Page 58 of Forging Bonds: Part One

No fucking, way.

“Incredible,” Reed mutters, and a sense of pride flows through me.

My pride is quickly snuffed out as my fear for River grows, and we set off. I ask it to switch from a map to the glowing ball of magic that I can follow, and I can feel the guys staring at me in shock.

I’m done talking as I urge Mael to go faster.

I have an incredible need to get to River to help him. I don’t know how, but it’s all I can think about. My stomach twists, and my heart beats faster. We need to get to him and quickly.

I don’t like this, I really fucking don’t like this, and neither do the voices. They’re urging me to move faster, and there’s a thread of panic to their tone that I don’t like. The voices very rarely panic, and it’s never a good sign when they do.

We thunder through the forest, and I am so glad that we’re on the kelpies because they move so much quicker than anything else that we have, although the guys in the air seem to be keeping up easily enough. We arrive at the location just in time to see River disappear again, although our eyes connect just before he vanishes. The panic and fear in them drives a spear through my heart, but fortunately, my glowing tracker doesn’t disappear and instead takes us to another part of the property. I’m hoping that we get there on time this time.

Chapter Nineteen

Neith

Mael seems to sense my desperation because he picks up his speed even more, and the others do the same. Within moments we get to a clearing and as we race across the empty space, River appears in front of us. I don’t think, and running on pure instinct, I throw myself from Mael’s back and land on River, my arms wrapping around his furry neck tightly. River’s Kitsune is so big that my weight knocking into him doesn’t make him move a muscle, not even an inch. It’s fucking impressive.

“Hey there, handsome,” I say, as I hold on tight and hope that my holding him will either stop him from disappearing again or that he will take me with him.

I don’t know when I outpaced the guys, but I hear the hooves of their kelpies thunder into the clearing.

I don’t pay it any attention though as suddenly instead of hugging the giant kitsune, the arms of the man wrap around me tightly. We’re on the floor, my arms are still around his neck, and my legs are on either side of him as he sits cross-legged underneath me. His head buries into my neck, and his whole body is shaking with panic, fear, or exhaustion. I’m willing to bet that it’s a mixture of all three.

My hands move into his hair as I gently run my fingers through it.

“I’ve got you,” I say softly. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.”

His arms tighten around me, and his breath shudders out of him. I can feel his magic, and it is a hell of a lot stronger than I have felt it before, and it’s actually similar to the burst of power that I felt when he went all hot as fuck alpha on Ahren because Ahren pushed me.

I glance up at the guys, and my eyes widen in shock. They have all gotten off their kelpies, but their kelpies are now bowing, their front legs bent and their heads looking down at the floor. That’s weird enough, but what is even more strange is that the guys are all doing something similar, and they are all on one knee, with surprise in their expressions and worry in their eyes. Even Reed

is balancing on his knee. If I had to guess, then I would say that the strong magic that I can feel coming off River right now, and the similarity it has to what happened with Ahren, means that it’s River’s alpha magic, but he’s fucking insanely strong if he’s able to make the guys hit the floor like he is, and even the kelpies. They aren’t technically shifters, and he shouldn’t be able to make them dip in respect to him.

I don’t want to worry River, not while he’s still shaking and clearly struggling to calm himself, but I also need to know. My gaze connects with Raiden’s, and I mouth the words, “Can you move?”

He shakes his head slightly and mouths back, “Can’t get up.”

I nod and run my eyes over all of them to make sure that they’re okay. If any of them look like they’re in pain, then I’m going to have to try and get River to do something about it, even though there is probably a good chance that he has no idea how. Fortunately, they all seem to be fine, a mixture of worry and surprise in their eyes. Although Evander’s eyes are still worried, there’s a slight smile on his lips, and I can’t pick apart why, not right at this moment.

He sees me watching him, and he mouths, “We’re good, help River.”

I nod and carry on, muttering to River. I have no idea if what I’m saying is helping him or not, but he hasn’t told me to shut up, and he’s slowly stopped shaking.

Evander

Idon’t know what the fuck is going on with River, but I do know that it’s absolutely undeniable what Neith is able to do for him. I didn’t mean to upset him earlier when I brought up the thing about Neith being his mate. I’ve witnessed them interact, and with the way that River’s alpha magic has gotten stronger and how he’s now challenging people, who he quite frankly wouldn’t have been bothered to in the past, even though he could, I think that it’s very telling and at this point. I would be more surprised if it turned out that she isn’t his mate.

I don’t know how because kitsunes can only find their mates with other kitsunes, and River is the strongest of his kind, but it’s Neith, and she has never and will never play by the rules. For all we know, she could be some kind of extinct kitsune that deals with death. That may be a reach, especially since we know that she takes after her mother and we know that her mother is an extinct supernatural listed in the book that Sully gave us, and an extinct kind of kitsune wasn’t listed in it, but still, my point is that we don’t know what Neith is and I think that she is absolutely River’s mate.

As I share a look with the others, it’s obvious that they are thinking the same thing. She’s calming him and has stopped his magic from acting erratically, which is a whole other issue that we’re going to have to deal with. Right now, though, the most important thing is to get River calm.

Eventually, River lifts his head from Neith’s neck, looking slightly shaken but nowhere near as panicked as he was. He turns his head to the side to look at us and frowns.

“Why are you all kneeling?” He asks.

“That would be because of you,” Reed replies, sounding more amused than anything else.

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