AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gavin glanced at Kira, and I was sure he was going to protest about being taken from her. But surprising me yet again, he lowered his gaze and followed the man helping J.D. limp down the corridor.
Crew, still casting desperately confused glances at Chelsey, led the way along with Eli and Zoe. Taking in more of the compound, I grew more impressed with what I was seeing. If Crew had really done all this, even with the help of a fae weapon, then he was very focused and able to command the respect of everyone here. It wasn’t just that Haven was well-thought-out and organized, it was that it feltsafe. My wolf relaxed as it became more and more clear that we—and most importantly, Kira—would be safe here.
The meeting hall Zoe had mentioned was a natural cave with multiple corridors leading off it. We approached a table with mismatched chairs around it. Crew and his people were scavengers, by the looks of it. Rather than a general’s ready room, it looked more like a humble dining room than anything else.
Chelsey was no longer looking at Crew the way she had before. In fact, she kept her head down, trying not to look at him.
Thankfully, Crew managed to pull his attention from Chelsey long enough to address the rest of us. “Can anyone tell us what exactly went down at the mansion? All we know is that some of our scouts saw a chopper take off like a bat out of hell, and then the wards went down a few minutes later. The place is infested now. Dead bodies everywhere.”
Kira cleared her throat and gave Crew a quick run-down. Mika had apparently told them what he knew, but he hadn’t known everything. Crew and Eli listened intently as Kira recounted the meeting with the showrunners, her suspicion that the fated-mate pairings weren’t working, our plan to take down the show, and everything that happened the evening before.
“Von drugged me,” Kira went on. “I came across the substance in my time as TO. It forces you into a heat. Not any regular heat, either. Imagine the most painful and indescribably powerful desire you’ve ever felt. The alphas all reacted to it, Wyatt worst of all. He ripped Von’s throat out when he got between us.”
“No shit?” Zoe said with a gasp, turning to look at me with what I thought was admiration. All I could do was shrug.
“That gave me an opening,” Kira said. “All the staff members were too scared to interfere, so I made an appeal on camera. We were live, which means I basically told the whole world the show was corrupt, the fated-mate pairings weren’t accurate, the whole nine yards. It was dumb; I wish I’d had more time to plan what I was going to say. It was probably pointless and ended up getting us all in trouble.” She looked more tired than I’d ever seen her.
“That’s not entirely accurate,” I said. “Your speech was amazing. You’re underselling yourself, Kira.”
“It really wasn’t anything special. Just the facts.”
“You also helped get most of us out of the mansion alive, you stood up for us when no one else would, you led us through the jungle to get here. I could go on,” I said.
Kira grinned and shoved me. “Okay, enough.”
I grabbed her hand and held it. Kira’s face went red and she tried to pull away. The public display of affection obviously made her uncomfortable, but Zoe had already noticed it.
“Aww, you guys,” Zoe said, putting her hands to her face. “Did you both finally pull your heads out of your asses? I’ve thought for years that you two would make thecutestcouple.”
“Zoe, shut up,” Kira growled, looking around at all the others watching us. “We have more important things to talk about.”
She smacked my hand away playfully, but I still felt smug. I agreed with Zoe, and the way Kira blushed only made me feel better about the whole situation. We might have been stuck on a dangerous island, but I’d finally gotten the girl. Now, we just had to stay alive long enough to enjoy it.
“Anyway,” Kira said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “It looks like the reason the show shut down is because war broke out back on the mainland.”
“Really?” Mika asked. “War?”
Kira nodded. “That’s what one of the security guys told me—full-scale war. Apparently, it’s really bad.”
Crew and Eli shared a worried look, while Zoe and Mika looked solemn.
“We’ve done okay here, but still don’t have much true technology,” Crew said. “All we have are some magic users. We can’t make contact with the outside world, so this is all news to us. All very bad news.”
“WithoutThe Reject Project’s presence on the island,” Eli said, “Simon will have free rein to hunt for his experiments. He has no reason to hide now. He can send his abominations out day or night to look for us and drag us back to his laboratory. He has to suspect we’re somewhere on the island. The only thing that ever hindered him was the worry that the show’s team would sniff him out.”
There was that name again: Simon. Kira had mentioned him before. It was odd to me that this guy could be living here without anyone knowing. Bloodstone Island held many more secrets and horrors than I’d ever thought possible. It filled me with a sense of foreboding that our seemingly safe place could already be in danger. Having Kira be in perpetual danger all the time had grown old.
“Who is this Simon guy?” I asked. “I keep hearing this name in passing. Is there really some mad scientist living on this island? What’s the plan to deal with him?”
Crew shared another look with Eli, then sighed. “We don’t know a lot about him. All we know is that he’s been on the island for several years. With you mentioning war, it makes me think things with him will start to escalate.”
Kira frowned, showing the same confusion I felt. I held up a hand for Crew to stop. “Wait, why would war on the mainland have anything to do with him?”
“You want to say it?” Crew asked Eli.
The fallen angel shook her head. “You go ahead.”
“Fine,” Crew said. He cleared his throat and took a second to think before answering. “I’m positive the war will impact him because I have a theory that Simon was sent here on purpose. He’s doing horrifying experiments, warping science and magic together to create biological weapons. Drugs, monsters, anything and everything that you can think of. My theory is that someone is funding his work. There’s no other way to explain the level of equipment he has. He’s also never been seen searching for food or anything else. To get all of that onto this island without being noticed takes someone powerful. I think Simon is in that person’s pocket.”
