Page 49 of The Alpha's Forced Pregnant Mate

The thoughts were racing through my head as I leaped out of bed, my feet hitting the floor with a thud as I stumbled for my clothes. I yanked on my jeans and shirt, not bothering to do up the buttons before I rushed through the apartment trying to find her.

But in my heart, I already knew she wasn’t there. When I reached down the bond, all I could feel was a fuzzy blackness and nothing more. The panic was the last clear emotion I’d been able to feel of hers.

I started to tear the place apart, looking for any indication of where she might have gone. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my mate was in trouble and I had to find her.

The kitchen and living room were empty, but I still felt around for anything I might have missed. There was nothing, except for a small scrap of paper on the floor near the front door. I grabbed it, my heart in my throat, but the words didn’t make sense at first.

“Julian,” I read aloud, “I know you’re going to be upset with me, but I got a text from an unknown number with coordinates, and it’s Laura. She’s been kidnapped and I need to go save her.”

I stopped reading, crumpling the paper in my fist as rage burned through me.

Of course, she’d gone out on her own. She’d do anything for those she cared about.

My mate was stubborn as hell, and I was sure she thought that she could take care of herself, and most of the time, she was right. But alone? At night? It would be dangerous for even the most powerful wolf.

The demons were too strong, and they wanted her for something, I was sure. They wouldn’t give up easily.

I needed to find her and Laura, and fast.

I shoved the note in my jeans and buttoned my shirt, trying to keep my hands from shaking. Where in the hell could she be? I didn’t even know when she’d left, so I couldn’t even begin to estimate how far she could have gotten.

I cursed under my breath as I ran to the window, looking down at the street below. Her car was gone, which was to be expected, but it left me with no way to follow her. Grabbing the sword I had used earlier, I raced down the stairs, nearly tripping twice. I burst through the front door into the darkness, searching for any sign of them.

But there was nothing. Just the cool night breeze and the quiet chirp of crickets.

Fuck. I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply, trying to pick up her scent. But it was no use. All I could smell was the crisp air as the world lingered between night and dawn.

The bond between us thrummed weakly, and I reached out for it, trying to get a sense of her direction. But it was useless; all I could tell was that she was still alive.

I opened my eyes, looking around frantically, trying to decide what to do. I had no idea where to start, but I knew that I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. I whipped around, deciding in the heat of the moment that I’d just have to steal a car, when a familiar-looking truck skidded into the parking lot.

It was Saul’s truck. But Saul wasn’t driving.

It was Laura.

For one brilliant moment I thought that if Laura was here, Whitney had to be in the passenger seat. But my hopes were quickly dashed when I saw it was empty as Laura climbed out and sprinted toward me.

“Where’s Whitney?” we both yelled at the same time, our voices carrying in the quiet night.

Laura’s eyes went wide as she shook her head. “I don’t know, I thought she was with you!”

“I thought you were kidnapped,” I replied, my mouth going dry as things went from bad to worse. “Whitney left a note saying she’d gone to rescue you.”

Laura blanched, “My phone died in the middle of the night. I woke up and when I put it on the charger I saw that Whitney had called me a bunch of times, but she’s not answering now, so I came here.”

The demons knew what they were doing when they took my mate. They knew exactly what to do to push me past the point of reason.

They would pay. Every last one of them would suffer for taking away what was mine.

Laura looked around frantically. “We have to find her. Where is she, Julian? Use the mate bond!”

My lips curled up into a snarl. “You don’t think I’ve tried? Something’s blocking it.” My jaw clenched tight. “We’ll just have to find her the old-fashioned way.”

Laura looked at me with wide eyes. “You mean, start looking? But that could take hours. Where do we even begin—wait. Did she take the Outback?”

“Yes, why?”

“She has a tracker on the car, and I’m almost positive…” she tapped on her phone, a look of triumph coming over her face. “Yes! I have its location. She’s a little less than an hour away, come on!”

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