Page 32 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
“Hey, Aurela,” Phina soothes when she gets close enough to me. Xeran’s eyes follow her, and I can almost sense him trying to break free, to get his mate and take her far from here.
But I would never hurt her. I would never hurtanyof them.
“Let go of the magic,” Maeve says, still breathing hard from the sprint across the clearing toward the cabin. She raises her hands up, and I barely recognize her from the girl I knew in high school.
Back then, Maeve was wearing only oversized shirts and pants, and not in a cute way. In aI need to hide my bodysort of way. In the way that I do now, when I’m home and my mother isn’t ushering me into a nice outfit for an event I don’t want to attend.
“It’s okay,” Valerie says, walking between the other two women. Her eyes dart to my brother, still frozen on the edge of the mudslide, encased in my magic. Returning her gaze to me, she nods and says, “He’s such an idiot. I’m sorry for whatever he came up here to do, likely in a stupid fit of rage.”
“He was going tokillhim,” I blurt out, my voice breaking in a sob on “kill.”
Valerie nods, taking another step closer to me, gently settling her hand on the bare skin of my forearm. When she does, I see her blink in surprise, eyes widening, clearly surprised by the sheer amount of magic flooding through me.
“I won’t let him,” Valerie says, her voice low and soothing, her eyes finding mine. I can see the ways in which motherhood and being mated have changed her. She’s softer now, more understanding. It’s like her brain works in a new, updated fashion, and I can see right into the inner workings.
Or, the magic is getting to my head.
“Do you trust me?” Valerie goes on, her grip tightening slightly on me. “You can trust me, Aur. I won’t let him hurt Soren, and we can all calm down and figure out what to do next, okay? Nobody is going to get hurt.”
I can hear the unsaid caveat on that sentence.Not this time.
Sobbing, I nod and lower my arm, limbs fully shaking with the effort of trying to curb the flow of magic. Luckily, I don’t have to try very hard, because the little black spots in my vision grow, engulfing the entire plane of what I can see, and the girls are there like a cheer squad, catching my body as I fall unconscious.
Chapter 17 - Soren
The moment Aurela releases the spell on me, I shift back and run to her, trying to reach her body, but Lachlan shifts back as well, reaching out and catching me by the arm.
“Don’t,” he warns, and though that blaze of fury has left his eyes—likely from the lengthy and embarrassing time-out Aurela just gave us—there’s still an edge to him, to the way he talks to me. “Don’t touch her.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter, shaking his hand free of me. Normally, I wouldn’t take this approach, but the look on Aurela’s face has put me on edge. The tug in my chest is pulling me toward her, telling me that something is wrong.
I don’t like the way she went down when she released that spell.
But when I turn away from Lachlan and toward his sister, I find the women gathered around her, looking up at me. Lachlan pushes his way past me, like he plans to get to his sister first, but Phina stands, cutting us both off. Her gaze darts from Lachlan to me.
“We’ll take care of Aurela,” she says, and I realize the moment she says it that it’s the best choice. The girls are nonpartial. And as much as I need to go to my mate, to hold her in my arms and make sure she’s okay, I trust Phina to do so as well.
She’s the pack luna. She and Aurela were once good friends. Even if there was ill will between them at one point, there’s not now.
Lachlan lets out a low growl, but Valerie comes to his side, whispering fiercely in his ear. The two of them move tothe side of the clearing, and we all stand for a moment in the aftermath of what’s just happened. Xeran stands very calm, very still, and I feel the weight of his gaze on me.
When we get back to town, I know I’ll have to answer for this.
“I have to secure the cabin,” I say, gesturing to my grandfather’s pride and joy, which is now sporting two gaping holes—one where the door should be, and another littered with scattered glass. “Before I can come back.”
“I’ll help you,” Kalen says, glancing between the rest of us, then looking at his brother. He doesn’t say it out loud, but I see the message pass between them.
I’ll make sure he comes back to town after.
“Me too,” Felix says, stepping forward and running a quick hand over his pink hair. Maeve steps up beside him, whispering something, and he nods.
In ten minutes, everyone has dispersed, half of us heading back to town, and the other half turning toward the cabin.
My throat thickens with despair when I see it. At least the sight of the cabin is a temporary relief from thinking about Aurela, whom I can feel moving further and further from me, the others carrying her toward town. My wolf is not pleased at the separation, not happy with the idea of being apart from her, especially after what just happened, but I force him back.
Force myself to think logically.
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