Rage…
At the panicked thought of my mate, I heard his familiar groan next to me.
“They drugged us with a spell powder,” he growled.
Like me, Rage was hogtied. We sat propped up against the stone wall of a dark cave. Firelight sliced in from the entrance, giving us just enough light to make out our surroundings. Pressing my ear to the rock behind me, I noted the sound of softly lapping water against the stone from somewhere distant outside.
“Rage, we were out all day. How long do we have left to save Honor?” Panic threatened to fully seize me.
Rage leaned forward, and I peeked behind him, at his watch. Craning my neck, I took in the cold hard reality.
We had twenty-four hours to save Honor’s life or he was gone forever.
“Why didn’t they kill us?” I wondered, trying to change the subject and hoping Rage wouldn’t ask me how much time was left. I think he knew…
Rage leaned his head back and swallowed hard. “They must want something. They didn’t seem very organized, not like the times when they attacked before.”
True. There weren’t many of them, and it had seemed like they’d happened upon us by chance.
Footfalls from outside echoed into the cave, and Rage and I fell silent.
“What do you mean you’ve captured aprince?” a deep male voice rumbled.
“We were patrolling off the shore of Dark Row, and I smelled him—a Midnight heir. Got his mate too. They haveidenticalfated mate marks.” I recognized the a-hole’s voice from a few hours ago. At some point, I’d find a way for payback.
One of them sighed, a deep Mother-Mage-give-me-patience kind of sigh. “You idiot, kidnapping royal family members needs to be cleared with King Ozark. You can’t just go rogue and do whatever the hell you—”
“They’re awake,” a female selkie said, her voice carrying musical inflection as if she were more used to singing than speaking.
I jerked my head toward the other corner of the cave opening and glared back at the two slitted eyes staring at us.
Sing, biatch. I dare you.
“Thank you, Melody,” the first man said.
The female backed away, and a heartbeat later, a tall man with broad shoulders stepped into the mouth of the cave, temporarily blocking out the firelight. He drew near, and with the shift of light, I took in his thick stature. Dressed in black army fatigues and a black wife-beater, he looked down at Rage and then to me.
“Where are our friends?” I asked, trying to assess how many people we needed to save. If Audrey and Sadie were caught, I’d never forgive myself if they were hurt. Same with Rage’s mom.
The warrior in front of us glanced to the other selkie. “Chinook?”
“The queen was pulled to safety by her guards,” the asshat who’d knocked me out said. “The other two wolf girls fled in their canoe like chickens.”
Relief washed through me. As much as I wanted to defend the girls, neither of them would care what a selkie thought.
The tougher-looking warrior stepped closer to us. “Get them up, Chinook.” The male’s jaw tightened as he stared at us. “I need to take you two to the king and see what he wants done with you.”
The dude paled but nodded, crouching down and cutting the zip-ties at our feet.
I struggled to get up with my arms still behind my back and my left leg numb when the dude reached down and yanked me skyward. Rage was hauled up next, and then we were walking.
‘What’s our plan?’I asked my mate as he glared ferally at the two selkie warriors.
‘Out of all the shifters, our relationship with the selkies is the worst.’
Clearly. They kept trying to kill us.
‘There must be something they want,’I said.
