A/N: A sneak preview of the new book. =) Hopefully you like it.
Warning: This piece is from the further into the story so if you don't want anything revealed to you then you shouldn't read it. Go straight to the first chapter!!
Time; a measurement of the past, present, and future events in one's life. More importantly it was how I thought of my life at one point or another, in increments of time. Many of us like to reminisce about the past, as did I whenever I missed my father. I especially enjoyed daydreams about my beautiful mate, Dante and how much we've been through to get to this point, the present.
But now as I felt through our mating bond the most dangerous man I had ever known torture the only man I would ever love my entire future flashed before my eyes.
My entire body was thrown into a panic as I felt his emotions twisting and turning with the pain.It killed me to know he was in so much pain and there was nothing I could do about it.
He, along with Teague and a few others, had been missing for over two weeks now and there was still no news to their whereabouts.They had gone looking for Walter and the other hunters and never returned. Our mind link had been shut off since they were too far away. The little comfort I had was the tie in to Dante's emotions through the bond. At least I knew he was still alive.
"Arianna," Logan broke the silence that had been suffocating me all morning.
I had closed myself off in the Alpha bedroom once breakfast was over and refused to speak to anyone once I felt Dante's pain starting. It was better that no one saw me going through it. Lying on the bed where his scent still lingered helped calm me down considerably even though my wolf was chomping at the bit to go and find our mate to save him.
"You may come in Logan," I waved him in from the doorway.
He sighed but didn't move to enter the bedroom.
"What is the matter?"
"Something happened."
I immediately rose out of bed.
"Well spit it out already."
"We found two of them deep in the back of the territory about an hour ago."
"Why didn't you come and get me sooner?" I jumped up and slipped on my shoes before pushing him out of the doorway so I could go downstairs.
"Ari, it's not looking good," he admitted, "They are seriously injured and well- neither of them are Dante."
I stopped walking down the hallway. I should have known better since just moments ago I had felt them torturing him.
"Are either of them talking?"
Again he hesitated while nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this but they thought it should be me since we're so close."
"Please you have to tell me Logan," I begged him.
"They're torturing him Ari."
For some reason, hearing it said out loud from someone else made it seem so much more realistic. My knees trembled, knocking together as I pressed my back against the wall to keep myself from falling.
"I know," I whispered, "I felt it through the bond."
"Why haven't you said anything?"
"I didn't want to worry anyone."
"That's not everything."
"What is it?"
"They told me that Walter and the hunters are experimenting on the other shifters."
"What do you mean experimenting?"
"They have this formula where it forces the shifter to stay in their wolf form for long periods of time and causes them to be under Walter's control somehow. We're not really sure of the side effects of it yet. Theo is one of the wolves we found and they can't get him to shift back. He isn't speaking to anyone either through the mind link."
"No."
This wasn't happening right now. I couldn't let his words sink in. The reality of the situation wasn't that I could be losing another mate to these men. Dante was out there, alive and I was going to find him.
"Ari, I'm sorry," he apologized, taking a step towards me to give me a hug.
"I don't want to hear it. I don't believe you. He's out there and he's coming back to me. I'm going to find him and we're going to be together. That is my mate so don't you dare tell me there is no hope left for us!" I screamed at him.
Time; something that clearly was no longer on my side. My entire future was on the line. My life was now a race against time. I just hoped when I found Dante I wasn't out of time.