I felt her fear and worry as if it were my own. Each beat of my heart felt leaden and slow and painful, and there was this overwhelming urge to fix this. To somehow make this right. To save Axel. But the only thing I could do was drive. Drive fast. Drive fast enough to save her brother.
I pressed the gas, but the car was already going as fast as it could. The warehouse wasn’t that far away, but when seconds could mean the difference between life and death, I wasn’t sure we’d make it in time. I couldn’t tell Tessa that. I could barely let myself think it.
If we didn’t get there in time, I wasn’t sure what that would do to my mate. He’d called us, and we hadn’t answered. Twice.
We hadn’t answered.
I should’ve answered.
It wasn’t my phone, and I took her lead, but I was her mate. I was supposed to protect her. But I wasn’t sure I could protect her this time.
With every passing second, I grew more and more sure that the worst was going to happen, and when it did, Tessa would break. She was already at her breaking point, and even as bad as losing Axel would be, losing Tessa terrified me more.
I glanced in the rearview mirror, meeting Lucas’s gaze. He checked his watch and then shook his head slowly.
He didn’t think we’d make it in time either.
Claudia’s head was bowed down, and her lips were soundlessly moving. Praying?
I focused ahead of me. I couldn’t look at Tessa. I couldn’t let her see what I was feeling. I didn’t want her to know that my hope for finding her brother alive was next to nothing now.
The woods blurred past, and I followed the navigation. My gaze kept darting to the estimated time of arrival.
Only five more minutes.
If by some miracle Axel was still alive, we had some hope. Worst case, we could turn him. In life-or-death situations—when the person would die—we could bite him. He’d asked me about becoming a werewolf a few times, but I always told him no. That we didn’t change people as a rule. But those conversations—which I’d told Michael about—would suffice as consent. Probably. I hoped it would be enough.
Whatever happened after, we’d deal with that then.
Right at the next road, and we should be there.
Tessa gasped.
It wasn’t a normal gasp. It was so soft that it was barely audible. It was a special kind of noise that, when paired with this quiet hmm in the bond, meant that Tessa just had a vision.
She hadn’t been touching anything. Which meant it was one of her prophetic visions. The kind that warned her of something really bad happening.
With her brother in danger of dying, for a second, I thought that meant that the worst had happened. That he’d passed. That she’d seen his death.
But if that were true, then her heart would have shattered. She would be screaming and crying and breaking.
But she wasn’t. And that scared me even more.
I pushed the fear away. If I knew what her vision was, then I could protect her. I would find a way to stop whatever was going to happen. That’s why she had them.
But she didn’t say anything.
She always told me what happened.
I wished I could see what she saw, but our bond didn’t work that way. Whatever had been shown to her was always for her alone unless she shared it with me. “What did you see?”
Tessa gasped again. A second vision. That was okay. More help was never a bad thing.
And then she gasped again.
And again.
And again.
Her breath was coming in short, quick bursts, and her eyes were wide and glassy with fear. I wanted to grab her and shake her—to free her from whatever vision cycle she was stuck in—but I was driving dangerously fast. I couldn’t look away from the road for longer than a second, and I definitely couldn’t reach for her.
She gasped again, and I knew I had to do something.
What did you see? I asked through our bond, hoping that would be enough.
Her face was pale, and her hands shook as she brushed her hair away from her forehead, tucking it behind her ear.
She looked at me, and the bond opened again. The hmm of the vision was gone, and what replaced it had my heart skipping a beat.
Guilt that weighed heavier than the moon.
Sorrow, but not at a loss, but resigned sorrow. One that was tinged with regret so dark and lonely that I wondered if I’d ever see the sun again.
And her fear—no. Not just her fear. It was terror. A brand of terror I was all too familiar with. It was the same all-consuming terror that I’d felt when I heard her heart stutter to a stop. Not once, but twice.
The terror and the guilt and the regretful sorrow were a combination that had my own fear rising up to meet it.
Whatever my mate had seen, it was bad, and she was about to try something that scared her. Something dangerous. Something that could cost us everything.
“What is it? What are you going to do? What are we walking into?” The questions spilled out of my mouth, one on top of the other. She usually wasn’t given a ton of time with her visions. Whatever they warned her of was going to happen very soon.
She was quiet, and I couldn’t have that. I need to know so that I could help. “Tell me. Please. Trust me to help—”
“You can’t help me. No one can.” Her voice was hollow and empty, but she was wrong. She was so fucking wrong.
“Please. I can help—” I stopped talking when I realized that she wasn’t even looking at me.
Tessa was staring out the windshield, and her eyes still had that post-vision glassy look to them. She was trying to search for an answer, and I had faith that she’d find something—some answer to whatever we were about to face. But it’d be better, easier, we’d be stronger if she’d just use her words.
Or show me through the bond.
Or do something other than just sit there when everything was about to go to shit.
“Tell me how to help you. Please.” I was desperate. “If we’re about to go into a fight—”
“Tessa?” Claudia’s voice was hesitant. “Talk to us. What are we walking into? Are there others in the warehouse with Axel? Or are—”
“I can’t.” She gripped my hand, and her fingers felt like ice. “I can’t. If I tell you—any of you—the worst happens. I saw it five times on the way here. Five times. Five visions. Five deaths.” She swallowed. “There’s only one thing I haven’t tried, and that’s what I have to do. I’m so sorry. Just…I’ll be okay. I think.”
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.