Page 98 of Claimed

“What the fuck?” I growl as I step around Gage and turn to where they’re staring. My heart drops at the sight. A severed head sits on the floor outside the new panic room. Blood covers the floor and the hair, making the long hair look… red.

“Cherry?” I choke out as I take a step closer. But then I freeze, unwilling to look. She can’t be dead, I’d know, wouldn’t I? They say the loss of a mate feels like your heart being ripped out of your chest.

I admit my heart is clenching painfully right now, but⁠—

“I can still feel her,” Maddox says as he steps closer. “She’s terrified and angry.” Seeming to have more control than I do, he steps around the head and squats down, tilting his head to the side as he looks at it.

His eyes widen with hope as he turns to us. “It’s not her. It’s Juliet.”

I suck in a breath, feeling like I can finally breathe again.

“Juliet?” Gage asks in confusion.

I turn to the twins, realizing they haven’t said a word. They haven’t even moved. Stepping closer, I kneel on the bed and stare into Chase’s wide eyes. “What the fuck is this?” I ask, glancing over at Hunter and seeing him in the same condition.

Gage moves to Hunter’s side as Maddox moves to Chase’s, checking their pulses. Moving closer, on my knees, I reach forward and give Chase a little slap across the cheek. His head turns and he starts to tip over.

“Bain!” Maddox says in frustration as he helps me pull Chase back up.

“Just checking,” I say with a shrug. Staring at Chase, I can almost see his eyes try to narrow. I grab his hand and give it a squeeze. “You feel that, pretty boy?” I tease. His fingers twitch. “I felt that. He moved,” I tell the others.

“I think they’ve been sedated somehow,” Gage informs us.

“Wait—” Maddox says as he looks at us. “Didn’t Cherry say they used to sedate her at the facility? That she couldn’t move, but she could feel everything?”

“Fuck,” I say, looking back at Chase. “Did you guys have to sit here and watch that bastard take her?”

Chase’s eyes fill with anger, and I see his head twitch.

“I think they’re starting to come out of it,” Gage says.

“Anything we can do to speed it along?” Maddox asks.

“Not at this point. If they are starting to come out of it, it shouldn’t take long now.”

“Bain,” Maddox says, turning to me. “Go pack our weapons. As soon as they’re up, we’re going.”

“Where?” I ask in confusion. “We don’t even know where she is!”

“Let me check the tracker. I haven’t checked it since we felt her emotions again,” Gage says as he pulls out his phone and starts tapping at the screen.

“It’s loading!” he shouts, his eyes wide as he stares at the screen.

“The signal isn’t lost?” I ask in confusion.

“I guess it was muffled somehow,” he says, his eyes glued to the screen. “Got her!”

“Where is she?” I growl, my hands clenching into fists as I watch him.

“Hold on, I don’t recognize it. Let me zoom out… and out… and—there! She’s in Georgia. Probably four hours from here.”

“Is she moving?” Maddox asks as I jump off the bed, reading to go pack.

Gage pulls the phone closer and watches it for a moment. “No, she appears to be in the middle of a field.”

“A field?” I ask in confusion.

“The satellite image is probably old. Something may be there now. Besides, the facility Cherry was in before was underground,” Gage says with a grim look on his face.