By the time he was finished talking, Alex was lightweight hyperventilating.
“Anyone have their phone on them?” Sasha asked. “Would cell phones even work here?”
“Yes,” Alex replied. “But mine is still in my bedroom.” Already he was thinking of Wade’s room as his own. Hopefully he would see it again.
And Wade. Alex’s gut twisted at the thought of never seeing his wolf again. To feel his mate cradling him in his arms. Wade had no idea where the mates were, so the chances of being rescued were between a snowball’s chance in Hell and Drew coming back to life to clear Alex’s name.
The men patted their pockets, but no one produced a phone.
“What do we do?” Sasha whispered, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “I don’t even know how we got here.”
“Shadows.” Newt looked at Alex, tears brimming in his eyes. “I’ve traveled through them before, when Vex kidnapped me and Vaughn. But something tells me the pack isn’t going to break any doors down to rescue us when we don’t even know where the doors are.”
“We’re in another realm?” Jalen repeatedly snapped the rubber band on his wrist, refusing to look at any of them. “But it looks so…normal. How can we be in a monster realm?”
Preston had said that Jalen used to do pills. Was he relapsing? Was that the right word? Alex knew very little about drugs, but he would research them if that meant helping one of the mates.
Quietly, Preston moved to Jalen, then rubbed his back as he talked softly to him.
Even though Alex could hear the conversation because of his heightened senses, he forced himself not to listen.
“What do we do?” Sasha asked, though he was glancing at Preston and Jalen.
“Best plan?” Alex cleared his throat. “We keep moving. Do not stop. Don’t talk to anything unless I say so. Newt, you’re the most vulnerable because of your fae blood.”
Alex had never pulled off “pack leader” before, but being in Serenity City without protection was suicidal, and he was desperate to keep the others safe. To get them home to their mates in one piece. To get himself back to Wade.
The demon realm looked harmless, almost pleasant. But that false sense of “serenity” was deceptive as hell. The creeping wrongness, the kind that made your skin itch because it was too normal, too quiet… That was the real horror.
What worried Alex the most—aside from Newt and Jalen—was the reason they were in the realm to begin with. Only a demon could’ve transported them here.
And Alex could think of only one who had it out for him.
Valcore.
There was zero doubt in Alex’s mind who’d hijacked them.
“What about that place?” Preston pointed across the street at a brick building, Jake’s Java was displayed over the door in blue neon. Alex had been there before. It had been nice, safe. Really good coffee too.
“Move quickly,” Alex said. “Stay together. Don’t stray for any reason.”
Sasha wrinkled his nose as they crossed the pristine street. “Shouldn’t there be cars? Traffic? Something? Why are there paved streets if no one rides on them? What’s the purpose of them?”
“I so want some of that chicken.” Jalen licked his lips, so engrossed in the restaurant down the street that he nearly tripped over his own feet.
“I just wanna go home,” Newt whimpered, staying in the middle of the group so they could hide him better. He was the shortest mate, after all, and would be the first to be targeted if shit went sideways.
Unfortunately, nothing would hide the smell of his blood, but hopefully the aroma of chicken diluted the scent instead of just torturing Jalen.
Finding a demon warrior was their only ticket out of this nightmare realm.
If Alex only knew how to summon one.
Chapter Nine
He barely noticed the bruises on his own ribs or the scratches on his arms that hadn’t been there before he’d woken up this morning.
The hunger gnawed at him. Not a metaphorical hunger, either. Actual stomach-clawing, eat-half-a-cow hunger pounding through his veins. Wade could have eaten one of Zeppelin’s biceps right off and called it dinner.
