Page 82 of Fated to Her

“Addie, run!” she screams before I hear flesh on flesh. I’m frozen in place by the sound of her voice.

“Taylor…” I murmur into the darkness, trying to see a silhouette, a shadow—or anything—as I listen carefully to gauge her whereabouts.

“You didn’t think I would expect you to come willingly, did you? I knew you would attempt to run. So I brought your sister with me,” Sam’s voice says from the darkness.

A hand grasps my arm, Sam ripping me toward him. He sniffs the air then growls.

“Now, that will be a problem,” he says.

I feel for my sister, her shaking hands clutching mine in the darkness.

“We need to get that thing out of you, Ada,” Sam growls, but I’m too busy checking if my sister is intact as I slide my hands up her arms, to make certain she’s okay.

“Maya and Mom?” I ask her, a sob choking me.

“At home. He took me from work; he can’t get to them. There are too many hunters watching the house, and Pete has been staying there,” she cries. It’s then I realize it was her voice I’d heard screaming, not my mother’s. She clutches me to her before stepping back.

“You know?” I ask her. Obviously, she does now, but for how long has she known about everything? Cyrus took her memory.

“Mom told me, and I started to remember everything once she did. Pete gave me some stuff to rid the compulsion from Cyrus,” she tells me. She tugs me back with shaky hands, then she gasps, her body touching my bump. Her hands rub it, her voice stutters, and she lets out a choked sob.

“You’re pregnant?” she says. I can hear the shock in her voice. I didn’t want to tell her over the phone.

“This is lovely and all but start moving, or I kill her, Ada. And fast before your mates find us,” Sam says, shoving me forward.

I don’t move, and Sam does something that makes my sister scream.

“Stop, stop! I’ll go. Please, just let her go, Sam. She has nothing to do with this.”

“Not until we are back at the car, then I’ll dump her. So move, or I kill her. You are bleeding everywhere, Ada, and I need to get that baby out before it kills you.”

Sam grips my arm, marching me through the forest, and I stumble around blindly as he tugs me with him.

Chapter 20

• Cyrus •

I wake up in a cold sweat, panic gripping me when Addie’s thoughts are no longer invading my sleep. Instead, I only see darkness, making me sit upright. I can usually hear her even when she’s asleep, and I like watching her dreams. But now I feel cold for some reason. I feel for her; she isn’t beside me. Peering over the top of Eli, I see she also isn’t beside him. I shake him, and my heart races just as the door bursts open.

Eli jumps at the bang of it hitting the wall. The light flicks on, and a panicked Maverick storms in, wearing only his checkered boxer shorts.

“I fell asleep. I fell asleep,” he says in a panic.

“Huh?” Eli asked, bolting upright, flicking the lamp on, and rubbing his eyes. “Addie, she didn’t come back from the bathroom.” Then he rushes out.

“What?” I ask, jumping to my feet.

“She went to the bathroom. I tried staying awake, but I dozed off. Before realizing it, I couldn’t smell her scent. I checked the bathroom. She isn’t in there.”

“You let her go by herself?” Eli roars, jumping from the bed along with me.

“She told me to wait inside.”

Eli is out the door in a blur, and so am I as I chase after him. He stops outside in the fields, and I feel for the bond, looking for a direction and finding myself pulled toward the solar panels in the fields off to the side of the village.

I stare in the direction I’m being pulled. Dread consumes me, and I gulp; she’s in the forest, and that means Sam’s got to her. By the feel of her, she is a far distance already. I know she won’t go into the woods by herself willingly; he must have used something to get her to comply.

Maverick comes over, screaming for everyone to get up. Men rush from the cottages, shifting and stripping their clothes off. Growls sound around the village as it comes alive, lights turning on as people step out of their homes.