Their Hidden Princess (Zora and Maximus) novel Chapter 262

Chapter 262

“I’m not doing that. I’m going to follow the bond.”

“You can still feel it?” Thorne asked him. “Enough to follow it?”

Max pressed his hand to his chest. “I think so.”

“She’s nowhere close to us,” Valentin said. “If you go blindly, it could take you days if not weeks to find her.”

“Then I had better start now,” Max said. With his hand on his chest, he closed his eyes, then started to turn. He took a few steps in one direction, stopped himself, then tried a different direction.

Gods, Valentin knew this wasn’t going to work, but all of Zora’s mates were as stubborn as she was.

In a flash, he understood that as stubborn as the mates were, himself included, staying together was never going to work. They each had their own way of doing things, and were too headstrong to see it any other way. At least, not without Zora here to hold them together.

She was the glue of this whole thing. Without her, the rest of them were barely even civil, let alone friends.

Valentin wasn’t above thinking that. Knowing it. He wanted to be logical, but the others were holding him back. So he let them go. Didn’t chase Kairos. Didn’t stop Max. Didn’t argue with Thorne.

Instead, he grabbed some things from his room and then walked to the car.

“Where are you going?” Thorne called out.

“To find Zora,” he said, got in and drove away. No one tried to stop him.

He didn’t trust following his own mate bond, like Max was trying. That could work, but with how far away she was, it would take time they just didn’t have.

Zora teleported a great distance. As she was still new to teleportation, even with her boosted power, she still should have been only able to teleport to a place she had been before or to a person she was very familiar or connected to. That was why I had thought her teleporting to Max had been safest.

He was her first mate. Her bond with him should have been strongest.

But Zora had other contacts outside of the four of them. This was why he drove to the Academy. As soon as he parked and hopped out of the car, students and faculty looked at him with some confusion. He had been gone for a while now, and his state of dress wasn’t as… well–fitted as usual.

He knew he looked haggard, practically rustic from his time in hiding. He didn’t care about vanity at the moment, rushing to Zora’s old room. He knocked loudly on the door, hoping Loren wasn’t in class.

Fortunately, she opened the door. “Professor Lunerly? What are you doing here? Where’s Zora?”

Her question stole the air from his lungs. “She hasn’t contacted you?”

“No. Not at all. I’ve been worried sick. She said she wouldn’t be able to, though, so I guess I haven’t been that worried, but…. well, with the vampire attacks and everything, maybe I’ve been thinking about her and hoping she’s safe. But why do you look worried? Did something happen?”

Loren was a chatterbox, so it took him a moment to wade through her words. “Wait,” he said. “What vampire attacks?”

“You haven’t heard?” Loren asked. “Vampires have been attacking the Academy practically every day lately.”

Alarm shot through Valentin. The vampires were more active? Were we running out of time?

“If you hear from her at all,” Valentin said, “Have her return to us at once.”

Chapter 202

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“Where did she go?” Loren asked.

“I wish I knew.”

If Loren couldn’t help him, he needed to find other ways. He turned on his heel and headed out of the dorms toward his office. Halfway there, he stopped in his tracks.

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