Chapter 41

Chapter 41
Chapter 41 - Dex. Pov.

The panic in Ronan's voice sends all sorts of doomsday scenarios through my head. She's changed her mind; guilt has made her decide to stay with Bruce after all. The thought that Ronan might have found them kissing or intimately entwined makes my heart feel like it's breaking. "Calm down, maybe it's something else," Drake remarks, but he doesn't sound entirely convinced. I go along with it anyway, if only to keep myself going. "Yeah, you're right. If that were really the case, we would have felt it."

"Dex, did you hear me?" Ronan asks again, more urgently. I want to tell him I'm coming and ask what's going on. But before I can, I hear him in my head again. "Hurry! He took her." I was already on my way downstairs, but at those words, I lose control. I can't think anymore, and Drake takes control. He storms downstairs, overcome with rage. It's a wonder he thinks about giving Claire's baby monitor to one of the omegas we encounter.
It's a wonder I even realize he's doing that. Everything is a blur; all I can think is that if he hurts her, if so much as a hair on her head isn’t in place, I'll kill him. Before the omega can ask any questions, we're gone. Once outside, Drake shifts into his own form.
He runs as fast as his legs can carry him to the spot Ronan told him to. His paws barely touch the ground as he zigzags through the woods.
I wish we'd already completed the mating process, so I could sense how she's doing, whether she's in pain or scared. I curse myself for taking so long; I should have known better.
"There's no point in blaming yourself," Drake growls, pushing himself even harder. "We both know what a risk it was, what it still is."
I know he's right, but still. It would be a lot easier if I could sense how she's doing. Until we're fully mated, I can only feel her emotional state when she's close.
Thanks to Drake, it doesn't take long before we reach Ronan. Drake refuses to give up control. Knowing we can attack faster if we stay in wolf form, I don't try to persuade him. While Ronan explains what he's discovered in the meantime, Reece and Bruce arrive. Drake looks at Bruce suspiciously.
"Relax, I get it. Let's focus on getting our Luna back," he says through the mind link when he sees Drake looking at him. I'm glad he's already referring to Lilly as our Luna. I can still detect some pain in his eyes, but I'm glad I was right. That he gets it.
Bruce seems torn with guilt when he hears she was looking for him.
"It's not your fault," Reece says, seeing his face. "I deliberately didn't go to my usual spot because I knew there was a chance she'd come looking for me..." He confesses. "If I had, maybe Alex wouldn't have been able to get to her. Then I could have protected her." No one says anything.
"Don't blame yourself. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I shouldn't have let her go alone," I say, partly to make him feel less bad, and partly because I blame myself for this too. "End the self-pity," Ronan says seriously.
"Alpha, what do you want to do?" he asks. "We're going to the place where she was taken first. So we can all get a good scent of the third person." I order. Before I can even suggest they shift into their wolf form, they start undressing. Ronan leads us to the spot where Lilly was likely overpowered.

"Do you smell that?" I ask the others. Drake looks around; Ronan and Reece are right behind me, but Bruce is standing frozen a few feet behind us.
"Are you okay, Bruce?" I ask. He doesn't respond; he doesn't seem to hear me. We look around, but when we see and smell nothing unusual—except for the scents of Lilly, Alex, and the mystery woman—we walk over to him.
"Bruce?" I call out a little more sharply. He seems to snap out of his trance. "What's wrong?" Ronan asks.
After a long silence, he finally says,
"It's her..." We look at each other, confused. What the hell is he talking about? Does he know that woman?
"Yeah. We already established that," Ronan replied.
"You know her?" Reece asks cautiously. Again, there's silence, as if he's pondering the answer, unsure whether to tell us or not.
"Bruce, do you. Know her?" I ask, more demandingly.
"Yeah, you could say that..." he says slowly. "Well?" Ronan presses.
"I think she... I mean... she's my mate." He finally blurts out.
"WHAT?" we all three shout at once.

"You could have told me, you know," I say after he tells me about his encounter with his mate. I feel for him. "Wow, that sucks," Reece mumbles.
"Yeah, well. Now that she's here, maybe I'll get the chance to officially reject her." His voice sounds light, but in his wolf's eyes, I can see it's anything but. He acts like he's over it, and maybe he was, before she showed up. Her being here has certainly stirred up the pain.
"Not to sound callous, but we have to go," I say. Every second we linger here is too much. We follow Lilly's scent down the other side of the mountain. We're getting closer and closer to the populated area; we'll have to shift back soon. Shit, I don't have any clothes.
"My car's nearby, with extra clothes," Ronan says. For the umpteenth time, I'm glad we always keep a bag with extra clothes in our cars. We'd lose too much time if I had to go back for clothes.

It's harder to follow their scent in our human form, but not impossible. While Ronan starts driving at a low speed, and I focus on Lilly's scent, Reece opens his laptop. I don't ask why he leaves his laptop in the car; it saves us time now, maybe Reece can find them with the cameras.
"That way!" I say, pointing down a street.

"Any luck yet?" I ask, hearing Reece busily typing away. "Just a little longer, I now have footage of where we've already passed," he answers. "They're driving a black pickup truck."
"Are you sure? Half the town drives one of those cars," Ronan asks.
"Positive. I caught him driving with the window down," he replied, continuing his search.
"So, which way?" Ronan asks.
"We're going the wrong way. Her scent is getting weaker," I say, frustrated. "No, I don't think so," Bruce says. "They're masking their scent. Maybe it's a spell..." Bruce takes a deep breath. "If you pay attention, you can smell the magic," he says. I do as he says. The first time, I don't smell anything strange, so I do it again. Then I smell it, or rather, I feel it. A little tingle in my nose. It stings.
"I didn't know you could smell magic," Ronan mutters from behind the wheel. "Me neither, until I recognized it from when I met her. Now it makes sense.. Why I couldn't find her.."

"Gotcha!" Reece suddenly shouts. He leans over the car's center console and shows the image on the laptop.

Lilly’s pov.

I'm awake, but I can't move. My whole body feels heavy, and even opening my eyes feels like an impossible task. At first, it's quiet around me; there's nothing to tell me where I am. The only clue I have is that I think I'm lying on a bed, because the surface I'm lying on is soft.
I have absolutely no sense of time, and it takes all my strength not to panic. The only thing keeping me calm right now, is knowing that Claire is safe with Dex. And knowing that he'll come looking for me if I'm gone too long. I repeat it like a mantra in my head. "Claire is safe, Dex will come for me."

Slowly but surely, my body begins to feel like my own again. Only then do I realize that my legs and wrists are bound. I open my eyes; it doesn't seem very tight. I try to free myself, but it's tighter than I thought. I just don't have enough room to bring my hands together. It would be too easy if I could.
I look around, but the room doesn't look familiar. It's not a hotel room, I'm sure of that. The windows are covered, so that's no use to me.
The door opens and Alex walks in, followed by, I assume, his girlfriend. "Ah, you're finally awake," Alex says, as if he hadn't just kidnapped me. I press my lips together and give him a hateful look. "Don't look at me like that. I tried it the nice way," he says, sounding bored.
"If you take me back, I'll run away again," I say. "I want you out of my life," I snap at him. He says nothing, and his girlfriend stands there silently with her arms crossed, looking at me disdainfully.
"You know he'll come looking for me," I say, but my threat backfires when the woman finally opens her mouth. "Oh, I'm counting on it," she says with a wicked smile.
An icy chill runs through my body as the realization hits me.