Page 106 of Mated to the Kings

“I’m going to wait until after everything settles,” I say. “We should get going, though.”

“Yeah,” Dad sighs and turns to Brenna.

“Be careful, please,” she says softly.

“I will,” Dad says, cupping her cheek. “After we take care of everything, we will come back through here. You are coming to the Capitol with us. Bring the kids if you want, but you’re coming home with me.”

“Okay,” she smiles and nods. Dad kisses her softly. It makes me smile to see him like this, to imagine this is how he was with my mom when she was around. He looks so happy, which makes me happy. He hugs her tightly and whispers something in her ear before pulling away. “Looking forward to it!”

“Gross. Is it old people sex?” Striker asks.

“Want me to repeat it for you, Striker?” Dad asks with a smirk.

“No. No, I absolutely donotneed to know,” he laughs.

“Alright, kids. We need to go,” I say. “Dad, you are more than welcome to stay here.”

“Very funny,” he says before kissing Brenna again.

“Go. I’ll be here,” Brenna says.

Once Dad is finally able to pull himself away from her, we get back to walking towards the warehouse.

We walk as close to the buildings as we can, but there are mangled bodies strewn about that cause us to have to maneuver around them. This is my vision turned into reality. The faces on these bodies are the same ones from my vision of the war.

Thuly growls and stops abruptly, blocking me from walking forward. I put my hand up to let everyone know to stop and stay quiet. We start hearing screams coming toward us, and everyone instantly springs into action and branches out so that we cover more area. Thuly remains glued to my side while the guys hover close by.

As the cries get closer, we start to be able to determine what direction they are coming from so whoever is closest can be prepared. “There,” I say as they come around a corner and head straight for me. Thuly bumps me so that I will move out of the way. When the group sees all twenty-nine of us standing here waiting for them to approach, they come to a stop, and you can see the mix of fear and relief written all over their faces and eyes.

“Fox shifters?” I ask. I know they are because I recognize some of them.

“Y-yes,” a man says.

“Get to the old orphanage up the street,” I say. “Keep moving and don’t stop until you get there. A woman there is expecting you.”

“He’s g-got the people that freed us,” a girl stammers.

“Who?” Striker asks. “What did they look like?”

“The one who took the chain off me looks like you,” she says.

“Fuck,” I snap and pull out my phone. “Were you followed?”

“I-I don’t know. We were hiding out in nearby buildings, but some of the shifters were sniffing around trying to find us to kill us. We just panicked and started running when we saw one of the wolf shifters come in,” she says.

“Okay. Get out of here, hurry.” I say, waving them on. “Take as many people as you can. She has room. Stay safe.”

I try to call Volis, but my phone isn’t making outbound calls. Striker and Dad are doing the same thing, but no one’s phone is working.

“What in the hell was he thinking? Why in the hell would he go ahead without us?” Striker asks, his emotions running high.

“I don’t know, but we need to hurry,” I say. “Zypher will kill him just to hurt me.”

Chapter Thirty Four

Volis

We’vebeensittingherein the same spot for days now. They come by every other day and feed us this flavorless bullshit. We are all getting weaker. If it weren’t for the lack of nutritious food, the collars would have also blocked our ability to shift or use magic.

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