Page 26 of Gift from the Nexus

“Shit,” Dyce mumbles, looking at all of us with wide, worried eyes.

“Someone has five seconds to tell me what the fuck is happening?” Corentin demands.

“A mate’s message,” both Dyce and San say at the same time, and our gazes bounce between the two of them in confusion.

“No, please no. It can’t be,” Draken whispers in horror, tears forming in his eyes.

“Willow’s sending him a message,” San answers our glares vaguely.

“Could you be more specific?” I ask frustratedly.

Before he can expand, Draken lets out a mournful roar, nothing like his fury filled one that’d have this entire landquaking. This one is agonized, gut-wrenching, like someone is reaching into his chest and prying his heart out. Something just happened to our Primary. I know it. The sight of him speaks volumes, and the small touch of his pain that flows from him to my bond confirms it.

“From what I’ve gathered on my own, it’s easy to assume Willow doesn’t know all there is to know about these kinds of things.” Dyce glances around, looking for confirmation, and at my nod he continues, “To send a mate’s message, you or anything really can stroke your mark and pass on a feeling. Your mom could caress her mark if she was feeling happy, excited, sad, anything, then think about me intently, and I’d feel it in mine. It’s different than the bond. Only the two of us can sense it.”

“But Mom isn’t a shifter.”

“Even non-shifters can mark a shifter mate. They just have to break the skin,” Dyce says, turning his attention back to Draken.

“What the fuck are you feeling, Draken?” Caspian demands, understanding crossing his face, putting together what I’ve already summarized.

Rocking back and forth on all fours, tears flow down Draken’s face, scorching the grass with every drop as he snarls and growls, trying to hold back the pain he’s feeling. Shaking his head, he refuses to look up at any of us, refuses to speak.

Kneeling down on trembling legs, I place my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. The surrounding sound doesn’t penetrate the ringing in my ears his rage-filled cries brought on, and every time he punches the ground, I hold in a flinch. The rapid succession of them makes me believe he’s pounding the earth in sync with her pain and the assumption slices away at my heart, my soul. Something inside of me seems to break.

Rage, concern, sadness are too mediocre to even begin describing the emotions blooming within me. I’ve alwaysthought I understood Caspian’s desire for giving in to the darkness, but with these uncontrollable feelings tramping through me, I realize I’ve never truly understood until this moment.

If I could fade into nothingness, I’d destroy any and everything to get to her. I’d crumble cities, bend the land, the mountains themselves would shake with every step I took across this realm to find her. I’d crawl to her, bathe in the blood of both innocent and foe alike. No one in my path would be safe, no one would stop me.

Fuck, how easy it’d be to just throw morals to the side. Everyone else be damned.

“Brother.” I snap my eyes open and collide with Caspian’s as he squeezes the back of my neck. He knows exactly what I was just thinking. It’s unnerving how he can sense the darkness rising in others, like it calls to him.

From the years I’ve known him, I guess the look in his eyes has just become normal to me, and when Will would refer to them as haunted in her mind, I never quite saw what she did, but as I hold his gaze now, I see it, and I see the incredible strength it’s taken him all these years not to give in to his darkest desires. He lets it lurk there on the outskirts but never lets it take over fully. This situation has me a millisecond away from saying fuck it all, while he’s been battling it for eighteen years.

“You back?” he asks.

“Yeah.” I grunt, and with a nod, he focuses back on Draken while I pull myself together.

Minutes seem to pass by before Draken stops rocking and wipes his face clean, finally lifting his head to us. His muscles tremble as he sits back on his heel and lifts his face to the sky, taking deep breaths.

“Time to end these fuckers and find my little wanderer,” he states so calmly as he pushes himself to his feet, I’m almost fearful for anyone else to be around him outside of us.

“You okay?” I ask slowly.

“I will be in just a minute. Let’s go.”

Shit.

Obviously, Caspian feels no need to wrangle whatever murderous demons are lurking below Draken’s surface because he graces him with a devilish smirk rather than the serious expression I received.

Turning to the concerned and slightly fearful small army of E.F. members who’ve just watched this entire thing go down, I narrow my eyes and they all stand at the ready.

“Move out,” I order, and as one, we all run through the trees until we reach the ward.

On my signal, we force our way through the barrier and sprint toward the oblivious soldiers mulling around. No more than a second goes by before their alarm blares and they jump to attention, scrambling to get into their positions.

The goal is for us to draw as many of them out of the building and bring the fighting outside, away from the hostages, but if Ry senses they start moving people, we’ll push forward and get a team inside.

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