Page 27 of Wrath

“The front door?” I suggested, though I didn’t want to move.

I would never get tired of having her in my arms. A weight eased from my shoulders, slid down my arms, and then took a running leap off the tips of my fingers. It felt like I could finally breathe.

“We should?—”

Z’s words were cut off by a bright light slicing through the room. I instinctively squeezed my eyelids shut and held Z tighter. The light grew in intensity until I feared I would go blind. Even with my eyes shut, I could feel it cutting at my eyeballs.

As abruptly as it arrived, the light faded.

I opened my eyes.

“What the…?” Z squinted slightly as she lifted her head, glancing in both directions. Shock crowded her perfect features. “How did we…?”

I sat up on the bed, still holding her in my arms, only to see that we were no longer in the abandoned hospital. We were back at the resistance camp, in the tent, on my bed.

“Z! Bash!” The stunned voice drew my attention to Mali, who stood at the entrance of the tent, her features abnormally pale. “Oh my god.”

“Mali?” Z shifted slightly, attempting to raise her head.

Mali spun on her heel and began to scream at the top of her lungs, “They’re back! Z and Bash are back!”

I exchanged an uneasy glance with Z.

If we had truly been transported to some other location and had been gone for hours, then the others…

Six men ran into the tent, all but pushing each other over in their rush to get to us.

Ryland reached us first, no doubt with the help of his shadows, and knelt directly in front of us. For once, the darkness that always lingered around his face was nowhere to be seen. His ice-blue eyes were wide and wild in his scarred face as they zeroed in on us.

He shakily brought a hand to Z’s cheek and cradled it.

“Z…” he breathed, then pressed his lips to her own, seemingly unaware—or not caring—that she was still sitting in my lap.

Not that I cared, per se…

But now was probably not the time to get a boner.

As Ryland kissed Z like his life depended on it, I allowed my gaze to drift to my other brothers.

Devlin’s olive complexion looked sickly, and his hair stood up in all directions. Killian had dark shadows beneath both of his eyes. Jax was repeatedly scratching at his wrist, his eyes dartingfrom face to face without ever sticking on one person longer than a second. It almost reminded me of when he went years without feeding on blood.

Which was impossible. He had just fed on Z.

Lupe was pacing, repeatedly running a hand through his dark-brown hair, his glasses slightly askew on his large nose. And Dair… Dair sat in a wheelchair, his hands gripping the wheels so tightly his knuckles were white.

What the fuck happened in the few hours we were away?

Z must’ve had the same thought as me because she gently disengaged herself from Ryland and turned to face the others.

“What happened when we were gone?” She canted her head to the side.

“Lilith really should’ve given us a warning before she poofed us away,” I grumbled, frowning.

My frown deepened when Z stood from my lap and shakily moved to stand in the middle of her other mates.

“Are you okay?”

“Are you hurt?”

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