Bound Trilogy: Bound: A Supernatural Story (WLW)

Chapter Twenty

"I can't find her anywhere, Xenia! She's gone, I know it!" Pen gasped between sobs.

She couldn't feel Bast anywhere. It was like before when she'd come back to them. Bast's scent was gone, just disappeared without a trace and it made absolutely no sense. Even Xenia hadn't been able to explain it before and Kuba was just as much at a loss as everyone else with hybrid biology. Pen swallowed the vomit rising in her throat and tried to steal her heavy shakes, but after imagining what had happened to Bast as a child, her mind just wouldn't stop imagining the worst case scenario.

When Penelope couldn't find Bast at the ceremonial grounds, she went back to their room in search of her and found none of her belongings. Her rucksack was gone. No note. Nothing was left behind aside from a faint trace of sorrow and guilt that stopped as soon as she leaned out of the room's window in search of her. The same sorrow and guilt that had wafted off of Bast in the alley and gave Penelope the cold sweats.

"We'll find her, Pen. She's one of us now." Xenia went over to her and held her by her shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes. "I heard her answering calls in the chorus and she is pack. We will find her."

Xenia hugged her and Jules rubbed her back as she cried, distraught with worry. Now wasn't the time for Pen to break down. She needed to find her mate, make sure she was alive and well. With her family. With her pack.

She knew better than most just what the poachers who'd attacked her on her first day here could do to shifters and the thought of what could happen jolted her back to reality.

Pen pulled back as a new wave of terror hit her when she remembered what happened in Alaska to Jules. "What if a warring tribe took her? What if she walks into enemy territory or those humans that attacked me when I first came here find her, Xenia? She's all alone...! Again!"

Xenia guided her back to her bed and knelt down in front of her as Jules sat down beside her. Their touch was comforting, but it wasn't the touch she needed, nor for which she yearned. She tried to stand.

"I need to be out there looking for her! She could go through the change before her body is ready and if she gets hurt--"

"That won't happen, Pen! She isn't on pack land." Xenia pulled her back down to the bed, fixing her with a determined stare. "I can feel that much after the third ceremony. I'll have a better connection to her after the last ceremony, but I promise you, she isn't on our land. Kuba said being around her people is what triggered her shift. She won't morph out there." Pen pushed past Xenia's hold and tried to make a break for the door, but Xenia held onto her wrist. "Pen, you can't go out there by--"

"Myself? Like she is by herself? Why would her being off of pack land make me feel better? There are more dangers out there than there are here! In fact, she wouldn't be in near as much danger here if any at all! She would be--"

Xenia growled and Pen fell silent, shifting her gaze away, then she heard a smack and looked up. Xenia was rubbing the back of her head as Jules scowled at her. Xenia shot her a grimace of her own and softly growled once more, but when Jules quirked her eyebrow, her rumbles stopped. She jutted out her chin and put her hands on her hips as she stood.

"She wasn't listening and--"

"Hush, mate! Do not growl at your inner circle. You know better."

Xenia dropped her head in defeat and slowly looked up at Pen. "Sorry, it was instinct and... Sorry. I wish I could promise it won't happen again, but--"

"No, I get it. You're the First Vixen."

"Not quite. Only in name." Xenia put her hands in the air and shook her head. "But that's not important right now." She ushered Pen back over to the bed and they all sat down with a resounding sigh. "When I brought up that she wouldn't go through a shift I meant it was because... Well, because she isn't on pack land anymore."