Page 56 of The Alpha's Mates

"Can you teach me to control the mind link?" I asked, needing to change the topic for the sake of my aching heart. "It's annoying having you all knowing everything I'm thinking."

"Sure, Little Warrior, but not tonight. Get some sleep."

The sun had already begun to sink down below the horizon. It was still early, but exhaustion kept pulling my eyelids closed. It'd been a long few days. Hell, it'd been a long few years. I'd gone from being ostracized from my home, to protecting my own pack, to now having mates who were willing to give their lives to protect me.

"There's too many thoughts flowing through that pretty head of yours," Atlas said as he adjusted the both of us so we were lying on the bed. "Shut it down and sleep. There's nothing we can do to help Emma or Lyas tonight."

He was right. There was nothing we could do until we got back to the seaside packs. We were going to have to travel cross-country, which was going to take too damn long, but the roads had all been blocked off by the human government in this region. The only way was to avoid them at all costs. I remembered clearly the journey that got us from my home to themountains where the Venat Pack had found us. I couldn't believe I was going back already.

A rumbling sound started up from behind me and it took me a minute to realize it came from Atlas. "What are you doing?" I asked. The sound was tugging at me, urging me to relax against him. He was behind me, chest to my back. His arms had me wrapped up in a cocoon of warmth.

"Purring."

My eyes widened. Mom had told me about an alpha's purr, but I'd never heard one before. The alphas where I grew up didn't make the noise. They probably thought it was a weakness, because it was all about comfort. Alphas were known to use it for the betterment of their mates and young. Atlas was easing my fears with the deep gruff noise. It was a beautiful sound that spoke to me on a molecular level. Without my permission, my body lost all tension and my eyes slid shut.

CHAPTER 25

Calder

Leaning against the porch railing, I glared at the door of the hut where Reese was inside sitting next to her friend. "There has to be a way," I muttered.

"A way to what?" Atlas asked. He was standing there, quietly waiting for Reese to finish saying goodbye to her childhood friend.

None of us knew whether Emma was going to be alive by the time we got back. For that matter, we didn't know whether we were actually going to return. We could all easily die on this quest. Which was why I was growling with a frustration I couldn't seem to contain. "To keep her here."

Atlas's head turned as he studied me. "That's not the way it works."

"Soren agrees with me," I told him.

"Of course he does. Look, Calder, I don't want to put her in danger either, but something tells me that if we leave her behind, we're all fucked."

I knew that. So did Soren. It was why we were both fucking pissed this morning. Instead of leaving our mate somewhere safe we had to bring her into the fucking lion's den. "I know."

"Then stop with the growling and get your shit together. We're leaving in an hour."

He was right. We'd already wasted enough time trying to figure out what to do. If we didn't get moving now, we wouldn't make it back to the ocean in time for the lunar eclipse. Since that was what the crazy old bag of bones had told us to do, it was the plan we'd follow.

"Fine," I snapped, shoving off the railing.

"You know you can't go in there, right?" Atlas asked, his voice low so Reese wouldn't hear him inside the hut. "She needs to say goodbye on her own terms."

"Fuck off with your goddamned logic, Atlas." His laughter followed me across the village as I stalked away. I needed some time alone before we started on this fucking quest. The last thing Reese needed was me snapping at her. She'd think I was somehow blaming her for all this and I wasn't. We'd waited so fucking long to find a female, never even knowing if we'd be able to mate her in the way of our Goddess, that this idea of taking her on a potential life ending adventure was making me prickly as shit. If fated mates were still a thing, I knew she'd be ours. It was probably better that they weren't because there would be no way we could let her go with us if she was our fated mate. It would tear us up from the inside. Not that it wasn't already doing that.

I just hoped that our bond would grow enough while we traveled for her to understand that we were only doing this because we trusted her. She could handle herself, she'd alreadyproved it. If she were a beta or an omega? We wouldn't even be entertaining the idea of her saving the shifter world. No. She would be tied to a post somewhere until we were out so far in front of her that she couldn't catch up. But Reese wasn't a beta, or an omega. She was an alpha. Like us. She deserved the chance to prove herself to those who doubted her. To avenge herself. And to play out what fate had in store for her, even though I fucking hated it.

Soren was speaking with Jessu and his cadre mates, so I went over to our packs and began checking to make sure we had what we needed for the journey. I knelt down, rummaging through, when something landed next to me, making me jerk.

The crow cocked its head, cawing at me as though I was in its way. "The fuck are you doing here?" I asked. The last I'd seen of him was at Celinda's cave.

He cawed again and hopped closer to me, his eyes on the packs. "You want to come with us?" As though in answer, he took flight and landed on top of the hut that our pack mates were in with their ill mate. He seemed to be settling in. "Okay. You're staying here."

"Who are you talking to?" Soren asked as he walked up.

I pointed up to where the crow was walking back and forth along the roof, as though he was a guard on duty.

"Where'd he come from?" Soren echoed my earlier question.

Shrugging, I buckled up the packs. "Not sure, but it looks like he's staying."

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