Shattered

Chapter 60: Mine

Max's POV:

"Just gonna stand there and watch me burn, that's all right, because I like the way it hurts." - Eminem

The pain behind my eyes grew worse and I slammed my fist into the mirror of the gas station bathroom, panting.

"You all right?" Roberta, my witch, asked.

"Do I look fucking all right?" I snapped, running my hands over my face. Something was off. Something was wrong. Too many people meant my barrier was spreading thin but how did so many have a guess at what she was? At what my Rose was?

"What's going on with you?" Roberta asked, not so subtly shifting herself farther away from me. "You've been acting strange."

"Something is happening," I said, shaking my head, squeezing my eyes shut as if that would ease any of the growing pain in my head. "Too many people have figured it out. My mental block is spread too thin."

"How would so many figure it out so fast?" Roberta frowned. "You said you only felt her use her abilities a few rare times and nothing big, nothing that would've been obvious."

"Well it was fucking obvious to someone," I growled, watching the blood run down my knuckles, shards of glass from the mirror sticking in my skin. I didn't care. The only thing I cared about was getting my girl back.

"Maybe she came across supernaturals," Roberta suggested. "I mean, you know she'd be nerding out over all this shit coming out. The vampires, that world, the Elders are meeting with human leaders at the end of the week. Rose would be bursting at the seams to learn new shit like that."

"So would tons of other people, how would she have come across-" I stopped, rage boiling inside me at the mere thought of it. "Unless it's them."

Years ago, Rose dreamed of wolves. They were her favorite animal and she would have dreams that she was running with them, part of their pack. I shut the dreams down as soon as I could but the paranoia of what it could mean lingered in the back of my mind. Was it just a dream, or did she have a mate somewhere, waiting for her to join their pack, a person she was subconsciously reaching out to? I dismissed the idea because anyone thinking they had a claim on her when she was mine was too much to handle, but if Rose did have a mate, if they did find her...

My mental block would spread through the entire pack. It would start with her mate, and through the connection to the pack, my barrier would spread, blocking every person from even thinking the word 'empath' around her. That would explain why I felt spread too thin. Why I felt so fucking weak. I learned to keep the barrier around her years ago but I'd never had to block so many people at once. A couple here and there, but nowhere near the numbers I was blocking out now. It was more than my mind could handle, especially without Rose there to source my energy from.

"Fuck!" I yelled, slamming my fists down on the ceramic sink.

"Max," Roberta said carefully. "You need to let the block down if that's the case. If she did find her mate and they're in a pack... You can't hold that barrier. Not even Rose could hold that barrier if she knew what she was doing. It's too many minds to keep track of and it will tear yours apart."

"No," I growled, ignoring the shooting pain in my hands as I reached for my phone. "Fuck that. I'll just have to do something I've been avoiding. We're near a syndicate base, are we not?"

"Yes, but-"

"But nothing," I snapped, sending off a text and shoving my phone in my pocket, pointing at Roberta. "Clean out those hunters and bring me all the empaths they're holding."

Centuries ago, a syndicate of hunters formed for the sole purpose of clearing out every empath in the world, of leaving us extinct. Empath hunters you could identify by the wing tattoos on their backs, tattoos that were enchanted so they would only appear when in contact with empath blood. The wings were meant to be a representation of how highly they thought of themselves. The angels of protection coming in to wipe out people like Rose and I so no empath could ever take control of the world. The fuckers had no idea who they were dealing with. As soon as I had Rose again, her power would give me more than enough to take over.