Page 53 of Betrayed Kidnapped Mate

“Yeah, if only he could act that mature.”

I feel they’re talking about Byron, but I don’t have the mental space right now to understand what’s going on between them. All I can think about is Rosa—holed up in the lab, convinced she needs to spend every waking moment there until she can figure it out. I’ve already tried arguing with her, appealing to her better logic.

How is she going to work better on less sleep and less sunlight? But she won’t budge.

“What about Percy?” I ask, clearing my throat. I have a feeling that we shouldn’t be holding him in the same place as the others—that he should be a special case, somehow, but I know that’s biased.

“We hold him until Rosa—and the other chemists—can find an antidote,” Aris says.

“There have been no more human disappearances since we took Percy into custody,” I say, “I think that means we can assume it’s been him abducting them this whole time.”

“It might be good for you to hold a meeting with the humans, inform them of the update.”

“I can do that—but they’ll want closure. If they can’t have their loved ones back, they’ll certainly want remains,” and, I don’t add, justice.

“If Percy is never lucid, how are we supposed to figure out where we can find the humans?” Linnea asks, glancing between us.

“He has been lucid,” I say, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck. Every head at the table swings to look at me, and I bite my lip.

Last night, when I managed to get Rosa back to my place for just a few hours of sleep, she told me that Percy had a moment of lucidity. She shared what he said to her, and I clenched my fists, trying to stay calm.

Of course, the first time one of my best friends had a moment, we were not there to talk to him. I’m glad Rosa was in there, at least, so he didn’t just stare at a wall before returning to his unreachable mental state, but I wish I could have been there to offer him some solace. To tell him that we overcame Varun, to bring pictures of Araya and Percy, and to show him what his sacrifice brought to all of us.

“He was lucid?” Ado asks, his voice low, as always, but with a vein of hurt.

“It was only a few minutes. Rosa said she told him everyone here cares about him.”

Actually, what she told me was that by the time she found her voice to say anything to him, he was already back in the psychosis, but it was not worth it to tell these guys that. Aris meets my eyes above the table. As my alpha, he can sense I’m not telling the truth. I’ll tell him later if he asks. But he won’t like it, either.

“Ado,” Aris says, “why don’t you go back to the different places humans have gone missing from. See if you can find any additional clues. I’ll ask Byron to review the tape from the night Percy got into the compound, just to see if there’s any additional context there.”

Ado pushes up from the table, nodding once before leaving the room. Linnea and Olivia also stand, talking about something to do with the shelter as they go.

What weren’t you telling us? Ado sends it as soon as the others are out of the room.

I project the truth to him, and he meets my eyes squarely.

I think you made the right choice by keeping that to yourself. This is a hard enough situation as it is.

Even once we find the bodies I send, I’m not sure what the human-shifter relationship is going to look like in Rosecreek going forward.

We just have to keep pushing forward. As far as I can see, this is all part of Varun's fallout. We’re still coping with the effects of his leadership, and it will be for some time. Percy may be ours, but that serum was all Varun’s doing. That’s how I’ll explain it to the humans.

A moment of silence passes between us, and Aris prods again.

There’s something else.

“Rosa doesn’t want to live in Rosecreek,” I say out loud, pushing up from my chair and pacing away from the table. I run my hand over my head. “After what I did—I don’t really have a leg to stand on here. And I don’t want to tear her and Kaila away from California, the ocean, the only home they’ve ever known. I think—I think, if Rosa still wants to, that we should go back to California.”

Aris stares back at me with an expression that’s part stunned, part resigned. He lets out a sigh, then rolls his lips and nods.

“I already told you—I get it. You’ll choose your mate over anything. And I wouldn’t want any shifter to stay in Rosecreek if it didn’t make them happy. You’re my right-hand man, and I’d love to have you here for as long as I’m the Rosecreek Alpha, but if you have to go back to California, you have my blessing.”

Aris claps me on the back, but we’re interrupted when the door to his office flies open, and Olivia practically falls in, tears streaming down her face.

“It’s Linnea,” she says, gasping for breath. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her—she just sat down in a chair and went limp. Like she passed out.”

Aris hears about half of this before pushing out into the hallway, his steps echoing through the house as he races down the stairs. Olivia and I follow.

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