Her Brother, Her Mate

Mitch POV

She’s not here. She’s not in the f*****g resort and I can’t feel her through the bond at all.

I came rushing out of the coffee shop when I heard cars screeching to a halt and honking outside, thinking there was some kind of accident. People were crowding around the front doors, watching the mayhem, gasping and muttering. My mind was lost in the chaos for several seconds before I realized Hadley wasn’t sitting on the lounge chair outside of the coffee shop any longer.

She was gone. I forgot about the accident and started racing around the resort, hunting for her, trying to follow her scent. Her scent led me right back to the front doors where all the chaos was taking place, but she wasn’t there either.

“Jenny!” George calls out, distracting me for a moment. Jenny was a bloody mess, lying in the right lane on the side of the road. She had duct tape around her hands and feet, and was wearing nothing but an old, ratty t-shirt. Her body was cut up and bruised, her face tear-stained and bleeding.

What happened? George is checking her body while the other valets are holding off traffic. I’m standing there like an i***t, stunned, my mind trying to process what was happening, desperate to find my mate.

My phone vibrating in my pocket is what breaks me from my delirium.

Mark. Mark is calling me. Did he get back early? Is our mate with him?

“Hello?” my frantic voice shakes with unease.

“What happened? Where is she?”

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“Hadley? Where is she? I can’t feel her bond. Is she with you?” I stood silent, trying to comprehend what he was asking me. “I can’t f*****g feel her, Mitch! Where is our mate?!”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, “I don’t know. I can’t find her.”

“You can’t f*****g find her?!” he snarls, “Why isn’t she with you?!”

“She was. I was just getting coffee and when I turned around she was gone.”

“Mitchel!” Dad yelled to me, surprising me that he was outside in this mess. Does he have Hadley? He has to. She can’t be gone. She can’t be. He is crouching down next to Jenny on the road. Jenny is moving her head back and forth, tears pouring from her eyes, muttering nonsense. I ran over to him, still holding the phone to my ear. “They took her. They took Hadley,” he tells me urgently.

Mark started snarling and growling in my ear. Our worst nightmare had come true.

Hadley POV

My head is pounding, my ears beating along with each beat of my heart. My mind is in a fog as I struggle to open my eyes, my lids feeling weighed down as I try to force them open.

“Oh good, you’re up,” Zeki says from somewhere past the fog. “About time.”

I finally tore past the seal on my eyes, my eyelashes feeling like they were coated thickly with crust. I looked around the dingy room. It looks like some old, falling-down cabin, the sound of wildlife and gurgling water outside the open window makes me believe we are in the swamp somewhere. I can’t be sure, as it is nighttime now. The humidity is still thick in the air, and beads of sweat are forming on the back of my neck and against the skin that is being restrained against an old wooden chair.

“Is that little b***h awake now?” Fadel’s voice drifts towards me, fear and dread settling in the pit of my stomach.

Fadel never spoke to me like that. He was always overly sweet, telling me to call him uncle, showering me with gifts, showing his adoration at all times for the woman he deemed his future daughter-in-law. He called me dear, or honey. He never called me a bitch.

He comes into my hazy line of sight, a scowl set deeply on his face as he slowly walks towards me. He stops, just a foot in front of me, his nostrils flaring for several seconds before he backhands me so hard, me and the chair that I’m tied to fall to the side as a cry leaves me at his unexpected slap.

“Do you have any idea how much s**t you put us through, you ungrateful little b***h? You f*****g w***e. Like mother, like daughter, isn’t that right, Zachary?”

I look behind him and see my father leaning against the wall, his face stone and arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t respond, just continuing to stare me down.

“If my brilliant son hadn’t thought about snagging that little tart, do you know what we would have to do to get to you? Do you think you are worth taking on an entire pack of werewolves and Micah Meyers with all his allies backing him? You ungrateful b***h. You are not worthy of a man as great as my son, yet you choose to run from him? From us? You are our property. OURS!” he screamed, his spit flying down onto my face.

“Now we can’t even get a flight out of this horrible city. Your little wolf friends are guarding the airport like the dogs they are. We can’t even leave this f*****g shack because of the road blocks they set up at every intersection looking for you,” he kicks his foot right into my stomach, making me cry out as the wind leaves me, bile rising up my throat. “YOU ARE f*****g NOTHING! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A MAGIC SIPHONING w***e! YOU HAD NO RIGHT!”

He goes to kick me again, but Zeki stops him. “If you want me to f**k her, stop making her ugly and bruised. I don’t want to f**k a corpse, father.”

“You’re right. You are right, my sweet boy,” Fadel pants, tampering down his anger.

“You told me that you would have him marry her before he siphoned from her,” my father furrows his brows at Fadel and his sick son. “You said you would allow her to keep her honor and your son would do right by her. I can understand the need to punish her for running away, but you can not allow your son to rape my daughter. You promised he would marry her first and make her his wife.”

“You should not have allowed your daughter to run out on my son, Zachary. And what honor? She has no honor. She gave that up to a couple of mutts. She is nothing more than a b***h now, and my son has a right to f**k her like the b***h she is for the crimes she committed against him. No, I will not make my son marry her in her worthless state. She will lead a life like her mother, and then I may not discard of her if she behaves after the next seer is born.”

My father pushes himself off the wall, “You said-”

“I said to guard her, and protect her honor for my son. You are the one who broke your covenant, not me. She is to be a mistress and nothing more. I will allow her the right to gift our next leader the power he needs to take his rightful place, and when it is time, Zeki will choose a worthy right-hand man to impregnate her so she can carry the bloodline on for his children. If you have a problem with that, you shouldn’t have allowed your wife and daughter to deceive you.”

My father was breathing heavily, staring at Fadel for several more seconds before turning his gaze on me. Affliction and rage played back and forth on his face looking down at me. He almost looked regretful. Almost.

“As you wish, Fadel,” he mumbles, bowing his head slightly and taking his place back on the wall, his face rigged and arms crossed and flexed over his chest.

“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding. I would hate to lose you as my right-hand after all these years, Zachary. As a favor to you, I will have my son wait until we are back in New York so you do not need to hear or witness the act.”

“You are kind,” father barely kept the sneer from his voice.

“My mates will come for me,” I murmured.

“What was that?” Zeki leans down to pick me and the chair I’m in up, righting it on the floor.

“My mates will come for me. Can you and your father handle a set of hybrid Gemini twins? Because they will find me, and then they will kill both of you.”

This time, it is Zeki who slaps me, making me fall once again.

“YOU LIE! THERE ARE NO GEMINI TWINS IN EXISTENCE RIGHT NOW!”

Fadel shakes his head at me in disbelief. “If there were a set of Gemini twins, all of witch kind would know. They would-”

“Be too powerful to hide? Not if they had the help of a fairy queen and first generation vampire. Micah bound their magic until they found me,” I sneered, ignoring the pain in my face and abdomen from their abuse, “The seer you have been so desperate to get back has been fueling their magic for over a week now. I am their mate. They will find me. It is only a matter of time.”

“Lies! No way. There is no way,” Fadel was shaking his head in total skepticism.

Just then, wolves howling can be heard outside, making me smirk while all three of them look out the window in terror.

“I told you. You’re screwed now.”