Chapter 104 - Reece-Everyone Finds Out About The Mate Mark
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Reece
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I found myself standing outside the farmhouse again. I didn't need to approach it, and I didn't need to search the house. But I did notice a lot more footprints and scuff marks than I did last time, that was definitely note worthy.
I sprinted to the cellar doors and threw them open. Running down them as fast as I could, I didn't care if I fell, dream or not. I needed to see my mate, my Little Bunny.
Once again when I got to the bottom of the stairs I only saw her and no one else. She was tied to the chair this time, her hands and feet unable to move. Her head was tied back so she could only look up at the ceiling. She was blindfolded and her nose had been taped shut. Her face was flushed but her complexion looked more pale than usual underneath the blush of her cheeks. It was an ashen gray color and not her usual milky white glow.
I watched as a rag seemed to magically appear in her mouth as someone laughed near her. I guessed that someone had shoved it into her mouth, but as I couldn't see them I didn't see the act of them shoving it into her mouth. Then a piece of tape appeared over her mouth, holding the rag in place. She was unable to move at all, not her arms, legs, head, nothing, so she could not squirm at all. Instead I watched as her face became redder and redder.
I ran to her side, reaching for her again even though I knew that I couldn't touch her in this state.
"Dammit, help her, Goddess, help her." I yelled. I saw when she gasped, like she had reached her limit and was trying to get a breath at any means necessary. Her face was turning blue. "Little Bunny!" I screamed." Her whole body seemed to jerk slightly when I said her name, and she stopped trying to take a breath for a moment. I feared the worst.
The tape disappeared from her mouth and the rag was pulled out, she took a shuddering gasp. The sound her labored breathing made set my wolf snarling. They were hurting our mate, whoever they were, they had signed their own death warrants.
"You were getting used to this, what happened?" A female voice laughed.
"You just can't trust a mongrel to do anything." A man responded.
"Shall we do one more." The woman's voice seemed to be filled with joy.
"Don't you fucking dare." I snarled.
"Go to hell." My Little Bunny snapped at them.
"That's my girl." I encouraged her.
"You still haven't learned any manners, after all this time. How pathetic." A different man's voice spoke this time. I heard the sound of flesh striking flesh. Someone had hit her, hard. There was fresh blood at the left side of her mouth.
"Want to try that again?" The woman asked.
"Go fuck yourself." Little Bunny said through clenched teeth.
"You'll regret that." The second man yelled.
"Grantham." There was a warning from near the door. Whatever blow they had been intending changed course and instead hit the side of my Little Bunny's head. I saw the tremendous force they hit her with by the fact that it knocked her head free of it's ties.
"You've all failed in your duties. It is midnight. And it seems she is losing consciousness, when she wakes this time, it will be my turn." I could hear a smile in the new man's voice. Whoever he was he was the man who was going to torture her next. His voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it yet.
"Trinity, I will find you. I'm coming for you. I'm looking for you. I haven't abandoned you. Please, hang in there and wait for me a little longer. I'm coming for you, I promise." I didn't know if she heard me. I just kept telling her over and over that I was coming to get her until I felt the pull behind my navel again.
I was pulled up through the stone, the floorboards, the walls, then I was flying higher above the house. I saw a river close to the town that was near this house. That would help me narrow down the search. I would find her. I had to. I kept telling myself these words over and over as I flew higher and higher.
I woke with a start. Rage burning within me and my wolf snarling in my ears. I could feel my teeth poking into my lips and my heart pounding. In my anger I had let my wolf start to take charge. I took several deep breaths to settle myself, and my wolf, back down. After a few minutes my teeth finally fit back into my mouth and heart was beating at a normal rate.
"We will find her." I tried to soothe my wolf but it only made him whine. "I know buddy, I miss her too." He cried for her again at my words, I felt him lay down in the corner of my mind nuzzling my ear to urge me forward.
I was the first one downstairs. I once again felt like I didn't sleep even though I had apparently been in the bed for eight hours. I stood at the window in the parlor looking out at the black rocks around the house waiting for the others. 'Where are you?' I thought to myself just as I sensed someone entering the room.
"You're up early Alpha boy." Bryce sneered at me as he came into the room. He clearly didn't like me, but as long as he worked with me to find my mate that's all that mattered. If he didn't, well I had over a hundred warriors here with me if I needed to fight him too.
"I couldn't sleep anymore." I answered quickly and flatly. I couldn't bring myself to put much emotion into it.
"So, why did these people take your mate?" He was getting nosy and jumping straight to the hard questions.
"I don't know what they want with her." I answered honestly. "I wish I knew what their end game for taking her was. Why they wanted her and what they had planned. I might be more worried if I knew though. But I will not give up on finding her, I will not abandon her. I will find her."
"Sounds like you love the girl something fierce." He noted.
"That I do."
"Has it always been like that? Love at first sight and all that? For my wife and I, I was a stubborn mule at first." He laughed. "I didn't admit nothing for the longest time."
"I'm afraid I'm a bit more like you than I'd like to admit." Bryce chuckled at me.
"Alpha boy, I think all us alphas are like that. Call it the alpha's curse." He was snickering at his own joke. "You help me get rid of the trespassers on my land, and I'll help you get your girl back."
"You have no objections from me." I assured him.
"That's good to hear, boy." He nodded with a smile. "One last thing I wanted to ask you. What's with the tattoo on your neck? It looks like a mate mark."
"It is a mate mark."
"You got a tattoo of a mate mark." He quirked an eyebrow.
"It's not a tattoo, it's a mate mark. My mate marked me, and I marked her." I saw the look on his face go from confusion to realization back to confusion.
"How in the world is that possible?"
"I don't know how it was possible, but it happened when we were simultaneously biting each other during an intimate moment."
"Now why couldn't you have used that wording when trying to explain it to me?" Noah snapped when he walked into the room. I laughed at him.
"What's he talking about?" Carter asked.
"Yeah, I'd like to know as well." Wesley added.
"Boy, are you telling me that my granddaughter marked you?" Mr. Whitton looked at me disbelievingly. This was getting more attention than I had intended, but it's not like I was trying to hide it.
"Yes, we've given each other mutual marks. The mark she's given me is different from the pack crest, but it is a mark all the same, and it is surrounded by a trinity symbol. Isn't that fitting for her?" I smiled again as I thought about the symbol for her name.
"Could that be why you had such a strong connection to her when you mate linked?" Wesley asked.
"I believe so. I have also seen her in a dream twice. Like a mate link but more in depth."
"How can she mark you if she herself has no wolf?" Mr. Whitton asked.
"What?" Bryce yelled. "We're going through all this for a human?"
"She is not a human. And she has a wolf, it's just trapped inside of her." I glared at her grandfather.
"Alpha boy, you need to explain." Bryce demanded.
I sighed, and gave them an abridged explanation of what was going on. How she had partial changes. How I saw the wolf stirring in her eyes. And how we couldn't have mutual marks if she wasn't, in fact, a wolf.
"So my granddaughter really does have a wolf?" Mr. Whitton looked overjoyed.
"Yes, but that's not why we're here." I glared at him. "We're here because she's in danger and we need to save her."
"I know that." He snapped at me. "I was here regardless because she is my granddaughter and I love her."
"Then act like it."
"Enough." Bryce's voice cut through the room. "I don't know what kind of weird family bullshit is going on here, but I don't care. You're here to help me and I'm going to help you. I'm not going to play family therapist to all of you."
"Agreed." I wanted to put an end to the family discussions right now. "Let's get to work on finding where my mate is."
We divided our warriors into groups to search the ground. We had people at the different city and county offices looking for houses that might fit the bill. And we had half a dozen helicopters on their way in to help us do aerial searches. I wanted this to be the day we found her. She had been missing for almost forty hours.