Page 27 of Mated to Four Bears

I had heard that finding the fated one and being bonded made everything better. Including making magic stronger, abilities better, fighting skills sharper. I always thought that was a fairy tale meant to encourage us to look for love. But now I was starting to think that maybe it was real, and we were bear bonded. If that was the case, and my brothers felt like this as well, then there was a chance we could win this, no matter how many of them there were.

And when we finally got to Antonio, he wouldn’t stand a chance. We would tear him to shreds without a second thought. Thinking about that law breaking asshole who clearly didn’t have any morals losing his head really cheered me up. Wehadto make sure he couldn’t do things like this again. No other woman or person could suffer because of him.

I put my head down and fought harder, basically turning off my human side completely because of all the blood and gore around me. These magical people weren’t acting like humans anyway, so it didn’t matter. The Code of Magic didn’t seem to exist in these woods. If they wanted to act like that, then this would be their punishment.Wewould be their punishment. Nothing like this should ever happen again, certainly not in our city. We needed to protect everyone.

The thing I was struggling with most was the knowledge that I hadn’t yet seen any of my brothers. I didn’t know if it was because of something magical or because they weren’t here. And if they weren’t here, then where were they? How had we gotten separated?

Everything was blurring around me, but I kept my brothers’ faces at the forefront of my mind. Even when I remained primal and animalistic, I always thought of them, their human faces reminding me that we needed to find our way back to one another.

William, Thomas, Richard, where are you? I need you!

I wanted to find all my brothers, but if I could only find one, it would be Richard. Just because I felt like he needed me more than anyone else. Sure, he’d said he was doing much better, and Thomas had given him the go ahead, but I was panicked that his injury might be slowing him down or leaving him vulnerable.

If only I couldsee. The dizziness was starting to become increasingly intense now. I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to overcome it. I wasn’t sure if I could continue fighting because I was starting to feel sick to my stomach…

Shit, what the hell was going on? What was happening to me?

“Henry?Oh my God, Henry! Wake up!”

Whose voice was that? And why did it sound so panicked? It was the middle of the night, and I was just trying to get some rest in bed. What was going on?

“His eyes are opening. Look! He’s coming back around.”

“Ugh…what?” I groaned through my dry throat. “What is it?”

“Thank God, Henry. I don’t knowwhatthey did to you, but I didn’t know if you were going to make it. That was so scary. Fuck, are you feeling okay?”

I blinked at William, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with him. He wasn’t normally like this; he was the calm, cool, collected one of us. But his eyes were flickering wildly like he couldn’t quite get it together. He was a mess, and that seemed to be because of me. Because of something happening to me. But what? I was fine, wasn’t I? Just lying here, feeling absolutely fine.

“That spell didn’t hurt you too much, Thomas said.” William took a deep breath. “Thank God, because we still have a lot to do. We still haven’t reached Samantha yet.”

As soon as he mentioned Samantha’s name, everything came flooding back to me. We were in the woods, not at home, trying to find Samantha because her asshole ex-boyfriend had her. She went to him to try to end things, and failed miserably.

“Shit.” I bolted up into a sitting position, and caught a glimpse of all the blood and bodies around me. It seemed like everyone who had been attacking my brothers and me were no more. They might have tried to separate us from one another, but we had made our way back to one another.

The Osbornes survived, but now we needed to get Samantha back.

“Come on, we need to go deeper,” I said, my heart pounding with intense passion. “We have to get to Samantha. Why didn’t you go on ahead? Why didn’t you just leave me here and get Samantha? She needs us. Antonio…” I gulped. “He has her.”

“We hadto wait for you, Henry,” William told me gently. “You felt it, didn’t you? That connection? The fact that we were faster, stronger, better in the fight? That came from our fated bond with Samantha. We all need to be together. It’s the only way we can fight.”

I nodded understandingly. I’d felt that way as well. I knew there was something different with this battle.

“Okay, well, I’m awake now,” I said hurriedly. “Let’s go. I’m worried.”

I jumped up, trying my hardest to hide a wince as pain raced through my body. I didn’t need anyone to pick up on how I was feeling right now. I would wait to get treated when we were all back home, when all of this was over with.

Thankfully no one noticed, or if they did, they didn’t call me out on it. I could only assume that my brothers were as determined as me to get to Samantha.

“Which way to we go?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was something magic related, or something else entirely, but I couldn’t feel Samantha anymore. That pull was long gone. It was almost as if she’d vanished off the face of the planet.

“Samantha is being well protected,” Thomas informed me, like he could see exactly what was going through my mind. “She’s covered in magic, which means we can’t feel her anymore, but weknowwe’re in the right area, and that’s enough. We’ll find her.”

“How?” I asked nervously. “These woods are huge. How will we find her?”

Thomas exchanged a look with William and Richard. Clearly, I’d missedsomethingwhile I was out cold.

“What is it?” I demanded, because I wasnotgoing to be pushed out of this. Whatever it was, I needed to know what was going on. “What have I missed?”

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