Belladonna

Chapter 17

Warning: Miscarriage

Axel

It was Idris who found her scent. In ten minutes the four of us stood together near the edge of the woods and an abandoned road. He was pacing when I arrived. And he was already in his human form.

"Whoever took her masked her and their scents good."

"Probably one of Steven's concoctions. We know Eveline and Marianne are involved; we just need to know if others are with them. What do you smell?"

"She's close. I can smell her scent faintly and I think I heard her... scream."

My heart stopped. I couldn't move. I couldn't - My mind was already going in overdrive. Was she dead? Were they torturing her? Was the baby, our baby...? Gods, I started shaking. My knees trembled and Benjamin wrapped his arm around my waist holding me up.

"Focus, brother. Idris may have the best nose, but you are her Mate. Focus."

"I tried ... I tried to mind-link her, but I couldn't find her. It was like she was gone." My voice shook hard.

"Try again. Don't focus just on the mind-link but think about her, how you feel about her, how she makes you feel. What you have been through together. Focus, Ax." Benjamin said with a hushed but firm voice.

I closed my eyes and stretched out my senses. I thought about the first time we kissed, and how she jumped in my arms after her exam. How we stargazed when we were young. I let all the memories and emotions fill my head, heart, my soul.

Spencer. Spencer, please. My voice broke at the last word. Then Astrix roared in my head. SPENCER! KAI!

Astrix? Kai's voice was weak, fragile. She nor Spencer ever sounded like that. She's hurt, I'm hurt. Badly.

Where are you? Astrix demanded.

I don't know. A crypt of sorts.

Can you howl?

N-no. They injected us with something, to push me back. I'm just getting back to her.

"She's in a crypt somewhere," I said to the others. "They gave her something to keep Kai back. She can't howl to call us. She -" My voice shook. "She's badly hurt. And if... if Kai is too late to come back to her -"

"She won't die. We won't let her die." Idris said. He glanced around looking for anything that might be a crypt. "There." He breathed and started running. We chased after him, running as fast as possible. It was an old rundown crypt, hidden behind trees and bushes. The door was closed. Deacon opened it slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. It creaked a little and I hoped the ones inside couldn't hear it. We stepped down the broken downstairs. It was like we were two stories below ground when we reached the last step. Nobody was there, but I could smell her then. The scent of jasmine and vanilla, but that scent was mixed with blood, lots and lots of blood. I wasn't the only one who noticed because they all stiffened before we started running towards the scent.

I died when I saw her. I died right there when I saw her feet and hands chained together. How blood trickled down from every part of her body. So much blood, so much blood. I ran towards her and gathered her in my lap while the others pinned the two wolves to the floor. The two wolves I recognised in an instant.

"Spencer. Oh, gods, Spence." I cried, pressing my cheek against her bloodied face. I could hear a heartbeat, it was faint, but it was there. I looked at Idris, Benjamin and Deacon. "She - she's alive but barely. She's not healing fast enough."