by Aileen Erin
What was she talking about? “You think?” The fear I’d been feeling started to strangle me.
The warehouse came into view, and I slammed my foot on the brake, throwing the car into park.
“You think!” I asked again. “What’s happening?” I thought my heart had been racing before, but I’d been wrong. It wasn’t just my hands shaking—my whole body was vibrating with the real terror of facing something impossibly horrible.
Because I knew my mate. If there was some way around this, she would tell me. But I wasn’t giving up hope. Not yet.
Claudia undid her seat belt. “If you saw it, we can avoid it. You know that. We’ve talked about that. What are we facing?”
Tessa didn’t think her visions were a gift when we met, but we knew better now. We all knew what they could do. Especially over the last seven months. We’d faced a lot of fights, and she always saw something to give us the upper hand. She always saw something to get us through. They’d been the difference between us walking away from a battle or dying. Over and over and over again.
But I’d never felt her feel this defeated before. Not ever.
“Tell us.” The power Lucas threw into those two words was enough to have me turning to him.
He was holding his mate’s hand. His witch but human-fragile mate’s hand.
Tessa shook her head, and as she did, I felt her pulling away. The bond we had squeezed shut. Tight. So tight. Until I couldn’t feel anything from her.
She shoved me out.
She shoved me out on purpose?
She’d never done that. Never, ever on purpose. Not since I met her.
Tessa thought our bond formed only after she agreed to let me date her. That day we’d taken a walk in the bed of the creek. But she was wrong.
The bond between us had been instantaneous. I felt her emotions since the second I saw her. The second her gaze met mine in front of her parents’ house, it had been done, over, forever. I’d been hers since that moment. She was it for me.
I never meant to bite her, but I didn’t mean not to bite her either. I knew I would eventually turn her. She was my destiny. She was my mate. That’s how it was going to be, but I didn’t mean to do it in the way that I’d done it. Without permission. That was something that I’d never forgive myself for.
But now she was shutting me out, and I couldn’t have that. “Open it again. I can’t walk into a fight without being able to feel the bond. You can’t ask me to—”
She pressed her lips against mine. Just a barely there-and-gone brush. “I’m going to ask you to do something crazy, and I need you to say yes. If you don’t, we all die.”
No. No. Not saying yes. “We’re leaving.” I threw the car into reverse, ignoring Claudia’s yelp as she slammed back into her seat. Lucas would keep her from flying around the car. And I couldn’t let myself think about Axel.
Tessa would hate me—hate me—for doing this. But if it was between her and Axel? I would pick her. I would pick her every fucking day.
“Stop! Stop the car!” Tessa grabbed my arm. “They’ve blocked the road.”
Merde. I didn’t spare a second to question her. I slammed my foot on the brake.
I glanced around. The woods around us were too dense to drive through. Maybe there was something—a road or a path or something that the car could fit through—on the other side of the warehouse, but from what I could see, that was a long shot at best.
Which left one option.
“Then, we fight.” I threw the car in park and undid my seat belt, but Tessa’s fingers dug into my arm harder.
I turned to her with a growl.
If she wasn’t telling me what was happening, she wasn’t going to stop me from fighting. I would protect my mate.
I would protect my mate.
“They have guns. With silver bullets. You can’t protect me from that.”
I hung my head for a second. “Tell me.”
“I can make this all go away—I can save you and my cousin and Lucas and my brother—if I go with them.”
Claudia and Lucas started arguing from the back seat, but I ignored them. I stared into her dark brown eyes and hoped that I could see something in them that would give me hope.
But all I saw in the dark depths was her terror. Her regretful sorrow. Her guilt.
No. They wanted to kidnap her. The call from Axel…was he even there? Was this all fake? “They can’t have you. I will—”
“No matter what you do, every time I saw it through, it ends with them taking me and leaving all of you filled with silver bullets. I can’t say that you died, but I don’t know that you could live through that. So, we have no other choice. I have to go to them. I have to—”
C’est des conneries! “They can’t have you.”
She gripped my face in her hands, her fingers so cold with her fear. “You’ll find me. I trust you to find me. But my brother is inside that warehouse. He’s been shot, but he’s alive. I need you to turn him. Please.”
She’d lost her mind. She wanted me to let them take her, and while they had her—doing whatever they wanted to my mate—I was going to bite her brother and hope he survived the change? I wasn’t certain about whether his curiosity would suffice as consent, either. No wolf had been stupid enough to risk tribunal twice, but I would if I bit him.
God. I couldn’t let her out of the car.
What? What was I going to do? I had to think. “Chérie! I can’t do—”
She pressed her face close to mine until all I could see were her glowing eyes. “I’m going to say this, and I want you to hear me. I’m not sorry. Not for one day with you. I know that I’m tired and exhausted, and I hear you when you think that you’ve done this to me. That you bit me and that it’s your fault that I’m tired and that we’re in an endless cycle of fights because of it. But I don’t regret it. My life is infinitely better with you.” She pressed a kiss to my lips before pulling away.
It felt like goodbye.
She was tearing my soul in two.
“I wanted a break—a vacation—but we’re not going to get one. I need you to stay strong. I need you to find me. I’m going to run to the van that’s blocking the road, and you’re going to go in there and bite my brother. You’ll stay with him to make sure he transitions. And when he’s in the clear, you’re going to find out who these people are. And when you do, you’re going to come get me.”
She opened the bond wide, and I saw. I saw what she’d seen. I saw her memories. I saw through her eyes as she watched me die. And then they dragged her away screaming. Again. And again. And again.
And then—through some trick of our bond—I lived it again from my own eyes. I felt the burn of the silver piercing my skin. I felt myself die.
And by the time I was done seeing it, she was gone. The phantom pains of injuries I’d never lived were still there, but she was gone.
Tessa was gone.
So were Claudia and Lucas.
I jumped out of the car and saw them on the ground. Lucas lying over Claudia.
There were pops. And it felt like hot pokers stabbed my arm, my shoulder, my stomach, and I hit the ground.
I smelled my blood and someone else’s and—
They want me alive. Go! Tessa screamed through our bond. I’ll be fine! Save my brother. Save yourself. Save our friends. I’m trusting you to keep them alive, and when you’ve done that, find me. Quickly.
Fire-like pain spread through my body from where I’d been hit, but fear pushed it away.
Someone had taken Tessa.
I turned to Lucas, but he was still huddled over his mate, protecting her from getting hit. Blood darkened his shirt, but he was breathing. He was alive.
There was a squeal of tires.
“Go!” Lucas yelled. “I’m fine.”
“You’re shot!” So was I, but I had to do something. I had to move. I had to get her back.
“I’m fine!” He shoved power into his words. “I’ll take care of Axel! Get
Tessa! Now! Before it’s too late.”
I jumped into the car, barely feeling the pain as I moved. The car instantly stank like my blood. My shirt was wet and stuck to my skin, but I couldn’t do anything about that. Not right now.
I could do something for my mate.
I reversed down the tiny road. Small rocks pinged against the car as I sped after them. The van hit the curve in the road, disappearing for a second, and my heart jolted.
I’d see them again. They weren’t gone.
I pressed the pedal all the way to the floor of the car, slowing just enough to make the curve. And when I hit the road, I turned too fast.
The tires squealed, and I spun the wheel, quickly correcting.
I was facing north down the road, but there was no sign of the van for miles.
Merde.
Oh putain de merde.
I spun the car around.
But the van was gone.
Fils de pute.
I could see for miles down in either direction. I’d been slow, but not that slow. Thirty seconds. Not more. And they were gone.
Disappeared.
I tried to feel along our bond to see what direction they’d gone, but I couldn’t feel her.
I couldn’t feel our bond.
Where the hell was our bond?
There was a ringing in my ears, and my lungs burned as I held my breath to keep from screaming for her. What the hell was happening?
No. No. I could still find her. I would know if she were dead. I’d feel that. She told me that I could find her—that I had to find her—so I would. Panicking now wouldn’t help her, so I shoved it down and closed my eyes.
Pack magic surrounded me. Ropes of different shapes, colors, materials bound all the werewolves together. But hers and mine was a golden rope that shone with her magic. It was always there. A beacon to her soul. She didn’t know how often I closed my eyes to see it. To know that it was there. To feel that she was real and mine.
But it wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there.
I couldn’t find her without it.
She was gone. Like she’d never existed. Like our bond never existed.
The ringing in my ears came back, and the burning from the silver bullets grew worse. The silver was festering in my shoulder and arm, but the shot to my stomach was worse. My blood-wet shirt was stuck to my skin, and the pain cut through my panic. I knew I needed help.
But I had to get Tessa first.
I was moving. I knew it’d be faster to chase her in the car, but my wolf wouldn’t hear my reason. He started running—staying in human form because of the silver—but we were screaming along every bond I had, searching for Tessa.
Within seconds, everyone would know she was gone and to hunt for her or face my wrath.
Dastien! Come back! Now! Claudia felt the magic that took her. We will find her. I promise you. Lucas screamed through the bond that tied the thirteen of us together. But we need the car or Axel will die. He’s lost too much blood, and he’s turning now. Trust what Tessa said. She’ll fight. But you and I are both shot, and so is Axel. We’ll die without help!”
I stumbled to a stop.
Mon Dieu. She was gone. I was going to throw up. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t—
Power ran down the pack bond. Lucas’s power. A command for me to move.
And so I took it. I took his power. I took his command.
I was empty inside. Everything was gone, but I would do what Tessa said.
I would save her brother.
And then I would find her.
Lucas’s power had me moving before I could shift. Before I lost control and my wolf took over. Before I went feral.
So I focused on saving Axel.
Because Tessa had to be okay.
She was okay. I’d find her. No matter how long it took. And when I found her, I’d find who took her.
And when I did, I would slaughter them all.
Chapter Four
Dastien
Lucas’s command got my legs moving, but the battle between me and my wolf raged under the surface as I got back into the car. It was usually easier to control my wolf. We’d come to terms, like any other alpha werewolf. It was either that or get killed by the Seven. Werewolves with too much power and not enough control were too dangerous to let alive.
I knew I shouldn’t give in to my wolf, but I couldn’t seem to make myself care.
My bond was gone.
My mate was gone.
Nothing else mattered.
Move now or your mate’s brother is dead. Lucas’s command cut through the wolf’s instinct to run, find, fight for our mate.
On my way. The tires squealed against the pavement as the car spun around.
I sped back to the warehouse and stopped beside a half-open rusty bay door. Lucas, carrying Axel’s limp form, opened the back of the SUV and slid inside.
The thick scent of coppery blood filled the car. I could barely make out the faint whistling noise of Axel’s too shallow breaths. He was unconscious, and a part of me knew he would be until he started shifting, but another part of me worried that I would fail Tessa again. I let them take her, and if I wasn’t fast enough, then that meant I’d let them kill her brother.
Claudia jumped into the back seat, and the sound of her seatbelt clicking into place was too loud.
“Move! Now!” Lucas’s commands—backed with centuries of power—jerked me in my seat, and I couldn’t ignore them.
They were like a lifeline to me. The wolf obeyed Lucas’s order when I would’ve fought it. But Tessa’s words—to save her brother—helped me stay calm enough to make the drive.
I didn’t remember driving back to campus. We were just there—as if we had transported—but I knew we hadn’t. More than ten minutes must have passed.
Lucas was running into the infirmary with Axel. I followed, but only because Lucas was yelling at me to do it.
And then I lost more time.
I didn’t remember walking into the infirmary or lying on one of the beds, but I blinked, and there I was.
The lights were too bright. The room was too hot. Too small. Too confining.
Dr. Gonzales was telling me something—but I couldn’t make out the words—instead, there were plinks of metal against metal. I heard them. They seemed to resonate in my soul.
I turned my head to see her set down a pair of tweezers onto the tray, next to three bloody bullets.
Tessa was gone.
Someone had shot me three times, and they took Tessa.
They stole my Tessa.
I remembered turning wolf and ripping up the room while Dr. Gonzales told me to calm down. She screamed down the hallway for someone to bring a tranq, yelled at me to stop, but it felt like I was outside my body. Like this wasn’t really happening. Like it was a dream, and if I fought hard enough, I would wake up.
But I didn’t wake up.
There was a chick-click, and I knew what that meant. A gun was being loaded.
A gun was being loaded for me.
That got me moving.
I jumped through the tiny window, and as I was falling, I remembered that Tessa had done the same thing once.
And that made me feel closer to her.
But then I hit the ground, and there was yelling, and I knew I had to go. I knew I had to run.
I remembered running through the woods.
I remembered blood in my mouth.
I remembered killing anything in my path. It was still night, so there were demons here, and I needed something to kill. They were a good thing to kill. They were something to take my anger and helplessness away.
But it didn’t help. Not really. Not when I needed my mate.
But no matter how far I ran, how long I looked, I couldn’t find her.
Tessa was gone.
Someone took Tessa.
Someone stole my mate.
My wolf was panicked. I was panicked.
From one second to the
next, night turned to day, and a part of me knew that losing time was a bad sign. A very bad sign. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. I wasn’t in control anymore. I was going feral.
I was feral.
But I couldn’t stop moving. I couldn’t stop the wolf’s feral frenzy.
In the end, the only thing that stopped me were my former friends hunting me with tranqs.
And then there was nothing but a cold cell and empty darkness.
Chapter Five
Dastien
Three Days Missing
It’d been three days.
Three days.
Three days since she was taken. Three days since Michael, Lucas, and the two teams of Cazadores that were staying on campus shot me full of tranqs. Three days I’d been locked in a cage.
I’d lost too much time. Time that I’d never get back.
Stupid. It was so incredibly stupid to lose control like that. Especially when every minute Tessa was gone decreased our chances of finding her.
Michael finally let me out last night with the promise that I wouldn’t go anywhere without him, but I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it.
Panic was an ever-present noose around my neck. It would tighten and release as my panic ebbed and flowed, cutting off my airways whenever I reached for her and found our bond missing.
My head was too quiet. I’d gotten used to the comfort of her thoughts and feelings, but now it was just me.
I wasn’t grieving. I truly wasn’t. I hadn’t cried. I’d done a lot of things, but not that—because Tessa wasn’t dead. She was out there. Somewhere. Waiting for me to find her.
When I couldn’t breathe, I tried to remind myself that I had hope. It might be scraps of hope, but it was better than nothing. Tessa was alive, and I had to hold on to that.
My wolf was beating at me to run, fight, find her, but there was no sign of her anywhere. There was nowhere to run to, no one to fight, no way for me to find her. The bond hadn’t come back. Claudia couldn’t find her with magic, and nothing had popped up through her network of witches. The fey were denying anything to do with it. No one demanded any ransom. Which meant we didn’t have any clues as to who took her or why.