I daydream a lot. My mate always features heavily. Mostly they involve her with a rounded belly, filled with my hatchlings or of the two of us together, gathered in my nest, cuddled together, keeping our little family safe.
Another gut twinge, this one stronger.
It’s not tummy troubles. Instead, it feels almost like that sense I get when the gate is warning me of something, except… not.
I check in with my second favorite girl, just to make sure.
“Everything okay here?”
“All good here, sweetheart. No signs of any soul-eaters or unwanted visitors. Nothing to report.”
I nod to myself. Just as I thought.
But the feeling hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s growing stronger by the minute and with it, I’m getting an itchy feeling like my skin’s too tight, like I need to shift into my other form.
But why would I need to?
Danger.
My head snaps up and I scent the air, checking visually for any breaches that neither I nor the gate have sensed yet.
Nothing.
The feeling swirls and morphs into a sick sense of dread and pure fear, and I realize that there is danger. It’s just nothere.
It’s not my own emotions I’m feeling, they belong to my mate.
And she’s scared shitless, dosed up with a feeling of dread so thick it’s hard to breathe through.
My panic ratchets up in response. I don’t even know where she is.
Fuck.
I try to push through all the bad feelings, just in case she can feel me back. Instead, I conjure up all the sensations of safety and comfort that I can come up with and push them down the golden thread that ties the two of us together as I charge around the garden, looking to confirm that she isn’t here somewhere.
But it’s empty. I’m alone here.
I feel a foreign stab of surprise as my mate clearly receives the feelings I was sending her way. Then I send down the line a lot of love, trying to conjure up the sense of, ‘I’m coming for you, wherever you are’. I’m not sure I succeed, but the edge of her panic seems to have dampened slightly and I get a sense of warmth coming back from her.
Once I’ve checked the garden twice over, I return to the gate and relay what’s happening, but thanks to my little mate’s own bond with the gate; she is already in the know.
Because my mate belongs here. She should be here right now, safe and cherished and loved.
I’ll bring her back if I have to burn down a dozen fucking worlds to do it.
Scrap that. I’ll burn down two dozen.
“You think you can help me find her and get to her?” I ask the gate.
“Sure thing, sweetheart. Anything for our girl. I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone. You just step right through and I’ll make sure you find your way to her.”
I do exactly as she says and instead of finding myself in the usual antechamber on the other side of the gate, I’m in a leafy street I don’t recognize where the air smells strongly of pollution and tarmac.
What I recognize is the hound currently scrabbling to get inside the apartment building right in front of me.
There’s also an eight foot tall guy with a gun blasting what looks like bright pink paint at the windows.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
