Page 49 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
And that knowledge makes my stomach fucking drop.
On my way out the door, I slide my phone from my pocket and dial Xeran. Partly because I really do need his help, and partly because I want to show him that I’m not planning on keeping things from him in the future.
I trust Aurela. I know that wherever she is, whatever is happening, she’s in trouble. And I trust Xeran to approach the situation with a clear head, with the knowledge that Tara has been able to lure her out before.
As the phone rings, I curse myself inwardly. I knew she would sleepwalk. I’ve seen her out in the woods with Tara before. I never should have left her alone, with a chance to get out of this house. We should have come up with something to keep her in bed. Tied her hands to the bedposts.
But deep down, I know that if Aurela wants to, she can get away with what she wants. If she can cast in her sleep, she could just make her departure silent, or hold me in place like she did the day Lach and I were fighting.
She’s that strong.
“Soren?” Xeran answers the phone like he’s already up, and I sigh in relief that I’m not taking even more sleep from my exhausted friend. “What is it?”
“Aurela is missing.”
It’s like those three words are enough to communicate everything, and Xeran makes a noise on the other end of the phone like he’s already standing up from the chair.
I don’t know what’s going to happen next—if there will be a fire like the last time she was drawn out into the woods. Maybe all this is silly, and she just went out for a coffee on her own. Maybe we’ll find her, and everyone will give me shit for overreacting.
But deep down, I know that isn’t true.
“We’ll look for her,” Xeran says. “Meet at the firehouse to get our gear. I’ll call the others.”
I don’t even have time to sayokaybefore the line goes dead, but I’m fine with that. The only thing I care about right now is finding Aurela, making sure she’s okay, and bringing her home safely.
***
“Valerie is gone,” Lachlan says, bursting through the door to the firehouse, looking rabid, his eyes skipping between the four of us.
He’s been through this before.
“As are Maeve and Phina,” Xeran says, and though his voice is calm, I can see him vibrating with a barely contained rage, shouldering the responsibility of being the leader and not just bursting out of this building, looking for his mate. “It seems this involves all of them.”
“Fuck,” Lach mutters under his breath before stomping to his cubby, grabbing his gear, and hastily pulling it on.
“We’ll follow the bonds,” Xeran says, already in his gear and turning to address the rest of us, who are already geared up.
Felix came into the firehouse a lot like how Lach did. Kalen is the only one of us without a mate in this game, but he looks just as serious, listening intently.
One of the women missing is his luna and his sister-in-law, after all.
“Ready,” Lachlan says, slamming the door to his cubby shut.
After that, we’re a blaze of motion, hopping into the engine, turning on the lights, the sirens. We’ll drive the engine toward the edge of the town, in the direction of the girls, so it’s at the ready if there’s a fire that nears the city line.
We’re quiet in the engine, each of us consumed with his own fear, adrenaline, panic. When we get to the parking lot of the old motel, we pile out, leaving the engine as close to the edge of town as we possibly can. Shifting would be faster, but we need to have access to our packs, especially the extinguisher on our backs, so we move together on foot, hiking up through the trees.
Each of us—save for Kalen—can feel the tug, the pull toward our mates and partners. They’re all together, like we knew they would be.
That night years ago, when the fires first started, is finally coming full circle. The moon hangs heavy over the sky, casting faint pearly streaks through the clouds and smoke. Ultra-fine, silvery ash floats through the air, twinkling and twirling around us like we’re in a snow globe.
For years, this ash has blanketed Silverville, hovering over us, suffocating us, and not for the first time, I feel a certain rage at the affront. At the fact that no matter how hard we’ve fought, how diligently we’ve rolled out of bed and fought the fires night after night, they just continue to rage.
As if the gods have been testing us and finding us unworthy.
“This way,” Felix says quietly, not cracking his normal banter and jokes.
We turn slightly and shift with him, all agreeing silently that this is the right path to the girls, our mates, our partners.
