***
“I’m tired guys.” Ryan stood up and stretched. “I need my bed.”
“Aww…” Paige grinned. “Just looking at you makes me feel tired actually.”
“Imagine.” Ryan chuckled. “I’ll see you guys…oh no Jeremy…” He said with a smile. “…you don’t have to come with me.”
“I want…” Jeremy began to speak but trailed off when Ryan switched to their mind-link.
‘I really want to be alone right now.’ Ryan said quietly. “Stay and have fun. I’ll be fast asleep in a minute anyway.” He gave a brilliant smile that didn’t fool Jeremy for a second.
“Alright.” Jeremy sighed as he leaned down and kissed his mate. He knew better than to argue with Ryan. Definitely not a pregnant Ryan. Fortunately, pregnant Ryan didn’t stay angry for long. “Call me if you need me.” He murmured against Ryan’s lips. ‘Please.’ He added on their mind-link.
“You know I will,” Ryan said, reaching up to rub his knuckles against Jeremy’s cheek. “Bye guys,” Ryan said as he left for where Gloria and the other elders sat.
“Trouble in paradise?” Stan murmured after Ryan had left.
“Clearly.” Agyemang drawled. “What beats me is why he didn’t ignore his protests and follow him home.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Stan responded. “I mean, he knew the guy was upset about something. I sure as fuck wasn’t buying that ‘I’ll be asleep in the next whatever’ bullshit. What was he thinking allowing him to…”
“I’m still here, you know,” Jeremy said dryly, sounding almost bored.
“Leave the man alone.” Philip sighed. He remembered what Gloria had told him some months earlier about mates. She’d said he should wait till he found his. Then and only then would he know just how difficult it was to go against their wishes. “It’s pointless and very stupid to go against their wishes.” He rasped as he got to his feet. “Now, I’ll go and have a chat with these elders here about my mate’s wishes.”
“Fuck! They’ve been pussified.” Stan gasped with mock horror.
The group dissolved into raucous laughter.
***
Paul hummed low in his throat as he rode his bicycle closer to the bridge at the edge of the pack house. He’d left his cell phone in Camille’s house in his haste to jump into Agyemang’s car two nights earlier. Since he loved to ride in the mornings as a form of exercise, he’d decided to ride to Camille’s house that morning to get his phone when his mate had left for the gym. He planned on being back in the suite by the time Agyemang got back.
“Hold it.” A fierce-looking giant of a man stepped forward, causing Paul to break suddenly.
“Wow…” Paul gasped as he stopped pedaling, slid off the seat, and placed one foot on the ground. “Where did you come from?” He glanced around.
“Just guarding our territory.” The warrior said. “You’re Paul, right?”
“I am.” Paul nodded. “Going to pick something up from Camille’s house not too far from here. Is this a drill or something?”
“Or something.” The warrior chuckled. “Be careful out there. Don’t talk to strangers.”
“What is this? Pre-school?” Paul laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t talk to strangers or even accept candy from them.” He grinned but the warrior didn’t crack a smile.
“I mean it.” The giant growled.
“Alright, alright, jeez…” Paul raised up both hands in a gesture of surrender. “I won’t talk to any strangers.”
“Good. Be safe.” The warrior nodded and then allowed Paul to ride across the bridge and out of the pack house.
But Paul didn’t get very far before he was breaking again suddenly. “What the fuck are you doing here?” He asked with a shock-filled voice as he stared at Troy.
“Just practicing my skills.” Toby grinned.
“But I thought you said you were done with magic,” Paul muttered with a frown. “Remember what you almost did to Ryan?”
“Aw come on, no one will get hurt from me practicing popping up in places,” Troy said as he inched closer to Paul.
“Well, you’re better off popping in and out.” Paul snorted. “At least that hulk of a guard won’t be stopping you to give you lectures on strangers.”
“There’s a guard giving lectures about strangers?” Troy glanced behind Paul as he reached out to touch him.
“Yeah. He…”
But before Paul could complete his sentence, both he and Troy disappeared from where they stood, leaving Paul’s bicycle.
***
“Luna…” Agyemang gasped as the dumbbell in his hand slipped out and fell onto the floor.
“Muscle pull?” Jeremy chuckled. “Someone is getting rusty.”
“I don’t have a muscle pull,” Agyemang said quietly. “I just had this weird feeling…”
“How weird?” Philip asked.
“Bad.” The dark-skinned muscular alpha looked panicky.
“Call your pack,” Jeremy instructed.
Agyemang nodded and went to pick up his cell phone from the table on which he’d left it.
“Ricco?” Agyemang called to his beta who was also working out. “Call your people at the pack house and check whether the pack is okay.” He instructed as he dialed the number of the beta who was holding the fort in his absence.
After about five calls, Agyemang stopped because it was obvious his pack was fine. “Why do I still feel like this then?” He groaned.
“How exactly do you feel?” Jeremy asked.
“There’s this feeling of dread in my gut.” Agyemang rasped. “I just…”
“Where is Paul?” Philip asked.
“I left him in bed,” Agyemang responded, a look of alarm flashing through his eyes. “You don’t think…”
“Well, I asked because of how you’re feeling.” Philip folded his arms across his broad chest. “Just trying to get all our bases covered. Check up on him.”
It was very easy to know when a marked mate was in danger because the mate who wasn’t in danger would feel the other’s pain, fear and under normal circumstances, be able to trace the whereabouts of the said mate because of the bond they share. But where the mating mark was absent, it was rare for a mate to feel when the other was in danger. A strong alpha such as Agyemang would, however, be able to sense if something wasn’t right. He just wouldn’t know what was causing the uneasiness.
Agyemang dialed Paul’s number before remembering that his mate had complained that he’d left his phone at Camille’s. He quickly dialed Clara and asked her to connect him to his suite.
“Paul is not in the suite, Alpha,” Clara informed him.
“Where is he, Clara?” Agyemang breathed.
“He went for a ride. He did say something about go…”
“A. G.?” Philip called out. He had his phone to his ear. “It’s Stan. They found Paul’s bicycle.” The look on his face showed he knew exactly what or who they were dealing with.
“Those bastards…” Jeremy growled low in his throat.
What everyone in and around the gym heard, however, was the rage-filled bellow of an angry alpha. Agyemang’s eyes shifted to brilliant amber, fangs dropped and nails elongated into deadly-looking claws. The alpha was clearly ready to kill.
“Summon every warlock and sorcerer in the pack to the council room, now,” Philip instructed Stan and then hung up. Then he turned to look at Jeremy. He didn’t need to speak.
“He will meet us there.” Jeremy rasped. His mate was one of the most powerful beings in the Were kingdom, if not the most powerful. If anyone could help get Paul back and defeat the threat that they were up against, it was Ryan.
Philip gave a quick nod and let out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. Then in a voice that could only be described as lethal, the alpha of Stanwood Pack addressed the angry werewolves in the gym;
“Now let’s go find those nasty warlocks.”