Page 4 of The Dragons’ Eternal Mate

Emmeline was killed at my father’s orders.

“She’s probably terrified.” My words were detached, like I was outside my own body, looking in at the situation, looking at the mess I’d made of things.

My body couldn’t settle on hot or cold. I wanted to scream, to find Cyrus and drive my fist through him. But I wanted to disappear into the shadows as well, to never look Rowan in the eye, because how could I? After everything I’d done, everything he’d done…

“Where would she go?” My voice was hollow.

“I’m not sure. I mean, she has friends at other—” Grey stopped, his eyes widening as he scrambled in the chair, exiting the security footage in a blink and pulling up something else.

“What are you doing?” Orsen’s rage was palpable, a wave of fury coming off him as if I were next to a volcano.

“I put a tracker in her car, remember? We can see where she’s going.” Orsen leaned in as Grey navigated through more screens, endless fucking screens and computer bullshit, to find our mate. “There. Fuck, she’s driving fast. Where does this lead? She’s going west”

“Okay, well, we need to go west, too.” Grey shot up out of his seat. “She’s out there. I’m not about to⁠—”

I didn’t listen to any more. I was moving before I could think or speak. Rowan was out there, and we could get to her. But… my father. He was near. He was right fucking there, and I wasn’t going to let him get away with it again. He’d fucked with Tanner again, threatened his family again, and Rowan had run. She’d run away because that man had ordered her death and the death of the Alphas around me.

No more.

“Where are you going?!” Orsen called out, several pairs of footsteps loudly following me.

“I’m going to kill him,” I snarled, not looking back.

“Fuck.” It was all I heard from Nix, and then the clinic was hurtling past me, as I bolted across the lawn to my father’s cabin.

“Where the fuck is he?!” My growl shook the empty cabin. My father was nowhere to be seen, and I raced through the space, turning over everything I could get my hands on like I’d find him squatting under the furniture, a roach infesting this horde.

“He left in a hurry. Look.” Grey was near the dresser, nodding at it as Orsen came in from the bathroom. “Still plenty of clothes, but no sign of his phone or keys.”

Orsen cursed, kicking the dresser, sending it screeching across the floor. “He must’ve… Fuck. Do you think he went after her?”

“Has anyone got eyes on Tanner?” Grey asked, shooting a look between us.

He was going to die as well, but I wasn’t as concerned with his fate at that moment. If the video made one thing clear, it was that he wasn’t going to repeat his mistakes of the past.

My father, on the other hand, definitely wanted to.

I knew that man. There was no changing his mind once he’d set it on something. And worse than being stubborn, he was entitled and self-centered.

“He went after her. I’m sure of it.” I nodded once, swallowing down the rising need to roar until my lungs gave out. “We need to move. They don’t have that much of a head start. We can⁠—”

Thundering steps approaching caught our attention, stopping me as the scent of panic rushed into the room.

“Alpha Orsen! Alpha Bastian! Help!” The voice was young. Panicked.

We looked at each other for a moment before moving as one toward the door.

Kieran, the young dragon who had been training to do patrols, was sprinting up the path to my father’s cabin. His face was deathly white, his eyes wide. The color had drained from the guy’s face, and he was shaking even as he ran up to us, near collapsing when he reached us.

“Kieran, what happened?” I questioned; my voice gruff.

“Oh God, Bastian. I… Something’s happened at the den. Something bad.”

Rowan

“Iheard we had a visitor,” a soft voice said when I padded out of my room.

I had collapsed into bed, wearing an old T-shirt and a pair of sleep shorts Ash had found in the back of my SUV and brought to me. They smelled musty and old, but they were the best I had. I’m sure I looked a mess, but I didn’t have it in me to care.