Page 61 of Nightmare Island

Chapter

Fifteen

GHOST

“Something’s fucking strange. Why the hell show up, then run from us?” Knut quips beside me, his combat boots crunching over broken branches as we stride from our territory perimeter close to Sten’s border. Dark stains mark his clothes where he’d thrown himself into the underbrush after Sten’s men.

Yet, irritation gnaws at my gut as reality hits me hard. “They weren’t there to attack us. It was a fucking decoy.” My head pounds as I piece it together. “It had to be… they were distracting us from something. Why else run the moment they see us? Why were they just standing there?”

“Sten’s never been fucking subtle,” he adds. “This isn’t his style—sending men to breach, then retreat? He likes blood, chaos.” He spits on the ground, and I catch the metallic scent of blood.

I exchange a dark glance with him, then we’re both speeding up our pace to the mansion, fear clawing at my chest that we fell for his damn trap. My thoughts fly to Hel.

Barking over my shoulder, I instruct the rest of the guards to search the whole fucking perimeter urgently.

A grumble from overhead draws my attention.

I glance up at the unnatural green-black mass of clouds rolling in from Sten’s side of the island. Lightning crackles within the darkness. I’ve never seen such a storm roll in so quickly, seeing as the morning was bright without a cloud in sight.

“What the fuck’s up with the sky?” Knut mutters.

The truth is like a blade to my throat, and a dreadful fear sinks through me, turning my blood to ice.

Hel!

She’s in danger! It has to be her calling the storm.

“I have to go,” I bark at Knut, already moving. “Get all the men ready and head to Sten’s. We’re going to war today.”

At the mansion, I shoulder past guards and servants, taking the stairs three at a time. There’s a hollow feeling in my chest, an emptiness that shouldn’t exist. The mating bite I gave Hel last night created a bond between us, one that lets me sense her presence in the mansion. Instead, there’s nothing but a void where she should be.

An ache starts in my chest, and I run like a madman, praying I find her in her room and that I’m freaking out over nothing.

I slam my bedroom door open so hard it cracks the frame, but the sheets where I left her sleeping are empty. Her scent lingers. The pillow still holds the impression of her head, and my wolf howls at the memory of how she looked there just hours ago.

And where the fuck is Axel? I specifically ordered him to guard her. I rush out and find his room empty, too, bed made.

Something feels fucking wrong, and my head’s spinning. Then I rush wildly through the mansion, not finding them, and no one’s seen them.

The storm. No sign of Hel or Axel. The attacks.

“They were a fucking distraction,” I snarl, putting my fist through a wall in the corridor. Blood drips from my knuckles, but I barely feel it. I promised to protect her.

Movement from my left catches my attention.

I glance over to Eve, freezing at having spotted me. She’s fidgeting with her flowered dress, her brown curls tucked behind her ears.

“Eve.” My tone is a pure Alpha command. I march over to her.

She lifts her chin to meet me, a half smile on her lips. “Ghost, is everything all right?”

“Have you seen Hel this morning?” The question comes out as a growl. “And where’s Axel?” I’m going to wring his neck when I find him.

She bites her lower lip, and my patience snaps like a wire. Through the windows behind her, I spy that the storm has turned the day to almost night. Trees bend, nearly doubling in the wind. What the fuck?

“Hel’s in danger,” I snarl, closing the distance between us. The scent of her fear is cloying, suffocating. “And I can’t wait. Fucking talk!”

“I saw her,” she whispers, tears welling up. Her hands twist in her dress, wrinkling the fabric. “She was on the balcony alone, staring out, and she seemed fine, but…”

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