Page 50 of Alpha Bond

I have to warn Titer.

I use my anger to push me when my muscles begin to tire and my lungs start to burn. Fire fills my chest, but still, I keep running. I can hear Casey’s labored panting from behind me, but now I’m not slowing to worry about her injury. If she can’t keep up, she’ll have to make her way back on her own. But true to form, my partner battles on gamely, and by the time the towering doors to Steel Lakes come into view, she’s right behind me.

I shift in less time than it takes me to think about it.

“Open!” I thump a fist on the heavy steel doors. “Open the fuck up!”

“Halt, who goes there?”

“For fuck’s sake, Cruise; now’s not the goddamned time!”

Something in my voice must sink into his head because the gate rattles open, and I’m hurtling through. I’m wheezing as I sprint toward Titer’s office, almost kicking the door off its hinges when I get to it.

“Boss!” I gasp out.

He stares at me, shooting up from his desk. “You’re here. Thank God. One of the others must’ve found you…” He waves a hand when I open my mouth to speak. “It’s your mate. Something’s wrong.”

My heart plummets. All the fears that just drove me seem to have been sucked away as I focus on him. They’re replaced by new ones. “What do you mean something’s wrong?”

“Can’t say.” He shrugs. “A few hours ago, she started whining. When we went to check in on her, she locked herself in. Even Doc can’t get through to her. And the whining hasn’t stopped. It’s gotten worse.”

“Fuck!” I bite the word out, torn between the urgency of what I have to tell Titer and my need to get to my mate.

Casey’s skidded to a halt beside me. “Go to her,” she says breathlessly. “I can handle this.”

She can. I know she can. Without another word, I pivot to the door. Titer’s bewildered expression is the last thing I see before I’m running again.

Chapter 20

Sierra

I can hear my own breath, and it’s not normal. I’m panting. Panting as I pace from one side of the apartment to the other. My movements are jerky, agitated.

Where is he?

Off on patrol. But it feels wrong. Jagger left straight after our mating ceremony and said he’d be back soon. I sat waiting for a while. Then the sun set, and I started pacing. I paced through the night and into the dawn, and now the sun has been up for at least a couple of hours, and still, he isn’t back.

Where the hell is he?

It’s the first time he’s left me truly alone since I got here, and suddenly, every fear that I’ve fought down is running rampant.

What if something happened to him? It’s not safe out there; I know that better than anyone. What if Rack’s men got him? What if they hurt him? Killed him even.

Oh, my God!

The thought makes me choke up. I clasp a hand to my throat, swallowing down the lump in it. My skin is burning, but then again, I feel like every part of me hurts. I drop my hand and wrap my arms around myself as I turn and change direction.

If he doesn’t come back, what will happen to me?

I tighten my grip around my waist and squeeze my eyes shut. I have no fear of walking into furniture because my feet pretty much know the route by now.

If he doesn’t come back, will I be sent out again? Or will I have to pick one of the others? I think of all the males who hounded me in the days before Jagger made his proposition. I don’t want them, any of them.

Calm down, dammit!

But I can’t. I keep seeing Rack looming over me, his face too close, his scent too strong, his body overpowering. Bile rises up my throat, and I fight it down.

Come back, Jagger. Please, please come back!

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