The Blood Pact (Rite World Rite of the Wolf #3) - Juliana Haygert Page 0,2

If she didn’t want to be found, she would have been careful not to leave anything behind.

After a couple of hours, the trio and I met again beside a stream that cut through the forest.

“We can’t continue blind like this,” Kayden said, obviously bored with the search, and irritated because things weren’t going the way we first agreed. “If we can’t find her, then we should go back to Starlight Vale and help the others with the fae king.”

“The fae king is quiet for now,” Daleigh said. “He scared us away, but didn’t chase us.”

“For now,” she rebuked. “I’m sure he won’t just glare at us from his dark castle for long.”

“Isn’t there a fae way of tracking?” I asked. Like the others, I was frustrated about the way things were developing.

“No,” Daleigh snapped. “How about that werewolf nose of yours? Can’t you pick up her scent?”

She was my fucking mate and I hadn’t caught one single whiff in the forest. Sure I would shout some angry words if I opened my mouth, I just shook my head.

Then I froze. I heard faint shuffling before the scent of decay reached my nose. “Shhh,” I told the others in a whisper. “We’re not alone.”

Two seconds later, dark figures lunged for us. If I hadn’t smelled them, I would have thought it was shadow fae coming for us. But these were demons—Drollmor’s demons—and they were here for me.

We didn’t wait for it. The moment the demons appeared, I shifted to my demon wolf and we lunged at them. With the four of us, it didn’t take long for the demons to fall. I alone killed four of them in less than ten seconds. With their powers, the others fared just as well.

After the fight was done and bloody bodies littered the forest ground, I shifted back and quickly put on a spare pair of pants and shirt and shoes, but I stayed back, sensing the heat of her gaze from across the stream.

Ariella couldn’t help herself. “They came for you.”

Daleigh frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Wyatt sold his soul to a higher demon and now said demon wants his due,” she said, no hesitation. Just anger.

Daleigh turned his blue eyes at me. “You did what?”

I groaned. “I fucked up and I don’t want to talk about that.” I gestured toward the demons at our feet. “They are dead.”

“But more will come,” Kayden said, her tone flat. Ariella nodded in agreement.

I gritted my teeth. “I would love to just meet Drollmor and kill the fucking demon, but right now, finding Farrah is more important.”

At that, Ariella’s gray eyes changed, and her shoulder sagged. “I …” She inhaled deeply. “I think I can help with that.”

I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

She pointed to the body right in front of her. “I know of a spell, a dark magic spell, that uses demon blood to track supernatural beings. Normally, I would say it wouldn’t work with a fae, but if I get a drop of blood from Daleigh, and use your connection to her to—“

Daleigh snapped his head between us. “Connection?”

I frowned. “You haven’t figured out yet?”

Daleigh’s face paled. “You’re her mate?”

I didn’t say anything. I just stared at him. I wouldn’t argue about this. There was nothing he, or anyone for that matter, could do to change the mating bond.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Kayden asked, since no one else did. I felt bad for Ariella. She was an angel, a fallen angel whose soul could be easily corrupted, and now she would use dark magic to help me. But I was just that selfish. I wanted this to work. I needed this to work.

Ariella nodded. “It’s the only way.”

Swiftly, Ariella got a drop of blood from Daleigh, and some other things, and started the spell. She closed her eyes and pressed a hand to my chest. As she chanted, I felt something stirring, warming.

Ariella’s arm shook and her eyelids trembled. I thought she was going to pass out, but suddenly she opened her eyes and stared at me. “I know where she is.”

3

Farrah

Seated at the front stone steps of the manor, I petted Rusty, who was tucked on my side. The damn cat had shown up last night, after Myra had shown me this house, hidden in path halfway down the mountain, and nestled in a clearing beside a cliff. She had told me this was where Luana and Keeran had stayed when they visited them over three