On the Edge by Catherine Vale

Chapter One
     
    Griffin strode through the jungle, back to the clearing and the rest of his clan, mindless of the foliage that slapped at his face and body. Addison was gone. He’d failed at doing the one thing he’d promised: to protect her. She was gone, and it was his fault.
    He burst into the clearing. The rest of the clan leaders and other clan members stood in hushed silence, all eyes focused on him. But the only person he was interested in now was Daphne.
    She sat huddled on the ground, a pelt wrapped around her shaking shoulders. Ramos sat beside her, cradling her against his shoulder. Griffin heard her ragged sobs, saw blood on her face and bare legs. He hesitated for a moment. The girl was shaken, possibly hurt. She was carrying Ramos’ child.
    He pushed ahead, his beast snarling inside, looking for answers, trying to cast aside the loss that threatened to consume him. He stopped just short of the couple. Daphne cringed at his feet.
    “Tell me what you saw. Please. Was she hurt? Was she conscious when they took her?”
    Daphne turned her tear-stained face to Griffin, Ramos’s arm tightening around her. Neither rose. For a moment Griffin thought she didn’t understand him, couldn’t understand him. Or she was blatantly disobeying him.
    He reached down, pulling her to her feet, the pelt falling to the ground. Ramos was on his feet in an instant, and Griffin saw murder in his dark eyes.
    “I said, tell me what you saw.” Despite the voice in his head that said she was Ramos’s mate, a clan member, all he saw was a human, an outsider, just like those who’d taken Addison away from him.
    Ramos laid a hand on Griffin’s arm, fingers digging into his skin. “Griffin, she is my mate. She’s injured and scared. She is not the enemy. Let her go.”
    Griffin snarled at Ramos before turning back to Daphne. With a supreme effort he released her arm, lowering his voice.
    “I need to know how badly Addison was injured. I need you to tell me everything you remember. Can you do that?”
    Daphne nodded, swiping a hand across her tear-stained face. “She was hit in the head with a rock, and she fell. I think she broke her leg, or her foot. She was limping badly when they carried her off. But she was awake. She told me…told me to run.” Daphne’s voice dissolved into tears, and Ramos wrapped an arm around her. She turned her face against him, sobbing again.
    Ramos glared at Griffin. “She is scared and hurt. I understand your loss, but do not inflict any more pain.” He pulled Daphne away, and they walked across the clearing.
    Griffin watched them. The rest of the clan members avoided looking at him, drifting away into the jungle, to their homes.
    He didn’t care where they went. Nothing mattered except finding Addison. And right now that seemed impossible.
    Standing alone in the clearing, he threw his head back, arms held wide, and howled his anguish to the sky. Birds took flight, screeching in protest. Each cry echoed through the emptiness in his heart, but did nothing to fill it. Finally, he had no more voice, and he dropped his arms to his side. The jungle was silent around him, birds gone, clan members gone. He was truly alone.
    Gulping air he stood, head bowed. He drew his knife, looking at the blade. If he were a lesser man, he’d use it on himself and end his misery.
    He smelled the raider before he heard him. Whirling, he plunged the blade into the man’s chest, hot blood flowing over his hand. The man fell away from Griffin and he pulled his blade free.
    Griffin looked up and his blood went cold. The jungle was alive with movement, bodies boiling up from the foliage.
    They were raiders, and they were all headed toward the clearing, and him.

 
    Chapter Two
     
    The Jeep lurched to a halt on a narrow street in Cusco, throwing Addison against the man sitting to her, jarring her bruised shoulder, and reviving the dull headache she’d had since getting hit in the head with a rock. She peered past him at