Page 21 of Betrayed Kidnapped Mate

“On the floor,” I say, shaking my head. “Are you stupid?”

“Not on paper, no,” Bigby says, raising an eyebrow at me. “But you knew that.”

“You don’t have to do that. Sleep in the old bar.”

“Believe me when I tell you I wish I didn’t. But I do.”

“We were probably safe, we—”

“It’s not that.”

Again, with the mating bond inclination. I can feel it between us; it's tenuous but there. But I don’t care—I’ve heard about plenty of women who rejected their mates when they didn’t feel they were the right choice. Addicts, lazy, or just not right. Just because there’s a mating bond forming between us doesn’t mean I have to give in and accept it. Soon enough, Kaila and I will return to California, and I won’t have to worry about the bond.

It’s always worse for the male shifter, anyway.

Bigby and I stand in a silent face-off for a long moment. I do feel bad that he’s sleeping on the floor, but it feels like the appetizer of punishment for what he deserves for abandoning me.

“So,” I say, clearing my throat. Linnea jerked away from Aris, looking like she was about to fall asleep in his arms. For a brief moment, I feel a stab of jealousy at the idea of getting support from another person, from someone strong enough to carry me, but I push it away. “When can we go back?”

“Go back?” Linnea asks.

“To bed?”

“Oh,” Linnea says, shaking her head. “I can’t, in good conscience, let you go back down there. Not until we identify the security breach and ensure it can’t happen again.”

“So, what? Are we staying here?”

Linnea and Aris glance at one another.

“At full restoration, we’d have more than enough to accommodate you,” Aris says apologetically, “but the entire west wing is under construction right now. We have a guest room with two double beds, but Byron is in one of those. You could stay in there—”

I glance at Bryon just as I see Bigby’s hands tighten into fists. It’s almost laughable, the fact that the very notion causes him pain, and I almost go along with it. Still, I see a look pass between Aris and Bigby, almost faster than light, and I can tell they’re communicating through their pack bond.

“I’ll stay here,” Olivia says, and I can tell she’s thinking about the fact that I won’t want Linnea staying in a room with a strange man. “I can help Byron with this. The faster we get it solved, the faster we can get back into the compound.”

“I don’t need help,” Byron says, in a tone that’s neither angry nor joking. It’s just a matter of fact.

“Rosa and Kaila can stay in my guest room,” Bigby says, and I whirl around, rolling my eyes at him.

“Over my dead body,” I say through gritted teeth. If I were honest with myself, I would acknowledge the real reason I don’t want to stay with him—I’m worried that if he’s accessible to me, I might give in to the urges that plague me when he’s around.

“I’m so sorry, Rosa,” Linnea says, “but it looks like our only option for right now. Byron is going to work on this around the clock until we can figure out who caused the security breach.”

“It’s strange because the system accepted the thumbprint but also doesn’t have it registered in the system,” Olivia says, apparently having gathered that just from looking at Byron’s screen. He glances at her, eyebrows raised.

“Exactly,” he says slowly. “That’s why it’s difficult to figure out. I don’t know why the system would treat it that way. It should either be an acceptance or a denial. Whoever this guy is, he did a great job at breaking through our firewall.”

“Right,” Olivia says, rolling her eyes, “because it had to be a guy.”

“Do you know what they wanted?” Linnea asks. “Why would someone do this? Break in like that?”

“Well,” Byron says, swallowing and taking a deep breath. “It’s not good news. Whoever broke in—they took the remaining stock of the silver vials.”

“The silver vials?” Olivia says.

“The serum,” Aris breathes, releasing Linnea and scrubbing his hands through his hair. “So, our chemists are done, then? Unless we can recover it?”

“There are a few samples left,” Byron says, but that’s it.”

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