Page 31 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
I can’t wait to take from the little one, too.
Last night, I thought I might wake up this morning and talk to Soren about it, but all that went out the window when it was shattered by two sparring wolves, that poor cabin torn apart by my brother’s rage.
It’s when they go tumbling near the edge of the mudslide—mostly dried now, but miles of it stretch down the side of the mountain like a thick and sticky slide—that the panic solidifies in my throat.
They’re apart from one another now, circling near the slide, growling and drooling, the hair raised on their backs. As alphas, their wolves are massive. Thethump, thump, thumpof their paws vibrates through the earth.
Soren’s wolf is the same brilliant copper of his hair. Lachlan’s looks like mine, shining and golden, but much larger and a bit leaner. And neither of them looks like they’re going to back down. Not only could Lachlan kill my mate, but he could kill both of them just through this pointless exercise.
With a final, great heave, I push my magic up and out through my palms, forcing it into the world with another screamed word.
“I saidstop!”
As though orchestrated by the hands of the gods themselves, both Lachlan and Soren pause, going completely still, though struggling against the hold. Their eyes dart to me, and I stand just outside the cabin, arms trembling from the strain of holding them like this.
Even in their wolf forms, I can feel their terror at what’s happening, losing control of themselves. But I have no other option to keep them from ripping out each other’s throats.
Or, more accurately, to keep Lachlan from killing the man I love.
“What thefuck?”
I hear the supreme’s voice before I see or smell him, which is a testament to how much power I’m exerting, how hard it is to maintain the spell. More panic surges through me, hot and sticky, like thick, bubbling tar pushing its way up my stomach and into my throat, making it impossible to breathe.
Moving quickly, my heart beating in my throat, I back up several steps, turning but keeping Lach and Soren held within the embrace of my magic.
Then, in my magic, I do something incredibly stupid. I raise my hand and cast the same net over the supreme, forcing him completely still. Xeran blinks, looking down at his body, staring at his arm as if he’s trying to raise it.
But he can’t.
My entire body is shaking, and I know I can’t hold this for long, but it’s like a panic-induced magical outburst. Now that I’ve started, opened up the flood line to this much power, I don’t know how to turn it off again.
If the supreme came out in his wolf form, I’m not sure that I would have had the power to hold all three of them. But as a human, he’s easier to encase in magic. To hold still.
I just want everyone to holdstill. To just give me a moment to think, to figure out what to do. This is what I should have done all those years ago, on the ridge. I should have held Tara still with my magic and waited until her fire-starting urges had passed.
If I had just thought it through, I could have kept everything from happening. Could have kept everyone from getting hurt.
“Aurela,” someone says, and a moment later, Xeran’s brother Kalen comes out of the trees. His eyes are wide, darting to his brother. “Don’t—”
But I don’t give him another chance to speak. Instead, I just cast over him, too, crying now because of the effort. Because of this whole situation. Because of the fear of what’s going to happen to me when I release them.
Because right now, it feels like the only way that’s going to happen is when I die, and the magic peters out completely.
***
“Aurela!”
This time, when more bodies emerge from the trees moments later, I know I don’t have the power or strength to fight them off. And even if I did, they would be able to deflect my magic with some of their own.
The first person to come running toward me is Phina, the luna, the de facto leader of the omegas, her hands outstretched, looking impossibly motherly and caring. There’s not an ounce ofanger on her face for the fact that I have her husband held in my magic like this. Only concern for me.
Maeve comes right after her, wearing a sunflower-patterned romper and holding the brim of a sun hat as she comes running through the clearing after Phina.
And finally, a massive white wolf steps through the trees, leaning down and letting a woman off his back. Felix and Valerie, because Valerie couldn’t have shifted to run up here with the others. Her hair is short, hanging around her shoulders, and dyed green. The only one of the girls I’ve seen with any sort of regularity.
Even though I’ve avoided her as much as I could, unable to stomach the truth of what happened back then, and the massive part that I played in it all.
The massive part that I’m playing in it now.
