Page 136 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“She saved us,” I tell them. Without her, we would be truly dead, fighting off death and his army of reapers.

“But she’s gone,” Axel says, looking lost. “That sick fuck has her.”

“She’s ours, she’s belongs with us.” Jax snarls, his wolf wanting his mate back.

Luka drops to his knees, his brother falling beside him. “What if we never find her?”

“We will,” I tell them, confident that we’ll have our mate back in our arms soon. A small humming in my chest reassures me.

“She could be anywhere,” Luka replies, still lost to his despair and not seeing what’s right in front of him.

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll find her,” I tell him with utmost surety.

“How are you so sure?” he demands, the shadows in him threatening to challenge me. I know better than to push him any further, his quiet nature only hiding the dark side he likes to keep hidden.

“I can feel it… Can’t you?” I give the others a look. Rion, as always, picks up on my subtle hint.

“The bond.”

Tapping the place above my heart, I give them a savage smile as a small thrum of power pulses inside my chest.

“Fuck. How did I not notice that?” Luka rubs his chest, a small smile tilting his lips.

Jax joins him, a glint of hope in his eyes. “Too busy trying not to die, brother.”

Luka shakes his head as the air of hope grows around us all.

“We’ll find her and then we’ll destroy King and everything he owns,” Axel bites out a promise.

“Yes. We’ll have her back with us soon, even if we have to burn the entire city down to get to her.”

We’ll find you Kiarra.

…We’re coming.

AXEL

BONUS POV

Another dead end. Not one fucking person in this damn place knows where Kiarra is and none of them give a shit either. It seems Kiarra didn’t make many friends here. In fact, I think she made more enemies than anything.

Which means Kai was right. There’s a lot more to this than we see.

It still pisses me off to no end that she’s been here this whole time and not once reached out to us.

It would be a hell of a lot easier if she would just tell us something. But telling us anything would mean she trusted us, and trust didn’t look like it was something she easily gave anymore. Not even to us.

Besides that, she was stubborn as hell. Something we both still have in common. But that stubbornness just meant it was going to be harder to get through to her.

If that’s even what I want to do…

We all originally came here to find Luna. The trade was just an excuse to see if she was here. We were just going to pay whatever girl King wanted to use as our agreement and use the time here to search for her. But then Kiarra showed up and now our whole plan is up in the air. It doesn’t help that we still can’t find Luna either.

I’m on my way downstairs to our little setup in the basement when I look up and spot the girl that turned our plan on its head. She hasn’t spotted me yet, but from the way she’s moving and looking cagey as hell, I can tell she’s up to something.

She looks up and finally spots me, wincing at the sight of me. It makes me fucking angry. We used to be best friends and now we’re nothing but strangers.

And if that’s doesn’t fucking hurt a little.

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