Page 130 of The Enforcer's Rejected Mate
“Of course. We’ll get every Defender out there to bring her home. I’ll send the order immediately.” We both start for the doors when he asks, “Can you use the Soul Tie to find her?”
“She’s close by. I just felt her.” I reach for the bond, pull on it and…there’s nothing on the other end of it. It’s like yanking on an untethered rope. The bond comes back to me, the end of it frayed and cut.
“I-she’s gone.” I can’t breathe. Ronan grabs my arm and holds me up. “I can’t fucking feel her.”
“Alpha!” The doors to Ronan’s quarter’s fly open and Clyde strides in. “There’s been an attack by Frostclaw.”
Ronan swears. “Where?”
“In the Meadows. They attacked Lucian. Piper and Clover found him. He’s in the Healing Rooms now.”
“Let’s move,” Ronan orders. The three of us head for the Healing Rooms. The entire way I search my bond for Cordelia but it’s useless. There’s nothing there. Not a ghost. Not a whisper of her. By the time we reach the Healing Rooms, I’m a wreck. It’s even worse when I see the space that’s hers. The evidence that she was here all around me. I see a dog-eared paperbackfacedown on the counter next to a stack of towels she must have been folding. There’s a tray holding morels she was cleaning. My heart feels like a stone looking at those small signs Cordelia was here just hours ago.
My beautiful mate.
“I’m sorry. I tried to keep her safe.” Lucian sits up on the bed he’s laying on and gives me a sorrowful look. “I tried. I’m so fucking sorry.” Clover sits beside him. She looks like she’s in shock. She keeps twisting a washcloth in her hands while Piper paces behind her.
“Where was she?” I ask.
“I found her in the courtyard but we ran for a while. We were in the Meadows when I got taken out.” He puts a hand on his stomach. “A fucking tranq.” Lucian shakes his head. “It was mixed with wolfsbane. I can’t shift, can’t feel my wolf. She was okay when I went down.”
“Wolfsbane?” That would explain why I can’t feel her. “They drugged her too. Wherever she is, we're going to have to find her by tracking them. I can’t sense her,” I tell Ronan.
He nods. “Okay. Let’s think. If they were in the Meadows then we can fan out, start for the nearest towns.”
“What if they took her to Moonshadow Territory?” Clover asks tearfully. “What if they-she could be anywhere and she thinks I don’t care. That I didn’t believe her. That’s why she ran from us.” She buries her face in her hands. “Everything is such a mess.”
Piper puts a hand on her arm. “We’ll find her. We’ll make it right.”
“Except that we have miles and miles of territory to search for her and we have no idea where she is. If this is anyone’s fault it’s mine. I shouldn’t have-” I swallow hard, “I hesitated in there. I should have shut this all down the second I saw how Cassidywas treating Cordelia. I thought it wasn’t serious and it cost me my mate.”
“You know, for the stoic Enforcer who always puts their pack ahead of everything else, it’s nice to see you worried about your mate over the war Frostclaw is dead set on bringing to your door.”
We all look towards the door to see a woman standing in the doorway. She has silvery hair pulled back in a bun and wears work overalls. Behind her stands Jazzy.
Ronan breathes out a sigh of relief. “Maud. Thank the gods. You’ve returned.”
She winks at him. “It’s nice to see you too, Alpha.”
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
She saunters into the room and looks around the Healing Rooms like she has all the time in the world. I’m about to lose the last shred of my patience when she turns towards us with a smile. “These are wonderful quarters for Cordelia. I just know she’s having the time of her life working in them, so why don’t we get her home? I think we’ll all feel better when our girl is safe and sound. Cordelia’s ex-mate isn’t very smart, wanting her back after he gave her away. He’s the one that took her.”
“Do you know where she is?” I ask her.
She inclines her head. “I do. Started a location spell the second Jazzy told me Frostclaw was on the move in these parts. I’ve been tracking her steadily this past week, so imagine my surprise when I saw her in Oak Fast.”
“Oak Fast? Why would they take her there?” I ask them but I’m already moving for the door with Ronan. “I need everyone,” I tell him. “Every last pack member that’s able and ready. We-I have to get her back and to put down whatever it is they’re trying to start.”
“I’ll send the order now.” He looks back at Maud and Jazzy, the pair of witches have followed us out of the Healing Rooms. “Can you tell us where in Oak Fast she is?”
Maud sucks on her bottom teeth. “Sadly, no. I know she’s in Oak Fast but I can’t get any more precise than that. I was hoping the Soul Tie with tall dark and deadly would lead us there but if they pumped her full of wolfsbane like they did the injured one back there then it’ll block his connection to her. We’ll have to get creative.”
“You said Keiran took her?”
“He did.”
“Then I can track her fine. Let’s go now. I can follow the scent of the fucker that has her. Whoever is ready can come with me, the rest can follow.”
