Page 8 of His Rejected Mate

She addressed us all, giving her leader more time to recover. “Well, back to the problem at hand: Simon. We’ve had heavy suspicions that his lab was located in the volcano somewhere. With Wyatt’s firsthand knowledge, we’re pretty positive that we were right. Over the last several months, we’d made preliminary plans to infiltrate with a small but elite team of our best here at Haven. Obviously, that wasn’t going to be possible until we knew the location.”

“So you guys have never gone on the offensive?” Gavin asked.

“Not as of yet,” Eli replied. “Simon is slippery, and not only that, but the show and its security teams make life difficult on the island. It’s been all we can do to survive, honestly.”

“Well, you guys have lots of supplies,” Mika said. “It looks like you’re doing all right.”

Eli pointed down the hall. “The supplies are from sporadic shipments sent to the show—and I do meansporadic.Theirmagic staff is too preoccupied with their duties for the show. That means that instead of teleporting the items to the island, they have them air-dropped in.Maybeonce every eight or nine months, one of them will get blown off course and end up somewhere where I or Crew can raid the supplies before the show staff gets there. Everything else we have are things manifested by our fae or witch citizens. Even then, there’s only so much they can do.

“If we can take Simon down, and possibly use his equipment and supplies, we may be able to use what he has to finally get off this island. If we don’t deal with him soon, Crew and I are afraid he’ll find our location and destroy what little safety we have on this island.” She cut her eyes toward me. “Wyatt, are you sure you can find the area where you saw the entrance?”

“I can,” I said. “I remember what it looked like and the basic direction of the entrance. I’m trained for stuff like this. I’ve got you.”

She nodded and gave a slight victorious smile. “Good. Crew?”

She glanced back at the alpha, who seemed to have fully shaken off the argument with Chelsey. Stepping forward again, he scanned all of us. “We need to figure out a team who are the most capable and able to handle themselves. We know for sure Simon has magic on his side, but there could be anything from standard weaponry to some of his more unsavory experiments to deal with. I’m not forcing anyone. This will be volunteer only.”

“Well, I’m going,” Zoe said. “When I get pissed, I can do a fair bit of damage with my magic. And I can tell you now, I’m freakingpissed.”

Crew and Eli shared a worried look.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Addressing Zoe, Crew said, “I don’t know if it will be a good idea for you to go.”

“Why the hell not?” Zoe demanded.

“Simon tends to be more aggressive when it comes to fae,” Crew answered. “He seems to target them more than shifters, so it may be best if you sit this out. I don’t want you in even more danger than we’re in.”

“Bullshit,” Zoe said, flipping her hair. “You can try to keep me here, but I’mnotleaving my bestie hanging. I’m going, no matter what.”

He held up a placating hand. “Okay, okay, fine. But keep close to me or Wyatt so one of us can keep an eye on you.”

Zoe looked happy at the compromise and settled back down.

“I’ll go,” Mika said quickly.

Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought he gave Zoe a sidelong glance as he said it. It made me think that her volunteering had encouraged him. Strange.

“Count me in,” Gavin said, leaning against the far wall.

Crew cut his gaze back and forth between me and Gavin. “Are we going to have a problem here? I’m don’t want to have to break up some schoolyard scuffle in the middle of a battle.”

Gavin locked eyes with me. After a few seconds, we both nodded. Neither of us wanted to be the cause of Kira getting hurt or put in more danger.

“We’re good,” I muttered.

“All right, then,” Crew said. “I think that’s enough. Eli and I will go with three other Haven citizens who already volunteered weeks ago when we started putting this plan together. Any more of us, and the team will be too big to move swiftly and quietly. I think if we can get our supplies and final kinks worked out, Wyatt’s plan to go tonight may work.”

A shuddering sigh escaped me, and I pressed a hand to my mouth to hide the sound. My wolf was struggling for control of my mind. He wanted to runnow. It was all I could do to hold him in check. Knowing that we’d go soon did little to alleviate the need.

When J.D. put a hand on my shoulder, I flinched.

“Easy man,” J.D. whispered. “How you doing?”

Gazing around, I saw the others were in deep conversation about the mission. I should have been participating, but my head wasn’t in the game. All I could do was worry about Kira.

Shrugging helplessly, I said, “Not great. I can’t stop thinking about Kira with that lunatic. Every second away from her feels like an eternity.”

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