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“Don't.”

Her chest rises and falls as she stares at the barrier separating us from our mates. Fighting continues on the other side. Something slams into the stone hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

Darian.

He's coming.

Of course he is.

I can still feel him through our bond. Barely.

“Come on.” I take Selena's arm. “We keep moving.”

We turn into the only passage left open to us. My bond with Darian weakens with every step. At first, I think it's the poison, but his presence grows fainter as we move farther away.

Then it's gone.

My feet stop. My heart slams against my ribs as I reach for him through our bond and find nothing.

Mate.

My wolf whines.

Selena stops beside me. “Arlene?”

I think about waking in the cell and feeling nothing. I think about my wolf suddenly sensing Darian once he entered the tunnels. The closer he came, the stronger our bond became.

The runes.

“The runes are suppressing the mate bonds.”

Selena's hand moves protectively over her stomach. “I can't feel Rylan anymore.”

“He's alive.” The certainty comes immediately. “When Darian was close, I could feel him. The farther apart we got, the weaker our bond became until I couldn't feel him at all. That's why I couldn't feel him from the cell. The runes suppress the bond when we're too far apart.”

Selena looks back toward the barrier. Another crash shakes the tunnel, but she doesn't move toward it this time.

“Then we get out of here, and our mates will find us.”

“Exactly.”

Her face suddenly tightens. One hand clamps around her stomach, and I grab her elbow.

“Selena?”

She closes her eyes and breathes slowly.

Oh, hell no.

“Was that a contraction?”

“No.”

“Selena.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”