“I am no good with strategy, so I will let you work that out with the other Alphas, but I thought the map would help, and I wanted to see if Andrei had another plan we can use the venom for,” I confess.
“Andrei will meet us tomorrow at the conference place, how many Alphas will be there?”
“One that I know of for certain, he is organizing the others for me but said more will probably come,” I answer.
“Well, I need to check patrol, but get some sleep. I will be up soon, I will mindlink the border patrol before bed to check on them,” Ezra suggests, and I grab the vials before following Mateo out the door. I glance back at Ezra, who has his eyes downcast on the map, at least, it helped.
Crawling into bed, it didn’t take long before I pass out with exhaustion. It felt like I had only just got into a deep sleep when the alarm starts ringing loudly, pulling me back to the waking world. My eyes feel like sandpaper and are watering from the lack of sleep. Ezra groans, forcing himself out of bed too. Mateo, however, is already up, his scent faint in the room.
“Come on, love, we gotta get up,” Ezra encourages, and I yawn, sitting and tossing the blanket back. I shower quickly, then pop in the contact lenses that interfere with my vision.
“Eat, both of you,” Mateo calls from the bedroom, and I walk out to find he has set a tray down on the bed with jam toast and coffee. Ezra gets out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist before coming out.
“Thank you,” I tell Mateo, grabbing some toast and tearing a piece off. I lean against him, letting him calm my nerves.
“You okay?” He whispers.
I was ok. Despite everything, I felt fine. If anything, relieved that we were finally doing something about Jackson instead of lying low and waiting for him to make a move.
“Fine, just want everything over with,” I admit. We all eat breakfast together, and I hear people waking up and smelling the bacon cooking on the barbecue outside. When it came time to go, I was reluctant to step out of the bubble of what felt like normality in our room and return to the chaos, but I knew it was unavoidable and necessary.
“Alex is coming over while you two are away to help organize different warriors into groups so that every side is covered when we go in,” Mateo informs Ezra.
“We won’t be long,” Ezra adds, kissing him. I reach up, wrapping my arms around his neck. Mateo leans down, kissing me, and I deepen the kiss before reluctantly pulling away.
“Be safe and alert. You are going on neutral territory, I can send a few warriors to follow?” Mateo offers.
“No, we should be fine,” Ezra objects, though I have a strange feeling something is going to happen today.
It’s unsettling and has me racing back to my room. I pocket the vials, then rush back down. I don’t know what good they would be, but I also didn’t want to leave them lying around for anyone to accidentally touch or mess with.
“Where did you go?” Ezra asks, and I hold up the vials to show him. Ezra exhales, looking uncertain. “Giving them to Andrei?” I chew my lip and nod.
We get in the car and drive, but the unease grows more intense. I can’t explain it. Just an overwhelming sense of dread settles within me. “Go back,” I snap at Ezra, and he looks at me.
“What?”
“Go back, turn the car around. Something is off,” I order. We need to be back on our territory.
“Kat, it is like another ten minutes away,” Ezra objects, not agreeing, but I shake my head.
“No, something is off. I can feel it, turn around now, Ezra,” I urge him, and no sooner had I said it did I hear a car at the T section before we hit the curvy road to the highway.
Everything happens too quickly. The sound of twisting metal and glass breaking as the car is shoved over the barrier and somersaulting as it plunges into the ravine before stopping wedged against a tree upside down next to the road that winds down the small mountain. Blood drips from my head, and I groan, my entire body aches as I look around dazed. I reach for the seat belt that is the only thing holding me in my seat and unclip it. My hands are splintered as I land on them, falling from my seat and onto the roof.
“There, I found them,” I hear a voice call. I looked at Ezra, who is unconscious, his head is bleeding, and he has a huge chunk of steel stuck in his leg and stomach.
People run to our location. They are not our people. Checking Ezra, I undo his seat belt, and he falls on top of me. My hands check him over, and I pull the piece of broken steel from his leg and stomach. He gurgles up blood before someone grabs my leg.
“Got her!” Someone yells, and I turn, using my other leg to kick the person. They grunt.
“Ezra!” I yell, slapping his face, but he is out cold and badly injured.
The man grabs my legs again, trying to yank me free from the wreckage, as I clutch onto Ezra, trying to wake him.
Knowing they would take me, I gave one last kick to get the man off before grabbing Ezra’s face and pressing my lips to his.
“He’s as good as dead,” a man snickers as I glare at him from the driver’s seat, my eyes are heavy as my energy is sucked out of me as I give it to my mate, my fingertips lose their grip on him as I am dragged under into oblivion.