Females in our world didn’t feel the same kind of Linking Connection as the males did. But even that couldn’t make me feel sympathy for Luca, not in the state he was in. He was batshit crazy, too far over the edge of sanity. I couldn’t trust him to be gentle with my sister.
Mate or not, I had no doubt his need for her, the animalistic tendencies he’d housed for far too long, could quite possibly hurt her.
I knocked on the door and said softly, “Leelee?” I felt like an asshole, my aggression higher than I’d ever felt it before because of the situation. I needed to be gentler with her, not so gruff and rough.
Although she was half-Lycan and had grown up watching all of us roughhouse constantly, I still saw her as my baby sister, someone too precious to see the ugliness of the world.
I always would.
There was no answer, and I closed my eyes and exhaled. I knocked again. “Leelee, come on. Please doona be upset.” Still no answer. I rested my forehead against the door and exhaled. Our lives had changed so drastically. Da and Mam were up to their necks in stress and worry, and the aggression from my brothers and me was so intense I was choking on it.
I should’ve turned around and gone back to my room, given her space and privacy, but I felt this tightening in the back of my neck, this tingling on my skin. I straightened as I felt my wolf rising up. No matter how mad she was at me, she’d never shut me out like this before.
Then again, no one had ever tried to keep her from her mate.
I curled my hand around the doorknob, feeling all kinds of shitty because I was about to burst into her room. But then I twisted the handle and opened her door.
The first thing I saw was her made bed. The next thing I noticed was the small table off to the side that still held the tray of untouched food and the full glass of blood I’d brought in earlier.
I felt my brows pull down low as I opened the door even more, the wood banging against the wall. I turned my attention to the opposite side of the room where her vanity was, expecting to see her sitting on the little bench in front of it, glaring at me.
Empty.
I stepped inside and looked all around the room.
“Ainslee?” I said her name loud enough that even if she were in the bathroom, she'd be able to hear me.
Silence.
I found myself striding to the bathroom, the door already open, the light off. I knew she wasn’t inside before I even opened the door fully and turned on the light.
Empty.
My heart started beating harder as panic seized me.
She isn’t in her room.
So? She could be somewhere else, unable tae sleep, so she’s walking around the estate.
But panic kept rising, increasing with every passing second. I looked toward her window, shaking my head, because there was absolutely no fucking way she would have went against what we’d said, and gone to him.
There was no fucking way she’d been able to get past the sentries.
But as I tried to convince myself she was still in the estate, on the property, the more I knew she was out there with that bastard.
Gods.
I clutched my chest, picking at the material of my shirt as I started to hyperventilate.
She’d gone out there to him. She’d left the house, because we’d suffocated her. This was our fault, and if she was hurt because of me, I’d never forgive myself. None of us would.
It was time to get my brothers and Da. It was time to go over that gate, hunt Luca down, and pray like hell he hadn’t devoured her.
This wasn’t just a battle we were going into.
It was a war.
8
Darragh
“Motherfucker,” I cursed to no one, and despite being alone in the middle of nowhere, I felt my face heat at the profanity.
I knew I was lost an hour ago—well, way before that—but I’d been in denial. And I was really in bad shape now that the sun had set and I was in the scary-ass woods with nothing but all the things that went bump in the night surrounding me.
I was completely turned around, had no idea what direction my rental car was in, and I felt panic settle in so strongly that I was starting to really get scared I’d never get out of these woods.
I stopped in the center of the forest and closed my eyes, breathing, trying in vain to get my shit together.
It wasn’t helping, not with the creepy-ass sounds that surrounded me, not with the fact that the sun had set hours before, and especially not with the shadows that made it seem like there were creatures lurking behind the trees.