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Tears of heartache and frustration and emotions I couldn’t even recognize streamed down my cheeks. I could be brave for Bishop, and I could hold out until Knox apologized for hurting me, but I was always going to be broken. Always.
The sudden need to escape crashed over me. It consumed every other thought and feeling, propelling me into a wild run out the Residence’s gates, through Old Town’s narrow winding streets, and out into the newer part of Stonehaven. I ran and ran and ran as if I could run away from the hurt and fear and shame inside me.
As if I could run away from who I was and become someone else.
I ran until I was straining for breath, covered in sweat, and my whole body trembled from exertion, and then I sagged against an alley wall damp with morning dew.
The wildness still churned inside me, desperate to escape, furious at being trapped, the emotions so strong they felt like they belonged to someone else. Weak little Audrey would never feel anything so deeply. She’d never scream and run like a mad woman.
But maybe that was what I was now. A mad woman. Maybe I’d finally lost it, my soul broken, just like my father’s. Just like my nightmares had whispered to me.
I raked my hands through my hair, pushing it away from my face, and sucked in deep breaths, determined to steady myself.
Each inhalation hurt my chest, the pressure and unease still clawing inside me, and the urge to run still made me twitch, but both sensations started feeling foreign as if they weren’t mine as if they belonged to—
Knox.
My pulse stuttered. The need to escape and the blinding white rage were Knox’s emotions, and they were fueling my own insecurities.
Something was happening with him, something that was making him feel so strongly he was influencing my emotions through our mating bond.
I pressed my hands over my chest as if that would somehow focus my connection on our bond. I needed to distance myself from him and regain control. It was bad enough he could physically control me with his alpha power. Now he could make me feel things I wasn’t really feeling through our bond.
But the second I thought that, I knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose. He was in trouble and the only way to stop the onslaught of unwanted emotions was to help him. Now. Now now now.
Except I had no idea where he was.
Hell, I didn’t even know whereIwas.
I hurried out of the alley and looked down the street. From the street’s width and the large stone paving tiles, as well as the smaller brick on the two- and three-story buildings on either side, I had to be in a newer part of town.
I didn’t recognize any of the buildings and from where I stood I couldn’t see the Old Town wall. There were about a dozen people on the street. Most were carrying bags and heading somewhere — off to work maybe? — while a few were setting out sandwich boards and turning on lights in the nearby stores.
From the angle of the shadows and the mountains looming to my right, I guessed I was facing southeast, and since I couldn’t see Old Town, that meant it was behind me. But when I turned to head the other way and return to the Residence, the pressure of Knox’s emotions surged, stealing my breath and filling me with a desperate urgency.
I jerked back to the southeast and the pressure turned into a sharp pull, yanking me forward a few steps before I realized what I was doing.
I hadn’t been running blindly through town. Knox’s emotions were pulling me to him… because he needed me. Whether he knew it or not, his overwhelming emotions were a call for help. One that, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t deny.
I took off, letting the pull lead me down the street. The path drew up close to the mountainside before opening into an enormous courtyard blocked in by the mountain and two-story buildings on either side.
Pillars had been carved into the side of the mountain framing half a dozen large openings and the pull led me through the closest one into a dimly lit hall. The pressure surged again and I ran down the hall, faster and faster. The rage that had consumed me earlier threatened to take over and I knew if I didn’t get to Knox soon, I’d lose myself to it again.
Knox was inside and the sense of urgency squeezed tighter.
I bolted down the hall. Large faintly glowing stones placed every twenty feet along the wall at head-height offered barely enough illumination for me to see with my practically-human vision, but it was enough to keep from tripping and to spot the tunnel leading deeper into the mountain.
This way. Hurry. Hurry. Run. Fight. Kill.
More light, brighter than what was in the hall, shone from the end of the tunnel, and I raced toward it, straight to a closed metal gate.
Shit.
I grabbed the cold bars and heaved, but the gate wouldn’t budge. It was locked.
No!I had to keep going. It was the only way to stop the emotional onslaught before it took over again.
Beyond the gate lay an arena lit well enough to see everything in the center, but not so bright it was blinding. It had been built in an enormous cavern in the heart of the mountain and had a polished stone floor, a wall about a foot taller than me surrounding the “field,” and two dozen rows of bench seating surrounding it.
