“You have five minutes to eat, drink, and relieve yourself. Don’t even think of running.”
Autumn hissed as her arms swung forward, the dead weight of them pulling on the sockets. They refused to respond at first, twitching as blood flow and feeling returned.
A bottle was thrust into her face along with a strip of dried meat. Her arms finally did as she asked, though it still hurt to move them. Keeping her head down, she took the items from Vargan and sat them in her lap.
“Five minutes,” he repeated.
Autumn nodded her head in case he was waiting for acknowledgment. Reaching up, she carefully pulled the gag from her mouth, the damp wad of fabric falling to hang around her neck.
As much as she needed to relieve herself, her thirst was more demanding. She downed half of the bottle before setting it down beside her. She wanted to finish it all, but she had a feeling she would need it after chewing the dried meat he’d given her.
Looking around for Vargan, she couldn’t see the alpha, but she doubted he’d gone far. Getting to her feet, she stepped around the tree beside her between a clump of bushes to do her business. When Autumn stepped back out, Vargan was standing beside where he’d left her, staring.
She watched his nostrils flare as his gaze traveled down her body, sending a shiver through her. The other alphas had given her similar looks, but it never made her skin crawl when they did it.
“Two minutes.”
She knelt in the dirt, tearing a strip off the dried meat and chewing as fast as she could. It hadn’t been dried right and tasted slightly off, but Autumn could only hope it wouldn’t make her sick.
She managed to finish the strip and down the rest of the water before Vargan approached her with another bottle. She didn’t need to smell it to know it was what he used to drug her.
Shaking her head, Autumn held her hands up in front of her.
“Please, no. I’ll be good.”
Vargan snorted. Hand darting out, he gripped the hair at the back of her head, causing her scalp to sting as she felt hair ripping free.
“You’ll be good, or you’ll be dead.”
Pulling her head back, he tipped the bottle over her mouth when it popped open. She sputtered, liquid running down her chin and neck as she tried to keep it out.
He kept pouring, covering her nose with the stream when she tried to close her mouth. Despite her efforts, she was forced to swallow bit by bit, the potion making her weaker until all fight drained from her.
Filling her mouth when her jaw went slack, he released her hair and clamped his hand over her nose and lips until she swallowed. Despair filled her as her body sagged and her eyes slid closed.
Chapter Seventeen
Darcon
The trail they found on the cliff led them up into the forest and along the ridge before going back down to the beach. They lost it there, but they’d followed it far enough to know whoever had her was heading north.
They also knew that person was likely Vargan. Every warrior in the clan was accounted for, and it was highly unlikely an unknown alpha had made it deep enough into Andtay territory to take Autumn from the beach.
Plus, kidnapping the omega was something Vargan would do.
The banished alpha had been seen close to the caverns the day before Autumn went missing, but Larok hadn’t found out until he’d taken a break from searching for her the following day. He let them know when Aesir went back to check in after they lost the trail.
Kantor had joined them when Aesir returned, claiming he hadn’t known they were leaving or where they had gone. The man was a useless tracker but Darcon didn’t have the energy to fight with him over coming along.
Verik returned to the village and immediately began organizing search parties. The area around the village had been searched, but he pushed the warriors out farther, sending some out on horses to the edges of the territory.
Messengers were sent to the Tayueta to keep an eye out for an omega with auburn hair, and the warriors even penetrated past their boarder to search, but no one believed Vargan would head into Raider’s territory.
The days ticked by, Darcon’s mood growing worse with each one. They only rested when the lack of light forced them to stop for fear of missing a sign that they were heading the right direction.
Since Kantor was useless for anything else, he would ride ahead and hunt, preparing their campsite and dinner while the others spread out and combed through the forest at a slower pace. They were following the most likely route from the beach to the northern edge of the territory, yet they hadn’t found anything to suggest Autumn had been brought that way.
If he hadn’t been pushing himself to exhaustion, Darcon wouldn’t have been able to sleep, yet somehow, he was out as soon as he laid down each night. They woke in the predawn, ate, packed, and pressed on.
They were approaching a full week after Autumn had been taken when they finally had proof they were on the right track. A wad of auburn hair caught in a tree trunk.
Kull had been the one to find it. Darcon and Aesir came running at the big alpha’s yell. Kantor had gone to check in with Verik’s patrol in the section farther inland, so they knew it couldn’t have been his, and Autumn’s scent was faint, but it was there.
The same thrill he got during a hunt filled Darcon. For her scent to still be on the hair, they couldn’t be more than a day or two behind the pair. As much as he wanted to rush ahead, they had to make a decision.
“Beach or mountains?”
Kull’s voice rumbled between them, Darcon asking himself the same thing. He’d been thinking about their path for the past day, and they were approaching a point where there was a split.
One path would lead them east to the beach. It was the easier trail, but they’d had a couple storms roll in recently, and being on the beach would leave them completely exposed if another hit.
The second one headed up into the mountains. There was a pass, but it could be rough if there was still ice and snow and would be harder to take a captive through if she was still fighting.
Darcon’s gut said they were heading for the pass. Vargan had notoriously hated the late winter storms that would roll in off the ocean, and Darcon doubted he would go into a situation where he had no shelter if there was one. It would put Autumn at risk, and as little as Darcon thought of the man, he hoped the alpha wasn’t that callous.
They were still arguing about which path to take when Kantor returned. He seemed surprised they found something and thought the beach was more likely since it was easier, and Vargan had already used the beach to break his trail once, but Darcon wasn’t swayed.
“If he was going to take the beach around the mountains then why not stay on it to begin with? The tide washes away scent and footprints, so it would have made more sense to follow it unless he was heading inland toward the pass.”
“Sand is harder to trek through, and there’s less hunting close to the water. If he wanted to move fast, he couldn’t remain on the beach.”
“Another reason he would take the mountain pass. Even in winter he’d be able to find something to hunt, and there are caves to shelter in if needed.”
“The pass has a sheer drop on the side. He wouldn’t risk Autumn falling.”
“The beach could be hit by a sudden storm. It’s rocky and slick in places. The pass is safer.”