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*****
*Corey*
“I can’t believe we just killed them all, I thought we went there to talk out some kind of solution –” Sean was saying.
“We tried that, it didn’t work. Why are you even worried about this? Their packs have no leadership now and have realised they cannot win; we don’t have to worry about them anymore.” I said before letting out a sigh as I ran my hand through my hair nervously.
My phone was dead, as was Sean’s, we had just gotten off our flight back home and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Surprisingly, Sean had the exact same feeling so we were rushing to get back.
“We need to get to a phone,” he said walking by me. We walked through the airport and found some telephone booths. “You do it,” he handed me the phone. I gave him a questioning stare before chuckling in realisation.
“Izzy’s still mad at you?” I asked.
“I don’t know how to deal with her sometimes, I’ve said sorry, and Ashton loves his arm brace… He won’t even take it off now even though he’s healed.” I laughed dialling Jayden’s number. It barely had a chance to ring before it was answered. “Babe, we’re back.” I smiled almost forgetting about his worrying in the last call; I was just excited to hear his voice again, “You answered so fast, is everything alright?”
“Hey.” My smile fell and Sean raised his brows at me as Carrie’s voice came through the phone. I frowned having not expected to hear her voice, but I was too disappointed by the fact that it wasn’t Jayden’s to care about what she’d done and be angry about it again.
“Where’s Jayden? Why did you have his phone?”
“Is-is that Corey?” I heard Izabella, she sounded afraid and it made me realise there was buzzing activity and other voices around them.
“Give the phone to Izabella.” I heard shuffling and was glad Carrie hadn’t argued, “Why does she have Jayden’s phone and why is there so much noise over there? Did you guys make Jayden have a party at our house or something?” I asked frowning. Though Jayden was a lot more people-friendly than he used to be, he hated pack gatherings and parties that weren’t small and I hated how uncomfortable those situations made him so tried to keep it at the bare minimum.
“We’re at Inferno, Corey. We’ve been trying to reach you guys. There-there was no attack, it blew up half the pack houses, I don’t know how the bombs got there and we –” she was saying.
“Is everyone alright? Casualties?” I cut her off looking at Sean; his face was a mixture of shock and anger.
“We don’t know yet. Kaden’s gone over there with some of our Deltas and soldiers to check it out. Corey, how quickly can you guys get here?” she asked.
“It’s a ten minute run for us,” Sean replied.
“You didn’t answer my question, why does Carrie have Jayden’s phone? Where is he?” I asked.
“Ten minutes. I love you guys.” She hung up.
I glared at the phone as I put it down, worst-case scenarios instantly filling my mind. Why didn’t she answer the question?
—–
I hurriedly walked into the Inferno packhouse with Sean right by my side matching my urgent pace. We exchanged glances deciding to find our Deltas first and find out what the hell happened, though I was going to check Jayden’s old room to find my mate first but before I could even step forward before someone stopped me.
“Corey –” I looked down surprised as Jayden’s mother’s arms locked around my neck tightly.
I dropped my bags and hugged her back quickly. My mind raced with questions because of how she hugged me. Was she sniffing? Had she been crying? What the hell was going on?
“What’s going on?” Sean asked as he spotted Izabella. I frowned at her over Jayden’ mother’s head and her face got more afraid making my heart stop. The explosions…
“I told you –” she began but I shook my head.
“No, wait. Stop.” I said, “Where-where is he? Where are they?!” I cut her off as my eyes ran over the room and my sense of smell heightened to try and sniff my mate out. He should have been the first to greet me, he would have been if he was there. Jayden would never let anyone besides our kids greet me before he had after a trip. I looked at Izabella feeling my stomach turn, “Where is he, Izabella? Where is Jayden?” I asked stepping closer to her once Jayden’s mother let me go.
She swallowed. “I… Tamia got to the chamber because Jay said she should leave, but Eli wouldn’t and we waited for them, but they never came –” she was saying.
“Stop talking, Izabella.” Her stalling was making me more aggravated, more panicked with the seconds that slipped by, “I need a straight answer from you right now. Where is he? And if my daughter got to the chamber alone, where the hell is my son?” I asked.
“Eli’s upstairs with Tamia… but…” she paused and I shook my head. He couldn’t have gotten caught up in the explosion, I would have felt it as soon as he died, he wasn’t dead, could not be. I would have been able to feel it if he was. “…we don’t know where Jayden is, Corey.”
I was quiet for a few seconds trying to process her words and understand what was happening. My chest felt tight and my stomach was knotted but I couldn’t react.
“Eli was with him, right? What… what did Eli say?” I asked blinking to try and clear my mind and keeping my voice calm because I knew very well that wherever my children were, they could hear me. I didn’t want to sound worried or panicked because they were probably already afraid.
“Nothing, we found him passed out and his leg was – is broken. He’s been awake for hours, but he won’t say a word to anyone.” Izabella said.
I nodded and jogged past her and up the stairs. I sniffed and followed my kids’ scents to Jayden’s old room. We usually slept in it when we visited Inferno, the twins would sleep in the room across the hall but they must have felt more comfortable in Jayden’s at the moment. I pushed the door open and saw Tamia and Eli both awake, just sitting on the bed. They appeared to have been linking to each other. They looked at me and Tamia immediately ran over. I gave a weak smile as I caught her in my arms and held her tightly. I missed holding her so much despite having only been gone for a couple of days.
“D-daddy’s gone –” Tamia let out a sob as she buried her face in my neck.
I tightened my grip on her and walked over to the bed before sitting down with her on my lap and stroking her hair. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I knew it was not and I could not find it in me to lie about that, I could not say it was okay out loud when I knew it was not… But that was what they needed to hear… I would have to say it. It did not seem real, I was trying to process it without completely panicking. My mind felt clouded.
“What happened?” I asked softly.
“He was arguing… with-with Carrie and something blew up.” She said.
“Then we ran outside and Daddy told us to go, but I didn’t. These two guys showed up, one said he was his dad…” I looked at Eli, “Uh… he-he called the wolf… um… Mike, I didn’t see his face, he broke my leg tacking me and then the other guy began hitting Daddy.” Eli’s lip quivered as he looked down. “I-I couldn’t shift or move, I didn’t help him.” His voice cracked as he whispered softly.
I frowned.
“It’s not your place to protect everyone yet, Eli. You’re too young for that. You should have listened to him.” I said.
His glistening blue eyes moved to mine.
“I could have helped, Papa. I am – I was supposed to be strong a-and now daddy…” He drifted, “I was supposed to be strong. Like – like Alpha Sean… like you.” I felt my heart clench at the tears in his eyes.
We should not have put that much pressure on him. He may be a future Alpha but he was only seven. He needed to know he didn’t have to pretend to be like us, he needed to be a child, he needed to be protected, not to protect anyone. I let Tamia wiggle from my arms and crawl over to her brother. He looked ashamed as she hugged him.
“I’m sorry, Papa…” His voice cracked in a whisper.
“Eli, no. No.” I shook my head as I reached out and hugged him, “You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“But I –” he let out a sob.
“You did nothing, Eli. You shouldn’t even have been there; you did more than enough trying to help. The next time we tell you to leave, you listen, alright?” He didn’t respond, just avoided my eyes. I held back a sigh as I leaned down and kissed his forehead, “Daddy’s definitely alright. We’ll have him back soon, he can take care of himself and I’ll find him. I promise everything’s okay.” I didn’t believe any of the words leaving my mouth but they would and that was all I needed. “He will be here really soon, I’ll find him,” I said.
“You promise?” I didn’t hesitate to give a nod before I bit my lip leaning my chin on Tamia’s head as Eli buried his face in my chest, still sniffling. I was terrified on the inside, I was suffocating because I had tried to feel Jayden’s pull but it quickly became clear that someone was using magic to block us from each other so I had no idea of knowing where he was, but I looked calm and they were doing okay.
I sat with the twins until they both fell asleep before I tucked them into bed. Once sure that they were okay, I made my way down the stairs; the house was fairly silent as it was late at night. There were some voices coming from the living room and kitchen, so to avoid having to walk by them to head outside, I walked into Kaden’s office and shut the door running my eyes over the room to make sure it was empty before I locked the door and leaned my back against it.
I planned to take a moment to gather myself before heading to Sean and the deltas to discuss things but instead, I felt a strained, panicked sob rip through my chest. I felt my shoulders shake as I began sobbing more despite trying to control it and lifted my hands to grip my head tightly.
Why had we left? I shouldn’t have left. We knew they would attack as soon as we did! I shouldn’t have left him alone after he’d told me about his ‘hallucinations’, shouldn’t have gone to that meeting after he called me. Now he was alone with the two people that had absolutely broken him and I had no way of finding him quickly.
I shuddered thinking about what they would do to him, could already be doing to him. Without the pull, I couldn’t find him… What if I never found him? What if he was already dead and I just could not feel it because I was being blocked from him?
I felt my body weaken, my legs buckling at the thought to send me falling onto the floor and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to look strong through this, I knew there was no way I was going to hide how I felt around the twins – or anyone for that matter. I could not act like a beta at the moment.
I needed to find him. I needed him to be okay, to be safe with me before I broke. How the hell was I supposed to stay strong enough to find him when he wasn’t with me?
*****
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