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The shattering of glass struck fear through her whole body, but by then, she had already swung open the heavy metal door and pulled it closed behind her.Faintly, she could hear the pounding, and as she backed away to stare at the inside of the closed door, she could see it shake with his rage. Running down the stairs to the next safety door, she punched in the code one more time and pushed through to the underground training area. Downstairs, she sat on the bottom step and dropped her head into her hands.
It was several moments before she stopped panicking and looked over at the silver bracelet. There were no tricks to it. It was a simple clasping bracelet, and she had it off in seconds.
“Travis? Where are you?”She couldn’t keep the fear from her voice, and she knew she was trembling.
“At the gym. We found your Jeep, but we can’t find you or him. The gym door is shattered. Where are you?”
“I tricked him, and I locked myself downstairs. I’m okay. I’m okay. Just find him.”
‘I’m okay’ played on repeat in her mind, over and over. She didn’t know how long had passed, but she kept her eyes squeezed shut and focused on getting her heart to slow down. Eventually, Beta Nicholas reached out.
“Bailey? Let us in. Travis is here, and I’ve got warriors searching the grounds for him. I need to make sure you’re okay.”
Shakily, she climbed back up the stairs and punched in the code. She knew she was safe, but she could barely bring herself to open the heavy safety door. There was never a day in her life that she thought she would be so happy to see Travis, but the second his boyish face appeared in the crack of the door, she fell into his arms.
Gripping around his waist, she held onto him for dear life. “I’ve never wanted to kiss you as much as I do right now. Please tell me you found him.”
“Not yet.”
She pulled away from him, but grabbed his hand tightly, refusing to leave his side. Beta Nicholas stood in the shattered doorway, barking orders, staring out into the night air. He clearly was linking different people, and he started pacing before he noticed she was standing there.
“Can you give me a description? Which direction he might have gone?”
“Same as before. He wore a beanie and a black mask. Graying black hair. But he was behind me the whole time in my backseat. Held a… held a knife to my throat and put this bracelet on me.”
She had pulled off her cami from under her sweatshirt and wrapped the silver bracelet with it. It was still a little draining that close to her, but without directly touching her skin, she was gaining back her strength quickly.Nicholas took the wad of material from her, poking at the silver bracelet, but there wasn’t much to see.
She took it back, determined to keep it for some reason. “And no, the last time I saw him, he was trying to shatter the glass right as it closed behind me, so I didn’t stop to ask him where he was headed.”
Nicholas paused, turning towards her, and the ominous look on his face softened. “I’m sorry. I know it was scary. You did great. This was a smart thing to do. Is there anything else he said that you might think is important?”
She shook her head. “He kept saying that it was my destiny to come back with him. He wanted me to drive out of the pack and keep going until he told me to stop.”
“I bet he had a different vehicle outside the borders.”
“Yeah, I’ve sent a scouting group out. But there’s no scent again. So, he’s going to be hard to track.”
“You’re saying he could still be hanging out, hiding in the dark, waiting for me to be alone again?”
He didn’t answer, and Travis squeezed her hand while they waited for him to give them an update. But when he pulled out his phone to make a phone call, her stomach clenched. He could mindlink anyone in the pack borders. There would only be one person he would call on the phone.
“Please don’t call Ava. There’s nothing she can do this far away, and I don’t want to ruin her vacation.”
He paused, looking up at her. “She would want to know what’s going on.”
“No, she said call her if we need her. We don’t need her. There’s nothing she can do from across the country.”
He sighed, taking off the reading glasses that were perched on his nose. “I have to figure out how he got past the wards, where he is, and how to keep you safe. At this point, he knows where you live. He has to. Though I have no clue how.”
Her mind jumped to her parents, asleep in their bed. “My parents—”
“They’re okay. I linked them, and they are on their way here to get you. I’ll have several warriors camped outside your house, but I want you to stay somewhere else. Just in case.”
“I could go over to Rathlin. The witches could keep me safe.”
“If he can get through our wards, then he can get through theirs. He has no scent, and he’s clearly using magic. I know they can fend off magic, but you also can’t communicate with them like you can here. Without the mindlink, we wouldn’t have known. That puts you at a greater risk than here with shifters protecting you.”
“You and your parents can come stay in the packhouse for now, and we will keep your house under watch. Maybe he will come back, and we will catch him in the act.”
