Page 20

Chapter twenty

Nash

I somehow knew before I got back to the tent that Kai wasn’t going to be there. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of it—he’d finally gotten word of where his friend might be. It took me longer than it should have to connect the pieces together, though. The human my brother was talking about was the same human that Kai had come into this world to look for.

The timeline made sense—the arrival, the sudden change in my brother’s tone.

If I weren’t so worried about Kai, I might have found the entire situation to be just as strange as fated mates itself… because, of course, someone who was like a brother to Kai was meant for my brother.

But… those weren’t my concerns at the moment. Axum had been attacked, and I knew Koth hadn’t done it in some bid to steal the entire land from him. He’d done it in an attempt to taunt me, to hurt me.

He’d done it because he was so wrapped up in his anger and jealousy of me, he would do whatever he had to in the name of revenge.

And I’d always spoken freely about my belief in fated mates, in my desire to have my own.

If Koth had even a single ear in the camp, one person who’d traveled from my group and spoken of how their leader Nash was tethered to a human with hair like the sun…

Kai wasn’t an easy person to confuse for any other once you’d heard of him.

The thundering beat of my heart only grew harder, jumped into my throat, and nearly choked me when I asked the patrol if they’d seen him leave. While they hadn’t, one of the children interrupted, mentioning that they’d seen him jogging down the main roadway toward the city.

Running from me again .

But no… I couldn’t be angry with him for it.

Not now.

Not when I had no idea if he was safe.

And like a demon manifest, the fear that I’d felt came full circle when I found Mol sprawled in the middle of the road, his eyes half closed and his breathing labored. It took me a few seconds to rouse him, and I silently cursed myself for not asking Vex to come with me, for not bringing a healer with me. I’d run without thinking, without preparing.

“Nash, your human… he…” Mol grunted as I helped him sit, but I couldn’t pause to take stock of his wounds.

“Kai was here?”

“He saved me.” Mol’s eyes were wide, just a little fearful. I understood—Kai had saved him, but that meant he’d put himself in harm’s way in the process. Inadvertently, Mol had put him in danger.

But… there wasn’t time for anger or blame. There was only time to find Kai.

“Where?”

He didn’t say anything, just raised a shaking hand and pointed toward the edge of the road. My eyes flicked to his injury, to the area surrounding us. I needed to get him back to camp, but…

“I will be fine, Nash,” he said, using my shoulder to pull himself to his feet. He stumbled, but his eyes looked determined. “I only wish I could help you hunt down Koth.” He looked like he might still try it, so I waved him back to camp.

“Go. Tell Vex to gather a group so we can hunt them down.” The fury burning through my chest felt dangerous, a liquid inferno. “This ends today.”

Mol nodded, the determination in his gaze outweighing the pain still streaking through his expression. My entire camp was fierce and loyal—Koth’s betrayal to me had been a betrayal to all of us.

And now this.

And if Kai had risked his life to protect him…

“We will find your mate, Nash.” With a determined nod, he started back to camp.

As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn’t. I had to find Kai.

It was easy to see where he’d fallen through the brush—the impression of two large bodies rolling through grass and snapping branches was enough of a trail that I could easily follow it. That, and I could almost feel the pull of him now that I was close. That tether, our mate bond, drew me forward like I was on strings.

It led me into a clearing, where a broad body I recognized was standing like he’d been waiting.

Koth’s shoulders tensed the moment he noticed me, and the grin on his face when he turned was full of a vicious joy that made my stomach drop.

My eyes weren’t for him, though. They were for the thing he held in his hand. Slicked with blood—the same blood that was probably spattered on the ground—was the translator I’d put on Kai’s neck the moment we met.

The collar, as he called it sometimes when he was irritated with me.

I’d never seen it off him. It was never meant to come off.

The low, growling snarl that tore from my chest was enough to make Koth’s eyes widen, but when I started forward, drawing my blade, he held the material up between us like it was a barrier.

In a way, it was.

“Careful, Nash. Do you not wish to see your little human again?”

My little human.

“What did you do to him?”

Koth’s expression blossomed, his grin growing as he swiped one booted foot through the blood on the ground.

“I will give it to you that he tried to fight valiantly, all golden hair and bravado.” He watched my face as he spoke, but it was impossible to keep my expression neutral. There was no way that he hadn’t seen Kai, that he hadn’t touched him, hurt him. Not with blood on the collar.

Not when he described him so perfectly—all golden hair and bravado.

“Where is he?” I snarled through clenched teeth, wondering how I was managing to keep still when every muscle in my body was bristling with pure fury and anger.

“What would you give for him, Nash?”

What would I give for him? The answer was simple, easy—and it was the leverage that Koth had needed all along, the only way he would ever best me.

“I would give everything.”

The expression on Koth’s face, so smug and full of delight, deepened.

“Then that is exactly what you will give, if you wish to see him again.” He studied me for a moment before stepping forward… and I had no choice. I lowered the blade I held between us as he lifted the collar.

At least he gave me time to slip it over my arm and murmur the words to bind it to my skin before he lifted his own blade and pressed it to the center of my chest. “Let us move. I want to show all of Belzod that you would give it up for a human.”

He didn’t understand, though—and how could he? Koth had never believed in mates. He’d scoffed at me for my unwavering determination to find mine. He couldn’t know that I would give up everything… that I would tear through this world, every world connected to us… that I would raze everything to the ground as long as I could keep Kai safe.

Which meant he had no way to understand that if he hurt Kai, if I found my Little Mate harmed when he finally brought me to his camp… there was no world he could run to that could save him.