Forsaken by E. M. Moore

17

“Ican’t believe we’re on house arrest,” Trish whines as she plonks down on the couch, arms outstretched over the cushions. “And then there were three...prisoners.”

“Wake up. We’ve always been prisoners,” Nathan deadpans. He’s not taking any of this well.

As for me, I’m happy that at least Sean can’t get me in here. Plus, I’m distracted, wondering what’s going to happen to Robbie. I wish he would’ve said something. I wish he would’ve reached out.

I understand why he didn’t, though. They isolate us at Greystone, even to everyone else there. They make us all enemies, so that if we even have a thought that is outside the norm, we think we can’t say it. If he’d said he didn’t want a mate to the wrong person, they would’ve turned him in.

I glance over at Nathan and thank the shifter universe for him. I’ve always been able to say anything I wanted in front of him and we both just got it.

Running my hands through my hair, I sigh. “What do you think they’ll do to him?”

I’m met with two very pointed stares, but Trish speaks first. “Well, he’s not sticking around, that’s for sure. He basically just gave Shifter Basics 101 the middle finger. We all should want to mate. We should want to get down and dirty and create all those shifter pups everyone wants.”

I laugh. Not because it’s funny, but because we live in a topsy-turvy world. “Has anyone thought of the injustice of all this? Our mates can send us to Greystone Academy because we’re rejects, but we can’t run away?”

“The pack is the highest power,” Nathan muses. “He didn’t just say fuck you to his mate, he said it to the pack. It’s okay if they do it to us, but not the other way around.”

“Talk like that will get you exiled,” Trish says in a playfully threatening way. I warn Nathan with my eyes not to go too off the rails. At this point, he’s the only shifter I trust. Anything we say could be used against us, especially in times like this.

And personally, I don’t need another strike against me. I already have a detonator ticking over my shoulder.

“I need a shower,” I grumble. “Come get me if anything else happens.”

Without looking at either of them, I head up the stairs and escape to my room. I start the shower and stare at myself in the mirror. There’s a fist strangling my heart right now. It’s been that way since they informed us of Robbie’s escape attempt. I don’t know what he thought he would do away from all of this, but I understand his reasoning. I’ve wanted to do it several times myself.

I carefully peel off the bandage, and my lip curls up at the angry red line down my leg. It’s crooked and sloppy and stings like a bitch under the shower spray.

Despite that, I stay under the showerhead for a long time, letting the dirt run away. I clean my body again and again, stopping myself before I go in for a fourth round. It feels as if I need to undo the events of the last eight hours or so: Sean kidnapping me, making me into some magical experiment; poor Robbie being so desperate he thought his only option would be to run away. Even though death likely awaited him while he was all by himself, it’ll be worse now. He’ll get publicly humiliated, then cast out, then die a slow death away from the rest of his pack.

When I’m finished, I dress myself in the Greystone Academy uniform again. No doubt the security staff are going to be in and out all day, so we’ll want to act like we’re sticking to their rules. I throw on a little makeup and decide to let my hair dry naturally. All in all, when I’m done, I feel more myself. The effects of the drugs seem to finally be out of my system, and the thought of sleeping from now to eternity doesn’t consume me.

Just as I finish, a ring comes from downstairs that sounds mysteriously like an old-school telephone. I stride toward the door and pull it open right as Trish calls out from below, “Mia! Phone for you!”

Surprise ricochets through me. The only person I can imagine it will be is one of the security guys forgetting that he wanted to ask me another question. I grab the Band-Aids I found in the bathroom drawer and head downstairs.

Trish grins, offering me the receiver. “It’s your mate.”

I glare at the phone. He has balls to be calling me right now. I grip the island as it dawns on me that we’re stuck in here, so there’s no way Nathan or I can go looking for my phone to see if we even have a good recording of what happened.

As I take the black receiver and hold it to my ear, a trickle of awareness tells me Nathan is nearby. “Hello?”

“Mia.”

“Sean,” I state, letting my anger seep into my voice.

“Are you okay?”

“Really? We’re going to play that game?”

The line is silent for a moment. “I just wanted to know if that wolf hurt you.”

“The way I saw it, they saved me.”

I tap my foot as I wait to see what he comes out with next. His response surprises me. “We’re eating dinner at your parents’ house tonight. I’ve arranged it with them.”

I blink. “Excuse me, what?”

“You’re only allowed off alpha grounds with your mate or a chaperone. After they brought Ventura back kicking and screaming, you wouldn’t want anyone to think you were disobeying your mate, would you?”

My fingers curl into my palms, turning sharp as my wolf threatens to come out, and I know I’ve pierced skin. What Nathan and I didn’t want to happen is now happening. I’ll have to be alone with Sean. Inside, I sense my wolf raising her head like she’s not about to bow down to a fight. He got her with the drugs before, but we can safely say we’re not going to take anything he gives us again. “What time should I be ready?”

“Oh, about an hour.”

I open my mouth to agree, but he’s already hung up the phone. I strangle the life out of the receiver before calmly placing it back on the base and then take deep breaths before allowing myself to turn and face the other two. Nathan is so attuned to me that I’m sure he knows something is wrong, but Trish should know nothing. “So, here’s some news.” I cross my arms over my chest. “We’re allowed to leave with our mates or with a chaperone. That’s it.”

“So, you’re going somewhere with Sean?”

I don’t look at Nathan while I answer. “Before this, we had plans for dinner at my parents’ place. I guess I can still go.”

She pouts. “I wonder how long this will last. Who knows if my mate will even want to see me? He probably thinks I’ll bail like Robbie.” Luckily, she lets out an exasperated breath and runs up the stairs. With just Nathan and me, we don’t have to pretend.

“If her mate was worth anything, he would contact her before she does what Robbie did,” I mutter.

Nathan still hasn’t said a word, so I slowly move my gaze to him. He has a death grip on the stool pulled up to the island. It’s the same chair Sean sat in yesterday.

I lower my voice. “He said if I didn’t want to be seen as another Robbie, I had to go.”

The chair groans under his attention. There’s so much pressure on the wood that it might snap. “He has us by the balls. You couldn’t say no.”

I want to call him out for the balls remark, but as a metaphor, he’s right. I’m stuck. “At least it’s at my parents’ house,” I offer. “They’re upset, but they wouldn’t let anything happen to me.” I think.

Well, I guess I’ll find out, anyway.

“I need to get you a phone,” Nathan rumbles. “You can’t go there with zero way of communicating with me if you need it.”

“I doubt the alpha cares that I need a phone.”

The doorbell rings, and Nathan nearly drops into a defensive stance. I place my hand on his arm to settle him. As I walk closer, I can see the faint feathering of long hair cascading over a woman’s shoulders. The door blocks her from full view, but at least it isn’t more security personnel. I pull the door open, and my jaw drops. “Holy shit.”

Kinsey laughs. Her big mate, Jonah, stands behind her like he’s her own personal bodyguard. “Well, that’s quite a welcome.”

I throw my arms around her, sticking my face in her auburn hair. She squeezes me in return. I haven’t seen her since she left, and it’s been too long.

“I texted you this morning, but you didn’t write me back,” she playfully scolds as she steps backward.

I rake my gaze over her bright expression. Being free suits her. “I lost my phone.”

She drops her head. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” I grumble. If she only knew how I did it…. Her open face makes me want to spill everything. From the very first moment she got to Greystone, I knew we were going to be great friends, and I also know she had her own issues with the mate laws.

As I mull that over, she says, “Jonah had to come here on business because of the Winter Solstice coming up, and then we heard about the wolf who tried to escape, which clued me in to the fact that you were here. You should’ve told me you were coming.”

Duh. Of course Jonah would be traveling to Daybreak. As part of his alpha’s security, it would only make sense that he would join them.

Kinsey glances past me and waves at Nathan. “Hey,” she greets brightly.

“Hey,” he states, and I can tell he’s trying to put effort into welcoming her, but there’s just so much shit going on.

“Sorry, a lot is happening,” I tell her.

Kinsey glances between the two of us. “I figured. That’s why I made Jonah take a break so we could visit you guys. You must be devastated.”

I peer at Jonah. I’ve only met him a couple of times, and the last time I saw him, he nearly took Nathan’s head off because he happened to be sitting on Kinsey’s bed. Obviously, the possessive mate thing was in full swing, so it was no one’s fault, but I also don’t know if I can trust him enough to mention something against mate law.

Kinsey recognizes my hesitation. “Let’s go for a walk. I hear you’re on house arrest.”

“Unless my mate gets me or a chaperone.”

“Well, call me a chaperone, then.”

“Kinsey,” Jonah warns.

“We’ll just walk around the house. No big deal,” she explains, tapping her huge shifter’s chest.

He bends to her will, and I totally love it. He’s so big and burly, but anyone can see what a soft spot he has for her.

Kinsey hooks her arm with mine, and we turn toward the door when she says, “You too, Nathan. Don’t you want to catch up with an old friend?”

What Nathan needs is a padded room that he can go crazy in. Tear shit up. Hit stuff. Yell into a void. We don’t have any of that here.

My stomach tightens in knots as we start a slow walk, skirting the forest. Jonah gives the three of us privacy, but he doesn’t actually leave us alone. After a while, Kinsey says, “Listen, I only had Jonah stay back since it looked like you guys were wary of him. He’s on Team Rejected Mate. Trust me. He gets it.”

I make Kinsey stop. I’m so full of pent-up bullshit that I have to get it out. I was there for Kinsey when she talked about Jonah, and I’ve missed that connection between the two of us.

“Alright, spill,” she demands when she sees my face.

“Everything’s so fucked,” I tell her.

“Mia,” Nathan warns, nearly echoing Jonah’s earlier caution.

“She can trust me,” Kinsey retorts, glaring at him. “And you can, too. You know it.” She lowers her voice. “I heard they’re going to punish Robbie. It’s bullshit.”

I wish that was the only thing I had to worry about. I run my hands through my hair. Jonah is respectfully keeping his distance, but I’m pretty sure if he wanted to overhear us, he could. “It’s so much more than that, Kinsey. Lydia Greystone decided to put a time limit on how much longer I’ll be welcome at Greystone. I have eight days to get my mate back or I’m going Feral.”

Bless her heart, her mouth drops, then it turns into a snarl that instantly gets Jonah’s attention.

He’s prowling toward us when I say, “And he kidnapped me last night to try to sever our bond magically.”

“The fuck?”

Yeah. My sentiments exactly.