Page 120 of The Aurora Marelup Complete Saga Omnibus

“Has anyone found Aurora?” My bond mates shake their heads no, and the sadness is overwhelming.

“I can’t feel her...” Alaric says, rubbing the scale on his chest. “She’s alive but I… I... gods, why!!” He drops to his knees, holding his head. Alaric’s anguished tone pulls at our own pain and fears. Jayce is crying; his face is buried in Dominik’s chest. Dimitri is trying to be strong for everyone.

“Fuck this!’ I growl with the tone of my beast. “Pack, we search!” I turn to face my pack and snap them all to attention and start barking out orders. Whipping around, I look at Dom, Jayce, and Arnulf. “Arnulf, take to the skies with your people to see if you can spot tracks leading away from camp.” Arnulf shifts immediately and takes off to start his search.

“Jayce, gather your packs’ best trackers and give them Aurora’s scent and have them circle the camp.” Without regard for his clothing, Jayce shifts and takes off towards where his pack mates are to start on his mission to track Aurora. “Dominik, you and Dimitri are the muscle here; start interrogating anyone who may have had anything to do with what happened last night.” I’ve never felt this dominant in mylife. My mate needs me, and I swear to the gods I will rip the world apart to find her.

CHAPTER 98

The Betrayal Pt. 3

JACOB

~Further away ~

Deep within the dark and dank cavern, I’ve hidden my quarry. This plan’s major downfall is the amount of guano from the bats. I hate bats. The smell of musty-ammonia alone makes my sensitive nose burn. But of course, Vladimir thinks this is the best place to hide Aurora. I force her mouth open and drop more of the elixir into her mouth to keep her sedated and me safe.

The male I tricked into helping me, I killed and dragged his body in the opposite direction of where the cave is. Hopefully, it throws them off my trail at least for a little while. I send two texts to Vladimir and to Tomas, letting them know I have Aurora. I also send a picture of her as proof that she’s my prisoner.

Two messages come in, and both are from Vladimir, warning me of how dangerous Aurora is. She’s drugged and harmless right now; I’m not the least bit concerned that anything is going to happen. Several hours pass and my brother shows up. I rush over and hug him, thankful he’s safe.

“Back off, Jacob, where’s the hybrid bitch?” Josef says with a snarl. He was always the mean one out of the two of us.

I motion toward the back of the cavern. “Vladimir told me to keep her towards the back so her scent can’t be picked up easily.” I smile at my brother, proud that I pulled off the abduction mostly by myself.

“Wipe that smile off your face; you look like an idiot. We need to poison this bitch and be on our way.” Josef holds up the poison, and I can tell it’s a lethal dose of wolfsbane and something silver.

“What’s in the syringe?” I move closer and take it from my brother. I slide the contents back and forth, looking it over, trying to figure it out for myself.

“Wolfsbane and Dimethylmercury, the combination should kill her in a matter of hours. After all, she’s just a white Lycan, and the fucking abomination needs to die.” Josef spits on the ground, then looks at the back of the cavern and heads down to investigate how I have Aurora situated.

I look at the syringe in my hand and then towards the back of the cavern. Honestly, I didn’t think we would be killing her; I don’t believe in hurting females. I think back to how I had positioned her in sleep in the back of the cavern. Aurora looks like an angel, innocent and sweet. My mom used to say that still waters run deep, and we never know what’s happening in the depths.

Josef returns and looks down at his phone, then back up to me. “Don’t fuck this up, or Vladimir will kill us both over it.” Josef looks at me with his eyes so full of hatred. I don’t know what happened to him, but this isn’t the brother I once knew.

Once Josef is gone, I walk to the back of the cavern. I stare at Aurora, and honestly, I can’t kill her. I can tell the drugs are starting to wear off; she should wake up in the next few hours. I need to slow it down and slow her down at the same time.My eyes fall on the syringe in my hand. I have a total of five milliliters of poison, and it seems the majority of it is mercury.

Tears flow freely down my cheek as I come to the decision I’ve dreaded. I’m a dead man if I don’t do Vladimir’s bidding. I grip Aurora’s arm and turn it so I can inject from below, keeping as much mercury out of the needle as I can. I push the mostly wolfsbane solution into her vein, trying to avoid the mercury. It’ll slow her down and make her sick but shouldn’t harm her too badly. I accidentally push a little of the mercury in and silently curse myself for my stupidity.

I withdraw the needle from her arm and sit on the floor with the remaining poison that I have decided to use on myself. I shake it up real good and inject the contents into my own vein. It’s pretty fast-acting as I feel it getting harder to breathe. My veins are starting to blacken as a result of the mercury. Falling to my side as I look at Aurora, her veins are faintly blackened. I can only hope she’s stronger than me. I use my finger to write I’m sorry before I close my eyes. My body slowly starts to shut down, and all I can think of is how sorry I am for what I have done.

CHAPTER 99

Dominik

The Search-

We run circles for what feels like forever, trying to pick up on any scent that may be left. The light rain this morning is hindering our ability to find any trace of our mate. Between the scent of rain, the rotting leaves, and the moist earth, my poor nose is working overtime trying to find any trace of my mate’s scent. My paws hurt, and I feel like I may have a pine needle stuck up my nose, but I refuse to give up. In the distance, I hear Klaus’s howl and run in that direction as fast as my paws can carry me. We all catch up to Klaus, and he’s found some of Aurora’s long white hair on a low-hanging branch.

We shift back to our human forms and start examining the area. There are two sets of footprints leading towards the mountainside. Several yards away, there’s a place where they must have laid Aurora down for a brief moment. Aurora’s scent is strong here, so it wasn’t too long ago since they were last here. I’d safely estimate within the last eight to ten hours at most. They had to be moving slowly to carry her this far. Dimitri notices an area where there appears to have been a scuffle, and blood paints the surrounding trees and leaves. Drag marks lead us to a shallow grave where the accomplice lays beheaded.

We double back to where we caught Aurora’s scent the strongest; I shift back to my Dire Wolf and start searching for any scent leading away. My brother, Jayce, also shifts and starts working in tandem with me, searching the area. Alaric, Arnulf, and Dimitri remain in their human forms on the lookout for anything our animals may miss. Klaus starts circling with his Lycan, looking for any clues that may be higher up.

Jayce suddenly stops, and his form goes rigid.Dom, double check this. I think I found the guy’s scent. I think I smell blood from when he murdered the other guy.

Carefully, I move through the leaves over to where my brother is and lower my nose to the ground.You’re right, Jayce! You found it! Everyone, follow Jayce!

Our bond mates move quickly to join us as we follow Jayce, letting him take point. We find several more places that the abductor had set Aurora down before we come to a cavern. The acrid scent of bat guano burns my sensitive nose.

---