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She smiles and my father says goodbye, only it sounds like his words have a question in them. I ignore it as I leave the cavern and rush through the market teeming with humans and Grounders. I'm late and have already wasted too much time even speaking to my parents for as long as I have. Keri will have already been lowered down to Linc and Leah will be home, alone and in pain. I can only blame me having so much trouble falling asleep all day for the reason I slept far longer than I meant it. I wanted to come up as soon as the sun fell from the sky, the very moment it was dark enough for me to be disguised as I moved through the streets.
I reach one of the holes that brings us above and let my claws come out to help me climb up the hundreds of feet of dirt. When I get closer to the opening, I slow down, listening for any movement above. When I'm sure I don't hear anyone, I push the false floor of leaves and dirt aside to emerge from the hole. There's nothing but forest all around me, silent except for animals who move about their home, their eyes reflecting in the dark. Leah's house would take fifteen minutes to walk to from here. I run instead, and make it there in nine.
The moment I get on her street though, I can tell she's not here. This close, I would be able to hear her thoughts. Anxiousness consumes me more with each step closer making me sure that it's utterly silent in her house. There’s nothing. No thoughts, no dreams, no nightmares.Nothing. She isn’t here. When I finally reach the house, I inhale deeply, her scent filling me, but it’s only lingering, from her clothes, her towel. Not from her actual presence. From how faint her scent is, I can tell she hasn't been here in many hours. But...where could she be, at this time, on this night of all nights? It doesn't make sense.
Leah doesn't have anywhere else to go, and no one else she associates with outside of her sister. If she's not here, then where would she be? She and Keri often spoke of running, even with their father gone, because of the way things were done in their quadrant. Could this have been the final straw and she's gone now? How would I ever find her if she did? I swallow against the rising panic swelling within me.
Knowing it's far too risky and far too dangerous, I go around to the window of Leah's bedroom. A little force and the locks holding the window from opening buckle, and the glass lifts. I crawl through her window and step into a bedroom that I have dreamed of being inside so many times. Truthfully, I watched Leah sleep in here too many times. Although, her scent is stronger now that I'm inside, it's still not enough to convince me that she's been here recently. I look for any little thing that might tell me where she is, but find nothing. Her bed is made, and everything is in its place just like she likes it. I stand in the middle of the room, racking my brain for any clue that could be here.
"The money," I murmur to myself, moving swiftly from her bedroom, into the hallway, and entering the bedroom across from hers. Keri's.
Linc would kill me for being in here, invading his mate's personal space, but I push that thought aside just as I do to the ones that tell me Leah will come home and catch me at any moment. That someone may have seen me come in, or possibly heard the window locks break. But none of that is enough to stop me from lifting the mattress of Keri's bed to see if the money I know she and Leah keep hidden here is still there.
"No," I breathe when my eyes meet nothing.
The money’s gone, which means Leah may also be gone. My chest tightens and that churning in my stomach becomes a violent storm as I realize there's no other reason every single dollar would be gone if she didn't plan to use it, or intend to run. Dread rises in me as I ask myself if I've lost her, maybe forever. Then, the anger wars with my dread because if I had just woken up on time, come up here earlier, maybe I could have stopped her from running. How, I have no idea, but the chance that I could have prevented this consumes me. I drop the mattress back down and curl my hands into fists, trying, and failing, to control the rage and anxiety rushing through me. I want to tear this room, the entire house, apart. I want to go to their bastard of a President and demand he find her.
I want...
A fear, all-consuming and terrifying, grips me so tightly that it cripples me, making me drop to my knees in Keri's bedroom. Only...it's not mine. This isn't the fear of never seeing Leah again, or of never getting the chance to hold her. This is a fear ofsomeone.Leah's fear of someone. As I get back to my feet, I remember the scream that awoke me. Leah's scream inside my head. But it's...not possible. Even couples who have mated and bonded, beyond a certain distance, they cannot hear thoughts or feel emotions. And my cavern is much too far down to have heard her scream, but still...I heard her. That distinctive, visceral fear, her fear, rushing through me right now only confirms it. It confirms thewrongnessthat I've felt all day and night. Something is wrong with my mate.
No, no, no. Stop!
I hear Leah’s plea inside my mind as if she’s right next to me. Then, I'm running. I don't even care if anyone sees me exiting Leah's window, or if some human can see me blurring past them with how fast I sprint down the streets. I have no idea where Leah is. All I follow is her fear, her desperate thoughts, and her unmistakable scent. They all grow stronger as I rush through the streets. I will tear this entire quadrant apart to find her, burn it to ashes if it means it will make getting to her easier.
I must be closer to wherever she is because now I can see her thoughts in my mind. What I see terrifies me. It makes me run harder and faster. It fills me with a rage that I haven't felt since I had Leah's father at my mercy. In her thoughts, a man, leaning over Leah, sneers at her. She's so afraid that she's barely breathing. She's barely keeping herself from passing out by reminding herself that she cannot afford to do that in this monster's presence.
I reach the processing center and find her scent is much stronger here. Pausing, I look through Leah's eyes to see what else is around her. The room she's in isn't here. I've been here before, attending meetings with the human leaders alongside my father. The room Leah's in looks...old, and she’s shivering from the almost freezing temperature. She's not here, but she was, not too long ago. And when I find out why, everyone here willpay.
I continue running as I see the man walk around Leah, positioning himself closer to her head. Only now do I realize that she's trying to move but can't because of straps holding her down. She’s helpless. Leah's worst nightmare is coming true, being defenseless as danger approaches. Danger has found her and I’m not there to protect her. I’m not there to show her there’s nothing to fear. A growl rips out of me as I force my body beyond its limits to get to Leah.
She's trembling, lips tucked between her teeth to hold in a cry, but I hear her thoughts. I hear all the terror she's trying to keep this pathetic excuse of a human life from seeing. She's picturing all the things he might do to her and if I thought the churning in my stomach was bad before, now it threatens to slow me down just so I can vomit. But no, I can't let up. Especially not when I can feel Leah is so close. I'm in another forest now though, and it makes no sense that I can feel Leah more than before when nothing is here. But her fear grows exponentially, as the man walks around her again, like he's circling his prey. Oh, the things that are running through my mind of what I will do to him when I reach him and my mate. They, and her, urge me on.
I burst through a row of trees to see a building in front of me.Here. She's here. I can feel it. Smell her. I hear her thoughts clearer and louder. I read the words on the building as I rush towards the front of it, seeing it labeled a hospital for the mentally ill. Disgust from Leah, deep and sickening, rushes through me, and I feel the man's hands come to Leah's ankles. She turns her head away from the sight of the man, and right before she squeezes her eyes shut, I see the number on the wall.
412.
I bypass the front door and go around the side of the building instead, digging my claws into the bricks and propelling myself up. I pass the first floor, second, and then the third. When I reach the fourth floor, I go to the first window nearest to me. There's a woman in there, strapped down too, but it's not Leah. Desperation fills me as I go to the next window and see a man inside the room, banging his bloodied fists against the door. I’m already moving onto the next window when I feel the man's hands creep higher on Leah's legs, up her calves, over her knees.
"Don't touch me!" Leah screams.
The man just snickers. I will rip his fucking throat out for that sound alone. Leah’s not in this room either. A man sleeps in it instead. A part of the brick tears off and falls to the ground with how hard my claws cut into the building as I move to the next window. And there...there I find her. There she is. Naked, strapped down, tears falling from her closed eyes, and her body visibly shaking. This thing with his hands on her legs, leaning forward to move them higher on her. To move his hands higher on my mate.
On. My. Mate.
He will never need those hands again. A dead man has no use for anything.
Chapter 4
His fingers are like searing coals on my skin, sliding over my knee.
"No, no, no," I whimper again and again.
I strain against the straps and shackles around my wrists and feet that painfully cut into my skin, but I'm helpless. I can't do anything to stop him. My words haven't worked, and I can't get off this table. Terror fills me impossibly more with each second, making my body tremble. My mind feels like it will shatter with my deep will to be anywhere but here. I want to think of being with my sisters. I want to think of the few memories I have of my mother. I want to be dead. I want to be numb. But instead, I am not able to be anywhere but here, where his fingers are on my thighs now.
"Stop!" I scream.
"No one can hear—"
