Page 39 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

Everett looked suspiciously at me. “What do you mean?”

“Something has happened,” I repeated with mounting anxiety. As I stood up, my legs trembled, which was odd as I hadn’t exerted myself at all today. I barely made it to the window and stared outside into the night as if I could see the very source of the trauma that had suddenly struck me. But the mountainside was quiet tonight. Deep within me, I knew something was wrong. My fated mate was experiencing intense fear, and now pain radiated through my head and into my body, exploding through my hands as if I’d been impaled by a hundred teeth. “Kiara’s in trouble.”

Still sitting at the table, Everett and Gavin exchanged looks. Aislin and Billie had gone to bed, leaving just us three keeping guard. I wished Billie were there, by my side again, for her familiar reassurances. I expected the two men to tell me to relax and sit back down.

Surprisingly, Gavin rose and came to stand next to me. “What do you feel?”

I peered down at my hands—they were shaking and reddened as though I were the one enduring some kind of impact. “It feels like my whole body was just thrown against a wall. And there’s something in my hands, stabbing like needles. My head is pounding. It has to be Kiara. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

“Call Sebastian,” Gavin told Everett.

He already had his phone up to his ear. “It’s ringing. Usually, Sebastian answers right away.”

“Keep trying. Is there anybody else we can call?”

“I have Brad’s number. I’ll try that next.” Everett scrolled through his contacts for the number. We waited silently for him to begin speaking, but Brad didn’t answer, either. “Let me see who else I have,” he muttered, searching his phone for more Mythguard connections.

The longer we went without contacting Mythguard, the worse I felt. Foreboding sat heavily within me, the sense of something wrong worsening with each second. I wasn’t just imagining this. Anything Kiara was feeling, I could feel, too. Her pain was unimaginable, her uncertainty and dread resonating through me. I paced, growing restless…until finally, Everett’s voice broke the silence.

“Where’s Kiara?…One of the SUVs?…Yes, definitely the dragons. That’s David’s truck…Shit. Okay, hurry. Call me back when you get there.”

Each word drove a stake of fear deeper into my heart. I held my breath while Everett told us the news.

“The dragons attacked Mythguard on their way out of Grandbay. They targeted the vehicle that Kiara was in and ran it off the road into a ditch. They hit a tree. The operative I spoke to said it just happened a couple of minutes ago, and they’re going to check it out right now.”

I swore as I exhaled, running my hand through my hair. “I knew it. She should have let me mark her. No, I should have gone with them. I should have insisted.”

Gavin clapped a hand on my shoulder. “They would have attacked whether or not you were with them. The difference is that you’re still safe and able to act instead of possibly dead in a car crash. You can still feel Kiara through the connection—that means she’s still alive.”

“But she’s in danger, and I’m not there to help her!” I could do nothing except stand there, fretting.

Gavin stepped back, shaking his head. “I’ll go wake up Billie and Aislin.”

He took off upstairs, and Everett stayed with me. I felt exposed to a whirlwind of uncomfortable emotions. Anger. Fear. Anxiety. I wanted to take off right now and drive the road where the crash had taken place, looking for Kiara myself. No, it would be a better idea to go straight to the mine and intercept the dragons before they could hide Kiara deep in that cave. I wanted to confront my father and yell at him for endangering my fated mate. There were so many things I wanted to do and nothing I could do, at least not yet.

Everett’s phone rang again. He answered, then nodded as his eyes remained downcast. After he ended the call, he said, “Everyone in the SUV is dead, including Sebastian.” Grave concern lowered his voice as he looked back up at me. Everett never revealed much in his expression, but I saw a flicker of grief and pain behind his cutting grey eyes for the sudden, ruthless death of his contact. He swallowed. “The dragons took Kiara.”

I balled my fists, aching to strike something, anything. “Fuck!”

Within minutes, Gavin was charging back down the stairs with a sleepy Aislin and Billie trudging after him. They had probably barely even fallen asleep before he’d roused them.

“What happened? Is Kiara okay?” Aislin asked, wrapping herself up in the arms of an oversized sweater that looked like it must have been her mate’s.

“The Inkscales have her,” said Everett. “Sebastian is dead.”

“Oh.” Aislin frowned. Then, as the news sunk in, her face wrinkled up in frustration before she shouted, unable to contain her anger, “Those fucking dragons! Sons of bitches! Getting Muriel wasn’t enough; they had to take Kiara, too? Aargh! What are we supposed to do?”

“We have to rescue Kiara,” Billie said. “They’ll be taking her back to the mine.”

“We can’t go on our own,” said Everett.

“We have to do something!” argued Aislin.

“We have to wait for backup from Mythguard!” Everett insisted. “If we go to the mine now, we’ll be outnumbered and killed. I know you want to act right away; we all do. But we have to be logical about this. They won’t kill Kiara unless she’s in her beast form, and I doubt Kiara is going to give up and transform quickly. Besides, the full moon isn’t until tomorrow night.”

Everett had a point, but it didn’t relax me at all to think about allowing the dragons to take Kiara and hold her prisoner again.

“You and Billie stay down here and try to get some more sleep on the couch, okay? You need a bit of rest, at least.”

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