Page 54 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
“Alright,” Xeran says gruffly, after what feels like years but is only seconds, after Felix disappears into the trees. “Let’s go save our mates.”
Chapter 28 - Aurela
“Oh, I justknewyou would come!”
Tara is standing at the ridge, just like she was all those years ago. Except, unlike what happened back then, the four of us all arrive at the same time together, rather than one at a time.
“Tara,” Maeve says, her voice low. “You never really went to our school, did you?”
Tara rolls her eyes so hard they could fall out of her head, and starts to pace so near to the edge of the cliff that it makes my heart jump into my throat. Logically, I know that she could use her magic if she fell, and I know that this night is probably not going to end with her peacefully surrendering, but I can’t help the fear that rises up into my chest, anyway.
“Aren’t you guys getting tired of this game?”
“Yeah,” Valerie says, crossing her arms. “We are. And we’re tired of you starting fires and threatening our pack. We have children now, Tara. We’ve all grown up, and it’s time you did, too.”
Again, something cracks in her normally cool face. She turns, voice fracturing in the middle when she says, “Ican’t.”
We blink, glancing at each other, and Tara goes on bitterly, “Don’t yougetit? I’m not like you. I don’t get to leave. I don’t get to roam free. I don’t get to fucking growup!”
For the first time since I met her all those years ago in the hallway, tears start to roll down her face, and the sight of it makes my heart feel like a sticky, amorphous ball of chewing gum.
Quieter, so her voice can barely be heard above the sound of the wind, she says, “I don’t get to find a mate. To be claimed. Or to have cute little fucking babies, like all of you.”
Without thinking, I set my palm flat on my belly. Valerie gasps, her eyes tracking the movement. The other girls all look, too, and I swallow hard, meeting their eyes. It distracts from everything else she’s said, the comments about never getting to grow up.
“Congratulations,” Tara says to me flatly. “Can’t wait foranotherlittle wielder in our group.”
“There is no group,” Phina says, then changes her mind. “Actually, there is a group, but you are not a part of it, Tara. You lost that right when you hurt us, hurt the town, hurt the pack.”
Tara sucks on her teeth, then lets out a breath. “Fine. If you feel that way.”
Then she moves quick, so none of us realizes what she’s going to do until it’s already happening. Her hands raise, her palms facing us, her mouth open like she’s laughing, though we can’t hear her over the whoosh of the magic blasting toward us from her palms.
None of us has time to move or even realize what’s happening until Maeve flies backward, a cry flying from her lips before she lands on her back three feet back from where we were standing.
“Maeve!” Valerie cries.
With Maeve on her back, we can all see the little swell of her belly pushing out against her dress. Before, I could only have imagined what it would feel like, the fear of getting hurt and losing my baby, but now I can truly understand, with my hand still resting on my stomach.
“Youbitch,” Phina seethes, raising her own hands up to Tara, whoislaughing. I can hear it, echoing and loud, so similar to the deep, reverberating laughter of fire daemons that it sends my heartbeat up a pitch.
Tara fires again, trying to hit Phina, but Phina dodges, sending a blast of wind toward Tara, who stumbles back under the weight of it, her heel hitting the edge of the cliff.
Phina isn’t trying tokillTara with her magic; she’s trying to push her over the edge of the cliff. I try to meet Phina’s eye, to understand why that’s her strategy, but her hair has flown in front of her face, the blond strands fanning out like a cobweb, sticking in her mouth.
“Who’s the real bitch?” Tara taunts, stepping back into mid-air, but remaining in the same spot as though she’s still standing on the cliff’s edge. “Me, or the girl whomademe?”
“Phina!” Valerie cries, her hands spread out over Maeve. “I need help!”
Phina turns and races for them, so it’s just me facing Tara, who stares down at me like some sort of goddess, her shrewd eyes picking me apart.
“Made you?” I ask, brow furrowing. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” Tara says, tears still running down her face. “I’ve been trying to tell you thiswholetime.”
And then it clicks.
Maeve lets out a loud moan somewhere behind me, and I’m reminded of that day, all those years ago, when Tara faced me on this very same cliff, screaming at me that this was what I wanted. All the other girls had been pulled dry by her, and thatjust wasn’t enough. She was too powerful, too strong. Especially once she got my magic, too.
