Chapter 4 #2
“I mean, if you left right now, where would you go to look for her?”
Colt didn’t have an answer for that. No one had an answer for that.
Adrien entered the tent with Damien at that moment, the two of them talking quietly until they noticed the tension in the room.
I knew Colt and Drayven were pissed at me, but I also thought they understood they weren’t blameless.
It wasn’t like this was the first time Ama had issues with one of us.
While things were particularly bad this time, they had both fucked up before and understood I was feeling immense remorse—just like they had in the past.
Adrien and Damien, however, were a different story. The latter offered me a dark look, a growl rattling his chest as he grabbed a chair as far away from me as possible. Probably because he was imagining ripping out my throat.
Adrien had refused to acknowledge my existence since everything had occurred.
He was beyond furious at me, and every time we were in the same space together, his shadows practically suffocated me.
The violence brewing under his skin was very obvious.
I had a feeling Adrien wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me if given the opportunity, which was such a complete one-eighty from his normal behavior.
That was what Ama did, though. She took your reality and flipped it. She made you forget who the hell you were and what day of the week it was. The woman became your center of gravity so fucking fast it was unreal.
“We don’t have a location, or even a hint as to where she could be,” Adrien spoke quietly and patiently.
“If we go back to Pura and take back our houses, then we will have enough manpower to search the entire realm for her. I am not going to let us waste every single ounce of effort Ama put into this mission wandering the realm aimlessly. If what Ama wants is for us to continue on, then that is what we will fucking do.”
“I agree.”
My voice echoed through the tent, and I instantly felt everyone’s eyes on me, all filled with varying levels of fury.
I sat up straighter, deciding that I needed to get it together, even though I wanted nothing more than to find our girl.
“I know I fucked up, but I trust Drayven, and if he says this is what Ama wants then...well, then we should give her what she wants. Always.” The last part was more of a reminder to myself because I had never known how true the words were until this moment.
Ama should always get what she wanted, even if it meant I had to share her. She was worth it.
Jace spoke up, his even temperament serving as a sounding board for everyone else. “He’s right. Adrien is right. That is the only way we are going to be able to do this successfully. Colt, I understand that you and Fin—“
“Do not assume you understand anything about me, Jace.”
Finias’ voice had me snapping my head to the side, and I found the man in question walking around the map in the center of the room, as if he’d been there the entire devildamned time.
His eyes met mine briefly, their emptiness making me feel as if I was being hunted for a singular moment before he looked away.
“And what would you suggest we do, Finias?” Adrien deployed his shadows, crowding the edges of the room and making the space feel smaller than it already was.
“I don’t suggest anything. I know what I am doing,” Finias ground out. “I am going after her, the minute I have an idea of where she is.”
“We need you,” Damien responded quietly. “We need you with us and committed to this. There is no way we can beat your parents without you to break those barriers. If you leave, we are fucked.”
Finias’ emotions seemed to waver for a minute, and I spoke up, “If you leave—if any of us leave—it lowers our chances of getting more people on our side. It’s true, I could give a fuck less about my house, but I don’t want Ama to come back and realize that we put everything on hold to find her and lost time on saving her dad or anyone else she cares about. ”
“Zurie,” Drayven said quietly. “Her best friend Zurie and her dad.”
I frowned for a minute, feeling an uncomfortable surge of disappointment in my chest that I hadn’t recognized the name.
Sometimes, I forgot how little I knew of Ama’s life outside of the Summit.
I wanted to know so much more, but instead of spending time doing that, I’d fucked up each and every time I’d gone to talk to her.
The minute the words about rejecting our mate bond had come out of my mouth, I’d regretted them.
I could never reject Ama, and I swore to fuck the minute we had her back I would get on my knees and beg for her forgiveness.
I wasn’t an idiot. I was worse than an idiot, and I had deserved every single word of anger tossed at me by the other guys once I’d explained that I didn’t know where Ama was.
That she had fled after our argument—as well as exactly what that argument had been about.
I muttered a curse under my breath, feeling like the dirt beneath the feet of all these soldiers. No, lower than that.
Before Finias could say anything, the tent opened, and Commander Pandora strode in, followed by her four men. She completely ignored us and walked towards the map, only turning around then to pin all of us with a look that had me feeling almost fucking scolded.
“Get it together, boys,” she snapped quietly.
“If we are moving forward with this war, then I need all of you to get it together. Ama is tough as shit. She will be fine, and I would suggest following her plans to move forward with this war, or you are going to have one pissed off hybrid princess when you get her back. I know it's upsetting. I know you’re distracted, but I can’t afford that.
Shut that shit down, or I am taking my army and turning back now. ”
The law had been laid down. We all exchanged looks, and I saw less hostility towards me and more of a joint sense of determination.
I stood up and walked towards the map, deciding to bury myself in getting this war done with so we could get our mate back.
So she could come back to a kingdom that was victorious and freed of traitors.
A kingdom that would have the opportunity to be completely different with the change of power.
“We good?” She eyed all of us as we came to stand by the map, and we each offered various levels of nonverbal affirmation.
“Good. Let’s get this right the first time and win, like your girl would want.”
And what our girl wanted...she got. That was my new motto for Ama. Anything she wanted was hers, no matter what I had to sacrifice to ensure it.