Page 88 of Their Mate
“Then maybe we don’t walk in,” Jamie said, straightening. “Maybe we burn the door down instead.”
Aidan’s glare sharpened. “And kill her in the process? Brilliant.”
Jamie gave a short, bitter laugh. “You all talk like she’s a child who needs wrapping in cotton. She’s tougher than any of us give her credit for.”
“She’s ours,” Declan said, his voice deep and dangerous. “That makes herourresponsibility. I’m not leaving this island without her.”
“And I’m not dying in a hallway, riddled with bullets, just to drag her out of whatever mess she’s walked into. We have to be smarter than that,” Edward countered.
Jamie’s eyes narrowed, the muscle in his jaw twitching. “You know what? Screw it. You lot can stand here and argue yourselves hoarse. I’m going to keep looking.” He raised a middle finger over his shoulder as he stepped off the boat onto the rocks, stalking toward the higher ground without another word.
The four of us stood in the hush he left behind, the sound of the swell filling the space between us.
Aidan looked at me. “We can still sweep the island. See if there’s another way in.”
Declan nodded. “If there’s a vent shaft, a service tunnel, anything, we’ll find it.”
Edward exhaled, the sounds resigned. “Fine. But if we’re doing this, we do it smart.”
I gave a short nod. “Then we move. The longer we wait, the more danger she’s in.”
CHAPTER 30
Declan
The wind coming off the cliffs cut straight through my jacket, and the tang of the sea clung to the back of my throat. The four of us moved in a tight line along the ridge, boots grinding on loose rock, eyes on the coastline as we looked for anything that might give us a hint as to where we might break into the Watch’s base and find our mate.
We’d been walking for hours, up switchbacks slick with spray, through gullies where the sea roared below, over old, rusted rails half-swallowed by stone. Every step felt like we were circling a beast’s den, and the beast was polite enough not to show itself.
Aidan stopped short, one hand lifted. “There.”
We all followed his line of sight to a patch of shadow halfway up the cliff side where there was a steel door set into the rock maybe fifty feet away, paint flaked away.
It was just… open.
Edward’s voice was flat. “Well, that feels wrong.”
“Understatement of the year,” Aidan muttered. “A Watch base doesn’t leave a door hanging open unless they want someone to walk through it.”
“Which means it’s a trap,” Edward said.
My gut agreed. My wolf did not. The thing in me that had been pacing restlessly since she left stirred and lifted its head.
Logan crouched, scanning the approach. “No guards. No cameras we can see. If it’s bait, they’re not trying to conceal it even a little bit.”
“Why would they?” Aidan asked. “If she’s there, we’ll take it.”
I should have been thinking the same thing, calculating angles, looking for sightlines, checking for the telltale glint of glass in the shadows. Instead… something warm, powerful, and primal punched through the air like a physical impact.
Herscent.
I stopped dead in my tracks, every thought falling away but one:mine.
The world narrowed to it. Heat and spice and a certain tang that hit the back of my tongue and made my pulse hammer. It was her, but not the way she’d smelled before. This was richer, more potent, winding through my head until I couldn’t hear the sea anymore, couldn’t feel the cold. My hands balled into fists, nails biting my palms.
“Declan?” Aidan’s voice was close, and more than a little cautious.
I barely heard him. “She’s here.”
