Page 31 of Owning His Mate

It’s hopeless, and I know that before I act, but I can’t stand by while we’re captured. So I risk it in a last-ditch desperate attempt to save us both.

As soon as I draw on my magic, the bracelets around my wrists surge to life. The result is instantaneous. Blinding pain shoots through my body, lightning-hot agony that almost drags me to my knees. I don’t know how I find the strength, but I blast the two hunters, watching with satisfaction as they go down, blood spurting from their nose, mouth, and eyes.

That satisfaction is short-lived, though. My own pain is building to a crescendo that I can’t ignore. Every muscle in my body is contracting in waves and dragging in air feels impossible as my lungs tighten.

I stumble, losing my footing as I try to focus on anything other than the pain working through me. It feels as if I am being split in half and I have to fight the nausea swirling through my gut as my body and my wolf urge me to stop.

I’m not sure what happens next, but I blink and I’m on my knees, my palms pressed against the asphalt, blood dripping from my nose. I can taste metal in the back of my throat and my head pulses in time with my racing heart.

I try to move, but I’m dizzy and lightheaded.

Son of a…

I let out a scream, though it sounds as if there is a hand wrapped around my throat, squeezing the breath out of me. I want to keep fighting, but my body is no longer cooperating. Twitching and convulsing, I fall face first onto the ground, my limbs like water.

Get. Fucking. Up.

I try to move, but my body is lead, and my head is swimming. Peering along the ground, I seek Kye. He’s lying maybe ten feet from me, slightly tilted onto his side, and his slack jaw and closed eyes tell me he’s still unconscious.

Realizing how fucked we are has terror swirling through my belly. I can’t be captured. I don’t want to be forced into breeding super soldiers for whatever war the Order thinks is coming.

Don’t fall asleep.

I try to blink the gritty exhaustion from my eyes, but they’re becoming heavy.

“We need to move fast,” one of the hunters says.

“Get her loaded. You know we’re gonna to be rewarded for this.” He sounds gleeful and I want to smack him in the face. For him, this is a successful mission; for Kye and me, this means our lives are over.

“That’s why we do it,” the other guy says.

Unable to hold on, I give into the pull of exhaustion and sink into the darkness.

When I wake,the first thing I can smell is antiseptics. I blink my eyes slowly, prying my eyelids apart even though they feel like concrete. The pain doesn’t register for a moment, but thenit hits me full force. Every inch of my skin feels tender, as if the capillaries and arteries below have been fried.

I suck in a breath between my teeth, trying to control the sensations rocketing through me as I quickly glance around the room, my adrenaline flaring inside me.

I’ve been captured.

My worst nightmare came true.

Swallowing down my panic, I try to get my bearings. Rows of beds line both sides of the room, with equipment and low metal tables scattered between. There are curtains separating the beds, creating an illusion of privacy that is shattered by the blinking camera in the corner near the ceiling.

Who’s watching?

I’m not sure if it is a positive thing that I’m here alone. Where the fuck is Kye and what have they done to him? Are there other tau here? What about Callum and the others?

I reach through my mating bond, trying to seek the male who shares my awareness, but there’s nothing but silence.

Fuck, please be okay, Kye.

He’s not dead, but he’s also not conscious, and that scares me to death. As I sit up, pain spreads through my body like a whip cracking. It’s so dizzying, I have to close my eyes and grip the edge of the bed to stop myself from sliding off.

What did those assholes do to me?

My brain feels sluggish, and my stomach knots as bile coats my throat.

Breathe in and out.

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