He lets out a roar that’s loud enough to make the windows rattle and throws himself at the witch, his massive body causing the glass to crack. He then pulls back with zero hesitation, smashing into it again until the glass shatters.
The witch throws another fireball into Finn’s face and he makes this gravelly sound. Hearing a dragon laugh isweird. Hearing Finn laugh in particular is a pretty new experience considering that, before Echo, he kept to himself. Before Echo, I’m not sure when the last time he spoke to another person was.
She’s been so good for us all.
I take the opportunity he gives me as he laughs again as he gets another faceful of fire and I launch myself past the witch, heading for the apartment with Leif close on my heels. It’s surprisingly easy to barge through their front door. Crappy locks, considering what they’ve been hiding behind the door.
Frankly, their poor security pisses me off. They didn’t bother to get better locks because they didn’t expect to get caught.
I shift once again into my hound form, knowing that I’ll need my enhanced senses for this. Sniffing the air, I search for Echo’s scent.
“Anything?” Leif asks.
It’s harder to communicate like this since he can’t hear me in his head like Soren and Echo, but I manage a nod and bound off in the direction of their scent.
We speed through the apartment and reach a door that Leif can’t open. Of course,thisfucking door is secured properly. The one with my mate on the other side. Leif tries my technique of throwing himself against it, but it won’t budge.
We then alternate, first one and then the other, throwing our bodies into the door with increasing desperation. I dunno what the fucker has secured it with, but it’s like the damn thing is welded shut. I shift back into my human form so that I can talk to Leif, ignoring the fact that my dick is hanging out.
“This isn’t working. She’s right through this fucking door, but I don’t know what we’ll need to do to get through it.”
Glass smashes in the other room, a sound that’s followed by Finn’s raging roar as he charges through the apartment toward us, sprinkling glass in his wake. He then shifts onto two legs, his face sweaty and his breathing heavy.
“He’s hurting her. That fucker. I can fucking feel him hurting her.”
Through their bond. Of course. I feel a sickness rising in me, mostly because my mate is in danger, but a part of me hates the fact that I can’t feel her too.
Fuck.
I can’t lose her. She jumped in to helping us find Wren even though she didn’t know her or us and she’s been so focused and dedicated, all while keeping a smile on her face. She’s the brightest and best person I’ve ever met.
Finn shifts back into his dragon and blasts the shit out of the door until it’s a charred mess. He’s lucky the whole place doesn’t set alight, but it does the trick. The door is no match for him and Leif just needs to give it another swift kick and it just… falls apart. The way through is too narrow for Finn in his dragon form, so once again he shifts and the two of us charge down the stairs behind Leif, naked and angry.
We reach a basement and take in the scene. A scene where our mate is being attached to chains that are hooked up to the walls and where Wren and Cam have already been strung up and are dangling there helplessly.
There’s a moment where, seeing the glint of a knife in his hand, I freeze. I need to get to my mate, to get her away from him, but she’s all the way across the room. I won’t get there in time.
I shift, faster than I ever have before, and lunge toward Echo so that I can put my body in the way of the knife that’s directed her way. I block its path and somehow it doesn’t break my skin, instead skittering across the floor.
Finn roars, tackling the guy to the floor with zero hesitation. He’s got maybe a foot and a half on Andrew in both height and breadth and it’s like watching an alligator tackling a chicken.
Swift and brutal, he smacks Andrew’s head off the concrete floor and knocks him out cold. I head to get Wren out of the chains while Leif moves toward Cam. I know Finn will take care of our mate, even if he is a naked, sweaty beast at the moment.
“The cavalry have arrived then,” Cam says. “I wasn’t expecting you all to be so… naked.”
Shit. Good point. I spot Echo’s coat on the floor and tug it on. Even though I can barely get it over my arms, it at least covers up my dick. The last thing Wren needs is to come to and have my junk dangling in her face. Poor thing’s gonna have enough nightmares to contend with already.
I find the keys to the chains on Andrew’s unconscious body and release Wren before passing them along. She looks… bad. Pale, with huge dark circles beneath her eyes. She’s lost weight and looks shrunken with her dark hair a matted mess around her face.
But she’s breathing.
I make sure to keep my focus while I’m checking Wren over, even though I’m desperate to turn around and see with my own eyes that my mate is okay. And Soren too. I spot him, slumped over in an open cage. Once I’m satisfied that Wren will not die on me, I pull back and confirm that Echo is safely in Finn’s arms. They cling to each other like they never want to let go.
Now that my heart’s no longer pounding out of my chest, I can feel a little tendril ofsomethingin my gut at the sight of them. Not jealousy so much as… envy?
I want to feel what Finn is feeling right now. That he won’t ever let his mate go again. That he won’t have to.
I know I told her I’d let her make her own choice, that I’d pick Soren and the garden if she decided she wanted to leave us.
