Page 86 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“Do you think he’s planning on putting us in there?” Shane asked hollowly as his gaze dropped to the chains attached to the wall.

“No,” she said with absolutely no hesitation

“Promise?” Shane asked, staring ahead.

“Promise,” Jill said, knowing without a doubt that Logan would never hurt them. Deciding that they’d spent enough time down here, Jill moved to turn around only to frown when she felt it.

A weird tingling sensation along her fingertips and the palm of her hand.

Frowning, Jill glanced down at her hand only to forget how to breathe when she saw the tendrils of white smoke rising from her skin.

CHAPTER 42

“Angel!” Logan shouted as he stumbled into the kitchen.

When he didn’t see her, Logan headed up the servant’s stairs as the pain tearing his hand apart slowly began making its way to his wrist. “Angel!” he yelled as he made his way down the hallway, quickly looking into every room as he went, desperate to find her.

“Angel!” Logan shouted as he made his way to the children’s room. “Where the hell is she?”

“I can’t scent her over your scent,” Tomas said, sounding frustrated as he shoved a bedroom door open and looked inside.

Logan opened his mouth to yell for Jill again when Caleb and Emma stepped into the hallway, looking worried. Forcing himself to calm down, Logan knelt down in front of the children and asked, “Have you seen Jill?” as Tomas raced past him and checked the rest of the bedrooms.

“No, where’s Mommy?” Caleb mumbled sadly, making something inside of Logan break.

“I don’t know, min swete sunu, but I’m going to find out,” Logan said, leaning over and kissed his forehead. “Stay in your room and keep your sister safe,” Logan said, kissing Emma’s forehead as he stood up.

“Okay,” Caleb mumbled, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth as he took Emma’s hand in his and led her back into their bedroom.

“Check the third floor and the attic,” Logan said to Tomas, watching the twins head back into their room before he turned around and made his way back downstairs, praying every step of the way that she was safe. He-

God, he couldn’t fucking lose her.

Struggling not to lose his fucking mind, Logan raced downstairs, grinding his jaw against the pain slowly making its way up his arm as he searched every room for her, but God, the fucking pain! It felt like his hand had been set on fire and it was being doused in gasoline. He-

“Help!” came the muffled shout that had his stomach dropping.

“She’s down here!” Logan shouted before he headed down the hallway, listening for Shane’s screams for help and-

“Help!” Shane screamed again, drawing him down the small hallway that cut behind the kitchen and down another small hallway where a door stood open.

“Shane?” Logan said, rushing down the stone stairs into what appeared to be the Pack’s emergency cells for the nights when they couldn’t make it to the woods when they needed to shift.

“Help her!” Shane screamed, drawing Logan’s attention and-

Oh, fuck…

“What happened?” Logan demanded, barely able to see Jill through the white smoke pouring off her body.

“She touched the bars,” Shane said hollowly as Logan reached into the smoke and realized that Jill, who hadn’t said one fucking word since he found her, was curled up into a ball on her side. He quickly ran his hands over her until he found her arm and pulled it free from her body only to feel his stomach drop when he realized that her hand was gone.

“Which bars did she touch?” Logan asked as his gaze flickered from her arm, noting that her wrist was almost completely gone now, to her face to find her squeezing her eyes tightly shut and her jaw clenched as she struggled not to scream.

“The ones behind you,” Shane said as Logan watched the tears rolling down her face before he turned his attention to the cell behind him and took in the iron bars.

As soon as he turned his head, he smelled it, the unmistakable scent of Sentinel blood. Praying that he was wrong, Logan moved closer, careful not to touch the bars and slowly inhaled, taking in the sweet scent with a hint of mint and-

“They coated the bars with Sentinel blood and holy oil,” Tomas said as he joined them, making Logan’s stomach drop as his gaze shot back to Jill’s arm and watched healthy tan skin slowly turn pale before it turned into gray dust and fell away as it made its way up her arm. The excruciating pain slowly tearing up his arm let him know that it wasn’t going to stop.

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