The Fox-Wolf Bride

Chapter 23 — The Red Wolf

Anthony saw her first.

At first his mind refused to understand what his eyes were looking at.

Something lay on the narrow path ahead of them. A dark shape against the pale gravel. For a moment his brain tried to classify it as debris. A fallen branch. A bag someone had dropped.

Then the wind shifted.

The dim light of the lamp above flickered.

And the shape moved.

Anthony stopped breathing.

There was hair.

Red hair.

His heart slammed painfully against his ribs.

"Oh God—"

The words left him before he realized he had spoken them.

Then he ran.

"Anthony?" Sam called behind him.

But Anthony was already moving.

Gravel crunched beneath his boots as he crossed the distance in seconds. Every step closer made the picture clearer, and every new detail made the horror worse.

By the time he reached her, the truth hit him like a blow.

Florence Drake.

She lay twisted across the path as if someone had thrown her there.

Her body looked wrong. Not just injured. Not just beaten.

Broken.

Anthony dropped to his knees beside her so suddenly that the impact drove the breath from his lungs.

Sam arrived a moment later.

Then he froze.

Neither of them spoke.

For several long seconds the two wolves simply stared.

Florence barely looked human anymore.

Her clothes were soaked through with blood. Dark stains spread across the fabric of her shirt, her sleeves, her side. Her red hair was tangled and stiff with dried blood.

One of her arms bent at an angle no arm should bend.

Her face—

Anthony had to force himself to look.

Her lip was split open. Her cheekbone swollen. Blood had dried along her jawline and neck.

She looked like a body someone had forgotten to bury.

Except—

Her chest moved.

Barely.

Anthony leaned closer.

Then he heard it.

A whisper.

So faint he thought it might be the wind.

His heart lurched violently.

"Florence?"

No answer.

Her lips moved again.

Anthony leaned closer until his ear was almost touching her mouth.

He forced his voice to stay calm.

"Everything will be alright, Miss Drake."

Sam crouched beside him, pale.

"Do you hear me, Miss Drake?"

Florence's eyelids fluttered.

For a moment her eyes opened only halfway, unfocused and lost.

Then slowly they found Anthony's face.

Recognition flickered there.

Her lips moved.

Her voice came out like a breath carried by the wind.

"Are you… going to kill me?"

Sam recoiled slightly.

The question struck him like a punch.

Anthony felt something twist painfully inside his chest.

"No."

The word left him instantly.

"No, Florence."

Sam swallowed hard as his eyes moved across her body.

His mind began calculating automatically.

Broken ribs.

Several.

A shattered arm.

Her shoulder might be dislocated.

One leg bent strangely beneath her.

And her breathing…

Shallow.

Too shallow.

"I think almost every bone is broken," Sam murmured quietly.

Anthony heard him.

And felt cold dread slide through his veins.

Florence blinked slowly.

Her eyes filled with tears.

Anthony felt a flicker of relief.

She's crying.

She's alive.

Maybe she understands she survived.

But then the sound changed.

The tears became sobs.

Then suddenly—

A scream tore from her throat.

"Why not?!"

Both wolves flinched.

Florence's voice cracked with raw pain.

"Why won't anyone stop it?!"

Anthony stared at her in shock.

Her eyes were wide now.

But there was no hysteria in them.

No panic.

Something worse.

Something empty.

"I am weak!" she cried.

"I am worthless!"

Her voice shook violently.

"Why doesn't anyone have the courage to finish it already?!"

Sam looked away.

He couldn't watch her face anymore.

Anthony felt his stomach twist.

This wasn't fear.

This wasn't someone begging for help.

This was someone begging for death.

Florence's shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

"Please…" she whispered.

"Please just end it…"

Anthony felt something inside him harden.

Slowly he reached out and brushed the blood-soaked hair away from her face.

The movement was careful.

Gentle.

"No one is going to hurt you," he said quietly.

Florence looked at him.

Really looked.

For a moment something fragile flickered behind her pain.

Then her lips trembled.

Her voice softened to almost nothing.

"Everyone hurts me, Alpha Anthony."

The words landed like stones.

"Every single one."

Her eyes closed.

Her body went limp.

Anthony's heart skipped violently.

"Florence?"

No answer.

Sam leaned forward quickly.

"She's unconscious."

Anthony released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

But the relief lasted only a second.

Because when he slid one arm beneath her shoulders and another beneath her legs—

Her body shifted.

Wrong.

Everything moved wrong.

Bones sliding beneath his hands in ways bones were never meant to move.

Sam inhaled sharply.

Anthony froze.

For a moment he was afraid to move her at all.

He had carried injured wolves before.

He had seen broken bodies.

But this felt different.

She felt like glass.

One wrong movement and she might shatter completely.

But leaving her here wasn't an option.

Carefully, slowly, he lifted her into his arms.

Florence weighed almost nothing.

Too light.

Her head fell against his chest.

Blood began soaking into his sleeve.

Drip.

Drip.

Sam watched silently.

Anthony adjusted his hold slightly, trying not to move her broken limbs.

But even the smallest movement made the bones shift.

Sam's face tightened.

"Anthony…"

Anthony looked up.

"Where does she live?"

Sam hesitated only a second.

Then he nodded.

"I know."

Anthony rose to his feet.

Florence's blood began dripping onto the gravel path beneath them.

Anthony didn't notice.

Or perhaps he simply didn't care.

Sam started walking.

Anthony followed.

Behind them a thin red trail marked every step they took.

The campus was silent.

The night wind moved softly through the trees.

Anthony could hear Florence's breathing against his chest.

Weak.

Uneven.

But still there.

Still fighting.

Sam glanced back once.

"You realize this wasn't random."

Anthony's jaw tightened.

"I know."

"This was a message."

Anthony's voice was colder now.

"I know."

Sam hesitated.

"You think Kevin ordered it?"

Anthony's eyes darkened.

"If he did…"

He didn't finish the sentence.

But Sam didn't need him to.

They continued walking through the dark campus.

Florence stirred slightly in Anthony's arms.

A small sound escaped her lips.

Anthony looked down.

Her brow was furrowed even in unconsciousness.

Her body twitched faintly with pain.

Something deep inside Anthony twisted.

Anger.

Protectiveness.

Something older.

Something instinctive.

He tightened his grip slightly around her.

"No one will touch you again," he murmured quietly.

Sam heard him.

But said nothing.

Ahead of them the lights of the dorm buildings appeared through the trees.

Behind them the blood trail slowly disappeared into the darkness.

And somewhere in the night—

The wolves who had done this were already beginning to regret it.

Even if they didn't know it yet.