Page 37 of Her Reborn Mate

The second one gave me a bit of a challenge, as rather than come at me directly, he took out a pistol and began shooting at me.

“Don’t shoot at the goods!” Maurice yelled at him. I looked around and saw that blood was leaking out of several of the crates. The sight and smell of blood momentarily distracted the second vampire, allowing me to attack him and yank the gun out of his hand.

Without his weapon, he was just as helpless as his friend. I bit down on his head and pulled it, tearing it off his shoulders.

Now, it was just Maurice and me.

“I guess the cat’s out of the bag, or rather, the wolf’s out of the cage,” Maurice said. “Seeing as how you’ve seen the inside of my backup layer, you have to understand that I can’t let you out of here alive. That is, you can try to escape, but where exactly will you run off to? It’s not like there are directions written on the cave walls. I’m giving you this one chance to give up and go back to your cell. Otherwise, I’m going to have to kill you right here and now.”

I howled at broke into a run toward him. I would rather die than go back to that cell. As I lunged at him, Maurice shifted and caught me in mid-air, then pinned me to the ground.

He put his claw right over my face and pressed deeper. As he growled loudly, digging his claws deep into my face, a crashing sound came from up above, catching him off guard. I took my shot and threw him off, then raced off in the direction of the sound.

I had learned the hard way that even though he was not much of a werewolf, Maurice was too strong for me to take him on by myself.

As I ran for my life, he chased me, crashing into the crates, toppling them over, causing cascades of blood to fall onto the cavern floor, creating an utterly macabre sight. The entire network of caves stank with the smell of stale blood.

Even though I was being chased, I still registered all the caves where the crates were kept. Before I’d get out, I would somehow find a way to destroy this entire network of caves so that Maurice wouldn’t ever be able to smuggle even a drop of blood from Fiddler’s Green ever again.

After going through cave after cave, I became completely lost, not knowing where I was headed. Maurice gained on me from behind, leaving me no other choice but to enter the only cave that was ahead of me. As I ran through the darkness, I crashed into a solid wall, and to my horror, when I turned around, I saw that I was back in the cell again.

Before I could run back through the open metal door, Maurice shifted just in time and clanged the door shut.

“I’m going to give you a second to cool down,” he said fiercely. “Then I’m coming back with blowtorches and pliers. First, I’m going to rip your fingers apart, and then I’m going to set fire to all that fur.”

Exhausted, I let out one last weak signal to Will,Please, wherever you are, come find me.

Chapter 16: Will

The bond had never been this precarious and unpredictable before. Even when I was on the verge of death, it had directed me to Alexis with certainty. At times, the bond had deliberately debilitated me from doing anything else other than pursuit Alexis, and this was at a time when I had rejected her as my mate. Had the bond not done that, I wouldn’t have rescued her from Blair’s the first time around. Had the bond not so obstinately guided me, I wouldn’t have tracked her down to Bangor. But as adamantly helpful as the bond had been in those times, it had suddenly chosen to be vague and furtive.

I could not admit to myself this terrifying truth, that the reason why the bond had suddenly gone silent was not because it had suddenly devolved into a demonic tether that joyed itself by playing mental tricks on me, such as conjuring up visions of my dead mate but because Alexis was dead for real. Maybe that’s why when I tugged at the bond, it did not tug back in response. Perhaps it knew better that it was over. Or maybe this was its way of punishment.

In all the time that I had spent studying werewolves and their mystery, I had never come across any text stating that bonds were capable of being aware enough to dole out judgment.

“What’s the word, Vince?” I asked a very dejected-looking Vincent standing in front of me, his eyes down, his hands crossed solemnly. Throughout the evening, the men that I had sent out had been coming back to me in groups of twos and threes, telling me that they found no signs of Alexis and Maurice anywhere. When I inquired about Blair and his goings-on at the Beckett Pharma tower, they told me that the tower was closed with an “Under Construction” sign hung up at the doors and that there was no one inside. This created more questions than it answered, leading me to worry about one more thing—the whereabouts of Blair.

Knowing Blair, I knew he had unfinished business with me and would want to avenge his father’s death now that he knew I was still alive. His mobilization had made it trickier for me to anticipate his next attack. Now that he knew I was alive and well, it would only be a matter of time before he did something.

“Vince? Would you please say something? Don’t get me started on how this was your idea all along. You said that an Alpha delegates. Well, I delegated, and so far, no one has come back with any news at all. I don’t think they’re being diligent enough, and this state of not knowing has vexed me!” I said, my voice raising beyond my control. “What good am I as an Alpha if I sit idly? On that note, what good are my pack members to me if they’re not even trying?!”

“It’s not that they’re not trying, Will,” Vince said in a placating tone. I could not help but feel that he was trying to patronize me right now. I did not need to be calmed; I needed results. “It’s just that there’s nothing to report. I personally went over every single place, every nook, and cranny, and even I could not find anything. Face it, our foes have fled, and so has Alexis. If there’s nothing to find, not even the best detective in the world can find it. You’re letting your emotions get the better of you. We’re all on your side here, and we’re all doing everything that we can to help you.”

“It’s not much,” I said gruffly, grabbing my jacket and heading out the door. I was within my rights to be infuriated. I had overestimated the pack and had considered them competent enough to carry out my command. A dark part of me wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t jumped in to save the day. Would they all have perished in the culling fields?

I shook my head, trying to get that negative thought out of my head. It wasn’t until I had walked out of the commune and was heading down the sloped road leading to Fiddler’s Green that the epiphany came to me. These pack members were not sloppy. For that matter, they were not idiots either. They had just never seen war-time as I had. All of these people were raised in peacetime. That sort of thing went a long way in shaping a person. It was not a tall leap to make, this assumption that they were all complacent as a result of having lived generally peaceful lives.

When I was born, the First World War was wrapping up. I had to grow up and see all the hardships that come with the aftermath of warfare. People starving in the streets. Men fighting over bread. Orphaned children wandering the streets, their cheeks wet from tears shed over their deceased parents. It was a horrible sight to behold. I had barely become a man when the Second World War plummeted the entirety of Europe into an even bigger nightmare. Warplanes serenaded the fields with carpet bombs, cavalry blew up peaceful villages in the name of clearing out enemy areas, and brother murdered brother in the name of loyalty.

I had never known rest or peace, not even after I had moved to America. Within a short period of my arrival here, a deranged occultist imprisoned and mutilated me. The only semblance of peace that my life had was the time I had spent with Alexis. Only in those brief moments did I feel like I was just a regular human being, living a normal life, being at peace with who I was.

So, my pack members were not to blame. I was. I had expected more of them than they could deliver. It was about time that I rectified that situation.

***

I stood at the precipice of the cliff, staring deep into the still ocean water. At this point, scrying was my only resort. I had never tried it before, and it was not recommended to scry after the sun had gone down, but what other choice did I have? If my bond had suddenly turned malevolent and was showing me images of Alexis dead, and all my pack members had turned up empty-handed, my only resort was magic.

Normally, a seasoned witch or someone gifted with an innate sense of magic could scry whenever they wished. As I was neither a practitioner of magic nor gifted with dormant mana, I could only reach out into the beyond with hopes that the beyond would reach back and nudge me in a helpful direction.

---