Page 28 of Cage Me

My head shakes before he’s even done speaking, and the desire to soothe any doubts that I’ve put in his head nearly overwhelms me. “Sorry, just a lot on my mind. I don’t regret taking it back earlier, and I’m still sorry for my harshly spoken words.”

He stops and reaches for my hand. “I took you by surprise. I understand why you tried to run.”

“Yet, you’re not sorry for refusing to let me get away,” I say with a chuckle, very tempted to find out what kissing him will be like when I’m fully accepting of his touch.

“Not even a?—”

We both turn as a burst of magic appears behind us, and it’s almost adorable how he tries to move in front of me as if I need protection. While sweet, he’s going to need to learn that he can be my mate, but I’m my own heroine.

Plus, this new arrival isn’t a threat.

“Natalia,” I say with slight suspicion. “I thought we wouldn’t see you until morning.”

Her stare is wide and bright as she glances around, then throws a velvet bag at Drake. “You need to leave here and never come back.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand. I’ve never seen her all twitchy and with her head on a swivel before, and I don’t particularly like it.

“His blood,” she whispers. “He’s been marked, and I won’t have that kind of dark magic in my home. Not anywhere in Crossroads.” She looks at him again and glares. “Maudit.”

The witch says the singular word with a French accent I’ve also never heard her use.

“What does that mean?” I ask, glancing between Natalia and Drake because he doesn’t seem all that surprised by her reaction to him.

“He is cursed,” she says reverently. “Destruction will follow him before great death, and I won’t have that here. Not when we’ve spent years making Crossroads the safe haven so many of us need.” She unclips another bag from her side and tosses it at me. “Here is what you’ve asked for. I don’t need anything else from you. Just get him the hell out of our town.”

Natalia disappears before I can ask any other questions, so I’m left hoping Drake is going to be more forthcoming.

“What the hell is she talking about?” I ask him the moment we’re alone.

His mouth downturns. “I don’t know exactly, but I’m also not surprised. Kel kept me contained for years just because she could. She could have killed me, but the thrill she got out of torturing told me all I needed to know about her.”

“So, you have no idea how you’ve been marked and why Natalia thinks you’re the epitome of destruction?” This isn’t making any sense, but I also want to have patience with Drake. Taking into account the little he has told me already, this isn’t his fault. He came here trying to fix things before I got in his way.

His fingers rub over his shirt, right above where I know his tattoo to be. “This could be the mark she’s talking about. I always just assumed it was a symbol used to keep my wolf chained, but maybe I’ve been wrong. The destruction piece makes no sense at all.”

“Obviously the destruction is going to be us tearing that witch bitch to shreds,” I say with a huff. “We need to get back to my family. All of this just became a lot more complicated, and I need to know they’re safe.”

I start to walk away, and he grabs my wrist, halting my movements as heat runs up my arm. “I won’t let anything happen to them or you. You know that, right?”

My first thought is to tell him no, because I don’t know him, but I also don’t think he’s lying. I believe that Drake would do whatever he can to protect me. Except I’ve seen shit I can’t unsee. We don’t always get to control what happens, no matter how much we want to.

“Let’s just hurry.” When I turn away from him, a sour taste fills my mouth, and my chest tightens. Damn it. What the hell is wrong with me?

That’s a question I don’t have to think long about for the answer.

The mate bond.

The longer I’m with Drake, the more I allow myself to care about what happens to him, the stronger the pulsing sensation within me becomes. My wolf even seems to be waiting for the moment I fully give in and fuck his brains out, but I need to get my head clearer before I let that happen.

I might have taken back my rejection, but I’m not going to walk into a lifetime commitment blindly or lock him into having a mate who leans heavily toward crazy.

When we walk into the backyard and I see the shed door open, my heart stops and any other thoughts are a distant memory. Where the hell are they?

My feet are running before I’ve even fully processed what I’m seeing. All the air is sucked from my lungs as I nearly yank the door off its rusty hinges to confirm what my head already assumed: the shed is empty of the two most important people in this world to me.

“Mom? Peter?” I yell their names as if that will magically conjure them, but I can’t even scent them. They’re not here.

Panic is quickly replaced by fury, and all I can see is red when I step into the shed to grab my bag that I never unpacked earlier.

---