Page 2 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
I blink, returning my focus to the supreme, who looks back at me intently.
“I don’t have an explanation,” I say, clearing my throat and taking a seat at one of the chairs opposite his desk. “But the way she was talking, her ability to think and articulate—that didn’t seem like a feral to me. That seemed like a very smart woman trying to move some chess pieces.”
“Phina said Tara wanted toget the group back together,” Xeran says, his voice lowering to a scary octave. Not only is Phina his mate, but she’s the luna of the pack. Which means he’ll do anything to protect her. And he has—since that night, Phina and his children have been under constant protection, no matter how annoyed Phina is with what she calls “the watchdogs”hanging around outside their place.
“I know,” I say. “But so far, after that day on the mountain, we’ve seen no other threats.”
Xeran is quiet for a moment, his gaze settled heavily on his desk. I have no doubt that he’s the right shifter for this job. That he’ll get us all through this, one way or another. I just wish he would talk to me about what he’s going through.
It’s a Sorel trait, though, for him to keep it to himself.
Even after the deaths of his brothers, he didn’t want to talk, to air out any of that grief. They turned on him—and thispack—and any time I tried to press, to see how he felt about it, he’d shut me down.
Jaw tense, Xeran raises his eyes to mine and says in a steely voice, “I want you to put a missive out to everyone in the pack. Get it on the boards in the pack center and make sure it’s in the newsletter. If you can send alerts to phones, do it.”
I shift in my seat, tapping around on my tablet to bring up the right avenues to make this happen. When it’s clear I’m ready, Xeran drops his voice to a skin-chilling coolness and says, “Make it clear that ifanyoneis harboring Tara, they will be executed. If they make contact with her and don’t immediately tell us, they will be executed. If I find out a single member of this pack is connected to her, or these fires, in any way, I will not show mercy.”
Maybe I should push back against this—point out that it’s much harsher than the approach Xeran usually goes for. But he’s exhausted. We’re all exhausted. And part of me can’t deny the satisfaction I might feel at watching anyone involved in these fires get exactly what’s coming to them.
“I’ll send it out,” I promise.
“Good,” Xeran grunts out, waving his hand at me. “Now go home and get some rest.”
He’s telling me to, but I know he’s not going to follow his own advice. Still, I stand and turn, heading to the door.
The second I walk out of it, Kalen and Lachlan are on the other side, looking freshly scrubbed and in clean sets of firehouse clothes.
“Is he losing it?” Kalen asks, falling into step with me. As Xeran’s younger brother, Kalen is acutely worried about the tolleverything is taking on his older sibling, especially since Kalen was the one who convinced him to come back.
“More importantly,” Lachlan says, glancing at the two of us as we make our way down the hallway, “is he going to have his head in the right place for our next call?”
Rather than say something pointless about hoping for a long break before our next wildfire call, I just turn and sigh, flipping around my tablet so they can see the announcement I’ve written up from Xeran’s mouth.
Lachlan sucks in a breath between his teeth. Kalen goes pale, then starts to shake his head, making to turn in the direction of his brother’s office.
“Kalen,” I warn, grabbing his arm and stopping him. We’re both alphas, but I’m older, and Xeran and I spent our childhoods playing with Kalen, teaching him how to hunt. We may not be brothers by blood, but he trusts my judgment. “Don’t,” I tell him. “Not right now. If you have something to say, you need to wait for the right moment.”
I release his arm, and he nods, letting out a long sigh.
“I don’t like this any more than you do,” I mutter, hitting the button to send out the missive.
We move together to our lockers, grabbing our things to head out for the day. When I notice Lachlan moving a little more jerkily than normal, I look around my locker at him. “What’s up with you?”
He lets out a short, annoyed breath, staring into his locker and shrugging on a button-up shirt that probably cost more than my apartment rent for the year. “I have to shop for agroomsman'stux. As if I even want to be in the fucking wedding in the first place.”
I ignore the twist in my chest, the immediate flush of adrenaline through my body at the mention of his sister’s wedding.
It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t concern me.
“And if that wasn’t bad enough, we’re getting dinner with my parents after,” he adds. “I guess they want to celebrate Aurela finally picking out her dress.”
The sound of her name is like a sleeper-cell trigger phrase, waking up parts of my brain I’ve worked very hard to keep buried.
Her golden hair, hazel eyes. Soft hands and the gentlest voice I’ve ever heard.
“Anyway,” Lachlan says, rolling his shoulders and turning to me. “Have a good night, man. Try to get some sleep.”
He either doesn’t notice or isn’t bothered that I haven’t managed to get anything out for the duration of our conversation about his sister. Swinging his leather bag over his shoulder, he walks out of the firehouse to where his car is parked outside.
