Full Moon Rachel Hawthorne (top 10 novels .TXT) 📖

Rafe drew me back and put his finger to my lips to silence me. “Do you hear that? Smell that?” he whispered after a second.

“No, what?”

“A lot of feet. People. And the smell of dogs. Wait here.”

I hadn’t followed a single order yet on this trip, and I wasn’t about to start now. Trailing behind him, I followed him to the edge of the curve in the rock wall. He peered around it.

I tried to look, too.

He shoved me back against the wall, and I could see in his eyes that something bad was waiting around the bend. “It’s Mason. He has a couple of guys with him. They have to be the mercenaries Dallas mentioned. And they’ve got dogs—Rottweilers. Those things could easily tear out a person’s throat.”

“What? No! We have to warn the others.”

He started tearing off his clothes. “It’s too late, Lindsey. They’re at the cave. I’m going to shift so I can go higher, look down, and assess the situation. You need to get far away, before the dogs pick up on your scent.”

“Absolutely not! I have to do something.”

He grabbed my arms and shook me. “If the others are captured, we’re going to have to rescue them. Please, just start running. I’ll catch up to you. I promise.”

I wrenched myself free of his hold and peered around the corner.

“Lindsey—”

“Shh!”

I could see the two massive dogs growling and barking, straining their leashes. I recognized one of the handlers as the bald guy I’d seen at the Sly Fox that night when we first met Dallas. He looked even meaner than I remembered.

My heart beat erratically as I saw Kayla, Lucas, and Connor—with their hands tied behind their backs—being dragged out of the cavern by guys who looked like they ate nails for breakfast and carried around fifty-pound weights for fun. With his arms crossed over his chest, Mason greeted them. “Well, we meet again.”

His brown hair fell over his brow. I remembered that he had pretty green eyes—eyes that we couldn’t trust. How could he want to hurt us?

Kayla squared her shoulders. “Mason, what are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, of course,” Mason said. “We have some unfinished business.”

Oh, God. I slipped back around the rocky outcrop-ping so I could no longer see them. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pressed my back against the wall of the mountain and tried to block out the images of what I’d seen. I was terrified for them. What was Mason going to do to them? I tried to grab onto some positive thought. I didn’t think Mason realized that Kayla was one of us. That could save her. But Lucas—Mason had suspicions about him. What did he think about Connor?

I pounded my fist against the hard surface. How had this happened? Had Dallas been leading us into a trap all along? I felt nauseous and thought I was going to be sick.

“Lindsey, we have to go. The dogs are distracted now, but pretty soon they’ll catch our scent.”

Rafe was right. Although it felt cowardly to leave, I knew we had to run now so we would be free to help them escape. I didn’t wait for Rafe to finish undressing and shift. I just turned on my heel and began racing away as fast as I could. The whole time, though, doubts spurred me on.

How had they found us? Where had Rafe truly gone? Did he want to be rid of Connor so badly that he’d told Mason where to find him?

Kayla had trusted Mason. She’d liked him. And he’d used her.

Had I misjudged Rafe? Was he like his father? Would he hurt those he loved? Did he love me?

I didn’t know how far to run. Like all Shifters, I was blessed with endurance beyond what humans can fathom. And like all sherpas, I had a great sense of direction, so I knew I wasn’t going to get lost. I just wanted to get beyond the scent of the dogs. I scrambled over rough terrain, fell, scraped my knee, and cursed myself for leaving a blood trail. I hit a stream and waded through it for a while, the cold water numbing my cuts. Then I crossed over to the other side and backtracked. With any luck, if the dogs did come after me, they would become confused and lose track of my scent.

Or they’d chase Rafe instead. The scent of a wolf would probably attract them much more readily than my scent. Dropping to the ground, trembling from exhaustion, fear, and fury, I leaned against a tree and fought not to cry as the truth hit me hard.

Rafe hadn’t shifted so he could get into a better position to observe. He’d shifted because he was planning to draw the dogs away from me. I knew it as surely as I knew my name.

How could I have doubted his loyalty? Oh, God—I hope he was too busy to tap into my thoughts. Of course, they were so confused lately that I wasn’t sure anyone could make sense of them anyway. One minute I was worried about Connor; the next, my concern was for Rafe.

But my anxiety for Connor was about his safety alone. Whenever I thought about Rafe, the thoughts were more intense, filled with more dread—as though if something bad happened to him, it would happen to a part of me as well.

During the late afternoon, it occurred to me that when I’d wiped out my scent for the dogs, I might have prevented Rafe from finding me, too.

Great! I muttered inwardly. Now what? Should I try to return to the park entrance and alert the park rangers? Should I go back home and tell my dad, who had influence with the governor? These options meant opening up this struggle to the entire community of Shifters. And if we went into full-scale attack mode, there was a good chance that all our secrets would be revealed to the community at large—to the world. But if