Page 82 of Forged Bonds

Shouldn’t he wait until they had me? Why was he leaving with my men?

Their portal closed as I finished the runes to complete mine. “Emmett!” I shouted.

My voice stopped him mid-charge, his huge bear going for where Caspian had disappeared. Seeing what had to be pure desperation in my expression, he changed direction and came for me, lunging through the portal. I grabbed onto him, letting him carry me through, and we landed at our rendezvous point. The portal snapped shut behind us, one vampire slipping through before it could. I let out a strangled cry as I plunged my dagger into his heart, killing him before he’d recovered from the disorientation.

Then, I collapsed to my knees.

Tears welled up in my eyes, the sensation foreign and unusual.

They dripped down my cheeks, more and more and more until it was a stream of them and I couldn’t do anything but let out choked sobs. Vaguely, I felt the throbbing of my wrist bond mark as Emmett shifted back to his human form, coming to wrap me in his warm embrace. I couldn’t feel much of anything, though, other than soul-piercing grief.

Shan and Caspian were gone.

Kylan would kill them. I’d feel our bonds snap when it happened, like I could feel the strain of distance on our connection now. It was only a matter of time before he decided they were more trouble than they were worth, and a broken Omega with dead mates would be easier to catch and contain than an Omega on a mission.

And until then? Until he decided he was done with them?

They were in his hell, all because of me.

My chest crumpled and I curled in on myself, breaking down for the first time in my entire memory.

TWENTY-FOUR

Freya

My soul felt detached from my body, floating around the room and taking in details and information my brain couldn’t compute at the moment. It was only Emmett and I. No Altair and Sky. No Oswald and Nolan. No Shan and Caspian.

Em hugged me with strong arms that did better at giving comfort than anything else. They were why he was always the go-to when Caspian was having a bad day. Em was comfort. Freshly washed linens and a soft, giant body.

This wasn’t the safe house where we’d stayed before. Our rendezvous point was different. We were in the middle of an abandoned warehouse building, the place relatively small. It was cold, summer turning to fall and the night air flowing through the few broken windows.

“Freya,” Emmett said.

His voice was as choked as mine, and as I came back to my body I realized his tears had wet my shoulder.

“Freya, honey. We need to…” he trailed off.

What did we need to do?

What was the fucking point?

Shan and Caspian were gone, and I had no idea if Nolan and Oswald were coming back to me either. We’d lost spectacularly, our shitty fucking plan falling to pieces. They’d known we were coming. Was it a trap all along, Kylan leaving that note in his penthouse for us on purpose? Or were they always that prepared for someone to come and try to kill him?

It could be either. There was no way to know for certain.

“Oswald. Ask Oswald where he is. We can’t lose them too.”

That was enough to shake me.Fuck. He had a point. Ozzy and Nolan might need my help, they might still be in a position where my magic could help them. I couldn’t let my grief over the others cause me to lose everyone.

Sniffing loudly, I concentrated on feeling my bond with Oswald. The familiar bond was like a string in my mind, overlaid with the heavier string of our mate bond. I grasped them, pulling.“Ozzy, are you and Nolan OK? Can you get to the rendezvous point?”

Our mental connection flared to life and I felt his thoughts again. More tears welled up, my body seemingly unable to stop producing them although they were now tears of relief and not pain.“We’re tied down in the alley across the street. Nolan is fending them off but we can’t get away from this area without leading them right to you.”

My wand had crafted the first rune for the portal before he finished his sentence. Emmett kept his hand on my back, unable to break contact with me, and less than a minute later we were stumbling through to an alley where Nolan was being pressed against a brick wall with fangs to his neck.

All I saw through my tears was red.

I took the vampire by surprise, piercing his heart with my bloody dagger and leaving his body to slump to the ground. My portal swirled in the background, Emmett grabbing Oswald from the grip of another vampire and shoving him through it. Nolan didn’t need to be prompted, using a burst of his vampire speed to bring us back to where I’d come from. In a rush, we all collapsed onto the floor of the empty warehouse, panting.

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