I had time for none of it if he was going to be dead inan hour.
“Adrian—” My mother followed behind me, Stefani behind her. We looked like sparkling ducklings all in a row.
I flung the door open and stormed past the two guards stationed outside. We were on Atlan, in Max’s home, and he wasstillparanoid about our safety. For a moment I felt badly about the amount of worry I must have caused him when he found out I was in Kovo’s cell. My remorse was quickly replaced with determination.
Damn it, Kovo was mine. My mate. Somehow, by some unexplainable miracle, I had known he was mine. That he wouldn’t hurt me. That he needed me to save his life.
“Where is Max? Where is he? I need to talk to him right now. He has to help me. He has to.” I would not cry. No. Would not. No panicking allowed either. None. I was the mate of an Atlan warlord. I had the mating cuffs to prove it. I wasn’t a child. Not anymore.
My mother had to run to catch up, but she had always kept herself in shape so she could do her job back on Earth. Paramedics had to deal with car wrecks and unconscious bodies and all kinds of chaos. Mom couldrunif she needed to, and I wasn’t all that fast.
She grabbed my elbow and pulled me to a stop. I swung around to face her.
“What? Where is he?”
“He’s in his comm room.”
“Comm room? Why? I thought he had that room built special so you could call us back on Earth.”
“He did. And it cost a fortune.”
Stefani finally caught up to us, not a hair out of place. No running for her. “Is he calling someone on Earth?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. He is.”
“Why? Who is he calling?” I asked. My mate was in a running countdown toward death and Max decided to call another planet? And not just any planet, but Earth? What the heck were a bunch of humans going to do about an Atlan they knew nothing about?
“If you will follow me, ladies?” My mother walked as she talked, Stefani and I falling into step slightly behind her. “Doctor Helion is here.”
“That asshole? What is he doing here?”
“Adrian, mind your tongue and your manners.” Once a mother, always a mother. Well, at least our mother had her rules for operating in society. But this wasn’t public, this was just us. I tried a different tactic.
“Kovo’s beast threatened to kill him. I don’t trust him.”
“I understand. But Max does. And I trust Max.”
Of course she did. She was his mate. And, to be fair, Max was amazing. “That’s not enough to make me like Helion.”
Next to me, Stefani shivered. “He’s ice cold. I’m telling you. Just standing next to him gave me the chills.”
I huffed. “Talk about a killer.”
“Ladies! Enough.” Mom brought us to a stop in front of the closed door to Max’s comm room. The door was thick. I couldn’t hear a peep from anyone inside.
“Mom, just tell us what is going on.” Stefani paused dramatically, eyebrows arched, and looked at me. “Twin, you keep quiet until she’s done.”
I rolled my eyes but said nothing. I was too anxious to argue.Tick-tock. Tick-tock.Every second we wasted in this house, Kovo was closer to gone forever.
Mom stepped in front of the control panel that would open the door and looked at us in turn. “Doctor Helion is here because he has a plan.”
“What kind of plan?” I asked.
“Quiet, remember?” Stefani asked. I didn’t even look at her, my full attention on my mother.
The door opened before I had an answer. Standing there was my stepfather, Max. Behind him, sitting at the comm station was the Prillon I’d met at the prison earlier. And on the large screen on the wall? A pretty woman I recognized very well.
“Warden Egara?” I swept past my mother and stepped around Max’s oversized bulk, so accustomed to his size that I barely noticed. “What are you doing here?”
