Chapter 27
Auryn
The searing pain hits me, and I sit up immediately. Heat ransacks my body, and the pain I feel in my stomach, my groin, is worse than any heat cramp I’ve ever felt. Something is wrong.
I close my eyes, trying to breathe through it, but it’s no use. It’s so much. Too much.
I know this pain isn’t mine.
It’s Emmett’s.
Before the Orions kidnapped me, I’d actually led a semi-normal life. Granted it was a lonely one, because I’d been on my own since I was a teenager, but still, I heard the stories about mate bonds. It was hard to miss.
I’d always dismissed the idea that you could be so connected to a person that you could feel their pain. But I know without a doubt, that’s what this is.
Every bone in my body wants to move, to run, but the pain…it’s making it hard to breathe.
I have to get to him, I have to—
“Auryn,”
Gage’s voice is the first to call out, and I feel Diego shift beside me. “Auryn, what’s wrong?”
“It hurts,”
is all I can manage out of my mouth. Diego stirs, mumbling Spanish beside me, but his body stiffens as he sits up too.
“What hurts?”
The sharp, calculating voice beside me cuts through the air, and I feel Olly’s hand squeezing my hip.
“E-everything,”
I say as I try to work through the pain. I fight to move my legs, though they feel like Jell-O at the moment.
“Auryn—”
Gage’s voice is stern. He grabs for me, but I push him away.
“Gage, wait. We should listen to her,”
Diego says.
I crawl towards the end of the bed, feeling two sets of hands grasping at me, but only one set of footsteps follows me.
“Auryn, get back here!”
Gage growls as I stumble towards my clothes, strewn out on the floor.
“No!”
I hiss as I try my hardest to slip my legs into my sweatpants.
“Here, let me help,”
Olly says, his voice low and smooth.
“Don’t you dare help her!”
Gage growls, and within a flash he is in front of me. “You are not leaving this compound, Auryn.”
“The fuck I am! He is my mate!”
I growl back. Gage’s eyes are full of fire.
“I understand that, Auryn, but you can’t go running in there blind. We need to take some time to prepare, to get ready. You can’t go running off alone, especially not to the Orions’. It’s probably exactly what Sneed wants.”
The faintest sound pulls our attention, and the three of us turn to see Diego. Out of bed. Hobbling over to us.
Gage tenses and immediately flocks to him. Olly grabs my elbow, carefully tugging me closer.
“Perhaps we should take a moment to process what you’re feeling.”
The way he says it isn’t completely detached. It is, but…
It’s almost like there’s another reason, beyond science, that drives him to say it. Like he actually wants me to process my feelings. But I don’t have time to do that. Not when Emmett is in danger, in pain.
Another bout of ache fills me as I nearly double over. I grab Olly’s arm, my nails sinking into his skin. To his nature, he goes down with me. My knees hit the floor with a thud and I cry out, and a moment later, his arms are tight around me, and he holds me against his chest.
“Breathe,”
he instructs. “Follow my count.”
He sucks in a breath. “One…” his voice shakes only minimally.
“Auryn, look at me. Try to relax.”
I look up at Diego, tears forming in my eyes because I can see the pain etched in his as well. The guilt.
Olly removes one hand from where he holds me and strokes my hair softly. “Two,”
he says in a tone that is much calmer. I suck in a breath and let it out.
“You are not going off to those bastards halfcocked, Auryn. Not after—”
I glare at Gage, and that’s when I hear a growl. Though I can’t be certain who it’s coming from, my guess would be Diego.
My fingernails sink into Olly’s forearm, but he doesn’t flinch. He wraps his legs around me, holding them against me. Tight. It’s restraint, but it’s not restraining to the point I can’t break free. I know I could.
“Three,”
he murmurs in my ear softly. I suck in a breath, closing my eyes. Tears fall without warning as I whimper, knowing he’s right.
Gage is right, too.
I can’t just go in there without a plan. Knowing Sneed, he did this on purpose.
He’s trying to lure me out, maybe? He must know they have me. He must know that if he took one of theirs—an eye for an eye—that they would come looking. Probably even banked on them leaving me, which makes kidnapping me much easier…
“That’s it.”
Olly slides his fingers through my hair, his voice low and warm against my ear. I know the others can’t hear him. “That’s my good girl. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
My tears fall, hot and fast, and the sob comes. The ache in my belly, in my loins is still there, but it’s fading. I don’t want it to fade, though. I worry what that fade means…
“I need my mate,”
I whine. “I need—”
“We all need him, princess,”
Diego says, “but we must be smart about this.”
“Diego is right,”
Gage says. “We need a plan.”
I glare up at Gage, my vision blurry. Olly rocks me against him, stroking my hair, whispering soft endearments against me. His grip is tight, and I realize, he too, is shaking.
Instinctively, I purr. Gage holds my gaze.
“Well, don’t just stand there, Gage,”
I growl as Olly whines against me, burying his face in my hair. “Do something.”
The words are not a request. They are a command, and Olly stiffens.
Diego murmurs something incoherent, and I watch the light darken in Gage’s eyes.
“Auryn—”
I break free of Olly’s grasp, standing up. Diego doesn’t move. I can feel Olly’s eyes on my back. I take two steps toward Gage.
Though I am much shorter than the rest of them, I feel much taller at the moment. I stare Gage in his eyes, holding my ground. “Because if you don’t, I will,”
I say, and with that I give him my back and head down the hall to the kitchen because suddenly, I’m fucking starving.
I’m halfway through a protein bar when the kitchen door opens. I expect to see Gage, but that’s not who it is.
Olly gives me a half-hearted smile.
“What are you doing here?”
I ask, hating how cold I sound. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to bristle at the tone, instead just slides his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants.
“I thought perhaps we could run some…tests.”
Of course. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve learned that Olly spends most of his time doing this. Researching. Compounding data. It makes sense, but I want action. I want to move, I—
“I thought perhaps it may give us some insight that would be helpful in finding Emmett,”
he says plainly.
I blink as he leans against the doorframe. The light of the kitchen casts shadows on him and his naturally dark features.
Part of me wants to devour him right here. Like this. Press him against the door frame and claw at his trim chest, take him like a thief in the night. I bet he’d let me. I bet he wouldn’t even put up a fight, but I know he and Gage are right. We need to focus, we need a plan.
Not a distraction.
“What kind of tests?”
I ask as I bite into my protein bar. I take two steps forward. “Where are Gage and Diego?” I ask.
Olly holds my gaze. “Standard. Some blood tests, but I won’t need to drain you.”
He smirks. “Just a prick of your finger should do, and I’d like to ask you some questions.”
“And these questions…”
I stand before him, looking up at his dark eyes. His gaze dips to my mouth for a moment before flashing to hold my gaze. “These questions will help us find Em?”
He nods. “I think so.”
“Okay,”
I say, nodding. “Take me to the lab.”
I finish my protein bar, and he smiles softly. He slides one hand in mine and pulls lightly.
When we get to the lab, he is methodical as always. Bustling about while I wait for him to instruct me. Neither Gage or Diego show up. Part of me feels agitated about this. Why have they not chased me down?
Do they not wish to comfort me?
After a good twenty minutes of questions ranging from physical symptoms to a strange review of inkblots, I watch as Olly brings a sharp object over. With one hand, he grabs my finger.
“Just a prick, Sleeping Beauty,”
he says with a lopsided smile, and I cock my head.
“Sleeping Beauty? What is that?”
I ask, and his expression falls.
“Nothing,”
he says too quickly and strokes the pad of my finger with his thumb. “Eyes on me.”
Then I feel the prick.
The blood rushes to the surface, warm, wet, and almost a relief. My finger is pressed against something cold and hard. Glass.
He holds it still with one hand, while swabbing it on several glasses, laying them on the counter as he does so, until there is but a faint drip. When he is done, he still holds it between us, looking at my finger, then at me. The look in his eyes is curious, but also dark.
It’s so different from how he usually looks at me.
My heart is in my throat, and there is a tension between us that is so thick, I think you could slice it with his scalpel.
And then he does what I don’t expect at all. He sticks my finger in his mouth and cleans the last drop of blood with his tongue, before pulling it out and planting his lips there.
“All better?”
I nod, feeling flush. “I think so.”
He drops my hand and prepares his slides, and the door opens. Gage and Diego stare at us from the doorway.
“Auryn,”
Gage says, clearing his throat. “I need you to come with us.”
I turn to look at Olly, who is already slipping away into his studies.
Something inside of me swirls with challenge. My shoulders hunch, and I want to bark. To growl. To assert a dominance I’ve never felt before. I will not let these alphas sideline me. I will not—
“Cálmate, mi amor.”
Diego’s words are like a balm to my soul. I step in front of him, and his gaze falls on me with a softness that pushes away the challenge. For now. He grabs my hand, pulling me into his space, and I relax just a fraction. His spicy scent makes my omega purr.
“Fine,”
I say, glaring at Gage. And as I follow him down the hall to a room I’ve never seen—one full of weapons and equipment—I can’t help but feel like there is more at stake than just Emmett’s rescue.
Something is changing. In the air, in me.
I only hope that Olly can find the answers in time before it’s too late.