Page 76 of Bound

No, it wasn’t luck that saved me; it was Maddox. A bug chooses that moment to bite my neck, and I shake my head trying to dislodge it. Suddenly, I feel completely drained, as if my adrenaline has just started to crash. I lie down, trying desperately to find Maddox through the chaos in front of me, but before I know it, my eyes close, and I lack the energy to open them again. I must be more tired than I thought because I instantly fall into a deep sleep.

Chapter 33

Maddox

Anger rolls through me as I bare my teeth at the rogue beneath me. How dare he come here and try to hurt our pack? He must be really far gone to try something in the middle of a pack BBQ.

The need to make sure Red is okay calms me enough to speak through the pack bond.

“Get out here. There’s a rogue!”

“We’re coming,”Gage replies instantly.

The males of the pack who were already outside have surrounded us, and several of them offer to take the wolf from me, but I don’t want to risk him getting away before we get a chance to question him. Chances are this is a random wolf, but just in case it’s connected to Red, I want a chance to try to speak to him.

“Shit, Maddox! Are you okay? Where’s Red?” Hunter yells as the four of them run up to me. That question has my head turning in his direction in confusion.

Where is Red?She was just a few feet behind me a minute ago.

“She was right here. She saved the little kids from the wolf by throwing herself in front of them,”I explain quickly.

“I don’t see her,” Chase says out loud, sounding panicked.

“Grab the cuffs so I can get off this asshole and look for her!”I practically yell through the bond.

“Charles has the cuffs,” Gage says aloud, just as Charles, another man from our pack, kneels beside me with cuffs and takes control of the rogue, allowing me to stand up and shift back.

I don’t bother to dress as I turn in a circle looking for Red amongst the sea of people and wolves. I find Jenn and Trevor holding their kids; the last I saw, she was with them.

“Where is she?” I ask them, my anger bubbling at the surface.

Trevor looks terrified as he shakes his head and looks around. “I-I don’t know, she was right here!”

“Where the hell is she?” Bain roars, making everyone go silent. We all look around for a moment, and when I don’t see her, I shift back to my wolf form and put my nose to the ground where she was only minutes ago. With so many people around, it takes me a minute, but I finally latch onto her smoky vanilla cherry scent and follow her trail to a spot below a large tree.

My pack follows me in human form as I move around the tree. There, I smell another scent, a male, but I don’t think it’s a shifter. It’s also not one I recognize. I growl as I look in the direction the trail leads.

“Someone took her,”I tell my pack, then I quickly take off after the scent as it leads into the forest.

I can feel Bain and Chase now following in wolf form while the other two run after us on two legs. It’s best to go in both forms, as we don’t know what we will face. I move as fast as I can while keeping track of her scent, and soon my eyes lockonto the asshole with my girl slung over his shoulder, unconscious.

Motherfucker.

I try to temper my growl so he won’t see me coming as I inform the others,“I’ve got eyes on her. Twenty paces ahead, a human man has her over his shoulder.”

He must hear us approach because he glances back and his eyes widen. I pick up my pace, and he runs a few more steps before looking back again and seeing me baring my teeth only a few feet behind him, he literally throws her over his shoulder at us before he takes off running.

I shift mid-run to two legs and catch Red’s unconscious body as Bain and Chase fly past me and take down the human before the man has made it fifteen feet.

I try to calm my breathing as I look down at her. Hunter and Gage appear at my sides, breathing heavily as they look at her in alarm. “Why is she unconscious? What did he do to her?” Hunter asks with a mix of worry and anger.

“I’m not sure. When he saw us chasing him, he threw her at me. I caught her, but she was already unconscious.”

“Let’s get her home,” Gage says, stroking her head.

“Hunter, can you help Bain and Chase bring the human in for questioning?”

He nods and leaves Gage and me with Red. I take a second to rest my head against hers, inhaling her sweet scent before turning back toward the house. The three of us walk silently as I try to take in everything that just happened and piece it together.