“Fucking perfect for me,” he growls out before pouncing.
Unsure of what woke me up, I lay there quietly, Beast’s deep breaths causing my hair to move against my cheek. Pain sears my head causing me to gasp and sit upright. “Danger! It’s a trap,” I cry out, cradling my aching head in my hands.
Beast jumps up, alert and ready to tackle whoever is there; he just doesn’t realize the enemy is unseen right now. “Esme? What’s wrong?”
“Leigh and Ice. They’re headed into a trap,” I reply, my voice still laced with sleep. “We have to warn them, Beast.” My voice is almost frantic as I scramble out of the bed over to where my magic bag sits on the floor. Grabbing it, I pull out my scrying bowl and multiple crystals, as well as the pouch I have for each of my self-proclaimed family with some of their personal effects in it. I have to find them; it’s imperative. “Hold on, hold on,” I mumble as my hands move to work a finding spell. Drat! Nothing. Something started to come up, then was hidden beneath a foggy haze. “I don’t like this, not one bit,” I spit out as I try another one. The same results have me pulling back in shock. “Beast?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“There’s some powerful dark magic at work here, honey.” I don’t think I’ve ever come up against anything so vile but I can feel the evil oozing from my bowl. I quickly put a cleansing spell into effect which decimates whatever was trying to permeate our own air. “I don’t understand either because whatever it is was trying to get through to us here.” I need Tabatha. “Can you try and reach them through the familial link?” We don’t completely understand how or why, but our original group developed a familial link much like each mated couple has which has made it easy when we’re on missions together.
“Okay, let me get on that while you do whatever it is you do best, my sorceress,” he says, leaning in to kiss me.
“I need to call Tabatha, only I’m worried about doing that because of what I need to ask.”
“Let me alert the guys, perhaps one of them will have a suggestion.”
“Good plan.” While I wait for him to reach out to Ice, I grab a bottle of water from the mini fridge, then decide he likely needs one as well, so I pull one out and take it to him.
Beast
After arguably one of the best nights we’ve had, although each of them is spectacular in their own right, being awakened by my mate clutching her head and saying that it’s a trap has my heart pounding. I typically don’t feel fear, but right now, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m worried about my cousin and his mate.
“Ice? Ice, man, if you can hear me, let me know,” I say.
“B-b-beast?” His voice is low, slurred, almost as if he’s been drugged.
“Yeah, it’s Beast. Where are you? Where’s Leigh?” I ask.
“C-c-captured.”
“Focus, Ice. Where the fuck are you?” I growl out.
“S-s-south.” His voice fades out.
“South? South what? America? Dakota? Carolina?” I prompt.
Nothing.
Silence.
“Ice? Talk to me, man. We can’t come for you if we don’t know where you’re at,” I urge, my voice breaking as fear claws its way through my body. With Leigh being a hybrid and him being a polar bear shifter, if they’ve gotten into the wrong hands, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
When I realize he’s not answering because he likely succumbed to whatever he was given, I reach out to Maverick. “Mav? You there, man? Ice and Leigh have been captured. Don’t know where they’re at, all he could give me was ‘south’. Esme isn’t having any luck finding them either but says whatever’s at play is dark. She needs Tabatha, can you get a message to her somehow? Esme says it’s not safe for her to call and Tabatha’s not on our link.”
“South what?” Maverick questions, sounding surprisingly alert despite the fact it’s going on three in the morning.
“That’s just it, I don’t know. He got that out then quit answering me.”
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do. I only know of three souths off the top of my head. You and Esmerelda go meet with that guy because that may help us narrow shit down. I’ll get everyone ready here so we can take off the second you know. Part of me wants to hit the road, but I suspect it would be like a needle in a haystack, you know?” he asks.
“We’ll get back out on the road shortly then. What about Tabatha?” I inquire, watching as Esmerelda quickly packs our bags, then wiggles her fingers toward me. I find myself fully dressed, down to socks and my boots and when I raise my eyebrow at her, she giggles before dressing herself the same way. In mere seconds, we’re ready to head out. I grab our bags and her rolling suitcase then open the door, motioning for her to precede me out. Once we’re in the truck, I drive around to the office and toss our room key in the night dropbox.
Because we hadn’t been sleeping long, I swing through an all-night restaurant to grab some much-needed caffeine, as well as tea for my mate. When I hand her the cup, she smiles and says, “Thank you, sugar bear.”
“Anything for you, sweetheart.” After a quick stop to top off my gas tank, I plug in the coordinates to the navigation system and we hit the road, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” I hear the worry in her voice so I reach over to take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together.
“They’re both badass in their own right, Esme. If we can get a lock on where they’re being held, we
