Crossed Fates by Lexi C. Foss

Makayla

What a weird dream.

It started with being injected with silver and ended with Alaric going into full alpha mode in my mind. My wolf purred at the memory, pleased with his behavior.

I almost shook my head in disgust, when a prickle to my conscious held me still.

Wait…

The skin around my wrist burned. My mind also felt a bit sluggish, my thoughts not fully connecting. But it was right there. A hint of truth. Reality. The facts of what had happened.

Taken.

Poisoned.

Trap.

Betrayed.

The sequence of events slammed into me beneath angry blows from a consciousness that mingled with mine. Alaric.

He growled in response, his wolf highly agitated.

I nearly blinked, but again that prickle held me captive. Some part of me aware that I shouldn’t move. No, not me. You. What are you doing?

Keeping you safe,Alaric snarled. Don’t let them know you’re awake.

My lips threatened to curl down, but that wave of dominance forced me to remain unmoving.

Normally, it would piss me off to be controlled in such a way. But in this moment, I rather appreciated it. Because I needed his presence to mask my physical reactions to my waking state.

Confusion, frustration, and pain rippled through me. It was enough to make me want to gasp, but I swallowed it. No, I didn’t even do that. I just… exhaled. Softly. As though lost to slumber while those around me waited.

I sensed them now.

A hybrid and a shifter.

Where are you?I asked Alaric.

In a room near yours, he replied, his tone irritated. Bortex used some sort of sonar tech to disable me and the others. Bastard tossed me on a table and clamped me with silver. He has me watching a screen, waiting for you to wake up so he can start his trial.

Again my lips threatened to curl down, but this time I stopped them before his compulsion kicked in. I desperately grasped for my last real memory, then realized… it was all real. I hadn’t been dreaming, just lost to a delirious state of recovery while his strength and our connection saved me from certain death.

Shit, I breathed in my mind. Shit. Shit. Shit.

I sorted through everything we’d exchanged, all the information he’d provided along the way.

Paul was a traitor. Bortex wanted Jude and had set all this in motion as a trap. Then, upon learning about my unique mental connection to Alaric, he had decided to test how deep our link went by poisoning me and sending his best men out to take all of them down at some predetermined rendezvous point.

How did you find me?I wondered.

Hardt. He tracked the fir trees and swamp, then Jude did a search on the local properties.

Some of that sounded familiar, like he’d mentioned it before. Paul didn’t help at all?

No. Had no idea he was involved until he killed Steve.

Yeah, I had a memory of that, too. You went all, like, Hulk smash on the soldiers. That was the part of my dream I’d enjoyed, listening to him kick ass.

But now he was caught.

And everyone was waiting for me to wake up.

To start a new trial.

Where’s everyone else?I asked, but even as I thought it, I felt the answer.

Because I was just as connected to Alaric’s pack as I was to him.

Oh.

Our mating link had granted me access to the hive mind via him. Or maybe… it was the other way around. Regardless, I was firmly embedded in his pack now. I couldn’t even sense Nathan or my home realm.

My heart skipped a beat, my breath threatening to halt in my lungs.

But Alaric’s dominance took over, forcing me to relax.

I could fight him. I might even win. However, I allowed his compulsion, needing him to ground me before I lost my ever-loving shit. Never in my wildest imagination could I have come up with this possibility. But now that it stood before me, I had no choice but to accept it.

He was my true mate.

The other half of my soul.

I’d… accepted it before. But not quite.

Not until he’d plowed down all my walls and forced me to acknowledge his spirit as mine.

I couldn’t even hate him for it. Because he’d done it with the best intentions, saving my life, and now… now I was still strapped to a chair with him in another room, and wasting precious time overthinking a connection I never had a choice in ignoring.

Walking away from him now would kill us both.

I had no idea how we’d progressed this far in such a small amount of time, but fighting it would only hurt us both.

And I very much wanted to survive this situation.

I also wanted to kill Bortex and the vamp who had spiked my blood with silver.

My resolve settled, my mind focusing on the task at hand, and I felt more than heard Alaric’s approval.

Good to have you back, Mak, he said. Now, how the hell are we getting out of this mess?

Are you still disabled?I asked.

Not exactly.His mental voice wavered just enough for me to sense his depleting energy.

Oh, hell…He’d been focusing the last vestiges of his strength on holding me still… while a machine fucking bled him. Alaric!

Priorities, sweetheart,he whispered. The pack’s bolstering me, something Bortex realized when my father passed out in the other room. Some of his ire traveled through those words.

How long was I out of it?

Long enough,he muttered. But you’re fully restored now, and that’s what matters. Now help me figure out a way to survive.

I didn’t reply right away, my mind processing the location of the others first. Everyone was still alive and in this wing, including Savannah. She appeared to be the most damaged, her mental waves altered by whatever the machines were doing to her.

But Hawk, Hardt, Timothy, and Gregory were all unconscious.

They willingly gave me their energy first so I wouldn’t absorb any from you,Alaric explained before I could ask how I’d been protected from his need.

Where’s Jude?

In my room,he growled. They’re trying to torture information about E.V.I.E. out of him while making me watch. So far, he’s refused to speak, which is only making Bortex’s man get more creative. He started with fists. Now he’s crushing fingers.

Wolf, hybrid, or vampire?I asked, trying to focus on information and not the image of what was happening to Jude.

Vamp in a suit.

Cuntcake, I guessed. Goes by Todd.

Yeah,he agreed.

Then Bendy and HJ must be in my cell.Or at least nearby. Because I could smell them. We need a distraction so I can free myself from these cuffs. I couldn’t exactly break my thumbs and wiggle myself free while they watched. It’d give away my conscious state.

Not sure I can do that,he admitted, his tone holding a note of lethargy. Bortex is too close.

Have you notified the pack to send reinforcements?I asked.

Yeah… but I have my strongest men here. I told Rick to reach out to E.V.I.E. for backup.

And? I prompted.

And they’re on their way, but it’s a four-hour drive. It only took Bortex thirty minutes to knock out my wolves on-site. I can feel them falling back at main camp now, Mak. I… I can’t keep… pulling their energy.

His hesitation pierced my heart.

Because I understood.

It was him… or them. And an alpha would always choose his pack’s safety over his own.

Shit, I thought, my mind whirring as I fought for an escape route. We definitely needed a distraction, but how could we create one if we were both strapped to chairs? Bortex is waiting to see how long it takes for you to start siphoning energy from me, isn’t he?

Yes, I think so.

Then maybe we need to give him what he wants?I suggested. It’ll distract him from torturing Jude and maybe prolong our stay long enough for reinforcements to arrive?

I’m not fucking taking energy from you after I just brought you back, he snapped.

If I hadn’t been trying to remain utterly still, I would have rolled my eyes. I didn’t mean for you to actually do it. I know how to play the part of a damsel, Alaric. I can put on one hell of a show and really draw it out.

That might encourage him to torture me more, just to test the impact on you,he replied.

True. But I can take…I trailed off as a tapping sound started, the echo one that seemed to make everyone still in the room.

Even Alaric fell silent, his mind assessing.

The rhythmic tick continued in the same pattern.

I focused on it, repeating it in my mind.

Single tap. Single tap. Single tap. Single tap. Single tap. Pause.

Long tap. Long tap. Pause. Single tap. Single tap. Pause. Long tap. Single tap.

Long tap. Long tap. Pause.

Long tap. Single tap. Single tap. Single tap.

Single. Single. Single. Single. Single.

Long. Long.

Single. Single.

Long. Single.

Long. Long.

Long. Single. Single. Single.

Five minutes,I translated, recognizing the Morse code on its third round. Nathan’s here.

What? Alaric had recognized the Morse code as well, translating it in time with me. I don’t get the last set. MB?

Madam Bishop. My old code name from my KBO days. Nathan is obsessed with chess. He gives all his agents code names based on pieces and locations of those pieces. I’m Madam Bishop because I have a tendency to shift diagonally in a case.It was his way of calling me unpredictable and also lent to a joke about distance when I’d told him I wanted to go freelance and cross realms. He’s here, Alaric. I had no idea how, but I felt it within my bones that my alpha had come to help me.

Bortex hears it, Alaric said. He just asked Todd to go check it out.

Distraction it is, I decided, releasing a scream as I pretended to wake up. Gotta give them five minutes.

I sure as fuck hope you’re right, Alaric replied as he released a bellow of his own.

Me, too,I thought. Me, too.