Page 54 of Betrayed Kidnapped Mate

I know this is a vision—I’ve been here when she’s had them, but something about this feels different. When we first arrived in Rosecreek and planned to take on Varun, Linnea was the only reason we didn’t lose the entire team. She had a vision predicting the commander’s betrayal, and another that predicted an ambush that would have taken us out if we weren’t ready.

Since Varun’s death, her visions have come less frequently. Sometimes, she would have a vision that a human would go missing, but the details were too abstract for us to stop it from happening.

Typically, Linnea can feel them coming and heads to bed. Aris has time to make sure he can take care of her. Now, since accepting her gift and working on controlling it, she doesn’t usually even lose consciousness when experiencing the vision.

It’s very unlike her to pass out like this, which is why Aris is running.

“Mommy?” Percy asks, his voice pitched up.

“This hasn’t happened in months,” Aris muses, “Araya, take your brother to the playroom. Right away, please.”

Araya nods and, pleased to have been given an authoritative role, puts her arm around her brother and leads him out of the room.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asks, her voice high and frantic.

“It’s okay,” Aris says, taking Linnea in his arms and bringing her to the ground. He feels her forehead with the back of his hand, then looks up at me.

“Bigby—a glass of water? Olivia, would you mind grabbing me a pillow from the couch?”

I turn to get the water as Olivia runs from the room, and Aris leans down, whispering softly in Linnea’s ear. Just as I’m crouching down with the pillow, she gasps, sitting up, her eyes flying open, tears already forming there.

“Aris,” she says, grasping onto him tightly. The moment I see the expression on her face, I know it’s not good.

“Breathe, Linnea,” he says, brushing her hair away from her face. “Breathe.”

Linnea sits, taking the water from me and taking a long breath. Olivia comes bounding around the corner, letting out a noise of relief when she sees Linnea alive and breathing.

“It’s…Aris, there’s someone coming to Rosecreek. With lots of shifters. He’s—” Linnea lets out a sob, “—he’s done terrible things, Aris. I think—”

“Amon,” Olivia gasps, dropping her pillow before she turns on her heel and sprints for the front door.

Chapter 30 - Rosa

I groan and push away from my workstation when yet another compound fails to take. Kaila looks up at me, putting a finger in her book to hold her page. Byron takes no notice, still staring down at his computer screen.

“What’s wrong?”

“You know,” I say, taking deep breaths to model good emotional control. Sometimes, it’s exhausting to constantly have a tiny pair of eyes looking at you. “I’m just getting frustrated that this isn’t going my way.”

“You can do it,” she says, encouraging me the way I would encourage her when she was surfing. “I believe in you.”

“Thank you,” I say, laughing at the true look of belief in her eyes. Her entire life, my work has been distilling essential oils out of the herbs I grow in our garden, making perfumes, and sending them out to sell at the farmers market. Now, seeing in a high-tech chemistry lab, she has no doubt I have what it takes.

Maisie is at the workstation next to me, and Gerard is across the room, his headphones on as he works.

“What are you reading?” I ask, spinning in my chair and focusing on her. Ever since I started trying to find the antidote for the serum, I haven’t spent enough time focusing on my daughter. Maybe it’s another sign that it’s time for me to give up.

“It’s ancient shifter folklore,” she says, holding the book up so I can see the cover. “Bigby took me to the library so I can get it. Did you know that most North American shifters are estimated to have originated in Canada and Minnesota? That’s where we are. It’s really cool that Bigby is from a place with a history like that.”

I stare at her, and it dawns on me all at once—other than that first week, when Kaila was really sad to have left California, she’s been enjoying her time here. I think of her spending time with Araya, giggling as Byron and Olivia bicker, listening intensely as Bigby explains the rules of chess to her.

Kaila hasn’t been miserable. She’s far happier here than she ever was in California, living alone in that house.

Unaware of my sudden thought spiral, Kaila leans down, reaching into a tote bag by her feet and producing a different book.

“I also got this one. It’s a mystery book. Bigby said it was one of his favorites when he was a kid. There’s a red herring, but it didn’t trick me.”

I blink, my brain sticking to something she just said. Wordlessly, I spin back around in my chair, tapping something on my computer. I pull up the chemical compound of the serum again, staring at it. Jumping up from the seat, I start to pace back and forth, my brain moving faster than I can keep up with.

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