Our mate.So inclusive for an asshole who’d made an artform out of disassociating himself from me and my place in this pack. Ignoring him was harder when I wanted to discuss this with him, but the chasm between us kept me silent.
“We were panicked when you disappeared on us, Emme,” he continued, “and I’m sorry I handled that so poorly back there. When my bear takes hold, I lose control of my reason. Ibecomethe bear completely, and he was terrified that we’d lost you. If it wasn’t for the soothing nature of your omega side, there’s no way I could have shifted back. Last time it took Kenz weeks to coax me from the beast. When we’re terrified or raging, we react poorly, which led to me placing blame in the wrong place.” He turned fully to face me, andfucking hell this was hard.“But none of us believed you’d left of your own volition.”
I was desperate to ask him everything that had happened after I was taken, from who discovered it, to how long it took them to come after me. But the answers made no difference to where we were right now, so I remained strong and silent.
Finley’s chuckle was unexpected. “How did we know you didn’t choose to run, I hear you ask? Well, firstly, you signed the note as Emmeline. You would have used Emme, even if you were leaving us. Secondly, you told me you wouldn’t leave without discussing it, and I know you well enough that a brief note wouldn’t count as a ‘discussion.’”
My breath shuddered out of me as I took a step away from him, wishing I had wings to escape into the sky too. Finley was hurting me again, only this time it was with his gentleness, and it felt like too little and too late.
Still, there was no denying that I was crumbling and so was he, until eventually we’d both just be broken fragments on the floor, swept up in the wind, the pieces of our souls scattered across the universe.
Desperate for a distraction, I snapped my head to the left as soon as I heard the faint rumble of an engine, finding an ATV popping into view off on the horizon. My wolf perked up too and she strained against my hold as the vehicle got closer, until we could see the two, huge alphas inside the open cab.Hunter and Kellan.
I was running in the next breath, with a naked bear-shifter keeping pace by my side. Finley stayed with me every step of the way.
“You’re doing so well,” he encouraged when I started to puff out a mile in, and it hadn’t escaped my notice that the smug bastard wasn’t even breathing heavily.
Shift.My wolf piped up and I found myself tearing up at her exasperation over my lack of endurance. I would never take her presence for granted again.
Can’t be naked at the moment, I reminded her, and she huffed a few times but didn’t argue.
The ATV flew across the landscape, jumping over rocks and anything in its way, as both alphas hung out the open-door cavities. As they closed in, I saw that Hunter was behind the wheel, and when he brought the vehicle to a halt, he leapt out in a flash, Kellan right behind him.
They reached me together, the three of us collapsing as they swept me into their arms.
I had no idea who was where as limbs surrounded me, but it didn’t matter. It was a big ol’ love pile, and I soaked up every second of it as I clung to them, the tears I’d been holding on to for days soaking their shirts.
There were no other shifters in the world I’d fall apart with so thoroughly, and not only know they’d hold the pieces but would also put me back together. It was a level of trust I’d never expected to have, and the fact that it had come into my life the way it did told me that fate wasn’t my enemy. Not anymore.
When I finally pulled away, Kellan’s face was damp too, and Hunter’s eyes flared with gold as he examined my face and body, as if searching for injuries. My new bite was covered by my shirt, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him during our happy reunion.
I mean, happy if you discounted the dragon battle above our heads.
Hopefullysomeonehad a solution to that.
CHAPTER 13
EMME
Kellan and Hunter started talking at the same time.
“Pretty mate, we’ve spent the last week tearing our way across America searching for you,” Golden wailed. “Can you never leave my side again. Please. My sanity depends on it.” His blue eyes bore into me as he held on.
Hunter’s voice was all growl: “You’re going to be the fucking death of me, Emmeline. And the death of anyone who touched you when you were away from us.”
I mentally frolicked in a happy place at their declarations, leaning into my mates. “I’m so fucking relieved to see you. I’ve been dying a million deaths without you and our bond. Did your beasts retreat into your essence as well?”
Hunter slid his hands up to grip my cheeks, forcing me to focus on him as I attempted to look at both of them equally. I’d just missed their perfect faces so much. “Your beast retreated?” he demanded, and I nodded around his grip.
“Yeah, I was almost human. No extra senses and no ability to shift. I knew she wasn’t completely gone, but she was close enough that it genuinely worried me I’d lose her.”
Hunter’s expression never changed, but his growl ripped through the morning air, as loud as the dragons fighting above us.
“As concerning as that was,” Finley piped up, from where he stood behind us, too damn close for my liking, “we have a slightly more pressing issue. As you’ve probably noticed, Slade is not the last of his kind. I found Emme with the other dragon in an underground bunker. It was nearly impossible to track her there, as the walls were lined and magically blocked, keeping her scent hidden. It was only when I followed a shifter getting supplies in town that I got on the right track.”
He paused, and I didn’t turn or acknowledge him, not even as he added, “Emme was locked in a room with the dragon.”
Kellan added to Hunter’s menacing growl, his eyes nearing an intense violet in color. “What did he do to you, Emme?” he asked slowly, as if he barely got the words out. “Did he hurt you in any way?”
