Page 53 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
Xeran pants, too, and raises his mask briefly to swipe the back of his forearm over his forehead, leaving behind what looks like a swipe of silver paint on his skin. His black hair, damp from sweat, hangs in his eyes. His face is worn.
We’ve turned to him a million times for leadership during fires like this. Something tells me that one way or another, this might be the last time we do so. Either we figure out how to stop Tara from ever doing this again, or we won’t make it to tomorrow. Won’t ever see another daemon fire.
Xeran glances over at Felix, his eyes stern and his expression slightly pained as he says, “Assemble squad two, and position yourselves around town.”
Felix takes a step back, his expression going carefully flat. I glance between the two of them as Xeran goes on.
“Wake up every able-bodied shifter in this fucking pack. Tell people to fill their bathtubs with water, turn on their hoses and sprinklers. Get an extinguisher to every house you can, and just start spraying the retardant on everything. Houses, trees—the fucking kids, if you have to. Tell families to evacuate.”
Felix listens, jaw ticking, and when Xeran is done, he doesn’t move, just stares at the supreme. We all shift uncomfortably.
“Go,” Xeran says, his voice rising, silver ash shining in his black hair as he steps toward Felix. “We’ll need all the head start we can get if we want to protect the town, the people.”
“Maeve is pregnant,” Felix says, his voice hard. “I will not leave her.”
“You have to,” Xeran says. “And that’s an order.”
Felix doesn’t move, and neither does Xeran. The only thing I can think of is that with all this time we’re wasting, thegirls might be in trouble. Every one of us seems to shake with a dangerous energy, like we could explode from the tension, the too-high stakes, at any moment.
And the last thing we need right now is to be fighting.
“I give you my word,” Kalen says, breaking the silence in a bold move, to interrupt a conversation between the supreme—his older brother—and another, older alpha. But when Felix looks over at Kalen, he is standing tall, his chin raised. “That I will protect Maeve as if she were my own.”
“You have my word as well,” Lachlan says, stepping forward. “We’ll make sure she and the baby are safe. Unharmed.”
“We’re not leaving that ridge without her,” I add, knowing how impossible it must be for Felix to hear this, to grapple with the thought of leaving his mate in danger.
“Sheismy own,” Xeran says, roughly, some emotion moving into his voice. “You know how seriously I take protecting this pack. We will get your mate, but Ineedyou to go to the rest of the pack. They’re unsuspecting. If a fire comes through right now, the girls can protect themselves with magic. Our packmates don’t have a chance.”
Heavy silence follows. We stand in a loose circle, breathing hard, looking at one another. Felix seems to sway for a moment, then shakes his head, like he can’t believe what he’s about to say.
“I’m gonna fucking hold you all to that,” he says, his voice cracking.
The next second stretches on, then I surprise myself by stepping forward, grabbing Felix, and pulling him into my arms.
And all at once, just like we’re kids, we’re hugging. Arms and sweat and heavy breaths, just like when we were all boys, piling onto one another in the backyard for fun. Laughing and tripping and screaming,I’m being crushed!from the bottom of the pile.
When Felix pulls back, tears are streaming down his cheeks. He nods once, meeting each of our gazes before turning, bringing his radio to his lips, and running back toward town. As he goes, we hear his voice trailing back, “I need all units to respond to—”
Xeran made the right choice in him. I don’t know that I would be able to do it. Growing up, we were taught that the right way to be an alpha, to be a leader, was to prioritize the omega, your mate, in any situation. Including this one, in which it would mean sacrificing the entire town, the entire pack, to ensure her safety.
But right now, Felix is doing the hardest thing a leader can do. Trusting someone else.
It hits me with a sudden, brilliant clarity thatthisis what it means to be in a pack. To really trust one another like brothers. To know that we will always try to save everyone, and not just ourselves.
This is what ferals can’t understand. This is what’s given shifters the upper hand over humans, and even over other paranormals. Vamps hide away on their own, scheming and stabbing one another in the back. Nymphs are vain and selfish, greedily stealing from their own the moment they can. Even other shifters are solo—panthers, bears, and can’t rely on a bond like this.
Declan and Xeran’s brothers all had the same problem. Looking out for themselves over the pack. Being selfish, greedy,and downright evil, thinking it was going to get them ahead when, as a shifter, only a bond like this, supporting your brothers and caring for your mates, could ever leave you feeling whole at the end of the day.
Not for the first time, I think about everything Xeran has lost—his mother, then his father. Needing to return to the pack to kill his uncle, only to realize that most of his brothers were just as involved in the fires.
That night at the candy factory, Xeran fought Dallas, his oldest brother, taking his life. Felix and Kalen cornered Farris, who was crushed by a piece of falling metal.
And Tanner was trapped in the burning building, his screams echoing out into the night, swallowed by so many fire daemons’ laughter as they danced with the flames.
There’s no doubt about it—this night is going to be just as bad. We can feel it, our wolves inside us pacing with their hackles raised, noses to the wind, smelling the danger even stronger than the smoke, the stink of daemon fire.
But we will make it out. Even as my wolf is preparing to fight, he knows that we’re going to come out on the other side of this stronger than ever. The Silverville pack, united and strong, even in the face of fire after fire, devastation after total disaster.
