Page 20 of Freed

I try to remind myself that all my mates are here, and alive. That’s what matters most. But losing the three mate bonds I had established is leaving me feeling broken and on edge. And realizing I am no longer in the pack bond is devastating.

It’s not fair. Dr. J has taken so much from me already, and now he’s taken my mate bonds too. Or is Blaze actually the one to blame? According to Dr. J, he’s the one who suggested doing all these horrible things to me.

Thank Goddess he’s dead.

“Fuck,” Chase hisses as we step into the next hallway. My head feels like it weighs a hundred pounds, and I struggle to lift my cheek from where it rests on Hunter’s shoulder, but eventually I do, turning to see why we’ve stopped.

Chase and Bain’s bodies are blocking the way, so I reach out and touch Chase’s back as I ask, “Chase? What is it?”

He turns to me, a look of regret and worry on his face. “I’m so sorry, baby. I swear he was dead.” Now he’s turned, and I can see past him to the spot where Blaze’s body should be.

A pool of blood is on the floor where Chase and Maddox had killed him, but he is no longer there.

His words from earlier come back to me.

He wanted to figure out a way to replicate your powers, but it had the unintentional side effect of making me just like you.

At the time, I thought he was talking about becoming a wolf shifter, but if Gage is right, if I’m a… Phoenix, does that make Blaze one too?

“He regenerated,” I whisper in horror, realizing he’s still alive.

My mates all turn to me as Gage asks, “Why would you say that?”

“He told me Dr. J did something to my blood and gave it to him. Blaze was born human, but he said he’s like me now.”

They all turn to look at the pool of blood as Hunter holds me tighter. A fresh wave of exhaustion hits me, and I rest my cheek back on his shoulder.

“Let’s move,” Maddox says, leading us down the hall. We end up going in a direction I don’t think I’ve been before, and soon we’re stepping into a room filled with over a dozen guards.

I gasp, clutching Hunter as my mates spread out around me. “It’s okay, they can’t touch you anymore,” Hunter whispers. I realize Philip and the other three shifters are here too, not only that, but the guards are all tied up by the ankles and wrists.

Standing in the middle of the room is the red-headed shifter, Finn, I think his name is. But that’s not what draws my attention. It’s the man sitting in the chair in front of him.

Dr. J.

He looks bad. He has a black eye, a gash along his forehead, and is clutching both hands to his chest, one of which is wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage.

I seem to recall Bain doing that when they first found me. An involuntary shiver rolls through me, remembering how Dr. J had shoved his hand down the front of my boxers, trying to force me to shift. He had cupped my sex, and I was about to shift to avoid his touch when my mates barged in, saving me.

My cheek grows damp from a stray tear, and I quickly wipe it against Hunter’s shirt as I stare at the man who hurt me all those years.

“Sweetheart?” I glance up at Maddox and find him looking at me with a soft look of worry on his face. “We just have to ask you a few questions, then we can finish up here, alright?” I give him a small nod, and he gives me a tight smile before he points to the doctor. “Is this Dr. J? The man who tortured you for all those years?”

I nod and watch as Maddox’s nostrils flare, like he’s trying to hold himself back. But he just nods before asking me, “Do you recognize any guards here from before? The ones who hurt you and tried to touch you?”

I haven’t seen them since I’d been kidnapped again, but then again, I’d only seen Dr. J and Blaze. I take a moment to look through all the faces, and I suck in a sharp breath when a pair of familiar brown eyes glare back at me.

“Him,” I say, pointing to Thatcher. “He’s the one who stabbed me.”

“You fucking bitch!” he yells angrily at me. Chase punches him across the face, then lifts him by the front of his shirt, dropping him on the floor in front of Dr. J.

“Anyone else?” Maddox asks.

I continue looking around, surprised to see a few more familiar faces. I point each of them out, and my mates drag all of them to the center of the room. Although Thatcher is technically the only one who made me bleed, I’d never met a nice guard. They were all cruel. You’d have to be to work in a place like this.

As my eyes finish sweeping the last of the guards, I see one more. “Him,” I say, pointing to Jason. “He was there with Thatcher.”

Jason bares his teeth at me but Bain quickly steps between us, blocking me from his sight as he growls out. “Don’t look at her.” He inhales deeply before adding, “You’re the one who wanted to make her shift. So you could touch her.”