Chapter Ninety

***Faye***

I was standing next to Hadrian outside of the pack house, watching the warriors set up and patrol around the perimeter when I felt like all the breath was knocked out of me. I hit my knees as I hear Scorpius crying out through the mind-link. I glance to the side and see Hadrian is on his knees too and there are warriors, workers, and Imani running towards us. I gasp for breath as Imani reaches me, laying me on the ground, my hand clutching over my heart like it is being ripped to shreds. What the hell is happening?! Why is there pain? Why can we hear Scorpius? Why is Hadrian hurting, too? Imani pulls my eyes open, which I didn’t even know I closed, checking my pupils to make sure they’re reactive. It takes a few minutes of us sitting there in agonizing pain before the mind-link is closed, and the pain stops altogether. Hadrian sits up, gasping for breath, and looks at me worriedly. I sit up as well and grab his hand, squeezing it to let him know I’m okay. He blinks a few times and looks at Imani, “What the fuck was that?” She gives a sad smile, “I’m sorry son, but in order for me to help, I need to know more. What happened?” I let out a heavy breath as everyone around us stared, worried. Hadrian shoos them away to their post until we only have Jack and Imani left. I look at Imani with slightly teary eyes, “It was an extremely sharp, sudden pain like my heart was being ripped apart. I could hear Scorpius screaming in my head. He sounded devastated.” Imani looks at Hadrian, and he nods, “Same exact thing with me, nothing different.”

Imani bites her lower lip before speaking, “What this sounds like… is that Kautious or Scorpius was hurt. Scorpius accidentally opened the mind link when it happened, so you guys felt everything he did, which is also why you heard him. If he sounded that devastated, I can only assume something happened to Kautious out on the battlefield.” I suck in a breath, feeling the tears start to fall before looking at Hadrian and muttering a small ‘please, no.’ He reached out and pulled me into his arms as I started to sob. I can’t let the last part of the prophecy come true so soon. I can’t lose him. I can’t lose any of my mates. Hadrian strokes my hair and looks at his mother over my head, “Mom, I need you to take her inside. Take her to our room and make her comfortable. I have to be out here just on the off chance that something happens.” Imani nods and tries to grab me, but I scream and cling tighter to Hadrian, “No! No, please! I need to stay! Need to be sure you’re safe!” Hadrian cups my face and kisses me gently, “Sweetheart, I will be fine. Kautious and Scorpius will be fine as well. I need to protect you and our pup right now, or I will never forgive myself. They won’t forgive me for letting you in harm’s way either. We can keep a mind-link open if you want.”

I nod my head frantically, “Yes, please. I need to know you’re okay. I know we won’t reach Scorpius or Kautioius right now with the battle, so I need to know that one of you is okay.” He nods and kisses me again, “Of course, love, but for now, please go with Mom and get settled.” I reluctantly let Imani take my arm and help me up gently. She then walks me inside, and we make our way upstairs. As she tries to bring us to our room, I shake my head, pointing to the room that was chosen for my nesting room. She stares at me, puzzled because it’s an empty room. I swallow thickly, “That is going to be my nesting room. Do you mind if we make sure it’s clean and maybe add a few things around it until we can go shopping?” She smiles and nods and turns to guide us into the room. I look around. The walls are a soft gray color, while the floors are black-stained wood. I turn to see a door. Opening it, I find that it leads to the bathroom. The tub dips into the floor with one of those cool waterfall spouts to fill it. Across from it is a big glass shower with stone floors. The toilet is closed off in a separate portion. All the towels match the gray of the walls of the main room since the walls here are white.

I walk back into the room, looking around, a little lost, until Imani claps her hands. She turns to face me, “Where would you like to start? Are there blankets or something you want to start with? Do you have things you want to put on the wall? I want to help with whatever you need.” I look at her and give her a small smile, “I have a bookshelf in the bedroom I’d like to bring in here to build. We should be able to drag it in here easily.” She nods eagerly, heading for the door, “Let’s do it!” She makes her way to our bedroom, spotting the bookshelf box. She slides it out of the bedroom and into the nesting room. We opened the box, pulled out all the pieces, and read the instructions. As Imani reads the instructions a second time just to be sure we do it correctly, I zone out, thinking about my mates. I can’t sense Scorpius or Kautious through the mind link, which worries me more than anything. I can hear Hadrian’s soothing voice in my mind suddenly, “Faye, baby, calm down, please. They’re okay. It will all be okay. I just need you to take a deep breath. They will come home, and we will all be happy, okay?” I give a weak ‘okay’ before turning back to Imani and handing her the piece of the bookshelf she asked for.