She sighed. “I’ve been trying to tell you, I’m Lavender. Larkspur is my older sister. We’re only a year apart and we look a lot alike. God! You guys need to listen. Larkspur. Lavender. Okay? My mom’s name was Lily and she had a thing for flowers. You’ve got the wrong girl. I don’t take pictures. I’m a vet tech. I work with animals.”
Sister? Lavender? No. I tracked her scent to the apartment.
“You smell like Larkspur.” The feminine scent of my mate had haunted me since I’d first tracked her after our battle with the Hive inside the human fight club. I knew her smell.
Lavender looked down at the blue nightgown she wore and shrugged. “We live together in that shitty little apartment. I borrowed her nightie. I didn’t have any clean clothes, so I raided her closet. We share clothes all the time.”
Fuck. My beast clawed his way to the surface in a panic. It was his voice that filled the room. “Where? Larkspur?”
“She works nights at the same vet clinic I do.” Lavender tilted her head to the side as if every word she was saying was not raking hot coals over my soul. “That’s why I asked what time it is on Earth. She’s going to go home and see all the blood. She’s going to freak. And what about the new ones? The Hive things that got there right before you zapped me into outer space? What if they’re still in our apartment? What if they go look for her at work? I don’t know you people. I’m sure your beasts will try to find her, but what if they can’t? What if she doesn’t go straight home after work? What if she goes to the store or something? Will the Hive guys try to kill her in public?”
“They have no regard for human rules, nor do they fear being seen.” Every word Doctor Surnen spoke was like razor blades in my skull. My mate was still alone. Still on Earth. Still in danger. And it was my fault. Mine. I failed her. I already failed her. The Hive were hunting my mate. My female. I took the wrong fucking female!
Lavender continued, oblivious to my panic. “There’s too many things that can go wrong. I need to go home.”
“Where?” I took a step toward the female. She had not answered my question. My mate, my real mate, was alone and unprotected back on Earth. I had to return. Find her. Protect her. Now. Right fucking now.
Warlord Tazo rose to face me. I stopped. It was not my intention to attack the female. I needed information.
“It’s a twenty-four-hour emergency vet clinic. Sometimes she comes straight home. Sometimes she stops for breakfast first. There’s this waffle place she likes that?—.”
“WHERE IS SHE?!” My bellow made Warlord Tazo growl a warning. I didn’t fucking care. I’d kill him right fucking now if he tried to keep me from the information I needed to find my mate. The Hive were on Earth. Searching. Hunting. Tracking her.
Lavender sighed. “Riverside Emergency Vet. It’s downtown, northeast eleventh street. Waffle place is two blocks south. If she’s not at either place, she’ll be riding her bike.”
“A bicycle?” My mate traveled on one of those primitive, two-wheeled contraptions? With cars and trucks racing past? Humans were terrible, fucking horrifyingly bad drivers. I’d been on Earth long enough to learn that truth. My mate could die, her skull smashed into goo on the pavement.
Once she was with me, she would not be allowed to take such risks.
“Send the coordinates to transport.” I moved toward the door.
“No! Wait! I’m going with you!” Lavender took two steps before Warlord Tazo picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and carried her out the door in front of me.
“Mine.”
“Put me down! I have to go save my sister.”
Warlord Tazo glanced at me over his shoulder. “Sister. Mate?”
“Yes.”
He grunted. “Go. I protect Lavender.”
The female he vowed to protect pounded on his back with her fists as he carried her away. “Put. Me. Down! You overgrown animal!”
“Not safe. You stay. Mate.”
Her continued protests fell on deaf ears. No male of worth would send his female into danger. Lavender would be reunited with her sister once I found her and brought her safely back to The Colony. “What time is it on Earth? When will Larkspur be returning to her apartment?”
Ryston dropped into step beside me as I jogged to the transport room. “Two-forty, by their standard.”
According to Lavender, my mate would be leaving her workplace in a few hours. My jog became a sprint.
How long did transport take?
Fuck. I might already be too late.
Larkspur “Lark” Linton, Miami, FL, 1:30 am
