“How will we get all this stuff anywhere, though?” Elise mutters when she looks at all of our things. I don’t know how we managed to carry it all to the cave, but I assume the adrenaline rush helped. However, the way back to Silverlake will be long and tiring, and I don’t want us to be burdened by too much luggage. I’m about to suggest leaving some stuff behind when Steve chimes in.
“Let me do that,” he says good-naturedly. “My gift is strength.”
Anthony looks at him in surprise. “Just how strong are you?”
Steve grins, then wraps his arm around his mate to lift her up and settle her on his shoulders. “Just hold on tight, apple pie.”
She nods.
Next, he grabs one of the larger bags and fixes it to his back. Once done, he lets the others add two more to it. Amaryllis also takes some of our jackets, as it will be warmer once we climb through the cave. Trixie flutters around a bit before settling on Amaryllis’ shoulder. “That’s nothing.” he shrugs.
“Bro,” I mutter, dumbfounded.
“Well, hello there, Hulk. That is strong,” Anthony sounds impressed.
“You just got really interesting,” Henry says, amazed. “I think you even put my dad to shame, and he is freaking strong already.”
His praise means the most to Steve, as he visibly gets embarrassed. “Thanks,” he mutters shyly.
Henry looks at Steve for a moment. “Hey Steve…” he mutters, shifting around a bit. “I know I was shitty to—”
“Just forget it.” Steve smiles brightly. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. You are cool now!”
“Please, someone call me cool too,” Anthony says, making puppy eyes at us.
“You are the coolest,” Marcel intervenes. “Your ass saved mine. That was awesome. Thank you.”
Now it’s Anthony’s turn to look a bit embarrassed.
“Do you want to walk, or should I carry you? I really wouldn’t mind!” I ask Freya.
“Walk.” She beams. “I have lots of strength after getting some sleep. They never mistreated me much in the pack, well…they did, but you know the basics by now.”
“How come?” Elise asks curiously.
“They were scared of her,” Ryllis says quietly.
I look at her in surprise and then at my mate. “Scared?”
“We had an incident once.” She looks embarrassed. “They made me come to one of their parties and wanted to… well… they wanted more than to just look. Let’s put it like that. Sereia freaked out, and then suddenly, all the windows exploded. Benjamin was there, too, as one of his friends dragged him to the party when I was already there. I think I almost castrated him.”
Amaryllis giggles a bit at her words. “It turned into a legend among us slaves and Os,” she explains, and I’m relieved to see her coming out of her shell and interacting a bit more with us.
“Os?” Marcel asks.
“Omegas,” Elise explains.
“I’m not even sure it was my doing,” Freya admits. “Everyone believed it was an earthquake or something.”
“If they were scared of you afterward, I doubt they believed it was a coincidence.” I beam proudly at her. It seems like my mate has some hidden talents. “We’ll research this later. For now, let’s get moving.”
Marcel, with his tracking abilities, leads the way. Steve carries Amaryllis for as long as possible; once the ceiling gets too low, she walks through, which is probably why he insisted on carrying her at the beginning.
“Going by what Arman told us, we should be able to pass through the cave within two or three days,” I point out, hoping the way won’t be too difficult. I assume Arman would have told us about potential dangers, but one never knows.
*ELDEN*
I watch Jace pacing around my office in worry, and it’s impossible to calm him down. By now, I’ve talked to Liam and everyone else who could have heard from Finn or any of the others, but nothing. No one has heard anything for forty-eight hours, and none of us can get through. Steve’s dad, Brian, is on his way too and will soon join us for this emergency meeting.