“Danica isn’t my mate, kiddo,” he says, his eyes changing, his voice softer, sounding pained.
And I’m about to ask the next logical question. Ask him who it is.
But he leaves me absolutely stunned when his expression changes again and he very angrily snaps, “Color me shocked as fuck, because guess what? It’s you.”
I blink a few times. I breathe a little, I think. And I swallow before I confusedly ask, “It’s me what?”
“It’s you. You’re my soulmate. You, for fuck’s sake!” He rakes his hand through his hair and looks like he wants to hit something.
He paces some more while I stare, mouth agape.
He huffs out while still pacing, “Did you hear me?”
I can’t form words on my tongue.
I can’t even construct a single coherent thought.
“Earth to Bailey?”
I blink some more, but my mouth is open. I close it.
He stares.
“What?” I finally whisper.
“Didn’t know until about a second and a half before we passed out in the back of that car. And then I had to helplessly watch that witch backhand you because I was chained up. As sickand weak as I felt, that did it and I managed to get off that beam but then I had to stand by unable to do a fuckin’ thing while that fuckin’ guy carried you while you struggled, putting his filthy mitts on you. And I couldn’t get to you, couldn’t protect you because you fucking dosed me with that magic shit. You shouldn’t be here. You should be home, safe. Protected by your brother, by the other council alphas until I got home. We should’ve beentherewhen this happened, when I realized the truth of who you are to me.”
My mouth is still gaping. I’m in utter shock at the words that have come from Jason’s lips. I probably hit my head even harder than this little bump on my head suggests and I’m dreaming this right now because this can’t be real. It just can’t.
“I must be in a coma. This isn’t real,” I whisper.
Jase rolls his eyes and frustratedly growls again, pacing some more.
8
JASE
I’m so fucking furious. It’s making me insane. I’m trapped. And those fuckers could come back here and how the fuck can I stand by and do nothing? I won’t have a choice.
The asshole that carried her down the stairs is the one who drove us here, whereverhereis. I’ve got no idea when that was, how long we’ve been in this basement, and when I’ll be able to shift again. I still feel like my battery is low, though maybe now at 10% instead of 1% and probably because there’s one of those flowers in my space, locked in close proximity to me by my feet, which might be keeping me from shifting and healing. Shifting, healing, getting her and me the fuck out of here.
She’s sitting on the floor, crying. Probably because I’m livid and haven’t hid it. She’s smart, so smart. So, how did she wind up doing something this damn stupid?
I can’t think straight. But I need to. I need to figure out a way out of this. I’m too far away from my council brothers for them to feel something’s wrong. They’ll expect to hear from me within a day or two because of course I’d let them know when Danica and I safely made the drop.
But the fact that we’re not holding the artifacts, the fact that Danica took off, dropping Bailey off at my hotel and not speaking to me has me thinking I was played. Maybe we both were. Played by the Young witches to put me and Bailey somewhere where I’d suddenly recognize her scent. But why the fuck here?
She has never smelled like apples before. And I just started dreaming about them again after years of not having those dreams, so I did wonder if I was dreaming of my mate’s smell. If I was being introduced to it in my dreams so I’d know it when I found it. As soon as she fell into me in that car, it was crystal clear. And shocking as fuck.
I know full well that the Young coven played games to get Tyson and Ivy together. To get Mason and Amie together. I don’t know if they set any of the Grey and Stacy events in motion, but there was all sorts of coven involvement surrounding Riley’s mating and the ensuing seven years of grief for him. Are we another couple of chumps? More targets of this meddling coven? How long before they figure out they fucked up and put us in the clutches of a dark magic hungry Starling witch?
I blow out a long breath in an effort to calm myself down. So I can think. Is there an expiry on this thing? Is there anything I can have her do to get us out of this without putting her in harm’s way?
My throat is like a desert. And the odor of this flower is cloying, clawing at all my senses, driving me half-mad. And beyond that, smelling her, knowing now that she’s supposed to be mine. Wanting to dive into that smell with nothing in between us…
It hasn’t fully sunk in, I guess. Because all this other shit is in the way.
And Bailey is sitting beside me, crying. Her shirt is still nearly halfway unbuttoned and driving my cock half-around the bend to the degree I can see me using it to drill straight through this bubble I’m in to get to her.