Page 55 of Broken Arranged Mate
I listen as I stand on the porch, staring at the Grayhide city in the distance, the adobe buildings rising up toward the nearly moonless sky, a few squares dotted with light. My patience is running thin.
Ash’s scent is already starting to fade. She must have been gone for at least an hour before I came to her door.
“…what thefuck?” Dorian’s voice has gone from half-asleep to fully awake and far angrier than I was expecting. Is he angry that I’m asking? That I called?
Well, I’m pissed that he would come and take her without talking to me. I’venevertreated her like a prisoner, never told her that she couldn’t leave.
It would look strange, and our public appearances seem to be helping with the situation on the border, but I care enough about Ash not to make her stay here if she really wanted to go.
“I noticed half an hour ago—” I start, biting my tongue to keep from snapping at him.
“No,” he snarls, cutting me off, his voice dropping to an octave I’ve never heard from him before, sounding frantic. “Kira is gone, too.”
A call to both Emin and Aidan reveals that their mates have also left. Emaline was the only one to leave a note, telling Aidan she was justgoing to help a friendand would be back in the morning. Apparently, they’ve had issues in the past with one of them leaving in the middle of the night, and a deal that neither of them would do it without leaving an explanation behind.
“Not that this explainsanything,” Aidan growls.
Veva’s mother, Kellen—Emin, and Kira’s father, Argent, and the secretary from the Ambersky pack hall come together to take the babies and watch over them while Dorian, Emin, and Aidan leave, agreeing to meet me on the border when they realize that’s the direction their wives’ scents are heading.
“She took the truck,” Dorian says over the speaker. “How did she take it without me hearing? And she left her phone here.”
“It looks like she ran out in a rush,” Emin adds about Veva. “Her phone is gone, but her wallet and bag were left behind.”
Aidan is considerably less worried. “So they wanted to have a little adventure,” he says. “I mean, I still think we should find them, but it’s not like they weretaken.”
The line falls silent, and Dorian says they’ll be at the border within an hour.
Once more, I move through the house, searching for Ash in case she’s still inside, and I somehow missed her. Then, a sinking feeling in my stomach, I race for the border myself. It’s closer to me than it is to them, but they arrive in under an hour, like Dorian said, which means they were pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion.
When in our wolf forms, and with the help of the Amanzite, we can often travel much faster than we would even in a vehicle. But that many miles in under an hour is almost troubling.
Dorian shifts back into his human form, gasping for air and pulling a flask from his pocket, which he tips back and dumps into his mouth. It’s water, and Aidan takes it when he’s done. I pass my bottle to Emin, who’s doubled over, his hands on his knees as he tries to replenish his lungs.
“Fuck, Dorian,” he wheezes, hand shaking as he takes the bottle from me. “I’m way too fucking old for that shit.”
Aidan lets out a half-hearted laugh, and we turn together.
“Did you track her scent?” Dorian asks, tucking his flask away and crossing the border in long, purposeful strides.
“To a point,” I say, “but I think the car was going too fast when they pulled away for it to linger much.”
“Between the four of us,” Dorian says, then gestures between him, Emin, and Aidan, “and our mating bonds, we should be able to track them down.”
Once again, I bite my tongue.
I want to tell Dorian that Ash is more than just my arranged wife—sheismy mate. And I’m done running from that fact. The second I get her back, I’m going to come clean about everything.
But he’s not the one I want to tell first, so I shut my mouth and nod, turning and shifting with them as we make our way along the highway south.
We must cut an impressive sight along the landscape—Dorian and me, alpha leaders, and Aidan, large enough to be one. My black fur, Dorian’s dark brown, Aidan’s gray, and Emin’s copper fur at the very end of our train, like the tail of a comet.
Each of us is able to catch a scent or follow a connection for a few miles, until we come upon a bend in the road that leads to a pile of debris on the road, heaps of rocks, branches, and cactus husks.
“They were definitely here,” Dorian says, shifting and reaching down, picking up what looks like a tiny pink bow from the ground. “This is from Kira’s pajamas.”
“I can smell Veva’s magic,” Emin adds, glancing around with a mixed expression. Part worry, part confidence. “Smells like a lot of it—she took down quite a few guys.”
And I’m crouching over a still-damp spot in the sand and dirt, where I can smell Ash’s blood mixing with unidentified blood. Her scent is strong here, and on it I catch the heady current of fear and anger, bright and fast adrenaline.
