Page 40 of Bought and Shared

A urora

I drift in and out of consciousness. I feel light as a feather and completely unbothered by my lack of focus.

But that’s wrong. I know it is. I fight back against the need to simply slide around inside my mind.

As lovely as it is, and boy is it ever, I need to remember my goal.

What was my goal again? Oh yeah: escape.

It takes me a moment before I recall where I am and what I’m doing here.

I’m in my childhood home. My old bed to be specific.

I remember that much. The smells and sounds of the space wash over me like an old familiar song.

I squirm in place and begin to stretch my weakened muscles, testing the limitations of my restraints.

I don’t have much freedom of movement at all, but at least I still have feeling in my arms.

Willing myself to sit up, I fail on the first try.

And the second. But by the third, I’ve managed to lodge myself against the headboard.

One step at a time, I remind myself when I immediately become frustrated.

I can’t think about the big picture. If I do, I’ll give up under the sheer weight of my task.

I must break it down into steps if I want to be successful.

As the old adage goes: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Taking a deep breath, I fight my swimming mind. That’s when I hear it. The sound of soft footfalls. My heart beats erratically. Who’s there? It doesn’t take long to find out the disturbing answer.

The door creaks open and a pale figure enters the room. It pauses at the door for a few seconds, then closes it behind them. When the person steps into the moonlight, I recognize who’s standing at my bedside and I immediately become tense.

“Were you waiting for me, Aurora?” Micah asks. “I couldn’t wait another day to see you after our stimulating conversation this afternoon. I’ve come to finish what we started. I know you must be as excited as I am to take it to the next level.”

And with that, he unbuckles his pants.

Oren

Knox has a rudimentary set of blueprints uploaded to his comm device. We trek through the maze in the dark, blindly following coordinates via a single beam of light he projects from his tablet.

If we aren’t careful and lose our way, we could easily get lost down here. Since nobody officially knows where we are at the moment, and since Aurora needs us right fucking now, that would be a serious problem.

“We’re almost there,” Knox informs us, as the narrow tunnel slants up into a sharp incline.

In a tight formation, we follow one after the other until Knox comes to a dead stop. This is the tricky part, the undocumented section of the tunnels. To the best of our knowledge, nobody has used them in years and we have no idea if all of them are still safe and unblocked.

“Here goes nothing,” Knox huffs, as he reaches for the latch of a heavy old door that is standing between us and our mate.

He gives the handle a quick twist and nothing happens.

Swearing, Knox orders, “Stand back,” and adds his enormous shoulder to the task as he forces his weight and strength against the decades-old, unused door.

The portal protests, then gives way, after much effort.

We’re in. Where the entrance dumps out, the schematics don’t say.

So, in the interest of safety and whatever stealth we might still retain after our argument with the stubborn door, only Knox passes through.

He does some brief scouting before poking his head back into the tunnels and signaling the rest of us to enter.

One by one, we file into what must be the basement of Aurora’s childhood home. Locating the stairs to the first floor, we quietly climb them and emerge into the kitchen. It’s past ten, and all the lights are off, the entire house quiet and still.

Knox continues to take the lead and we follow his movements like water flowing to its lowest point. When we reach a second set of stairs, I can feel my mate’s fear growing and my pulse begins to quicken. Aurora is in trouble. I know it. I feel it.

We’re on the upper level before I can blink. The door opens and Knox and I enter our mate’s room, while Skell and Farron remain outside to cover our backs. The sight that greets me causes my muscles to contract and blind fury to boil my blood.

Standing shirtless, his pants around his ankles, looming over our mate, is Micah.

Aurora

My eyes grow wide as I look beyond Micah and see the door slowly open.

Thinking it’s the drugs, I figure I’m witnessing a phantom.

No, two phantoms, in the shape of Oren and Knox.

The fantasy men, like my savage saviors, slip into the room and quietly sneak up on Micah.

Without missing a beat, Knox pounces, wraps his arm around my former fiancé’s throat and squeezes.

Micah doesn’t struggle for long. He’s unconscious in seconds before Knox lowers his body silently to the floor. With the speed born of the well-practiced, Knox kneels and efficiently hog-ties and gags the odious man.

Oren approaches me carefully as I begin to whimper with joy at his presence. He cuts through my bonds with a tactical knife and I’m in his arms before he can say, “It’s okay, my little mate.” I press my face to his chest and breathe in his scent as he holds me tight to him.

Knox carries an unconscious Micah outside the bedroom door and then reappears. Pulling free from Oren, I find my second mate’s warm embrace as he bends to envelop me in his arms, the safest place I can imagine. His voice is husky when he whispers into my ear, “We’re here. We’ve got you, Materi.”

“There isn’t much time, Kitten,” Oren warns as Knox squeezes me so hard my ribs threaten to break. “We’ve got to go.”

Nodding, I try to rise but my legs are like jelly.

“Those fuckers must have given her something,” Knox says scathingly. “I can smell it on her. There’s a medicinal scent coming from her skin that isn’t natural.”

“Micah put something in my soup at dinner,” I slur, my tongue still feeling numb and thick and my head woozy.

Gathering me into his arms, Knox says, “I’ll carry you, sweetheart. Oren, lead the way back to the ship. Skell has our prisoner.”

The prisoner? He must mean Micah.

“We’ve decided to bring him along for what reason?” Oren asks with open disgust.

“Intel,” Knox says with a toothy grin. “And I intend to be the one to personally beat him, I mean, pump him for as much information as the little shit has to offer.”