Twice Tempted: Between Two Alphas (Mia and Cameron)

Chapter 87

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Something thumps my chest. I double over and heave.

My ribs are broken.

I feel the cracked edges cutting into muscles as I puke up what feels like an ocean.

Valaria’s above me. Her hand is curled into a fist.

She looks worried.

I’m not the first to drop into the depths of this pool, I realize.

There was no guarantee that I would See.

Or that I would survive.

Fuck these Seers for not giving me all the facts.

I am a mother.

I had a right to leave this island and to hell with whatever this purported ‘gift’ might be.

Before I allow Nala to unleash our rage on this Priestess, I stand up. The pain in my chest is brutal. It’s

probably a miracle she didn’t punch straight through my sternum.

Or maybe her pounding on my chest is what prompted the vision with Cassian?

I don’t know what is real or what to believe.

“You didn’t know what would happen,” I say, daring her to contradict me.

She doesn’t reply.

Yeah. Nope. I’m out.

They had no right to make that decision without sharing the risks. Awakening Ceremony, my ass.

I could’ve died.

And that could’ve crippled or killed Cameron.

And I would have done that willingly, leaving behind my kids.

“Cameron!” Is he okay? Did I foresee…

“He’s alive,” Valaria tells me.

A shuddering breath leaves my body and it triggers another coughing fit.

“Seeing is only the first step,” Valaria begins.

I start to shift. My legs extend and my face contorts.

Maybe it’s reactionary.

Because I’m naked and still tasting the salty, alkaline water that invaded my throat and lungs.

Or because the fear of dying–of knowing just how close I came to it, has me wanting to place as much

distance between myself and this place as I can.

I don’t know.

I don’t care.

I need to see Cam and my kids.

I push my body to shift completely.

Nala bares her teeth. The other Sisters step back.

I trot around the pool to the stairs that led to the house I was previously in. My wolf climbs them quickly,

her adrenaline pumping and anger flowing. Instead of shifting back so I can push through the door, she

barrels through it, taking it off its hinges.

I shift back in the single bedroom and search the drawers for clothes.

The closet is full of those god-awful white gowns and nothing else.

I drag one over my head.

Valaria steps into the room maybe a minute later. “It’s the same for all of us,” she says quietly.

Don’t give a damn.

I wring out my wet hair, another reminder of what I went through and how close I nearly came to giving

up my life entirely for what… a chance to foresee things?

It’s dark outside I notice. The house is lit up from within. All recessed lighting and ultra modern fixtures.

“How long was I in there for?”

She looks away. “Two days.”

Oh. My. God.

A sense of foreboding wells up. It’s fierce and instant and all-consuming. “I need to leave. Now.”

She sighs. “I know.” Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

I hear the seaplane. She’d already arranged it.

I don’t bother saying thank you. I slide my feet into too-small flats and walk past her out the door.

I follow the sounds to the landing site where the seaplane is waiting at the dock. The propellers are still

turning, and as I run to the dock, wind blows my gown up. I’m sure I flashed the pilot, but I don’t care

about that either. My hair is a tangled mess and soaking wet. I smell like a mineral bath. And I’m

dressed in what could pass as a nightgown.

I look wild.

I feel wild.

“I need to go to Wyoming,” I tell the pilot.

“This plane doesn’t have enough fuel for that.”

“Get us en route and plan to refuel then.”

“Enroute to where, exactly? Wyoming is a big state.” He doesn’t say it rudely. Just matter-of-fact.

I recall the mountains in the background. I think it was South Absaroka. It’s a giant wilderness preserve

spanning from Wyoming into our packlands in Montana.

“Shoshone National Forest,” I tell the pilot.

He hands me some kind of GPS unit. “Can you give me the actual coordinates? I have to file our flight

log…”

“Sure.”

I fumble with the device, zooming on the map while I try to link with Cameron.

Cameron, I call to him. Where are you?

It’s hard to connect.

We’re moving into position, Mia. We’ve staked the wraiths. I’ll signal you when we’re done.

You need to wait. Do you hear me! Don’t go!

But there’s a rush in my head that’s almost like static.

Cam’s syncing with his pack. They run silent when heading into battle.

And I know, despite my vision, that I’m already too late…