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The voice on the other end was distant and tinny from across the room, but Robb recognized it immediately – and it took his breath away.

Tahnee.

Robb had no idea how Hargreaves knew that they had a connection, but it was clear as day. They’d both been lured to the alley together, and now Hargreaves were trying to get Tahnee to come to Robb once more. Why, he could only begin to imagine – but he didn’t plan on hanging around to find out.

He thrashed about against the tape and yelled as loudly as he could, but he might as well have been on Mars, for all the good it was doing. Even the dingo’s fury wasn’t enough to do anything except tip his whole chair over, and he found himself tumbling painfully to the floor once again.

Tahnee, he tried to warn her through the bond. Don’t listen to him. Please. Stay safe right where you are.

“Tahnee?” said Bruce, and Robb suddenly found himself in the very, very strange situation of lying on his side and watching a medium-sized bird talking into a smartphone while perfectly imitating his voice. “It’s me – it’s Robb.”

Next to Bruce, Anne caught Robb’s eye and smiled her terrible smile.

A horrible sick feeling swept over him. Somehow everything had gotten even worse than he could’ve possibly imagined.

On the table, the lyrebird’s expression – somehow – grew serious. Clearly it took its task extremely seriously.

“We need to talk,” it said into the phone, still mimicking Robb’s voice perfectly.

Robb helplessly watched the scene unfolding before him, unable to do much except do his best to send vibes of stay the hell away from here in Tahnee’s general direction.

There will be a way to resolve this situation, he told himself fiercely. There’s always a way.

But I’ll be damned if I know what it is.

Chapter 11

Okay, there is definitely something wrong here.

Tahnee had felt the first signs a couple of hours ago – a flash of fear and confusion out of nowhere that had pulled her up short, leaving her gasping.

It had been the kind of thing that would’ve had her thinking she was having some kind of completely random panic attack, except that she knew that wasn’t the case. That kind of thing had never happened to her before, after all, and it seemed a little too convenient that she would have her first panic attack right after she’d brushed the cobwebs off her mate bond.

Or, well, a little more than that…

But the feeling had disappeared as quickly as it had washed over her in the first place, and she’d just been left with a distinct uneasiness that she couldn’t shake.

She’d retreated to her shack at the very edge of the land the sanctuary stood on, hoping that it would bring her a sense of peace – but instead she was just pacing back and forth on the tiny verandah, unable to keep still, a sense of urgency impelling her to do something, anything.

But what?

A voice in her head whispered that maybe the wave of fear had been Robb’s final moments, and that she wasn’t feeling him anymore because he was dead – but she shoved the thought out of her mind immediately, with a horrified shudder that felt like a bucket of ice water being tipped over her head.

She would’ve known if he was dead. The bond might still have been a bit rusty, but she had no doubt in her mind that she would’ve felt it if Robb had died.

Of course I would know. I’m sure I’d know. I just would.

She had to believe it. She had no other choice.

The brolga, for its part, was agitated and flighty, flapping about and telling her to get her arse in gear and find out what was happening… and Tahnee had to admit that she was inclined to agree.

Robb was probably fine, she told herself. The weird feeling had been nothing – or rather, it was probably because of the uncertainty she felt about literally everything just now, Robb included. It wasn’t anything to get herself worked up over.

But she knew she wasn’t even convincing herself with that kind of talk. The only way she’d accept that the strange, terrifying sensation really had been nothing was going and seeing Robb with her own eyes and knowing he was completely fine.

Was she still pissed off at him? Absolutely. But you couldn’t build a perfect relationship on a mystical predestined bond and one night of truly spectacular fucking, after all. There were bound to be speedbumps on the road to lifelong bliss.

Ordinarily, she would have been way too stubborn to be the one to break first and call him, or go turn up at his office, or whatever it was she planned on doing to verify that her sudden wash of sensation had been nothing but her own imagination.