Page 21 of Freed

Maddox turns to us as he speaks. “Hunter, get her out of here. She doesn’t need to see this.” Hunter places a hand on the back of my head as he moves back to the door, and I hear Maddox instructing the others. “You four go with them, protect Cherry while we finish up here. Blaze is still out there somewhere.”

I tilt my head, peeking over Hunter’s shoulder as I see the new guys following us, their faces filled with anger and tension. Are they mad that they had to come here to help rescue me?

As we walk down the hall, the one with white hair sees me looking at him, and the tension instantly drops from his face as he beams at me, waving a little manically as he greets me. “Hi! I’m Casper. You’re Cherry, right?”

I give a little nod, which he returns enthusiastically. “That’s a cool name. I like cherries. But I think I like bananas better. Do you know anyone named banana?”

Frowning in confusion, I shake my head, and his shoulders deflate a little, like he really hoped I did.

“That’s too bad. That would be a cool name.”

“Seriously?” Alaric asks, raising an eyebrow at him. “You think banana is a cool name?”

“Sure! It’s a fun word to say. Ban-an-a,” Casper says, sounding out each syllable slowly.

“We can call you that from now on, if you’d like?” Finn says from where he’s walking in front of us.

“Nah. That’d be weird.” Alaric shakes his head at him as we enter the stairwell and slowly make our way up.

“I can walk,” I tell Hunter, feeling bad that he’s been carrying me all this time.

He makes a noise that’s half laugh, half scoff. “There is no way I’m setting you down, baby girl. I might never let you go again.”

I turn my head so it’s facing his neck and place a small kiss there. “I love you, Hunter. I missed you so much.”

As we emerge at the top of the stairs, he holds me a little tighter. “I love you, Cherry. I’m so so⁠—”

“Please don't apologize,” I say, cutting him off. “I can’t take another unwarranted apology.”

“Unwarranted?” he asks. “Cherry, you were taken right in front of me, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

“He used a scent blocker, and he was using magic to help hide himself. There’s nothing you could have done.”

“I refuse to believe that,” he tells me sternly as we enter a foyer.

“Give me a moment to make sure the coast is clear,” Finn says before pulling a door open and vanishing in a blur of movement. Some light floods in when the door is opened, and I realize this is the exit.

I glance over Hunter’s shoulder at the door we just came through as I ask him, “What are the others doing?”

He’s silent for a moment before he asks, “Do you really want to know?”

I think about it for a second before I answer. “Yes.”

“They’re going to kill them, after they get a good dose of payback.”

“Payback?”

“Baby, those men hurt you. For years. Who knows how many other people they’ve hurt too. Especially that doctor.” He clutches me a little harder as he explains, “He’s mortal, so they can’t put him through everything he did to you, but they can certainly try.”

I should probably be upset, knowing my other mates were down there, hurting and killing all those men. But I’m not. They deserve everything that my mates feel they do, and probably more. Especially Dr. J. I’ll be glad to know he’s finally dead. I’ll never have to think of him again.

An image of the blood stain left behind from Blaze flashes in my mind. He’s still alive. With Dr. J out of the way, will he leave me alone, thinking he can’t force the bond?

“Does that upset you?” Hunter asks. I pull back a little to look at his face in question, forgetting what we were talking about. “You’re shaking,” he says, running his hand up and down my back. “Does knowing your mates are hurting the guards and the doctor upset you?”

I shake my head. “It’s not that.”

“Then what plagues you, baby girl?”