Page 108 of Fated Exile

"But I can't help wondering if I missed the warning signs. The pack has lived under the curse for so long. Our young unmated wolves are used to the idea that they won't be paired with an intended and become mated. I thought we could dive back in with the bonds, but it's going to take some time to straighten everything out."

"There's one pair we should look into: Ian and one of the new females. They were supposed to be mated. And he's a strong warrior, unmoored without a mate. I bet we could pair them off together."

Roarke jokes, "One down, fifty more to go."

* * *

As I snuggle into bed next to Roarke that night, letting myself indulge in having him sleepover at the house, his soothing scent washes over me. The alpha instincts that run through him don't just affect the pack—they affect me too. Even being near him makes it harder to be on edge, to deny the bonds between us, the pack, and the land.

Land that stirs at the edge of my drowsy mind, letting me know that everything is all clear, and it's kept any intruders at bay. Warriors whose presence I can feel out in the woods, patrolling all through the night. Finn is with them tonight, as is Kieran. They'll make sure that the pack is safe while Roarke and I sleep.

So I let myself sleep.

And dream.

Until I can't tell the difference between dreaming and waking.

Because in my dream, I'm here at home, just like in reality. But the bed's warmth is fading, because it's empty now. Roarke has left me with nothing but an impression of his body next to me.

I whimper, reaching out for him and getting only bedsheets.

A deep foreboding fills my mind.

Enough to jolt me out of sleep and into the real world. Opening my eyes, I look around—and discover that Roarke really is gone.

What's worse is, the whole house is quiet, and there's a heavy pit in my stomach.

I push the quilts off my lap and ease my feet onto the floorboards beneath me, heading out to look for my mate. Something tells me that something is off.

Forty

Delilah

Roarke is in the hallway, his mind adrift, his body doing all the steering. It takes me a long moment to realize that he's sleepwalking—that the reason why he doesn't respond to my presence, or stir as my awareness brushes out against him, is because he's not awake.

I start to wake him up, then hesitate. I've heard somewhere that waking a sleepwalker is dangerous. When I reach my awareness out to the other rooms, though, I find Bastian upstairs, Kerry in the office, and Cat in the guest bedroom—with Niall sleeping beside her, a fact I try not to think about too hard.

At least they've been quiet lately.

Sometimes.

Roarke jerks down the hallway suddenly, walking faster than I thought a sleeping person would. He heads to the door, smoothly steps out, and somehow makes it down the porch steps. Alarmed, I follow him, doing my best to make sure he doesn't fall down and face plant somewhere.

It's such a pretty face, after all, and it'd be a shame to break it.

His instincts somehow keep him from being led astray, though. He makes it all the way out to the front yard before he stops, his body suddenly going rigid. I feel something inside him spark, and know instinctively that he's waking up.

"Had a bad dream?" Pacing around to look up into his face, I'm startled to find that his eyes are moist. He looks down at me with dread in his gaze. "Wow, it was that bad. Are you okay? What was it about?"

He draws me into his arms and inhales my scent, his strong muscles slowly relaxing as he shudders the anxiety out of his body. "You were gone. So was everyone—Cat, Kerry, Bastian, Kieran, Lance. It was frightening."

"Finn?"

"He was gone too, but that wasn't frightening." I laugh against his chest, and he gathers me closer, nuzzling the top of my head. His heart beats fast against my ear, his panic still high despite the calm in his voice. "I got the feeling that Delphine, she... took them somehow. But I didn't know where, or why, and I didn't know how to get them back."

"It was just a dream."

"Was it?" He pulls back and stares down at me, his eyes on my shoulders, his gaze softened. "I feel like I could wake up to it happening any day now. We've searched as far outside the territory for her as we dare, but haven't even caught her scent. And even if we do, what then? We don't know how to kill her."

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