Page 93 of His Bonded Omega Mate
My mind was slow. My thoughts felt odd, like my brain was stuffed with cotton wool. Everything felt distant. I was focusing on the wrong things rather than the situation that we found ourselves in.
The shifters that surrounded us weren’t pride. I didn’t know who they were or how Jared had gotten so many to follow him into this madness. Taking two mated omegas was a death sentence without trial. They would applaud any shifter for killing him on sight. So why was he smiling?
When he called Hiroshi mate, I was nearly sick in my mouth. My mate looked terrified, the start of a panic attack taking hold and wrenching all common sense from him.
“No, no, no. This can’t be happening!” Hiroshi scuttled backwards as Jared reached for him.
Ignoring Hiroshi’s words, Jared reached in and took his arm in a firm grip. Hiro tried to move free, but Jared squeezed, the skin going red and leaving marks when he let go. “Behave!” Jared’s voice was cold and furious.
I wished for the bond so I could tell Hiro to go along with Jared for now. My mate was too fearful to think clearly. Moving closer, I wrapped an arm around him and directed my words to Jared. “Sorry, but he’s still coming around from the drugs. He’s not quite himself.”
“Get out of the van!” Jared barked. He stepped to the side, letting us have our first look at the place.
There was a large house in front of us, with smaller houses flanking it. It looked like a farm or mini compound, as I could see a perimeter fence in the distance.
Getting out onto shaky legs, I took a couple of deep breaths and held a hand out for Hiroshi. He shook his head, retreating further into the van until Carl climbed in and hoisted my mate into his arms.
Terror had Hiro freezing, his eyes wide as Carl carried him into the house. I tailed them, more anxious than I’d ever been.
The inside of the house was richly decorated. There were hardwood floors throughout the first floor and a thick carpet on the stairs, meaning at least two floors to this house, perhaps three. I tried to get an idea of the layout and potential exits, so that maybe I could shift when more of the magic wore off.
“Take them upstairs!” Jared yelled as he stomped towards one of the beautifully decorated rooms just off the entrance hall. I could hear him complaining to someone, but couldn’t make out the words, as I followed Carl up the stairs and to a large room with its own en suite. The bed was huge, with a cozy-looking comforter in a pale gray. The room had dashes of green through the mostly gray and cream palate. It looked like a high end hotel room, yet we both knew what it was as I met Hiroshi’s eyes. The horror in them telling me we were screwed. This was a fancy jail cell.
“Hey,” I soothed once Carl put him down and left us inside, the door locking from the outside. “It won’t be long before we’re missed. They’ll find us.”
“How? How will they find us? This is all my fault! I should never have given in to Jared.” He sighed. “Or maybe I should have just mated with him and saved us all this heartache. You and Asher would have been fine without me.”
“Hey! You can’t talk like that. What about Roan?”
“I’ve done nothing but make his life complicated. He’d be better off without me. First, I insist on more —“
“Sunshine, you need to stop blaming yourself. The only person to blame here is Jared for being utterly crazy! You didn’t know he’d lose his mind because he didn’t get what he wanted.” I needed to keep my voice down. We had no idea if anyone was listening outside the door. “As for Roan, he loves you. He wanted to try the mate thing. He could have said no at any point, but he wanted to give you that.”
“He’s too good for me.”
“No, he’s just right for you and he’s going to hunt all over for you as soon as word gets out that we are gone.”
“They were using magic, Tate. I can’t feel my bonds with you or Roan. I can’t feel my tiger. How are we going to help our mates find us?”
I looked around the room, weighing up our options. We were on the third floor, so we wouldn’t be able to climb down easily. I just needed to access my crow long enough to shift and get out.
“Eventually, the magic will wear off if I don’t eat anything. I can shift and fly back to the pack,” I whispered.
“But what if they make you?”
“Then we’ll deal with that when we have to. If that happens, then all we’ll have to do is wait. They will come.” I had absolute faith in our mates and pack. We just had to wait this out.
The lingering effects of the sleeping potion had me waking from another nap what felt like a few hours later. I didn’t have any real concept of how much time had passed. I was just guessing with how full my bladder was.
After relieving myself, I scoped out the room while Hiroshi watched me. It felt like he was trying to use the bond to send me something. It was like it was there, but he was shouting into the wind with all that I could hear.
“Sunshine, don’t stress yourself out. It isn’t good for the babies.” I went to the bed and pulled him into my arms, mindful of both our bumps. Neither of us had long to go. Just five weeks. I couldn’t wait to meet my sons and our daughter, because they belonged to all of us.
The sound of the key in the lock had us moving away from each other. “Jared wants you both downstairs. Follow me.” This was a different goon. All of Jared’s men were the muscular alpha-hole type I’d never been interested in. They made my skin itch.
We linked hands and trailed after our new guard down to a well appointed sitting room. I got the impression that this wasn’t Jared’s house. The decorating taste was too mature for him. There was a feminine energy.
“Is this your mother’s house?” I blurted as soon as I saw Jared. Our guard roughly shoved us onto the cream leather sofa.
