Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Standing by the front window with a cleaning rag in hand, Hannah let out a sweet-sounding sigh as she dusted the sill. “I’ve always loved this little house.”
“Always?” From across the entryway, her mate chuckled. “You’ve only been living in the Wilds three months.”
She cast him a dirty look over her shoulder. “Don’t be a jerk. You know what I mean.”
“I get it,” I said while rubbing a layer of oil polish over a wooden table top. “And I’ve been here way less than that.”
Only a couple of weeks, in fact. That was it. But deep in my heart, I’d been searching for a place like Kyre’s family cottage my whole life. Not the structure itself—the sense of home.
And finally, I’d found it.
Kyre’s mother could not have been happier when Kyre informed her that he had claimed me as his mate. She handed over the cottage to us then and there, and over the last few days, Hannah and Tauren had been helping us bring the place back to life.
I couldn’t have been more grateful for their assistance.
There was plenty to do. On top of the regular housework, there were rooms to open up that hadn’t been used in decades, an attic that was stuffed with generations of forgotten tools and furnishings, and both a front and back garden that had withered away in Calindra’s absence.
But I wasn’t complaining. If anything, I was grateful for the distraction of manual labor. Keeping my hands busy had kept my mind off the gnawing sense of worry that had taken root deep in my belly.
It had been seven days since I’d spoken to Felicity in my dreams. A full week and she still hadn’t shown up at the gates.
But what made it worse was that my dreams had stopped, too.
Ever since Kyre had sunk his teeth into the back of my neck, making me his, I’d had nothing but peaceful nights. My dreams had returned to their old, mundane status. There were no more vivid fantasies. No more prophetic visions.
Every night I went to sleep, hoping that I’d open my eyes in some wild open field or cave, just to get an idea of where she might be. But so far, all I’d seen were half-remembered flashes of my old life—anxiety dreams about missing the bus or being late for a shift at the hotel.
Nothing about Felicity at all.
I was just starting to think that maybe our conversation had been nothing but a wild fantasy, when news of the attack she’d warned about arrived.
An outpost between this village and the next had been burned to the ground, its storehouse raided.
Even worse, the guard had been seriously injured in the attack, hit from behind with such force that he lost one of his eyes.
The alpha never saw his attacker, but a leather wrist cuff known to belong to Lash was found at the scene.
After that, there was no pretending that our meeting hadn’t actually happened.
Somehow, that only made my anxiety worse.
If what Felicity had told me was true, then where was she? Had I been wrong to listen when she told me not to search for her? Did we need to send Thorn out again?
If I stopped for even a second, the uncertainty would drive me mad.
There was no way I’d be able to take much more.
“I think something is going on outside,” Hannah said, pulling me out of my doom spiral. Frozen at the window, she stared out over the small garden to the village pathway beyond. “Everyone seems to be headed toward the gate.”
The gate?
Dropping both the oil and the polishing cloth, I ran toward the door.
“Sophia!” Kyre called out behind me.
But I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
In all my life, I only knew one person whose mere presence could draw the attention of an entire town, kirre or ferus.
“Felicity.”
It had to be.
Even though I was running at full speed, Kyre caught up with me in a matter of seconds. But at least, he knew not to try to stop me. He ran right alongside me until we’d reached the back of the crowd.
“Move to the side,” Kyre commanded with a roar.
In an instant, the crowd parted, making space for us to slip our way to the front. Unsurprisingly, Calindra was already there, standing on the small wooden ledge that allowed her and a small group of guards and warriors to peer over the battlement.
Without asking for permission, I started climbing the ladder to join them.
“I had a feeling you’d get her before I had a chance to send for you,” Calindra said as I clambered up the wooden rungs. “I think that visitor of yours has finally arrived.”
Totally out of breath by the time I made it to the top, I had to hold on to the sharp, pointed tips of the wall to keep from tumbling over. But before I’d slipped an inch, Kyre was there behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me steady.
And thank God he was, because the second I peered down, my legs went weak and tears sprang up in my eyes.
“Felicity!”
She was here!
She’d survived the abduction by a crazed alpha. Survived being held hostage. Survived making her way through the Wilds alone. Tired and dirty and looking more than a little rough around the edges, but alive.
Just like she’d promised.
“Sophia!” she called up to me, the relief in her voice every bit as loud as my own.
“I’m so happy to see you. You need to come in,” I shouted down to her before turning toward Calindra. “Why haven’t you let her in?”
“She insisted on waiting for you,” Calindra said.
Of course, that made sense.
To me, this village was home. These were my friends and family, but to Felicity they were strangers. Unknown ferus with the potential of being every bit as vicious and cruel as the one who’d taken her.
“That’s okay,” I said to Felicity. “I’ll come down and walk in with you.”
“No, wait! Keep the gate closed for now,” Felicity cried out from below. “I need to show you something first. You remember the promise you made to me the other night to trust me?”
My brows pulled together hard. “Of course.”
But what did that have to do with anything?
“Good,” she said. “Because I’m really going to need you to keep it. I’m putting all my faith in you, Sophia.”
What in the world was she talking about? “You’re scaring me, Felicity.”
“I know, but I’m going to need you to be brave,” she said. “Because there’s someone I need you to meet.”
Turning around, she gestured toward a dark shadow deep within a copse of trees. Fern fronds and brush rustled as something started to move within the darkness, stepping out into the light.
The air froze in my throat as I watched a giant alpha come into view—dark-haired and scowling, he was painfully familiar.
“Sophia,” Felicity said. “I’d like you to meet—”
Kyre’s roar blared out across the forest from behind me.
“Lash!”
Welcome to The Wilds!
Thank you for reading Kyre, Book 2 in the series.