AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you always so fucking positive?” Cade growls at Callum, his emotions flaring through our mating bond.
Normally, I would urge him to calm down, but I can’t find the words to ask. My heart is pounding in my chest, and my stomach is clenching over and over into tight knots.
“I’m not saying this to upset you,” Callum answers. “Hope is a good thing to have, but it doesn’t always lead you down the right path. I don’t want you to be crushed when you finally have her back.”
I muster a smile that I don’t feel. “It’s okay, and you’re right. I have to have realistic expectations. I can’t even begin to contemplate what they’re doing to her and what they’ve been doing to her since they took her. I just want to free her from whatever she’s been through.”
“And we will. Every day we get closer to taking down the Order.”
“Can we come back to the part where they think something is coming?” Sawyer asks. “What the hell do they think is coming? I like ominous. It’s dramatic, but I’m not a big fan of surprises, especially dangerous ones.”
Callum shifts his shoulders. “Believe me, if we knew, we would tell you.”
“Callum? Are there any hybrids here who can help recover memories?” This question comes from Dove, and my stomach twists in that ugly way it does when I revisit what we did to her.
“Your memories were suppressed by the Order?”
“I think so. I remember some things, but Jackson and I were imprinted on each other, so we know we must have been together in the facility. Yet neither of us remembers that time.”
“Truthfully, you’re better off leaving that shit where it is. I could have someone try to undo the magic, but spells are like fingerprints—they’re unique to every witch or coven that casts them. Without knowing how it was done… We could do more damage than good.”
Disappointment ripples across her face, and I don’t miss how Jackson pulls her a little closer to him. “So our past is just lost to us forever?”
“I got my memories back,” I say pointedly. “A witch had bound them.” Callum’s smile is sympathetic. “Then all we can do is hope Dove and Jackson get theirs back, but trying to unpick someone else’s work is not a route I recommend.”
Dove’s eyes squeeze shut. “We could have a child at the facility. I have to remember.”
“I understand your pain, but what you’re trying to do may not work out the way you want it to.”
“It’s okay,” Jackson soothes her. “We’ll figure something else out.”
He holds her against him, and she lets him for a moment before pulling away.
“Have you ever recovered any of the children?” she asks, and while I understand her need to know, this feels like a cruel form of self-punishment.
Jackson stiffens, his jaw grinding as he tries to control his emotions. This has to be killing him too.
“No,” Callum reluctantly admits. “We’re not sure where they’re being kept.”
Her expression turns to horror. “You think they separate the pups from their mothers?”
The tension is palpable, and Jackson grips her nape, rubbing her thumb over her pulse in the same way Cade does when he’s trying to calm me.
“I… honestly… I don’t know, Dove. Every time we uncover something about the Order, we realize there are twenty more secrets behind it.”
“I can’t…” She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, pain rippling over her face, before she pulls free of Jackson and takes off.
He doesn’t hesitate to follow. They may not be bonded, but they behave like mates, and they deserve to have their happiness. Considering what my interference cost them last time, I know I shouldn’t ask, but I want to help them. They are my friends.
“What about mating bonds?” I ask. “Can you perform them between a chosen pair?”
Callum frowns. “It’s alpha magic that creates those bonds. I’m not an alpha, Halle. My wolf side isn’t strong at all.”
“I know that, but it’s just magic, right? There has to be a way to do it.”
“Someone as clever as you must know how it works,” Sawyer says, and I’m grateful he has my back as Callum is looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind.
“This is about Jackson and Dove, right?”
