Lucy POV
Melana gripped my arm and tried to pull me back toward the car, but I kicked the door shut as she steered me toward it.
I’m not leaving. We are so close, please Melana,” I beg her, but she ignores me, reopening the door.
“I let you die, and I will never forgive myself; we can come back with reinforcements, we can convince them to check the place out,” Melana says while pulling her phone out.
“Shit, quick, we need to drive where I have reception,” she says, leading me around the door so I don’t try to kick it shut again when I hear a scream.
I look around for the scream, recognizing it as Rayan’s instantly; the fear in it made my stomach sink, wondering what was happening to him.
“Did you hear that?” I ask Melana, and she looks at me funny.
“Hear what?” She says, looking around into the surrounding forest.
“Dad!” Rayan screams; a blood-curdling scream fills my head, and I clutch the sides of it, realizing it is the mindlink.
“I can hear him,” I spit through gritted teeth, my head pounding from the forced link.
“Hear what?”
“Rayan, we are close; I can hear him,” I tell her when another scream booms through the link, this one bringing me to my knees.
Melana tries to pull me up and toward the car, but I shake her off, adrenaline numbing the pain momentarily, and I try to encourage Lucille to shift but get no answer from her.
“Lucille, please,” I beg her hearing his agonized screams on repeat.
“We can’t,” she pants breathlessly, trying to come forward, but it was like she was stuck behind a veil and unreachable.
“Lucy, we will come back,” Melana says while trying to grab my arm, but I slash her arm, my claws slipping out.
“Keep talking, keep talking, Rayan,” I urge through the link.
“Lucy?” his voice a hoarse sob.
“Right here, buddy, where are you?”
“Lucy, please. Get dad, get dad before they hurt Ryden,” I don’t answer, trying to figure out direction by how loud his voice. I look around at the surrounding forest before pain ripples through me, and I clutch my stomach. Sweat drips off me, and yet I felt cold, so cold and clammy.
“Lucy?” Rayan cries out, his voice stammering and fading in out as he calls to me.
“I’m coming for you, just keep talking,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
Melana tries to grab me again, but I shove her, forcing myself to run for the trees.
“Shit, Lucy, no,” Melana screams after me, but I ignore her. I hear the car start up behind me, the tires squealing, but I don’t stop. Instead, running from her before she overpowered me, I was growing too weak, but I refused to leave my brothers behind wherever they were.
“Rayan, I need you to keep talking so I can find you,”
“But it hurts,” he rasps through the link.
“Focus on my voice, just keep talking, and I will find you; I promise I will find you,” I tell him before hitting a tree as I reach the treeline. The air gets knocked from my lungs, and I try to catch my breath when he screams through the link again. Adrenaline keeps me moving, and I take off turning every time his voice grows softer, using the boundaries of the mindlink to guide me in his direction.
Ace POV
Crippling pain woke me and stole the air from my lungs as I lurched upright, my sweat drenched the sheets beneath me and clung to my skin as it covered me also. Atticus whimpered in my head, and I fumble for the lamp flicking it on and brightening the room when Tyson gasps, also jolting upright in the bed across from me, yet the middle of the bed was empty. The light fills the room and I glance around and sniff the air for my mate. However, Lucy is nowhere in sight.
“Lucy?” Tyson calls out, and I jump from bed checking the bathroom, yet some part of me was being pulled outside, like some tether and invisible force was saying to go a certain way, my mate mark burned fiercely and I cover it with my hand, the mark itself searing hot and I glance at Tyson behind me, his mark an angry red and almost glowing under his skin, he too was drenched in sweat and was a sickly gray color.
Atticus is on edge, and the pull to her has us run into the darkness of the night. Tyson is on our heels behind us when pain ripples through both of us, paralyzing us temporarily as we both hit the dirt, and I slide across the ground, the ground tearing at my arms and hands as I tried to catch myself. The air feels stagnant and I struggle to breathe as pain radiated through my chest, her pain flooding the bond and I couldn’t stand it.
“Where is she?” Tyson chokes out when his phone starts ringing.
“Answer it, it could be her?” I spit through gritted teeth, crawling to my hands and knees and trying to regain myself yet her pain crippling and flooding the bond.
Tyson fumbles in his shorts pocket for his phone before dropping it, he taps the screen, and Melana’s frantic voice comes through the phone, and he growls before clutching his chest like he was having a heart attack.
“Lucy is in heat, I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t stop; she has gone after Alpha Jamie, I am, I am on the old road leading to Avalon City,”
“Where is she,” I hear Tyson snarl,
“I don’t know I lost her trying to get phone reception to ring you,” She says but I take off, Atticus urging me to follow the bond, and we shift.
Tyson left behind while he waited for instructions from Tyson. Opening the mindlink I listen waiting before speaking.
“Get back up; I will get our mate,” I tell him before hearing him acknowledge my words and answer.
“On it, find her Ace bring her home, I will get Aamon and hopefully Avery, fuck I hope we can wake Ryker,” he growls.
“I will find her, just be ready when I do,”