Page 58 of Bullied Pretend Mate
It drags my brain back to high school. Reminds me of what it was like to hear that voice telling us what to do, pushing us toward one another. Calling a meeting to order, challenging Aurela to another face-off, pushing us to make our magic stronger.
“I can’t believe you bitches are talking about me behind my back,” someone says.
When I turn around, she’s standing there, a hand on her hip, her blue hair as vibrant as ever, her gaze focused on us. In the distance, there’s the sound of something catching, like a match running along the bark of a tree.
“That is soincrediblyrude,” Tara adds.
Chapter 28 - Felix
This time, I’m already looking at the fire when my phone goes off, the alert sounding at the same time as the other guy’s phones go off, too.
Xeran, Soren, Lachlan, Kalen, and I walk together through the trees. We’re lucky our eyesight is better than humans’, or we might get lost out here, even with the moonlight coming in strong through the trees.
“Just got a text about more fires cropping up in the east,” Kalen says, his voice breathless. “They’re small, but there are a lot of them.”
“Ignore it,” Xeran says, though there’s nothing else I would have done. It’s not like I’m doing anything but looking for Maeve. “I have another group of guys going out.”
Even if Xeran ordered me to turn around and go to the firehouse right now, get ready to fight one of these wildfires, I would not obey that command.
Because Maeve is in these hills somewhere.
And apparently, she’s not alone.
“Phina and Valerie were at yoga together,” Xeran said after he called Phina and couldn’t get in touch with her. Lachlan tried Valerie, too, but the call went right to voicemail.
“What the hell do you think is going on?” Lachlan asked, glancing at Xeran. They shared a look, then Lachlan added, “Do you think it’s something to do with that night?”
Even with all the time Maeve and I have been spending together, I never thought to ask her about what happened that night. It seems like Xeran and Lachlan have a better idea than I do, but I don’t want to ask.
So instead, I just follow them up the side of the mountain, each of us tracking our mate’s scent, trying to catch up with them before the trail goes cold.
“They were movingsofast,” Lachlan says, shaking his head. “Damn magic.”
That’s how Maeve got away from me—using her magic. Another thing we haven’t talked about is the time she’s been back in Silverville.
Guilt and shame are still rolling through me at the realization that I hurt her so bad in high school. Bad enough that it drove her to that night, to whatever happened with her and her friends. To whatever led to the first daemon fire, to the flames that have plagued this town since then.
Xeran, Lachlan, and I move at a fast clip through the forest, shifting between forms, trying to move quickly and keep the trail before it falls away. The girls have to be far up in the mountains, given how their scents are fading now.
“Guys,” Soren says, trailing along behind us. “The fires on the northern ridge are getting closer to town. Maybe we should—”
“You can join up with the other unit,” Xeran says, not turning to look back at him. “But we’re heading this way.”
Soren should know better—that’s the luna up in these hills, and even with how much he cares about the pack, Xeran has made it clear that his family, and his mate, are the most important things to him.
“Nah,” Soren says, glancing between us and the fire on the other side of town. “I’ll stay with you guys.”
We trek on, pushing through the dense forest, the smell of the daemon fire filling the air. A scent that we’ve all gotten familiar with over the past ten years.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on,” I say quietly as we make our way through the woods. “But I think I have something to do with this.”
“With the fires, or with the girls?”
“Uh, both,” I say, glancing at them again. “Or just Maeve, I guess. I think I’m part of the reason all that shit happened back then.”
Xeran and Lachlan share another look, and Xeran speaks, his voice level like it always is. “Phina told me that the magic wielders always felt on the outside, back in high school. The ridicule they faced made them feel they had no other choice but to practice in secret.”
“And for some of them, like Valerie, not casting comes with consequences,” Lachlan says, running a hand through his hair. “When she goes too long without using her magic, she says it pushes against her skin. Makes her feel like she’s going to burst.”
