Page 153 of Cursed Bonds: An Alpha's Destiny

Stephanie moaned, and it sounded like she’d been crying. “Is Jace okay? Is everyone all right?”

“I’m fine, Steph,” Jace grunted. “Did you know about this latest attack? We’ve got the child here, locked away safe.”

“I only heard about ten minutes ago. Eren was bragging.” Her voice grew thick. “We may not have two days, Jace. The boy he sent only turned ten a month ago. His name’s Carter, and Eren has his mother locked up. She tried to fight Eren off when he came for the kid.”

“So, he’s not only taking children, but locking up the parents who don’t go along with it?” Langston asked, his face a mask of anger.

“More than locking up,” Stephanie said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Dale White, a man from Scottsdale, told Eren to fuck off when he came for his son. He vanished that night. Most folks think Eren had him killed for disobeying his alpha.”

“You said this boy’s name is Carter?” Reese asked.

“Yes. Carter Edgerton. If there’s one good thing to come from Eren doing this to Carter, it’s that it’s helped Byron see reason. I spoke with him just after word broke about the boy being sent off. He’s completely on our side now. It didn’t even take much convincing. He‘s terrified Eren’s gonna go for his son next.”

“Hell, yeah,” Langston muttered.

“I have to warn you all, Eren is talking about using the other kids he has trained as a distraction to try and take Kirsten again.”

An angry growl rumbled from Jace’s chest, and I put my hand on his shoulder to calm him. His entire body vibrated with rage.

“That rat bastard isn’t getting anywhere near Kirsten,” Jace said through gritted teeth. He put his hand over mine on his shoulder. “I swear to that.”

Eren should be fearing for his life. From the expression on Jace’s face, if the other man was standing here right now, he’d have ripped his head off with his bare hands.

The others continued to talk, discussing the plans as I went to the cage and knelt in front of the wolf, who was still thrashing about with Waylan’s belt tied around his muzzle. Jace and the other alphas agreed that we needed to move up the timeline and move on Eren the next night. Langston was informing everyone that my illusion spell probably wouldn’t be strong enough.

“We need to figure out a plan B,” Langston said.

Harley moved around the edge of the garage and squatted down beside me, rubbing my back. “How are you doing?” she whispered.

“Not great,” I admitted, nodding toward the boy. “He looks so miserable. This is all so fucked up.”

“I never, in a million years, would have thought stuff like this was going on.”

Rather than respond, I leaned even closer to Carter. A strange sensation tickled at the back of my neck. The wolf thrashed his head back and forth, trying to get the belt off, but it was secured well enough that it wasn’t budging. He was also growing exhausted from the attack and his attempts to escape. The anger and desire to hurt radiated off him in waves, and my magic reacted to the emotions coming off him.

There was something else there as well. I frowned, narrowing my eyes. It took a few moments, but I finally figured out what I was sensing. Sadness.

A feral wolf would have very basic instincts and emotions. Anger, hunger, fear, and pain. But sadness was more like a human trait. If there was no humanity left within him, how could he feel sad?

“Jace?” I said, raising my voice to be heard over the conversation. “Can you come here?”

The others quieted as Jace walked over. “What’s wrong?”

“I can feel his emotions,” I said, unsure how else to describe it.

“What do you mean?”

“I can sense what he’s feeling,” I said, gesturing to the cage. “He’s sad.”

The other shifters in the room looked surprised by this pronouncement. “Wait,” Abigail said. “You can feel a shifter’s emotions? Like… like an alpha can?”

Jace knelt down, leaning close and gazing through the bars at Carter. After a moment, he sat back, surprise etched on his face. “She’s right. I can sense it, too.” He turned and looked at me, a weird grin on his lips. “Maybe you were an alpha in a past life,” he said, giving me a playful nudge. “Only alphas can sense shifter emotions. Usually, that is.”

An idea occurred to me then. I stood and walked over to Waylan, snatching his phone from him.

“Stephanie? This is Kirsten. What do you know about Carter? Tell me everything.”

“Uh, well, I don’t know a lot. Eren took him before I came to town. He just turned ten. His father is dead, and like I said earlier, his mother is being held captive. Um, someone said he really liked soccer. That’s all I really know.”

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