Page 54 of Rejected Bullied Mate

"Got it. I'll be there in five minutes."

He hung up, and I pressed down on the accelerator. Joe's shop was only a few miles away, but it took me half the usual time to get there. I had to find her.

The bell over the door rang as I rushed into the shop, and Joe looked up from behind the counter. He frowned, leaning forward to get a better look at me.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, his brows furrowing. "You look like shit."

I felt Waylon come in behind me, and seeing the two of us together instantly made Joe realize how serious this was. He stepped out from behind the counter, coming to stand in front of me.

"What's going on?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"Kiera's missing," I said, forcing myself to stay calm. "And we've got to fucking find her. Now."

***

We filled Joe in as he checked the clock-out logs, showing me that Kiera had left right on time. She'd walked to work that day, so we piled into Joe's truck to retrace her steps, hoping like hell to pick up any sort of clue that might help us. Kiera was alive, I knew that much from our bond, but she was too far away for me to pick up anything else from her.

It was the right move. As Joe drove slowly down the route Kiera would have taken home, the bond grew stronger, and I could feel her panic. It wasn't overwhelming, which meant she wasn't in immediate danger, but it was enough to make my stomach twist in knots. I reached out, letting her know I was coming for her, but the panic didn't dissipate.

"She's afraid," I said, and Joe's eyes narrowed. My wolf was pushing to the surface, the Alpha rage I'd been working so hard to control filtering in. "We have to hurry the fuck—"

"Wait." Waylon held up a hand, and Joe hit the brakes. My Beta leaned his head out the window and inhaled deeply, his face immediately twisting in a snarl. "It's Nayeli."

I jumped out of the truck, breathing in as deeply as I could, and there it was—not the scent of my mate, but Nayeli, instead.

I also smelled a fuck ton of blood, but I couldn't dwell on that. Not if I wanted to keep my sanity intact.

"Follow it," I said, nodding down the road. "She's here somewhere.”

The scent trail was thick and fresh, and we followed it through the woods on the fringes of my territory. Her bright pink hoodie stood out like a beacon where she was lying on the ground, limp, blood darkening her jeans near her right ankle as well as the earth around her.

There was a bear trap on the ground beside her, and it, too, was bloodied. Seeing her was like a punch to the chest, but I forced myself to kneel and check her pulse. It was there, thank God, faint but steady.

"Nayeli," I said, my voice rough as I carefully lifted her into my arms. "I need you to wake up. Please."

Her eyelids fluttered, a weak groan escaping her lips as she stirred. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if she was really awake, but then her eyes focused and met mine, clouded with pain and exhaustion.

"Kiera…" she rasped, her voice barely audible. "She saved me. But… someone knocked us out. I… I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop them."

The world went red, rage rushing through my veins. Someone had taken her. Kiera was gone. My Omega. My mate. Who would fucking dare?

Waylon was already on his phone, calling for backup. I tried to stand with Nayeli, but she shook her head, "No," she rasped. "You need to find her, Samson. Kiera…" She swallowed hard, her eyes closing for a brief second before she met my gaze again. "She’s the one you need to focus on."

It was what I wanted to do. Every fiber of my being was fixated on finding my mate. But I couldn't leave my cousin bleeding in the damned forest...

Joe appeared beside me, kneeling down with a grim expression. "I’ll take her back to my pack," he said, his voice calm, but there was an underlying tension in his words. "We’ve got a medic. She’ll be taken care of. You need to go. Kiera’s still out there."

I hesitated, conflicted, but it was Nayeli's grim, quiet resolve that solidified my decision. My wolf wanted to rip the world apart to find Kiera, and I needed to trust my oldest ally to take care of Nayeli.

"Go," she said again. "Bring her home."

There was nothing more to say. I pressed my forehead against hers for a moment, and then I stood, handing Nayeli over to Joe. "I'll kill you if something happens to her."

Joe adjusted my cousin in his arms. "I wouldn't blame you. But she's safe with me. Go."

"I'm coming with you," Waylon declared. "We'll cover more ground on four legs. Can you at least get a rough direction through your bond?"

I closed my eyes and felt her, afraid but alive. "Barely, but yeah."

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