Page 90 of Their Mate
I hit the threshold in full shift, claws gouging the steel floor, and the scent of her was a tidal wave that drowned everything else.
“Declan!” Logan’s shout was distant thunder. Behind me, I heard Aidan swear and the snap-crack of bones as he gave in to the change too. Edward followed a heartbeat later.
They didn’t have a choice. If I went in alone, they’d be dragging my corpse back out.
She was bound upright on a steel frame, arms spread, dark hair spilling over one shoulder, head tilted in a way that made my chest twist. Her eyes found mine, and the wolf in me howled.
I went bounding through the door at full speed.
Somewhere in the walls, alarms began to wail.
The four of us spilled into the room, claws skittering on the slick floor.
The sterile tang of antiseptic clung to the air, but her scent was stronger, heavier, winding through my head until the world narrowed to just her.
I shifted back without thinking, the change tearing at me and leaving me naked and unguarded in the cold. I didn’t care. I was already crossing the distance, closing the gap between us like nothing else existed.
Aidan had shifted back as well, and his growl was low and tense. “This is too clean. No guards yet? They want us in here.”
“Trap later,” I snarled. “Her first.”
Her eyes were locked on mine, wide, panicked, pupils blown, and that was enough to make the wolf shove everything else away. The rest of the world could fucking burn.
Right now, it was her that mattered.
CHAPTER 31
Sera
Suddenly, they were there.
Four of my wolves, filling the room with heat and movement, with the sound of claws on concrete and the scent of damp fur that cut through the antiseptic sting in the air.
Declan’s eyes found mine first, molten and hungry, the kind of look that would have made my knees give way if I hadn’t already been bound onto this damn X-frame. In an instant, his hands went to my restraints like the metal was an insult to be destroyed.
Logan was next, always steady, assessing even in the chaos. His gaze swept me head to toe, checking for wounds, for damage, for whatever the hell they’d done to me. His jaw clenched with rage as he took in my bound, naked body, realizing someone had taken the privilege that belonged only to them. Then his eyes caught mine, and something I couldn’t name joined the fury blazing there.
Edward moved like the soldier he was, every step purposeful, his gaze sweeping the corners, but his nostrils flared when he got a breath of me. His composure held, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his focus kept snapping back to me. He was close to losing control too.
Aidan was a storm barely leashed, eyes bright, teeth bared at the walls as if he could tear the whole base apart with his hands. He stayed close enough to Declan and close enough to me that I could feel the heat of him even through the air.
And Jamie… Where was he?
My chest tightened. He wasn’t here. Had the Watch caught him? Was he even alive? Had the pack been that angry with him that they’d cast him out? The thought was a cold spike through the heat already flooding my body.
God help me, the heat.
It had been building since Dane stuck me with that needle, a slow burn that crept through my veins and coiled low in my belly until every breath felt too deep, every heartbeat too loud. I could smell them—all of them—so keenly it made my head swim. Salt and leather and steel, fur and earth and rain. Their scents tangled with mine, amplified everything, made it hard to think about anything except them comingcloser.
Trap, I reminded myself. This is a trap, but it was getting harder to hold onto the thought. Dane’s voice echoed in my head.
Your wolves will come for you. The Elder Lycan will come too.
And here they were, just like he’d predicted, and I could barely hold together the plan I’d been rehearsing in my head. Words. I needed my words.
Declan’s hands were at my wrists, claws scraping metal, and I wanted to tell him to stop, to think, to look around, but my mouth wouldn’t shape the words. Not when he was this close, not when I could feel his breath against my skin. I couldn’t fuckingthink!
I wanted to tell them all to run. I wanted to tell them I could handle this. I wanted—fuck, I didn’t even know anymore. The serum in my blood pulled me in four different directions at once, each one with a face, a scent, a history, and a claim on me.
