Page 65 of Soulmates
“We’re outside, David, and we’re coming in. Is there anything else you can tell us? Any particular thing we should know?”
David’s not a trained professional, so he might not know what to watch for, but he’s smart and he’s the son of the Alpha.
“Come on, Davey,” Trajan mutters. He’s leaning forward too, just as invested as I am.
“We’re coming in, David. What do we need to worry about?”
He squirms in his seat. “Cold.” The word is hard to hear. “So damned cold.”
“We’ll bring blankets,” Trajan says, and I nod in agreement.
“And we’ll hurry.”
I check the time. We’ve got about two and a half hours before the midnight deadline. My phone chirps, telling me Dante’s team has arrived. I spend a few minutes dealing with logistics, then turn to the vampire.
“Trajan Gall. Stop, man. Just stop.”
Trajan’s got his head in his hands, all but grinding his teeth against the self-flagellation.
“If we’d arrived half an hour ago and the team was with us, we might have been able to stop it.”
“We failed him.” The pain in his words tears at me, hitting me deep.
I smack the dashboard. Dante’s team is spreading out around the building, so if anyone tries to escape in wolf form, we’ll have the chance to stop them. I can barely walk, so there’s no way I’m going out on a wolf hunt.
But you could shift…
I swallow down that unwelcome thought and focus on the situation at hand. The team’s leader messages me back. “They’re good to go,” I say.
Trajan opens the door and gets one foot on the ground before he stops, looking at me over his shoulder. “You’ll be okay out here?”
I wave him on. “I’ve already texted the team leader to let him know you’re coming. Just…” I catch my lower lip between my teeth, a bad habit I’m trying hard to break. “Just…be safe, okay?”
He climbs out of the car, pauses like he’s going to say something important, then eases his way to the street. He moves vampire-quick, and my breath gets caught in my throat.
In a very real sense, he’s carrying my heart.
I shift in my seat, the dull throbbing pain in my knee competing with the stabbing pain in my chest.Ifwe get through this, andifwe bring David through this, andifTrajan will have me back, it may be time for me to leave the Elites—and all my secrets—behind.
Part Four: Silver Moon
Chapter Twenty-Two
Trajan…
I WANT TO be angry. I really, really do. I want to hate Connor for leaving, hate him for nearly two years of pain and loneliness and rejection. Instead, I’m torn between searching for David and staying behind to protect the man who left me.
Yep. That’s right. I want to protect the man who not only left me, but made me believe he was dead, and who is apparently a part of our super-secret police force.
Maybe I should be more of an asshole.
Meanwhile, I manage to find the Elite team leader without looking back at the car. He’s over on the far corner of the property, standing so still, he must be a vampire. He is. I get about ten paces away, and I catch his scent. Vampires tend to repel each other, like magnets of opposite polarity, and I have to force myself to keep walking.
Six feet away, he holds up his hand. “Gall?”
“Yeah.”You were expecting Frank Sinatra?
“Okay.” He scanned the area. “I’ve got men around the perimeter. You and two others will make the first approach. Your goal will be to locate the target and flush out any of the weres holding him. You armed?”
