33. Bain
Bain
I’ve never seen Maddox drive so fast. Normally, he’s a very cautious, laid-back driver. Not today. There isn’t a vehicle on the highway that he doesn’t pass, even choosing to use the shoulder when the traffic gets bad.
And now, as he tears through the streets of Starfall Haven, all I feel is a deep sense of dread and fear. The emotion is so foreign that it takes me a moment to realize it’s not originating from me.
“Cherry!” I gasp, my hand flying out to clasp the dashboard as if that might hold me together. “She’s awake!”
Gage and Maddox are silent, obviously feeling through their own bonds with her.
“She’s fucking terrified,” Maddox growls, his voice low and heavy with emotion.
“Still no answer from the twins,” Gage says as he pulls his phone away from his face. He managed to track all three of their phones to the house, but nobody is answering.
Maddox pulls onto our street and my body tenses even more. As our house comes into view, it looks… normal. I’m not sure what I expected, but I don’t feel normal. I expected our home to reflect that somehow.
Flying down the street and only slamming on the brakes as he pulls into the drive, Maddox throws the car into park as all three of our doors fly open and we jump out.
Immediately, my nose twitches with the scent of burned vanilla. “Blaze,” I growl, running for the front door. “He’s been here.”
Maddox makes it their first, shoving it open as we all sniff the air. “The only foreign scent is Blaze, and it’s hours old,” he says, confirming the same thing I scented.
“The twins!” Gage yells, scenting them as he takes off toward the bedrooms with us right on his heels. I smell it too; their scents are strong. They’re still here. Cherry, on the other hand, her scent is stale, and I’m terrified about what that means.
I slam into Gage’s back when I find him stopped right inside Cherry’s bedroom, which sends him stumbling forward a step.
“Hunt? Chase?” Maddox asks. I turn to where he’s looking. The twins are sitting in the bed, leaning against the headboard, their eyes wide open as they stare awkwardly at us, then their eyes move across the room.
“What the fuck?” I growl as I step around Gage and turn to where they’re staring. My heart drops at the sight. A severed head sits on the floor outside the new panic room. Blood covers the floor and the hair, making the long hair look… red.
“Cherry?” I choke out as I take a step closer. But then I freeze, unwilling to look. She can’t be dead, I’d know, wouldn’t I? They say the loss of a mate feels like your heart being ripped out of your chest.
I admit my heart is clenching painfully right now, but—
“I can still feel her,” Maddox says as he steps closer. “She’s terrified and angry.” Seeming to have more control than I do, he steps around the head and squats down, tilting his head to the side as he looks at it.
His eyes widen with hope as he turns to us. “It’s not her. It’s Juliet.”
I suck in a breath, feeling like I can finally breathe again.
“Juliet?” Gage asks in confusion.
I turn to the twins, realizing they haven’t said a word. They haven’t even moved. Stepping closer, I kneel on the bed and stare into Chase’s wide eyes. “What the fuck is this?” I ask, glancing over at Hunter and seeing him in the same condition.
Gage moves to Hunter’s side as Maddox moves to Chase’s, checking their pulses. Moving closer, on my knees, I reach forward and give Chase a little slap across the cheek. His head turns and he starts to tip over.
“Bain!” Maddox says in frustration as he helps me pull Chase back up.
“Just checking,” I say with a shrug. Staring at Chase, I can almost see his eyes try to narrow. I grab his hand and give it a squeeze. “You feel that, pretty boy?” I tease. His fingers twitch. “I felt that. He moved,” I tell the others.
“I think they’ve been sedated somehow,” Gage informs us.
“Wait—” Maddox says as he looks at us. “Didn’t Cherry say they used to sedate her at the facility? That she couldn’t move, but she could feel everything?”
“Fuck,” I say, looking back at Chase. “Did you guys have to sit here and watch that bastard take her?”
Chase’s eyes fill with anger, and I see his head twitch.
“I think they’re starting to come out of it,” Gage says.
“Anything we can do to speed it along?” Maddox asks.
“Not at this point. If they are starting to come out of it, it shouldn’t take long now.”
“Bain,” Maddox says, turning to me. “Go pack our weapons. As soon as they’re up, we’re going.”
“Where?” I ask in confusion. “We don’t even know where she is!”
“Let me check the tracker. I haven’t checked it since we felt her emotions again,” Gage says as he pulls out his phone and starts tapping at the screen.
“It’s loading!” he shouts, his eyes wide as he stares at the screen.
“The signal isn’t lost?” I ask in confusion.
“I guess it was muffled somehow,” he says, his eyes glued to the screen. “Got her!”
“Where is she?” I growl, my hands clenching into fists as I watch him.
“Hold on, I don’t recognize it. Let me zoom out… and out… and—there! She’s in Georgia. Probably four hours from here.”
“Is she moving?” Maddox asks as I jump off the bed, reading to go pack.
Gage pulls the phone closer and watches it for a moment. “No, she appears to be in the middle of a field.”
“A field?” I ask in confusion.
“The satellite image is probably old. Something may be there now. Besides, the facility Cherry was in before was underground,” Gage says with a grim look on his face.
My heart sinks. “The facility? I thought it was Blaze who took her?”
“He did,” Hunter grits out as we all spin to face him. He starts to tip to the side, and Gage quickly helps him sit upright. I see Hunter’s hand slowly reach up to grip Gage’s shoulder, his teeth clenched in pain.
“Ezra is Blaze,” Chase says as Maddox helps him stay upright.
My gaze moves to Juliet’s severed head. “He pretended to date her so he could get close to her?” I ask in confusion.
“He wouldn't have known we were going to leave Westgrove,” Maddox explains. “He probably thought dating her was a good way to stay close.”
“We already knew Blaze knew her from the facility,” Gage says before lifting up his phone. “This is pretty good evidence he took her there.”
“He told her he was taking her back,” Chase grits out as I watch him lift an arm and make a fist, like he’s testing his strength.
“While they’re coming around, Bain, you go pack,” Maddox tells me.
“Do—”
I’m cut off as a pain unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, suddenly rips through my chest.
I double over, crashing to my knees as I cry out. It feels as though my heart is literally tearing in two.
“What’s happening?” Hunter asks in alarm.
I hear Maddox and Gage grunting in pain, both clutching at their chests as they mirror my position.
“No!” I grit out in panic, shaking my head in realization. Only one thing in the world could affect the three of us so suddenly and so strongly.
“I can’t feel her,” Gage gasps, his wide eyes looking at me in panic.
“What do you mean?” Chase asks frantically. “What’s going on?”
“The mate bond…” I growl. “It’s gone.”
Hunter gasps as Chase, finally able to move, steps closer to me and grabs my shoulder, bending so he can look me in the eye.
“Bain,” he says, his eyes wide with fear. “What does that mean?”
“Our mate,” I whisper, “She’s dead.”
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