Page 14 of Binding His Fated Mates

At my bald admission, Daniel blinked, darting a startled look between Hunter and me.

Emotions chased each other across his face—surprise, confusion, hope—before he tamped it all down.

He’d tried to talk to us about the mate dreams. Several times, in fact. We’d completely iced him out of anything resembling an actual conversation. About six months in, he’d stopped trying.

And yeah, it wasn’t the most emotionally mature thing either of us had ever done, but we’d both still been reeling from having been split into two people, becoming wolves against our will, suddenly having to fight monsters for a living, losing our human lives, and discovering that the guy we’d loved for most of our lives had been keeping a huge life-altering secret from us the entire time. We hadn’t been ready to talk about any of it then.

But I was ready now, even if my twin wasn’t.

“You’re not eating,” Daniel said, glancing at Hunter.

“I’m not hungry.”

“I’m sitting down,” Lacey said, approaching our table. She put her plate down on the table and slid into the seat beside Hunter, across from Daniel and me.

“Hiya, Lacey,” I greeted her. Unlike Hunter, I didn’t mind her. I was glad Daniel had her friendship, in fact.

“Lee,” she said, nodding at me. The expression she wore was cheerful, but I suspected that was mostly for Daniel’s benefit. The dangerous look in her eyes was anything but cheery. It darkened fractionally when it landed on my other half. “And Hunter.”

He shot her a look of open dislike. “Welcome to our table, Lacey. Don’t mind the fact that no one wants you here.”

“Daniel wants me here,” Lacey said, with narrowed eyes.

“Please, both of you, just stop,” Daniel said, rubbing his temples. “I can and will cast a silencing spell.”

Hunter’s gaze flicked up at that and his whole expression enlivened. “Speaking of magic—”

And that was when my head split open.

The mess hall was still there: the comforting hum of conversation between pack members in other parts of the room, the smell of bacon and coffee.

Hunter was speaking, and whatever he’d said had caused Lacey to bristle. Daniel was still seated beside me, frozen and unhappy.

But I couldn’t follow any of their words, because suddenly, layered on top of all of that was something else: another reality I was living in parallel. A terrible one.

A sudden streak of something pale and metallic, a blur of deadly motion I caught out of the corner of my eye, hurtling through the air at tremendous speed. I turned, much too slow, and saw that it was aimed directly at Daniel’s head.

A split second later, before I could act, it hit him.

Daniel’s body jerked and his eyes went wide with surprise. Then the light drained out of them all at once, and he collapsed face-first, motionless. Blood poured from his head, pooling onto the wooden table.

Buried in his forehead was something narrow and silver.

And my mate was gone.

I let out a strangled sound of horror and absolute denial.

Then I blinked. The parallel reality vanished.

It hadn’t happened.

Yet.

My brain processed that even as I flew into motion.

I grabbed Daniel and hauled him sideways off the bench, where we hit the floor together.

An instant later, there was a whirring noise above us. It was followed by a loud thunk that silenced the entire room.