Page 41 of Blades of Ice

She wasn’t wrong. Beck reclined onto his side and cradled his head the best he could with iron cuffs around his wrists. “Then I guess we wait for my mate to save us.”

Chloe sucked in a breath. “Since when do you have a mate? Who is she?”

Beck’s Bear rumbled in his chest. Why was he warning Beck to keep quiet? “No one you know. I met her… Fuck, I don’t know when. How long have I been here?”

“I’m not sure what day it is. So, this female?”

Something Dooley said about his sisters not needing a reason to lie had Beck hesitating to tell Chloe the truth. “I doubt you know her. I met her in Kodiak after dropping off some clients. It’s new.”

Chloe’s feet scuffed over the ground. “It’s not like she’d know where we are, right?”

Beck didn’t respond. Instead, he closed his eyes and let the past week with Lydia remind him he had something – someone – to live for.

Wake up.

Go away.

Wake up! Beck needs us, and we can’t help him by sleeping the day away.

Lydia sighed as she rolled to her back. Her beast wasn’t wrong. Sitting up, she stretched her arms overhead, then pushed back the covers and slung her legs over the side of the bed. She removed Beck’s shirt, found a bra and some jeans, then got dressed, putting his shirt back on. After peeing and splashing water on her face, Lydia made her way down the hallway. Dooley and Kennedy were sitting at the dining table. He was tapping away at a laptop, while Kennedy sipped something in a mug.

Kennedy jumped to her feet. “I’ll get supper in the oven.”

Lydia liked the female. A lot. And if it was time for supper, Lydia had slept longer than she intended. She took the seat opposite the one Kennedy vacated. “Anything new?”

“Yes. I put your cell and the sat phones on chargers. Beckett’s has several calls and texts from Delaney, and yours has been blowing up with text messages from someone named Dakota. You had one call from your mom, two from your dad, a text from someone named Locke, five texts and several calls from a Cailín, and Carleigh figured out who the man at Amara’s was.”

Lydia crossed her arms and laid her head down on them. Cailín she could handle. The others? She didn’t want to talk to anyone other than Carleigh, but if she didn’t respond to her family, they’d hop the Clan jet to Alaska. She looked around for her cell phone. When she saw it on the counter, she stood andpadded across the room, dodging Kennedy as she put a casserole dish in the oven. “Who’s the man?”

“Orson Murray, father to Heather Lewis, whom Beckett dated before leaving BC.”

Lydia’s hand froze as she reached for her phone. Beck hadn’t mentioned anyone from his time before. “Was it serious?”

“Eh. They were together several years, but when Amara was made to leave the province, Heather refused to move with Beck, and he wouldn’t remain behind, so it ended.”

If she and Beck weren’t fated mates, Lydia might be jealous. Hell, she still was. Lydia hadn’t dated anyone for any length of time, while Beck had loved this female enough to ask her to move with him.

Kennedy placed her hand on Lydia’s arm. “Don’t go there. That was ten years ago. What they had was nothing special. What you have with Sawyer? It’s everything.”

“You’re right, but what is her father doing with Amara?”

“That is the million-dollar question. It’s possible the Empress doesn’t know his identity. It isn’t as though they all got together for Sunday dinners. Beckett’s personal life was, and still is, separate from his family. Chloe and Heather went to school together, and if I remember correctly, they were close. But back to Orson. When I tapped into the video feed from the Empress’s security cameras, it showed them leaving her house together. It didn’t appear as though she was under duress, but Amara is Queen for a reason. She wouldn’t be quivering in her snow boots.”

Lydia’s phone pinged with another text message. “I need to go answer some of these calls before my family comes with a rescue party.”

“Carleigh spoke to your mom and gave her the gist of what’s going on, so there’s that.”

“Okay. I’m still going to call her.” Lydia took the phone to the living room but stopped short when she noticed Caleb sprawled out on the sofa. He looked up from where he was scrolling on his phone. “Thanks for the rescue. I don’t think I said that earlier.”

“You were kind of out of it, and you’re welcome.”

“That I was.”

Caleb stood and pocketed his phone. “Now that you’re awake, I’m needed back in Seward. The helo is in the warehouse, and the Cessna is in the slip Beckett rented when you first got here.”

“How did you manage that?”

“All Sagan crafts have GPS locators. I took my own trip through the snow to get it. It’s not often I get to run on four legs, and I rather enjoyed it. Dooley has all the keys. Carleigh assured me you can fly the bird?”

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