Rejected Mate and Following Fate novel Chapter 74

Curled in Colton’s arms in bed, my head laid on his chest as I listen to that steady rhythm of his heartbeat, I doze in and out of peaceful and contented slumber. Something keeps waking me when I start to fall deeply, and I can’t seem to put my finger on it. Like a dream or a feeling that’s just out of sight and seems to jump in to haul me back whenever my consciousness drifts away. An unease or a threatening nightmare maybe, it’s definitely a sense of unease and try as I might, I can’t seem to fall into blissful darkness for any length of time. It’s almost dawn and I have barely dozed for more than twenty-minute slots at a time. I’m frustrated and exhausted, yet I can’t seem to rest.

Colton however is completely out cold, wrapped up around me protectively, his face buried in my hair as he silently inhales and exhales so peacefully that it at least brings me a sense of calm. In his preferred position of full-frontal body wedged against my side as I lay on my back, held in his arms and using his bent lower one as a pillow. He seems oblivious to my restlessness and with that flawless smooth expression showing a vulnerable snoozer it at least soothes me a little.

My inner anxiety is swirling, and that strong sense of foreboding is slowly chipping away at my mental state. I just can’t figure out why or what it is. The night is quiet, the patrols have reported nothing untoward and the air is just right in temperature for once. It should be a comfortable slumber. I screw my eyes shut tight, knowing that soon the sun will rise, and Colton will get up and the rousing noises of the village will take away this sense of being alone. I will just lay here and hope to catch a few more slots of shut eye before that happens and leaves me shattered all day.

Colton’s a way early riser and always likes to patrol the grounds with the changeover of sentinels at first sun, to check, to be sure nothing happened in the night. He seems to survive on bare minimal sleep and yet me, I can never rise before seven nowadays. In fact, even nine is becoming hard. My ability to be as up and on form like he is daily has been dwindling of late and I often wonder if I am getting spoiled and lazy. I want to sleep and curl up in bed way past his leaving me alone and the first thing I want to do is eat with Sierra when I do. It’s rare for Colton to stay in bed for any length of time, but he does come back before I wake and usually seduces me into some morning time affection before we stroll for food.

A light catches my attention through my closed lids, glowing insanely close and blue in color and I flicker my eyes open knowing instantly what it is. Colton’s hand resting gently on my neck is illuminated in the telltale glow of his gift and I squint at his face to see if there’s any hints of distress. My heartbeat upping that he may be having a vision or another of those horrifying dreams he mentioned at breakfast. I reach out to touch his face and hesitate as the glow intensifies to an almost blinding light and I have to screw my eyes closed with the sudden prick of searing pain at its sheer intensity.

He dreams of things sometimes and this is usually the signal if I am awake when he’s not. His hands warm my skin as it travels up his wrists and makes his forearms gently glow too before fading out before it reaches his upper arm. His hands enveloped in an azure bright orb that lights the whole room, yet he’s still motionless and I wonder if this really is the dream he says he keeps having. He seems calm and motionless, expression still and youthful and not at all like he’s having a nightmare. I know how much it distresses him if it is and I don’t want it to progress, so I gently touch his face with my fingertips, across his cheek softly to rouse him from the deepest part of sleep.

“Colton….. wake up.” Whispering, I try and stir him out of his state of vision, but he only opens his eyes impulsively, blinding blue glow like neon tube lights making me squint and stares blankly through me. His body responding to me, but his mind fully submerged in wherever he is. He is most definitely not awake, and his focus is on nothing out here with me. No depth, only blank and rigid and disconnected from reality.

He still hasn’t decided if this gift is a curse or something positive as he’s yet to find the use beyond disturbing dreams. He likes the fact he’s learning to heal ailments and wounds with a touch and it in itself has great advantages, especially to the children who come to the med bay with scrapes and bumps. He healed a broken wrist in a three-year-old a few days ago so he’s definitely getting stronger in his ability to do it. Yet the dreams, the visions, he abhors the vagueness and the sporadic nature of them.

He’s motionless as I lay, surrounded by eerie light which casts shadows in the furniture around us, lighting up only parts of the room and the rest falls into odd shadow. It feels like a surreal fairy room and a little ethereal, reminding me of my memories of Sierra when she came to me as a child. If I wasn’t lying next to him them it would be kind of freaky and most certainly unnerving.

Colton gives me a heart attack by gasping out loudly as though suddenly taking a breath, grasping my face with an impulsive jump reaction and I flinch with a small yelp; so not ready for any kind pf physical response. My stomach lurches up into my chest and my heart misses a beat as I hit a cold sweat with the sudden fright he gave me. His eyes widen as the glow intensifies and then he blinks, seemingly coming to and brown eyes are restored almost instantly as he registers the fact I am wide eyed staring at him like a scared little rabbit.

He blinks again, subtly shakes his head as though to clear a dream fog away, seems to fully wake up, rubs his face, and takes a second to realize I am still staring at him in the now darkness again, as his nocturnal vision kicks in. A frown coming over him and a second of pause while he inhales.

“We need to get up!” he commands, darting upwards and giving me no clue as to why, or a second to pull my swirling emotions back to calm. His whole mood sends me into anxiety overload, as he shoots immediately into panicked concern and out of bed in a flash, grabbing the nearest clothes he has and throws them on, turning to me hurriedly. His rushed ambience, the deathly fear seeping my way, all pull my senses to high alert and my own heart starts racing.

“Baby, up, move … Now! It’s Tawna!” Colton doesn’t wait for me, he turns as soon as he’s dressed and takes off at hyper speed and I don’t hesitate to do the same, grabbing a robe to cover my sheer nightdress and throw it on as I follow him at speed. Nerves strung out, head dazed with confusion but I know him well enough to not argue. He saw something and he’s acting on it and I should follow because he told me to.

He’s already down and outside and among the outer ground patrol, issuing orders to wake the reserve patrols immediately. His tone is harsh, his voice low and husky from residue sleep and something else; an underlying edge that sounds like he’s almost in freak out mode. A sense of urgency in the air as he rallies every one of our strongest and I catch his arm as he paces past me to direct more wolves coming in from the west tree line at his command.

“What’s going on?” Colton’s scaring me with the intensity of his panic, and he screws his eyes shut for a moment, turning silent and then blinks them open at me. I see the sheer devastation in the depths, and it makes me catch my breath as cold sweeps through my body. A shiver that something really bad is happening as my eyes mist over of their own accord and I’m instantly sick with gurgling worry.

“Carmen’s on her way down… her mom isn’t where she should be. I dreamt……. I saw her. She ran. Out there…” Colton turns and points into the densest part of the forest, the direction that most of our vamp attacks come from, the path to imminent danger for a loan wolf in the dark. His face falls somber, paling out as the last of his color seems to drain away and I gasp as what he says sinks in.

“Oh my god, it’s still dark, she doesn’t know about the boundary or the fact they lurk out there waiting for us. Colton what is she doing?” My own tone reaches high pitch hysteria as my stomach clenches in fear. I gaze out into the darkness and scrunch my eyes closed tight in a bid to exert my Luna link. Instinct taking over to shield one of my pack in anyway I can.

Tawna, if you can hear me, then come back, come home to your pack. It’s not safe out there.

I home in on Tawna’s image in the hopes it reaches her mind link but it’s not something I do often as Colton is so much better at pack linking. Colton stares at me for a second, obviously he heard me, as my mate he can sometimes tap into my mind links involuntarily when we’re this close in contact.

Tawna, I command you to turn around and head back to the homestead and safety. Right now. Colton alpha tones her, cutting into my head and taking over himself, sending out the link and I cross my fingers in hopes that she hears this. No wolf can deny or resist the alpha tone. It’s the whole point. To command unruly or defiant in your pack against their will so you can regain order and control. She can’t disobey him if she hears him.

“Do you think it will work? What if she closed her link off so nothing gets in?” my questions are quieted by the shrill voice that comes at us from the open homestead door. A familiar haughty tone only it’s pitched in terror and higher than normal and I flinch at his appearance.

“Where is she?….. I couldn’t find her…. She’s not in her room, or in the house. Colton why did you tell me to come down here?... Do you know where she is?” Carmen is already in a state of hysteria, tears streaming down her face, not seeming to care who sees them and we are blinded by the sudden illumination of the whole front sweeping drive and tree line as guards switch on our floodlighting. The patrols are streaming in from the village, the homestead, and every nook and cranny around as they gather together as a thrown together chaotic search party.

I move to Carmen at the door in a flash, instinctively going to her, and pull her into my arms, wiping her face and shooshing her as I cradle her in a hug. She doesn’t fight me, her body is trembling, her attention fully on the void of her mother’s presence and she let’s me hold her up without any kind f resistance. Her body is cold, her posture is weak, and her eyes are fixed on Colton as though begging him for answers that she knows he doesn’t have.

“We’re going to find her…. Try and be calm. Let us get out there and look. She can’t have gotten far.” I soothe with a gentle tone holding her as best I can even though she doesn’t hug me back. Carmen sags in my hold and seems to crumble completely, turning to a whimper as the tears fall freely.

“I knew…. deep down, I knew she would try this.”

Assembled are all of our strongest males, and a few femmes, the sub pack too as they come in from the forest where they had been out walking the perimeter before dawn.

“We didn’t see her leave, are you sure, Cole?” Meadow interrupts as she strolls into the center of the group and stands by Colton’s side. Straight to command mode and all emotion pushed aside when she has a task. Colton nods and taps his head as if to tell her he had a vision and Meadows face pales out much the same way his did. I can tell he’s linking her with details and her expression says it all.

“Okay, I’ll take three of our sub packs and spread on the left and backside of the stead, you take the rest and spread right and front. Even if you know which direction she took, she might have veered….. or…” She doesn’t add ‘has been chased’ to the end, glancing at Carmen warily and then looking away fast as she waves her hand at the nearest wolves. They jump to attention and silently rally to whatever command her hand gesture gave.

Colton pats Meadow on the back as if in agreement and then turns and links the several packs he’s choosing for his own search party via the open pack link, so we all hear him. This is urgent and he’s wasting no time and no number of bodies. He’s rallying all who are capable, and I know it’s because he fears time is of the essence. They split almost instantly as half the crowd moves with Meds and the rest with Colton and they all fan out and head into the woods at hyper speed.

“Come on. Let’s stick with Colton and we’ll help. More eyes.” I brush Carmen’s hair back and release her from my hold, instead taking her hand and pull her with me out into the clearing. She lets me guide her like a vulnerable child needing guidance, and for a moment I wonder if this is the same girl from earlier, the same Carmen who doesn’t show weakness. I shove it out of my head, focus on being her rock and speed to catch up with Colton.