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*Corey*
“If it becomes too much, if you feel…” I was staring at Marcus as he spoke but found myself barely hearing a word he was saying because all I wanted him to do was stop talking and get started.
My hands were sweating, my head a mess of thoughts, while my heart raced in anticipation. I needed him back. I needed him back today.
“Corey, listen to me, damnit!” I blinked as Marcus shook me by my shoulders and looked up at him. His eyes burnt back into mine, so intense they were turning black as if he was about to shift. I furrowed my brows questioningly and he gave a frustrated breath through his nose. “If, at any moment, you feel like you’re going to pass out, if the pain becomes too much to handle, don’t push it. Tell me. We will figure something else out, but you need to stay alive for us to find him.” He said.
I nodded, though half of what he said had already been forgotten because I was mostly just blankly watching his narrowed eyes. It was this or nothing. I wasn’t going to waste any more time.
I knew Jayden was still alive, but I also knew how his mind worked. They had definitely gotten to him by now. He probably thought I wasn’t coming, probably had it in his head he did not deserve to be helped, he probably cared more about the fact that I wasn’t there to see him get hurt again than about whether he would be alright, he was probably grateful about it. I had no doubt he had given up… even if he had tried not to, he was easy to break. No matter how strong he had gotten, he was still very vulnerable and easy to break. They knew that, they would be messing with his head… and everything else…
“Corey, concentrate.” Sean’s hand smacked my back lightly, snapping me from my thoughts.
Right.
“Alright.” I took in a deep breath trying to ground and calm myself. That was my game plan: stop worrying about him long enough to find him, then worry some more.
My kids were with my and Jay’s mothers. I was happy to see the twins talking, even though it was just one-word answers to anyone but me. When they spoke to me, they usually ended up in tears, and I had to force myself to look strong for their sake. I hated how everything was affecting them, another reason Jayden had to be back urgently; it was killing our kids that he was not back yet.
“Alright, focus on him, but don’t focus on worry, just finding him,” Marcus instructed.
I nodded sighing as I shut my eyes and focused on my mate, letting Marcus’s voice drift from my focus as he began to mutter the spell. The first thing in my mind was Jayden’s fearful face and it immediately began to make me worry so I pushed that memory away fast and thought about his smile instead, and then his laugh. I felt myself smile as I played over his laughter, the innocent face he would make when he fed our kids treats that he knew I would not be happy about because he knew it was bad for them, the annoyed look on his face when I was being ‘too rough’ with our kids and the sometimes dumbfounded way he stared at me when he thought I was being surprisingly stupid. The last one almost made me laugh despite what was going on.
My heart began to pick up, in adrenaline caused by feeling him and also painfully hammering against my chest because I knew he was so far away.
I let out a gasp as a massive shock suddenly pierced through my head igniting a terrible pain throughout it.
“Corey?” Sean spoke.
I lifted my hands to my head, squeezing from either side. It felt like my brain was about to explode, and it got worse when a terrible screeching started up that I was sure was coming from inside.
But with all of that pain came our pull, and though I could barely feel it, it was enough to keep me from telling Marcus to end the spell.
“Marcus, stop –” I heard Zeke.
“No!” I hissed out at them, keeping my eyes shut as I tried to focus on where Jayden was despite all the other distractions in my mind. Our pull was not strong enough yet, but it felt like it was strengthening. The noise and pain got worse as Marcus continued the spell, but my connection to Jayden built with each second as well. If I could just keep going, I was sure I’d find his exact location soon.
“Marcus, stop. Stop it!” I barely heard Hayley’s shout through the noise in my head.
“No! I’m almost –” I let out a pained shout when it felt like parts of veins were popping and the screeching echoed louder. I was dizzy and very nauseous but refused to let it stop.
“Corey – Stop – Marc!” Izabella sounded so worried I felt so bad, but brushed it off and tried to focus only on Jayden.
His pull almost felt normal but I felt like I was going to pass out and did not know if I would wake up. If it was that bad, but I could find him, I could tell them where he was before I died and they could find him. They would save him.
My breath caught as his scent hit my nose before my skin suddenly felt hot, scorching hot.
“Fuck, stop!” Sean broke in, “Marcus, that’s a command.”
The noise instantly went silent. Everything was gone.
I coughed beginning to fall but felt someone catch me. The noise had ended so fast, it left my ears ringing. I shoved away from Sean despite still being horribly dizzy and stumbled to my feet before leaning my hands onto my knees as I tried not to throw up or pass out while regaining my balance. I was still coughing, the gross iron taste of blood at the back of my throat as each cough caused my head to continue aching.
“I’m sorry.” Marcus’s voice came.
“Corey?” Hayley’s gentle voice asked as she hesitantly stepped up to me. I didn’t look at anyone, just covered my face with the towel she handed me as I continued to cough my lungs out into it.
Sean cleared his throat when no one but me had made a sound for a while. “Corey, I had to stop –” he began.
“Fuck you,” I muttered into the towel before drawing it away from my face, black stars danced around in front of my eyes but I could see the towel covered in blood before I threw it aside, too angry to care about where the blood was coming from. As I looked at Sean, it took every bit of the very little energy I had left not to launch at him and instead just shout, “FUCK YOU! What gives you the right?! If you were me, you would never have stopped! When it was Izzy, you never quit!”
“You can’t just risk dying like that. It’s not the same. We have responsibilities now –” He was saying but was cut off by my fist slamming to his face as I no longer tried to stop myself. I heard everyone around us gasp as he stumbled, almost falling over because of the impact. Hitting him felt good and I wanted to do it again, the only thing stopping me was seeing Izabella’s shock and concern-filled eyes as she stared at her mate.
“Fuck you. Fuck responsibility.” I hissed. I was sick of being a Beta.
He was quiet as he looked back at me before turning to walk across the room. I swallowed following his movements, watching as he picked up a chair and threw it at me. I caught it effortlessly even though I was worn out and tired.
“Go ahead.” He said motioning to the chair in my hands. I furrowed my brows. He was giving me permission to lash out. In front of everyone? All our Deltas? ‘Go ahead, Beta. Do what you want to do to me.’
I stared at Sean for a second before giving a breath of disbelief. I was angry, but not enough to further assault him. Still, I wanted to hit something so instead of attacking him, I slammed the chair into the ground. It let out a loud crack as it broke, sending splinters flying everywhere.
“What-what are you doing?” Izabella looked at her mate as Sean grabbed another chair. He didn’t reply and just threw it at me. I repeated the process.
We did that four times before I looked at him expectantly when another chair was not immediately thrown at me, it was helping me calm down but I needed more.
“Nope.” He shook his head, “In case you forgot, these chairs cost money, Corey. Also, this is not our property…” He said giving Kaden an awkwardly apologetic smile. I felt my jaw clench but before I could react, someone spoke up.
“Got it.” I turned to Erik who was seated at the table far across the gym with his laptop in front of him, Marcus was right beside him grinning widely.
“Found him?” Sean asked.
Erik nodded giving me a smile.
What?
“Sean was keeping you from lashing out on us while we tracked Jayden’s pull. We only needed you to try to find him long enough for us to take over; I was afraid Sean cut it too soon, but it worked.” Marcus gave Sean a thumbs up.
I lifted my eyebrows utterly confused.
“What?” I finally voiced my thoughts.
“We found Jay, Beta.” Erik smiled turning his computer around, “Pin-pointed to his exact coordinates.”
—–
*Jayden*
~~
“Daddy?” Tamia’s voice made me look up as she walked into my room hugging her teddy against her stomach.
“Princess,” I replied.
“I had a nightmare…” I frowned, “I can’t sleep.” She whispered, her grip on the stuffed brown bear tightening.
“Me neither.” I smiled, “Come on.” I climbed out of bed slowly, trying my best not to wake Corey as his sleeping habits had never changed. He was still an incredibly light sleeper and barely got any sleep so I did not want to interrupt it.
I took hold of Tamia’s hand before leading her downstairs to the kitchen.
“Want some ice cream?” The question was spoken in a whisper as I ignored the part of me that knew Corey would be pissed to see me feed our four-year-old little girl ice cream at three in the morning.
But come on, neither of us could sleep.
“Yeah.” She whispered excitedly. Yes, we had done this enough times for her to know not to shout in excitement or her Papa would ruin our morning treat moment.
I chuckled grabbing two bowls and filling each with ice cream, topping it with chocolate sauce and some sprinkles. Might as well go all out, right?
I sat down and watched my baby girl grab a spoon for each of us before she climbed into her seat beside me.
We ate some ice cream and I grinned while spending the next few minutes watching her mess her face up with ice cream as we played around. It was so cute – until she began coughing. It was not a simple cough to clear her throat, it continued.
“Tammy –” I got up as her spoon dropped from her hand.
The coughing became more intense until I saw blood splatter onto her ice cream and instantly began to panic.
“Corey!” I shouted grabbing her. “Corey!” I repeated despite hearing him stumble downstairs.
“What?! Tammy?!” He rushed over to us and grabbed her face causing her to cough onto him, he instantly let out a hiss as her blood burned into the skin on his bare chest. “Shit, shit! It’s wolfsbane, Jay, it’s wolfsbane. How –?” he cried desperately.
I turned to grab a glass of water but stopped when Corey began to cough too. It made me attempt to rush over to grab Tamia from his arms but I froze seeing Eli stumble into the kitchen coughing as well.
“D-Daddy, my thro – my throat’s burning –” he tried to speak between his coughing.
I didn’t know what to do, who to attend to first as panic rose through me. I was so scared, so confused.
I let out a shout when Eli suddenly fell but Corey followed, falling with Tamia in his arms almost immediately afterwards and as I attempted to step towards them, they all suddenly burst out into flames, their pained, horrifying screaming filling the kitchen –
~~
I woke myself screaming at the burning against my skin and heard Mike chuckle as he put the jar aside.
“I love waking you.” He smirked.
I clenched my teeth trying to stop screaming as my eyes stung, my skin flaming as it tried to heal against water that was not letting that happen. I couldn’t take it anymore, everything hurt and their constant tormenting was making it so much worse. They would not even let me sleep for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I was exhausted, and screaming wasn’t helping my situation but it was all I could do, the only way I could react or try to ease the pain.
Movement from Mike sitting down beside me automatically made me want to back away but I could not find the strength to move so just stared at him through my barely open eyes.
“Look at you, Jay. This could have been so much different if you had just kept your mouth shut back then.” He leaned down and brushed his lips against my forehead, I tilted my head away feeling disgust and terror twist in my stomach. “We could have been having fun.” He chuckled.
I shut my eyes trying to forget that he was so close to me, trying to forget about how much every single part of me hurt. I would rather it continue until my death than even think about what he was talking about, though.
“Just kill me,” I muttered.
*****
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