenly taking a breath, grasping my face with an impulsive jump reaction, and I cringe with a small yelp.

My stomach lurches in my chest, and my heart misses a beat as I break out in a cold sweat with the sudden fright he’s given me. I was so not ready for any physical response.

His eyes widen as the glow intensifies, and then he blinks, seemingly coming to, and brown eyes are restored almost instantly as he registers that I am wide-eyed and staring at him like a scared little rabbit.

He blinks again, subtly shaking his head as though to clear a dream fog away. Then he seems to wake up fully, rub his face, and take a second to realize I am still staring at him in the now darkness again as his nocturnal vision kicks in.

A frown comes over him, and there is a second pause while he inhales.

“We need to get up!” he commands, darting upward and giving me no clue why or a second to calm my swirling emotions.

His whole mood sends me into anxiety overload as he shoots out of bed in panicked concern, grabbing the nearest clothes and throwing them on, turning to me hurriedly.

His rushed ambiance and the deathly fear seeping my way all put me on high alert, and my heart starts racing.

“Baby, up, move…now! It’s Tawna!” Colton doesn’t wait for me; he turns as soon as he’s dressed and takes off at hyper speed.

I don’t hesitate to do the same, grabbing a robe to cover my sheer nightdress and throwing it on as I follow him at speed with nerves strung out and head dazed with confusion, but I know him well enough not to argue.

He saw something, and he’s acting on it, and I should follow because he told me to.

He’s already down and outside among the outer ground patrol, issuing orders to wake the reserve patrols immediately.

His tone is harsh, his voice low and husky from the residue of sleep and something else—an underlying edge that sounds like he’s almost in freak-out mode.

A sense of urgency is in the air as he rallies each of our strongest, and when he paces past me to direct more wolves coming in from the west tree line at his command, I catch his arm.

“What’s going on?” Colton’s scaring me with the intensity of his panic, and he screws his eyes shut for a moment, turning silent, and then blinks them open at me.

I see the sheer devastation in the depths, making me catch my breath as cold sweeps through my body. I shiver that something bad is happening as my eyes mist over, and I’m instantly sick with gurgling worry.

“Carmen’s on her way down… Her mom isn’t where she should be. I dreamed…I saw her. She ran. Out there…” Colton turns and points into the densest part of the forest, where most of our vamp attacks come from.

It’s the path to imminent danger for a loan wolf in the dark. His face falls somber, paling as the last of his color seems to drain away, and I gasp as what he says sinks in.

“Oh my god, it’s still dark. She doesn’t know about the boundary or how they lurk out there waiting for us. Colton, what is she doing?” My tone reaches a high pitch of hysteria as my stomach clenches in fear.

I study the darkness and scrunch my eyes closed tight to exert my luna link. Instinct takes over to shield one of my pack in any way possible.

“Tawna, if you can hear me, come back, come home to your pack. It’s not safe out there.”

I home in on Tawna’s image, hoping it reaches her mind-link, but it’s not something I often do as Colton is much better at pack-linking.

Colton stares at me for a second because he hears me. As my mate, he can sometimes tap into my mind-links involuntarily when we’re this close in contact.

“Tawna, I command you to turn around and return to the homestead and safety. Right now.” Colton alpha-tones her, cutting into my head and taking over himself, sending out the link, and I cross my fingers in hopes that she hears this.

No wolf can deny or resist the alpha tone. It’s the whole point: to command the unruly or defiant in your pack against their will so you can regain order and control. She can’t disobey him if she hears him.

“Do you think it will work? What if she closed her link off, so nothing gets in?” My questions are quieted by the shrill voice that comes at us from the open homestead door.

Its familiar haughty tone is pitched in terror and higher than normal, and I cringe at its appearance.

“Where is she? I couldn’t find her… She’s not in her room or the house. Colton, why did you tell me to come down here? Do you know where she is?” Carmen is already in a state of hysteria, tears streaming down her face, not seeming to care who sees them.

Just then, we are blinded by the sudden illumination of the sweeping front drive and tree line as guards switch on our floodlighting.

The patrols are streaming in from the village, the homestead, and every nook and cranny around as they throw together a chaotic search party.

In a flash, I instinctively move to Carmen at the door and pull her into my arms, wiping her face and shooshing her as I cradle her in a hug.

She doesn’t fight me. Her body is trembling, her attention fully on the void of her mother’s presence as she lets me hold her up without any resistance.

Her body is cold, her posture is weak, and her eyes are fixed on Colton as though begging him for answers she knows he doesn’t have.

“We’re going to find her. Try and be calm. Let us get out there and look. She can’t have gotten far.” I soothe her with a gentle tone, holding her as best I can even though she doesn’t hug me back.

Carmen sags in my hold and seems to crumble completely, turning to a whimper as the tears fall freely.

“I knew…deep down. I knew she would try this.”

Assembled are all of our strongest males and a few femmes, the sub-pack, too, as they come in from the forest where they had been walking the perimeter before dawn.

“We didn’t see her leave. Are you sure, Cole?” Meadow interrupts as she strolls into the group’s center and stands by Colton’s side.

She goes straight into command mode. All emotion is pushed aside when she has a task.

Colton nods and taps his head as if to tell her he had a vision, and Meadow’s face pales much the same way his did. I can tell he’s linking her with details, and her expression says it all.

“Okay, I’ll take three of our sub-packs and spread out on the left and backside of the stead. You take the rest and spread out right and front.

“Even if you know which direction she took, she might have veered…or…” She doesn’t add “has been chased” to the end, glancing at Carmen warily and looking away fast as she waves her hand at the nearest wolves.

They jump to attention and silently rally to whatever command her hand gesture gave.

Colton pats Meadow on the back as if in agreement and then turns and links the several packs he’s choosing for his own search party via the open pack-link so we all hear him.

This is urgent, and he’s wasting no time and no number of bodies. He’s rallying all who are capable, and I know it’s because he fears time is of the essence.

They split almost instantly as half the crowd moves with Meds and the rest with Colton, and they all fan out and head into the woods at hyper speed.

“Come on. Let’s stick with Colton, and we’ll help. More eyes.” I brush Carmen’s hair back and release her from my hold, taking her hand and pulling her with me out into the clearing.

She lets me guide her like a vulnerable child needing a leader, and for a moment, I wonder if this is the same girl from earlier, the same Carmen who doesn’t show weakness.

I shove it out of my head, focusing on being her rock and speeding to catch up with Colton.

As I have no shoes on, I have to turn my feet to wolf to save myself from injury and ignore that I’m out in a silk nightdress and a short towel robe while everyone else is fully dressed.

It doesn’t matter, I guess. Given any hint of danger, I’ll shred these with a turn, so it’s probably a blessing I didn’t get dressed. We lose too many clothes that way.

We catch up with Colton just inside the permitter of the frequency border. He halts, sensing us behind him, and turns to me. His eyes are glowing amber, his claws already engaged in case we hit trouble.

He looks wild, poised to fight, yet I still can’t shake seeing that deep fear in the depths of his beautiful eyes under a brow furrowed with stress lines.

He thinks we won’t get to her in time, and I can feel it in his emotions.

“Stay right with me. No more than four feet away, okay? No matter what. We’re fanning out six feet apart and walking a wave around the whole stead. We’ll find her. We have to… Sun isn’t up for an hour yet. It’s not safe here.”

Colton beckons us with hushed tones and turns to lead the way as we join the search. His head is fully engaged in the task and taking control like the alpha I love.

I seem to be the only one who recognizes he’s not as confident and assured as he looks and that his aura is bleeding. He’s genuinely afraid of what we might find out here.

Even at speed, the pack moving as one swift line, checking every fallen log, cave, nook, and cranny, and heading further into the deep dark forest, we still see no sign of her.

I start to wonder if she’s out there as I glance from wolves in the trees around us to the back of Colton’s strong body.

We push beyond the safety net of the frequency, and I shudder as another wave of revulsion overtakes me. This is the third time since walking beyond the line that a deep well of nausea and cringe consumes me wholly.

This time, I gasp inwardly as a strange smell that makes me giddy with memories sucker punches me low down.

I get an almost stinging, astringent whiff of something awful yet unfamiliar.

My eyes water with the intensity of its odor, and I have to pull myself stiff to stop my body from crumbling as I stagger over a fallen log.

It’s like the smell alone has hit some deep, unwanted thought and made my body react like I’m in trauma. I’m weak instantly. My limbs loosen as dizziness moves in, and I become aware that I have fully let go of Carmen.

“Colton…?” I gasp and mind-link via our mate bond only, the fear rippling over my spine as I figure out what the awful, strong metallic smell is that engorges my senses and leaves me hyper-aware as one sickly vision clouds my sight.

It was a dark, terrifying night when I was clinging to life by a thread, and all the people I had known were ripped to shreds around me.

I vomit with the return of that scene in my mind’s eye, my body shuddering in disgust and pain as my broken heart rips at old scars and tears well up in my eyes.

Wolf blood smells different from most other things in nature, and a dead wolf is the most unique. It’s the smell of death, repulsion, and awful things from the night of the courtyard when vampires almost killed me.

It’s like the second our life essence drains; it leaves the red fluid rancid and potent so no animals will come and try to feast on remains.

“I smell it. Stay here. Keep Carmen back.”

Colton doesn’t turn to look at me but acts like nothing is wrong and wades further forward, increasing his speed, so he flips out of sight in a blink.

I pause, grab her arm, and find her palm with my own to bring us back together, lassoing her to me. I aggressively yank her back to my side to shield her from what she’s about to find.

“Colton told us to stay.” I fix my gaze on her, tone commanding so she knows not to argue.

I’m aware of the movement around us and my body bristling with tension as I search for hints of vamps in the forest.

My senses are tuned in, but I feel nothing of close presence, which is weird for them. Given what smell lingers around us, I can’t understand why there’s no lingering scent of our enemy with it.

We’re far from the stead, out in the densest area before it starts going uphill toward the mountain, yet not a single vampire has stuck around. They obviously did this to her recently, so why are they no longer here?

“No! He would only tell us to… What’s that smell?” Carmen breaks into my thoughts with the return of her bitchy tone.

She’s emotionally all over the place and seems to be back in abrasive, don’t-touch-me mode. Her fear and angst are intermingled, hysteria curbing the horizon, and it’s obvious she’s never smelled a dead wolf before.

It’s not common, given our ability to stay alive, and few who never went to battle have smelled it. Once you do, though, you never forget.

Colton completely disappears from view into the thicket with the surrounding sentinels, and Carmen starts tugging at my hand impatiently to get free, sensing something is off with his sudden departure.

Several wolves along our line have also halted to guard us, staying close enough to fill the gaps that Colton left by taking a pack with him.

Colton is leaving us safe. He always thinks of protecting his mate even if he knows I can defend myself.

“He knows something. He’s found something, hasn’t he?” Carmen spins on me, her eyes red-rimmed with tears, her appearance haggard, yet her tone is fierce and daunting, and her eyes are glowing bright orange.

Without warning, she yanks her hand out of mine, and before I can react, she takes off in the direction Colton went.

Instinctively, I lift my hands and try to grasp her with my power to stop her from leaving me, but she dodges between trees, and instead, I manage to yank the tree backward with a little too much force, almost uprooting it.

“Shit!” I curse into the eerie quiet and throw my hair back as the decision overtakes me. I take off after her.

“Colton, Carmen got free. She’s heading to you,” I link him in warning and curse under my breath as I speed to catch up, panic overtaking me not only for her but for what I might see.

I have never shaken the memory of that night, and despite being on the battlefield and killing vamps these past months, I’m not exactly okay with death and bloodshed.

I follow my mate’s scent and run smack-bang into the back of Carmen’s halted form only twenty yards into the bush and have to sidestep her at the last second to avoid hitting her full pelt to see why she’s stopped.

The sight brings me to a frozen halt, and my brain blanks out as my eyes widen in silent horror.

Colton is kneeling by what looks like the ripped-up remains of an animal, the ground drenched in dark red, thick fluid, and pieces of unidentifiable gristle, meat, and bones are shredded across a ten-foot area like someone blew up a cow.

The smell is at an all-time high here, and the scraps of fabric and hair among the debris caught up on bushes and leaves send my stomach into an instant upchuck motion.

I have to swallow down hard to curb the urge to vomit again as the realization hits me hard in the chest, and I struggle to breathe.

Colton turns, catching sight of us, and jumps to his feet before Carmen reacts. It all happens so fast, in only seconds, but to me, it feels like endless minutes.

It takes Carmen a second to realize the torn-up animal is wearing shreds of her mother’s dress, and she erupts in an almighty scream that shakes the trees and drops every wolf around us to their knees.

Even as blinding pain assaults my every sense and nerve, I crumble under the sheer power of a high-pitched, blazing, searing agony shooting through my head and limbs.

We cover our ears as Carmen assaults us with her powerful ability and sheer heartbreak. It’s more potent than I knew she was capable of.

I clutch my head, shuddering in terror that my brain may self-implode and sag with relief when Colton’s sharp alpha tone hushes her assault.

“Carmen, stop screaming!” he commands harshly, and the instant relief leaves my ears ringing, my brain stuttering, and my body shivering as though I have been electrocuted with high voltage to the temples.

Carmen moves fast, heading for the devastation, yelling out, “Mom!” as she runs at the mess around the ground before him.

Her hysteria is breaking loose, and she’s no longer that mask-wearing girl but blubbing chaos of despair.

Colton counteracts her fast, dashing in front of her, catching her, and hauling her backward with a few strides to keep her away from the worst of what I can see.

He pulls her to him fluidly, cradling her in his arms to hold her tight, and pushes her face into his chest so she can’t see the devastation of what’s left of her mother, what those creatures did to her.

“Mom… MOM! …MOM!” Carmen breaks completely, wailing, sobbing, screeching with a broken voice that turns to howls as both her human and wolf battle for dominance in their anguish.

She’s fighting him, wriggling wildly to break free and go to her, even though there’s nothing to hold anymore.

It’s the most distressing thing I have ever witnessed as I watch her fall apart in my mate’s arms. My eyes blur with tears, and my throat constricts like I’m being strangled.

He struggles to keep her, gripping her in a way that should make me jealous because of how intimately he’s trying to control her, but it doesn’t.

My overwhelming sadness and despair rationalize why he has to and why it’s the only thing he can do now. My luna’s heart is kicking in to bleed for the loss of one of our own and the deep sympathy for the heartbreak of another.

Despite his strength, he’s struggling to keep her tied to him and has to force her down to her knees with him so he can gain a better hold of her.

He locks eyes on me, his own shining with unshed tears that rip my heart to shreds, and I choke with sudden sobs that escape of their own accord—racked with heartbreak of my own.

I know he feels like, somehow, he did this. It’s his fault that he failed as alpha to protect Tawna, but I can only shake my head at him as my warm tears roll chaotically over my cold cheeks and the air around us falls deathly still.

I only feel an ounce of the pain I know Carmen is spewing out in the air around me, and it’s almost enough to suffocate me.

It’s unbearable, and I can only stand here and stare at them, frozen still where I am and unable to move because I don’t know what else to do.

Carmen weakly claws at Colton’s chest and arms to let her free, without any real fight anymore, and crumbles in his arms as her body gives up.

Finally, on her knees, Colton sinks over her, from restraint to cuddling, as her body slumps into a disheveled mound and seems to slide through his hold like water as her limbs dissolve.

He refuses to relent and let her go, and she folds into a heap on the forest floor, where she becomes quieter and broken.

He moves over her protectively, holding her shoulders and upper body as her face lands on his lap, and she curls into a tiny ball like a small child would after a traumatic nightmare.

“Why? Why would she…? She left me…” Her tiny broken whimpers barely graze the air, but I hear them, and they cut me like a knife to the heart and stomach.

I cover my face to wipe away the onslaught of wet waves overtaking my skin and blink at the pitiful sight of her, avoiding looking beyond the carnage and pushing the scent out of my nostrils.

Wolves around us move in and lower their heads as many begin to shed tears for their fallen kin, and the air is filled with a sadness that destroys what’s left of my sanity.

A low howl begins nearby and extends to join a mournful chorus that echoes in the air around us, spreading far beyond into the forest and back toward the stead as the wolves let out their sorrow at being too late.

The sound makes me crumble to my knees and cry painfully, hugging my body with my arms.

“Carmen, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.” Colton tries to hush her, his voice breaking as his tears fall freely and drop over her lowered head like gentle raindrops.

He’s stroking her hair and squeezing her tight as I stare in numb disbelief at what we failed to stop from happening, carrying the heavy weight of guilt in my heart that my mate is already bearing.

I don’t know how to fix this.