8. Fenris

Chapter 8

Fenris

L ong after Aurora falls asleep, I sit up in her suite, watching her. She’s at peace, her breathing even as her naked chest rises and falls in the moonlight streaming through the parted drapes of the Juliet balcony. That should give me a sense of comfort, but I can’t sleep. Something is nagging at me like always.

Not wanting to bother her with my restlessness, I leave her alone, slipping out of the bed and heading out to wander the halls.

I don’t like that her mate has come back for her now. What does he want?

“What are you doing?” Zane hisses at me from across the hall. “Go to bed. We have to meet with the Oklahoma Alphas in the morning.”

I barely glance at my brother and snort. “You’re awake too,” I remind him. “What are you doing up?”

Padding across the hallway, I join him at the cross section between the wings and lean against the wall. Zane shoots me a wry smile. “Probably the same thing you are. Overthinking.”

I straighten myself and puff out my chest bravely, but my brother sees right through the act immediately. “It’s all right to be worried, Fen. I’m worried too. She seems like she should be our mate somehow, doesn’t she?”

My shoulders sink, grateful that Zane says the things I won’t say out loud.

“Maybe it’s an anomaly,” I suggest, and Zane snorts.

“I thought you were against the idea of anomalies,” he teases, and heat creeps up my neck at his gentle ribbing.

“What can I say?” I reply lightly. “Aurora is making me reconsider a lot of different things.”

“Me too,” Zane sighs.

I think about the talisman in her car and wonder if she hadn’t been hexed, but before I can suggest it, an odd noise catches my attention. Zane and I perk up together.

“Did you hear that?” I ask, pivoting toward Aurora’s rooms.

He nods, and we head toward her suite.

Zane raps on the door. “Aurora?”

There’s no response as we listen, but there’s no more sound, both of us straining to hear with both our human and animal senses.

“Do you hear anything?” I ask, reaching for the handle.

He shakes his dark, tousled hair and I open the door. The rooms are exactly how I left them, dim and silent.

“Aurora?” I whisper into the shadows. “Are you awake?”

I listen closely for her breathing, but my heart stops when I realize I can’t hear it. “Aurora?”

My hand extends and I stop my brother, his head swiveling toward the ensuite to search for an indication of a light, but there’s nothing.

“Aurora!” This time, our voices are louder and in unison.

I reach for the chandelier light. It flicks on and immediately shorts out. The magic is going haywire again.

And Aurora isn’t in bed.

“Maybe she went for a run,” Victor complains irritably, rubbing his eyes in the light of the moon. “Seriously, she’s a grown woman. She doesn’t need to tell you her every move.”

“We were standing right outside the door, Victor,” Zane insists. “If she had gone anywhere, we would have seen. I’m telling you, someone took her.”

Victor is out of bed, Zane’s concern suddenly alerting him, if mine doesn’t. I refrain from rolling my eyes. My worry for Aurora is far more important than petty sibling squabbling.

“You don’t think she left, do you?” he asks.

Zane and I both shake our head. I really don’t think she would have, and I can tell Zane feels the same. There’s no reason for her to go when we told her we would not let anything happen to her. She could have gone out for a shift, but we would have seen her.

“There’s no way she left!” I shout. “You need to put a lockdown on Oak Hollow. No one leaves until we find her.”

Victor strides from the bedroom to enact the spell, leaving Zane and me to look for her again. My head races as I consider our next move.

“She can’t have gotten far,” my brother mutters, the strain in his voice palpable. “We should have guarded her better. I should have taken it more seriously.”

I don’t argue with him, my mind whirling.

“It must have been Lachlan, right? But they left. They couldn’t come back until tomorrow.” I’m thinking out loud, but Zane answers.

“Not if he didn’t leave. Maybe he laid low. Maybe they all did.”

I’m horrified by the thought, and I burst into the study, confronting Victor. “We need to call on the pack. Have them comb through town. I think the Oklahoma Alphas are still in Oak Hollow.”

Victor is aghast by the idea as I reach for the phone, dialing out. A housekeeper answers at the Galvin estate in Oklahoma on the second ring.

“I need to speak to one of the Alphas,” I intone coldly.

“They’re asleep,” she complains. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“I don’t care,” I growl. “It’s Fenris Golden from Texas, and it’s urgent.”

There’s a slight pause, my name clearly recognized. “Oh… yes, Alpha… er… which Alpha would you like?”

The question takes me aback. “Which one is there?” I ask slowly.

“All of them.”

Dumbfounded, I glance toward the door for my brothers, but Victor and Zane are already out searching for Aurora.

“Wyn. Give me Wyn.”

“One moment, Alpha.”

I’m stunned to realize that they’re at the estate in Oklahoma.

“What the hell is this about, Fenris?” Wyn barks in my ear when he comes on the line. His irritation makes me second guess my phone call, but I hold my position.

“Are all three of you there at the estate?”

Wyn scoffs. “Of course we are. Where the hell else would we be at this hour? Why are you calling so late?”

My eyes narrow, my gaze jutting around the study speculatively. “Nevermind. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You can’t just call like this and say ‘nevermind!’” Wyn growls. “What’s going on?”

Slowly, my eyes widen. “Did Lachlan come back with you?” I ask, understanding striking me.

Wyn sucks in air and anger colors his words. “What are you accusing us of, Fenris?”

“If I were accusing you of something, you would know it,” I reply firmly. “Where is he? How do I find him?”

“You don’t interfere with our territories,” Wyn hisses. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

The phone goes dead in my ear, and I’m left shaking with anger.

If the Alphas are all back in Oklahoma, it must be Lachlan who took Aurora.

I fly from the office toward the exterior of the house, dawn’s gray light peeking over the dusty hillside.

“Aurora!” I hear Zane yelling in the distance, and I look down the road toward town.

In a flash, I’m shifting, my paws thundering along the road to bring me into Oak Hollow, hoping to catch her scent, but something tells me we’re already too late.

I’m at my wits’ end four hours later when I return to the estate. There’s no word from either of my brothers or any of the pack members.

“It’s like she vanished into thin air,” Victor rails, pacing through the foyer.

“He flew off with her,” I maintain, my mind working overtime as I try to think of where else Lachlan could have taken Aurora, but Zane shakes his head.

“Impossible. The town is locked down. No one can leave, even by air.”

“He wasn’t fast enough,” I insist, but Zane is adamant.

“She’s here. I can smell her,” he presses. “Nearby. He circled back when he realized he couldn’t leave.”

I’m out the door again, my eyes trailing back toward the sky, head twisting right, then left.

“The stables!” the three of us choke in unison.

“Have you checked there?” Victor demands and we shake our heads, the three of us moving forward as a black SUV pulls up to the wrought-iron gate.

“Oh, come on!” I fume, recognizing the Oklahoma plates. “Turn them away, Victor. We don’t have time for this nonsense now.”

“I’ll deal with them,” Zane suggests, but I’m already heading toward the stables at full speed, ignoring the incoming Alphas.

I smell her as soon as I near the doors and slow down, whipping around, half-accusing as the Oklahoma Alphas exit the SUV, confusion flooding their faces. I point silently inside as Aurora’s raised voice reaches me.

“…get out of this, Lachlan? You reject me, and now you’re acting like a lunatic. Kidnapping me? Really?”

“If you’d just come with me in the first place, we wouldn’t be here,” Lachlan hisses. “You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”

My fists close, but before I can shift and lunge through the double doors of the barn, Victor puts a firm hand on my shoulder and shakes his head. The Oklahoma Alphas stand beside us, their faces twisted in confusion.

“Wait,” Victor mouths.

Neither Lachlan nor Aurora can see any of us, and Victor wants to see how this plays out.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Aurora mewls. “I don’t feel anything for you. Can’t you see that? It’s like the mate bond was never really there!”

Her words fill me with glee, but I wonder how much of that can be true if she’s really mated to him.

“I swore a blood oath to the Apex Alphas of Texas!” Aurora continues.

“Yes, I see how fond they are of you,” Lachlan spits out from the other side of the barn wall. “There’s no accounting for some taste, I guess.”

Fury envelopes me and I again want to burst through, but my brothers forbid me, holding me back.

“If they want you back so badly, they’ll have to pay a price for you,” Lachlan continues. “Although I would have preferred to do it outside of this town.”

“What price? What are you talking about, Lachlan? You want a ransom?”

My head jerks toward the Oklahoma Alphas, who move uncomfortably in their spots, avoiding our scathing gazes. Every second we stand there, my ire mounts. It’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut, but I’m worried if I speak, it will alert Lachlan, and he’ll harm Aurora.

“In a manner of speaking,” Lachlan chuckles. “I want to rule Oklahoma.”

Every jaw outside the stables drops.

“You’re not an alpha, Lachlan,” Aurora mumbles, her nervousness evident even without seeing her face.

She’s in danger. This shifter is a lunatic. She’s right.

“I could be if the Galvin brothers were out of the way,” Lachlan replies happily. “I’m high up in the pack hierarchy. If there were a vote, I could take their place if they were… gone.”

There’s a long silence as Aurora processes this revelation, and I cast the Galvin brothers a sidelong look. Not one of them appears moved by this, Lancer downright amused by the suggestion.

“But the Galvin brothers do rule Oklahoma,” Aurora reminds him. “You can’t just ask them to leave.”

“I’m not going to ask the Apex Alphas to leave. If the Goldens want you back, they can kill them for me.”

“What?” Aurora screeches. “They would never do that! Why would they do that, Lachlan?”

“You better hope they will or you’re going to die instead,” Lachlan says smugly. “How’s that for a trade?”

“Oh, hell no!” Wyn growls, his shirt tearing away from his body, his brothers following suit.

No one needs to tell me what to do, the six of us bursting through the stable doors in a now unified army.