Page 24 of Mated to Four Bears

But I suppose he was going to get his wish. Because this untested illegal magic was bound to kill me. Just as I had finally started to get my life back on track, and I’d met people who actually made me feel good about myself, and who I’d fallen for, I was about to lose it all.

16

WILLIAM

“What did she say?” I asked Henry as soon as the woman vanished. “What was all that all about? We were here, but we stayed back so we could surprise her and take her down if we needed to.”

Henry nodded. “Yeah, that’s okay. I appreciated that, because if we’d all been in front of her, it might have scared her off. She performed a tracing spell, and she told me Samantha is. with Antonio, as we suspected, at the old industrial estate.”

I knew the place. I’d done a few drug busts there. The old, abandoned warehouses provided good cover for all sorts of terrible things to happen. I really didn’t want to think of Samantha being there, but I suppose the one good thing was that we knew where to find her now.

“But that wasn’t everything,” Henry continued. “She also told me that we’re all fated to be with Samantha. It is a bear bond. For real.”

I smiled. Truth be told, this was something I had suspected from the beginning. I didn’t know if it could be classed as love at first sight because it was very different for us. Bear bonding, fated magic love, was something incredibly different. But theeffect it had on me was overwhelming. Knowing that someone elserecognized our bond gave me a much-needed boost.

“That’s special,” I whispered back. “And even more of a reason why we should go now. We’ll never get another chance at having this feeling. So wehaveto rescue her.”

I waved over Richard and Thomas, and Henry filled them in on what was going on before we took off towards the old industrial estate. Our emotions were heightened now, but I was sure that would drive us to get the job done.

Antonio wasnotgoing to get away with this. We wouldnotallow him to hurt Samantha, and we wouldn’t let him escape again. We weren’t going to make the mistake of losing him once more.

The sooner we got Antonio off the streets and away from other people, the better. He was a danger to everyone, especially the women who walked in the world. They deserved better.

Henry had raced aheadbecause of his excellent nose so he could find which building Samantha was being kept in, so to find my brother standing there, having shaken off his bear, was weird.

I shifted back and called out to my brother. “Henry! Is everything okay, buddy? What’s going on?”

His face was deathly pale and his eyes were saucer wide as he twisted around to look at me. Shit. I didn’t knowwhatwas happening, but it couldn’t be good.

“She isn’t here,” Henry whispered when I caught up to him. “I’ve checked all the abandoned buildings and I can’t smell her. Antonio isn’t here either. I think the woman who performed the tracing spell was lying to me. I think she tricked me.”

My heart sunk. But I didn’t want Henry to blame himself. “She might have been thrown off track. She might not have been any good at magic…”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I know she isn’t here.”

I looked inwards, willing my gut instinct to give me something to go on. Wehadto find Samantha, nothing else mattered.

“Wait, what is that?” I held on to my stomach, feeling something new. “Can you feel that pull? We really are bear bonded to her.”

Henry’s whole being relaxed as he recognized the same feeling inside himself.

When the time Richard and Thomas caught up with us, I told them about the feeling too. It was tugging us east.

“Follow that feeling,” Richard exclaimed. “Come on, we need to get out there now. Time is ticking. We have to make a move.”

We shifted back into our bear and took off once more. We weren’t sure where we were going, but were glad we had this feeling to follow. Even if the magical woman was lying about where Antonio had Samantha, I didn’t think she was lying about us. That was why I’d given her the benefit of the doubt and suggested that she might have been tricked.

But if I found out I was wrong, and she was lying to us and working for Antonio, it wouldn’t be good for her. I could already feel anger bubbling within me. I had to shove it down for the time being, but I was sure that wouldn’t last too long. I’d never been too good at suppressing my emotions, and I didn’t thinknowwas the best time for me to start trying.

Why wouldAntonio be keeping Samantha in the woods? That didn’t make much sense to me. The man wanted money, to pay off his loan shark. It didn’t track that he would be hiding out in the trees. How could she be of any use to him here? A place where no one would even think to look for her…it didn’t bode well.

The sooner we got to Samantha, the better. I didn’t want my imagination to get the better of me, but I kept have intrusive thoughts about Antonio killing her because she didn’t have the money he needed.

I could hear sounds all through the forest, so Richard’s ears had to be on fire. He looked like he had a one-track mind, though, only focused on Samantha. That made me more confident about moving in that same direction because I knew it was right. If Henry picked up her scent, all the better.

I stopped and spun around at the sound of a loud bang, glancing wildly, frantically, trying to locate the source. Something about that noise didn’t feel natural, and it had me so on edge that I could hardly breathe. The

Two more bangs had all four of us looking around, trying to find the source of that noise. The fact that none of us could pinpoint and exact location terrified me.

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