Page 172 of Claimed

“You’re all right? You feel okay?” I’m talking to my mom now.

“I… Yeah, I feel fine,” she replies looking disoriented. And her eyes keep pinging to my father. He’s upsetting her.

Dad already asked her a bunch of questions, but she has no idea how she got poisoned. She was in town today for a manicure andpedicure, but she didn’t get a takeout coffee or other drink or food anywhere.

The color has returned to her skin. I know I took all the poison from her and what I spat into that sink was vile. And there was a lot of it.

Dad is worried Soleil is going to do something to me, wants assurances from the coven that they’ve got me covered with magic.

Erica tried unsuccessfully to convince him I’m already showing I can hold my own with magic and that Soleil’s magic is suppressed. My father is certain it’s Soleil he’s smelling on Mom and worries she’ll come after me next, which I don’t get. Mom smells like the hospital and faintly like the poison I pulled from her, but I don’t smell anyone else. I just told him Soleil and I spoke the other day. And he’s livid about this. I’m trying to not lose my shit here and throw in his face that he hasn’t filled me in about her yet, and I’m hanging on by just a loose thread because Stacy is fucking missing.

“You got this?” I turn to ask Erica and Rye. “I need to go.”

It’s been less than five minutes since I found out my mate is gone and that’s as many minutes too long for me to be still standing here.

“Absolutely,” Erica states. “But I just got a text from Vivi. She wants you to take that ampule Dani gave you. Let’s set up a circle and then–”

“No time,” I deny.

She doesn’t try to reason with me. She seems to get that I need to move. I need to move right fucking now. I’d be gone already if it weren’t for the fact I knew, instinctively, that I was the one who needed to pull that poison from my mom.

“Okay. Call me if you need me. I’ll keep my phone with me.”

“We’ve got this. Stay in touch,” Rye says and claps my back.

“Stay at Riley’s until I get back,” I say to Mom and kiss her forehead. “You stay there, too. Be safe,” I say to my sister.

She nods.

“Dad, stay with Rye and Erica, yeah? Know you can hold your own in a fight, but I want you protected by Erica’s magic.”

“Son, I’ll walk you out,” my father insists.

The minute we’re outside, I’m demanding, “Give me the sixty second version of what the fuck caused you to end your bond with her. Now, Dad. Got no time to spare.”

My father succinctly tells me in about a minute why he severed his bond with her, what she did when I was an infant, and my blood runs icy cold at his explanation.

But I can’t give much headspace to it for the moment. I have to get to my mate. I have toendmy brother-in-law. And then, I’ll have to figure out why and how my birth mother hurt the woman who raised me as well make sure that she can’t do it again.

My phone rings.

Vivica Young calling.

“Vivi,” I answer. “Not a great time.”

“Greyson…” she breathes, sounding upset. “It just hit me that something is up with your birth mother. And…with Stacy. And Halla Starling. It’s all connected, I don’t know how, but you need to be extremely cautious.”

***

I’m dead on my feet. I keep blinking away double vision because I haven’t slept. I’ve been up for more than forty-eight hoursand just drove for over eight hours between the drive to Drowsy Hollow and back to Silver Hills. I won’t be sleeping any time soon.

Dani also called me just a few minutes after Vivi called, this time with Vivi and Erica on conference call, to tell me they’re all on standby if I need them, that they’re all linking up to do a group protection spell to offer me protection as well as trying a locator spell for Stacy. Dani says there should’ve been protocol followed after I pulled that spelled poison from my mom, and she’s worried about my wellbeing.

“I just need to find my mate, Dani,” I said. “That’s all I can do right now. I refuse to leave her at the mercy of her fuckface brother a minute longer than necessary.”

“Okay, Grey. If you get a minute, please draw a salt circle and take the ampule. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

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