Page 7 of Rising Darkness

Kota fell back onto his ass and dug his palms into his eyes. If his jovial brother was breaking apart, there was little hope for Kota. Pain and emotional angst plagued him daily, but this hit was a death blow.

“You’re the best tracker I know,” Kota rasped, then pleaded with his brother. “Try again. Please, Axel.”

Axel straightened and pinched the bridge of his nose to hide the emotions that had leaked out.

I wished I could reach him and Kota mentally, to help them, to shore them up with my own anger and promise them wewouldget our mate back. Somehow. Someway. But the pack bonds that used to fill my mind were gone, and I was left with gaping silence.

“Trust me, I tried.” Axel scrubbed a hand over his face and then faced all of us. “There’s nothing left. The trail is cold, and no matter how hard I picture Lorn or try to grab onto her magickal signature, it’s just… blank.”

“You think he has her somewhere tightly warded? Somewhere we can’t track?” Chayton hurriedly offered, grasping at any thread of hope that would mean his world wasn’t deteriorating around him like this hell hole we were in. “There aren’t many people who can pull off that kind of protective barrier. It might be a start to narrowing down who dared to kidnap her.” Magickal protections such as wards, shields, and boundaries were Chayton’s speciality, and I saw his mind at work, already compiling a list of viable suspects.

Axel paced agitatedly. “It’s got to be more than that. Even if she was taken somewhere expertly warded, I should have been able to sense the portal’s magickal sig—” Axel froze mid-stride, and his body language went murderous. “There’s no way…”

Whatever Axel was thinking was lost to us as a shot of orange magick flared. He cursed swiftly as he disappeared through another portal, leaving us all behind in his haste.

Through the glimmer of the portal, I spotted our new house on the other side before it snapped closed. Quickly, I opened one of my own and rushed through it, needing to know what the hell had made Axel so eerily pale.

The others followed suit, and soon we were stomping through the front door like some morose parade.

Jogging up the stairs, I hurried down the hall, following my senses to Axel.

Standing in the center of his room, Axel shoved his hands into his hair. Gripping the strands in painful fistfuls, he stared at the now empty drawers of his dresser. He’d strewn his clothing around the floor at his feet.

“What the fuck, brother?” Kota snarled.

“What the hell is the Tavia Glass?” Jolon snapped at the same time, clearly reading something from Axel’s mind that I had zero access to.

Axel winced at the wash of alpha power that rippled through the room. I could only imagine Jolon was rifling through his head to find the answer faster than any of us could provide it.

My teeth ground together painfully at being left out of the pack bond. It was like driving without directions. Like stumbling through the dark in an unknown place. Cut off from the mental link, I was the last to know what the hell they were talking about, and it was killing me slowly.

“Care to explain?” I laced my sarcasm with gritty warning.

Axel didn’t bother to turn around, still staring at the empty drawers. “The Tavia Glass,” he rasped. “It’s fucking gone.”

“What?” I bit out and pushed my way through my pack mates to check the drawers myself while trying to wrap my head around how it was possible for the artifact to go missing.

“What are you saying?” Kota questioned hoarsely, facing his brother with condemnation blazing in his pointed stare.

“Quit with the accusatory looks.” Axel untangled his fingers from his locks, leaving his hair mused. “When I unpacked my shit, I unloaded things in my magickal storage as well. I left it hidden in a dresser drawer under my things because it seemed more secure than keeping it with me. The house is protected. It should have been safe. Dason warded the barriers himself.” Axel gestured toward me wildly.

Widening my stance, I crossed my arms, prepared to defend myself. “The houseissafe.”

Jolon bristled, turning his angry gaze in my direction. “The fact that someone robbed us says otherwise.”

“No one else has noticed anything going missing?” Chayton asked, inserting himself in an effort to distract us and stop another pissing match between Jolon and I.

None of us wanted another fight, but I was damn sure the wards were solid. “I’m telling you, it’s not possible. The wards only allowusentry.”

“Dase.” Chayton didn’t want to step into me, but I saw the questions, the challenge, formulating anyway.

Chayton had been my beta for so long, and I knew when he was pushing back. As much as he was supposed to back me up, I’d always appreciated when he called me on my shit or saw something in a different light. A good beta wouldn’t follow orders blindly, and Chayton had always been my moral compass, making sure I was making the best possible decisions. Didn’t always mean he was right when he questioned my authority, but the two of us had always shared an equal respect for each other and the positions we held.

It was because of that respect that I relaxed my stance and shook my head. Rubbing a hand over the light scruff on my jaw, I gave him one sharp nod to continue.

“The wards are strong. I’ve checked them myself.”

Good.At least he wasn’t calling my skills into question.

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