Page 108 of Crossed Fates

Wake up, Makayla,I told her.Wake up. Fight. Live.

Silence.

I didn’t panic.

I waited.

I inhaled.

I exhaled.

I allowed my pack to continue bolstering my reserves, allowed myself to feel their collective concern, and reveled in the realization that they saw me as theirs. Their alpha. Their leader. Theirwolf.

I belonged to Silver Lake. I’dalwaysbelonged to Silver Lake. I was just lost before, searching for my purpose, looking forher. My Makayla. My soul. The beat to my heart.

Come back to me,I encouraged her softly.I know you’re there. I feel you running, but, baby, I’m going to chase you to the end of time and space and drag you back by your pretty hair.

I swore I heard a growl.

I merely smiled in response.

You want to play; we’ll play. But I don’t play fair, baby. My wolf is fierce and protective, and you’re trying to die on me, and that’s just unacceptable. Now fucking fight like the badass I know you are and breathe. Fuckingbreathe, Makayla.

The truck ramped over a bump, momentarily drawing me to my surroundings. My father drove. Hardt was in the back spouting off directions. He and Jude had found Makayla based on her scenery descriptions. There was only one swampy area with balsam fir trees within a one-hundred-mile radius of Silver Lake.

Two cars followed.

All armed with wolves and military-grade weapons, courtesy of Jude’s connections.

Sometimes it paid to have a boss with strong government ties. He had a lot of favors to call in, and he’d used one for us.

You’d better be alive and ready to fight when I get there, baby,I said to Makayla.We’re only twenty minutes out at most.Because we’d turned off onto the back roads some time ago, which meant we were on her trail now. I could almost smell her on the wind.

I closed my eyes again, feeling her life force feeding from mine, and relaxed as I continued to blast her with my strength. Those bastards had pumped her veins with silver, and I had no doubt it would have killed her if she were a Bitten wolf like me.

However, I sensed her immortality lingering between us, bolstering her, and replenishing itself through me and my pack.

I didn’t quite understand this hive-mind-like sensation happening between me and my wolves, but I embraced it. I accepted them. Because I didn’t have time to fight it. And I needed their strength, their vigor, their support, to save my mate. So I welcomed their essence into my mind. And IclaimedMakayla.

Mine,I thought at her.Mine forever.

Mine,she echoed on a mumble.

I stilled.Makayla?

She hummed something incoherent in response, her yawn palpable in my mind.

My fingers dug into the jeans along my thighs.Makayla. Talk to me.

Napping,she muttered.

No time for napping, baby. I need you to wake up and kill.

Kill?she repeated, sounding interested in that.

Part of me wondered if she preferred killing over fucking, but I didn’t want to waste time by asking.Yeah, Bortex.

Bortex?She yawned again.Already dead.