Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
Wren
Iturn around in the bed, rousing from the most peaceful slumber as a smile pushes up my cheeks.
Today is the day. We’re finally taking the next step forward toward our future with Lyra.
Instinctually, I reach across the mattress to feel her warm body beside mine.
We fell asleep next to each other again last night, with Fidget curled up comfortably between us as I reach my fingers for her.
However, all I feel is a busy tail. Lifting my head from the pillow, I tug the sheets aside.
Fidget blinks back up at me, looking so cute and innocent as his tail wags where he has tucked it neatly beneath his chin.
Yet Lyra is nowhere in sight.
She must have gotten up to use the bathroom. But when I check inside, I find the tub empty.
When I move downstairs, she’s nowhere in sight either.
Panic begins to crawl up the sides of my ribs, tightening into a ball in my chest, but I swallow the dread, rushing outside to check the herb garden. I even glance inside the chicken coop, the one we painted purple together, yet she isn’t inside collecting eggs.
All I find are our roosting hens.
That’s when I close my eyes, focusing on the bond we share. I see brief flashes of memory, such as an arrow and a note with blurred words, but I can’t quite make them out.
So, I probe further until I’m hit with a blank wall.
My eyes snap back open.
Lyra has closed up the bond.
Why?
Is she hurt? In danger?
If only I could sense her, yet her end of the bond eludes me now.
I swallow next. Something... something awful has happened. So awful that she felt the need to leave.
The need to block me out.
Everything was perfect. We had plans for the future, to live in a world where no man was king.
A paradise where we would be free.
Until that note arrived...
A growl sounds from the base of my throat, and then I find the tree from her memory. There’s an Alpha scent there, one that reeks faintly of ash, and I have no doubt in my mind now.
Whoever she was running from... they only found her again in the end.
Over my rotten, dead corpse.
I refuse to let her go.
Lyra is my Omega. And he can’t have her.
I will tear his face off for stealing my bonded mate. For daring to threaten her.
So, I move back into the house, formulating plans in my mind already.
I’ll catch up with her.
Gage is already waiting for me when I storm into the cabin. For the first time in my life, my oldest brother looks genuinely nervous.
“I can’t find Lyra,” I tell him next. “I... can’t sense her, either.”
My whisper is pained, distant.
No. I’m losing hope already; I won’t let the misery, the defeat, take over.
Lyra will be okay. We will get her back.
Gage swallows audibly. Then he clenches his fists, never taking his ice-blue eyes off me. “Malakai has gone.”
My stomach bottoms out. Then my heart ratchets several notches.
Malakai has gone after her, too. It’s the only explanation.
I’d be angry at my brother for taking off without informing us first, but all I care about is getting her back home where she’s safe.
My voice is urgent next when I peer into my brother’s eyes. “We have to go after them.”
Gage is about to speak, yet I brush past him, finding my boots. In the end, he sighs, nodding his head. “All right.”
I’m glad to see we’re on the same page.
We have an Omega to find.
I just hope Malakai can catch up with her before it’s too late.
I grab Fidget’s lead, deciding to kill two birds with one stone. He’s due for a walk. Also, he’s an extra nose for the search.
We will catch up with Lyra before that Alpha gets his hands on her. Judging by her faint scent, the one that still lingers in the house, he threatened her.
Her cherry is laced with fear.
Lyra was terrified, and a growl bursts to life in my throat.
Well, time to go and tear some limbs.
Because Lyra and I will have that bright future together. We will cross the desert, find that sweet paradise, and escape the clutches of the king.
I just need to take the next leap.
It’s time to seize our future.
I’m coming, Lyra.