The burning still raced down his arms and legs.
Garrett jerked over him.
It took all his strength for Theo to force his head up and glance over. Garrett’s face was tight in a grimace.
Wings!
Garrett had covered their bodies with his giant wings, which made his back open to attack. Theo wanted to object to Garrett using himself as Theo’s bodyguard except Theo nearly retched as the burning intensified.
Burying his face in his arms, Theo allowed the tears to come as he prayed for his mates to find him.
* * * * *
Wylder
“I love that Theo has claimed the tree as his own,” Josh said from beside him as they exited the dining hall where they’d picked up dinner. “The trees around campus are well cared for but they have no energy to pull from.”
Wylder hadn’t shared with their new friend that Theo had a surprise from him. Wylder didn’t know why the gargoyle Garrett showed up at Theo’s dorm but it would be a nice surprise for Josh. “Yeah, Theo loves that tree. It was the first place that we really started to bond. It holds a special meaning for all of us.”
“The trees can feel it,” Josh told him. “For some reason there is a lack of ley lines that run under the university.”
Wylder didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
“Magic has many purposes,” Josh said. “I wish we had more here.”
“Is there something that we should do for the trees or plants here? To help them?” Wylder was willing to do whatever he could do to help.
Josh shrugged. “Have you ever heard how you should talk to your plants? Some people play classical music. Things like that?”
“Not really. I’m not really a plant guy,” he admitted.
“That’s okay.” Josh patted his shoulder. “I’ll be your plant guy. But having your energy and the magic of the chosen around is help enough.”
“Theo will love that. He’s already talking about having you come over when we settle on a new house. He wants a garden.”
“He told me.” Josh grinned. “Have you guys decided yet?”
Wylder shook his head. “No, we’ve seen some of the houses online but it’s been pretty hard to get everyone’s schedule to line up.”
“I can imagine how hard working around five peoples’ schedules would be.”
“Yeah,” Wylder told him. “Especially when Mitch gets summoned by his sire nearly daily. Dario has more businesses than I could have imagined. Although he’s trying to find people to manage all that for him so he can concentrate on what’s in front of us. Alek has taken lead on the house hunt and narrowed down our choices. He sent us the links to look as we do want to stay close to the university but—”
“What’s that?” Josh pointed ahead of them.
Wylder glanced up to see Theo clinging to the tree as smoke surrounded his ankles. Theo was fighting but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. Wylder dropped the bags of food he was holding. “Theo!”
“He’s being summoned!” Josh started to run toward Theo.
Wylder was fast. Partly because his enhancements allowed him to move faster than a normal human but more from fear. The harder he tried to push himself, the farther away that Theo was getting! Wylder knew in his heart that he wasn’t going to reach his mate in time.
Theo had spotted them.
Wylder’s little shifter looked to be yelling at him, for him, Wylder couldn’t tell as he was so far away.
Theo was too far.
Something was not right!
