Dark Fates (A Paranormal Anthology)(81)

“Is that Cora’s camera?”

Alec nodded. “Yeah, baby girl, can you hear me?”

Cora’s soft voice came through the speaker. “Yep, loud and clear. Travis is here now.”

“Good.”

Torin ground his teeth, not liking last minute changes in the process. “Why is Travis there?”

Alec glance at him, then shook his head. “Calm your wolf, man. Because the team has to split up, we needed two people to be able to activate the magic in the crystals. Shay is due to deliver any day, so Travis is the only other magic-born in the den.”

Oh. Made sense. "Magic-born" was an old term the Elders used to call witches and shifters with witch parents. Travis’s mother, Robyn, was half-witch. As was Shay’s birth mother.

Cora’s voice brought Torin from his thoughts.

“This is the spot.” Her handheld GPS came in view on the screen. “Gina, start here and dig a new hole every yard. Ana and I will set up the sensors.”

“She’s a natural leader,” Alec said as he sat back in his chair.

Torin rolled over a chair so he could sit at the computer station beside Alec.. “Most submissives are. They’re just more polite about it than we are.”

Alec burst out laughing. “So true.”

About ten minutes later, Ana spoke into her mic. “I’m picking up on something. Dad, you feel that?”

Keegan’s voice came in from the other side of the property. “Not here.”

Cora spoke quietly. “Humans.”

Torin sat up in his chair. “How close?”

“Too f*cking close,” Travis growled.

There was a rustling over the radio, then Cora asked, “Ana, where are you going? Shit. Alec, she shifted and is going after them.”

The next moment, a gunshot sounded off. Torin didn’t wait around for confirmation that anyone was all right. He jumped from his chair and rushed out the door. Once outside, he took off, running as fast as his legs would go. His only thought was for the safety of his mate.





Chapter Nine


“Ana!” Cora tore off her headset, dropped everything in her hands, and ran after the leopard. She didn’t get far before Travis grabbed her from behind.

“She’s fine.”

Cora shook her head and wiggled to try to escape the cage of Travis’s arms. She needed to see if Ana was okay. Fear rushed through her like lava when the gun fired right after Ana shifted and ran toward the humans.

“She’s not hurt. I can sense her through the blood bond.”

It took several moments before his words sank in. The blood bond was what all the soldiers, enforcers, and sentries—and anyone else directly connected to the Pack hierarchy—

shared. Travis was the Pack tracker.

A growl stopped her heart for a brief moment, followed by Torin’s low, rough warning. “Let her go.”

Slowly, Travis released her and held his hands up. “She was worried about Ana and ran after her.”

Torin tugged Cora to him, wrapping her in his arms and burying his nose into her neck. A tiny thread of awareness formed inside her and grew. When he kissed her, thrusting his tongue in her mouth, the thread strengthened. She fisted his hair and met his hunger with one of her own. The connection between them became too much for her to deny.

Then, as if being zapped with a shot of electricity, the mating bond snapped into place.

Torin broke the kiss and rested his forehead to hers. “I love you. God, I was so scared. I heard the shot….”

She held his face in her hands. “Shh. If I knew making you jealous would snap the bond in place, I’d have tried it first.”

His lips twitched, then he twisted her hair in his hand, pulled her head to the side, and bit her. A cry of pleasure, mixed with the sting of his fangs piercing her skin, tore from her lips.

Retracting his fangs from her skin, he met her gaze and smiled. “You’re mine.”

“Always,” she breathed. “What about Ana?”

“I don’t want her.”

“Torin.”

He laughed. “She’s fine. I’ll take you to her.” He took her hand and nodded to Travis as if to say something, but the other male shook his head.

“I’ve been in the dance. And now my mate is about to give birth. Believe me, I get it.”

“Thanks for stopping her from risking her life.”

Travis waved him off and headed in the direction Ana went. Torin tugged her hand as he followed him. Cora’s heart was still pounding, but her body started to relax. Why were the humans here again? If they were the same ones from the day before….

When they reached Ana, Cora gasped as she saw the mother bobcat barely alive at Ana’s feet. Keegan and Blaine stood on either side of the cat. Ana turned, eyes red with tears, and in her arms was a cub. Cora guessed the baby was no more than a couple months old.

Cora’s vision blurred as she closed the distance between her and Ana. Her new friend handed the cub to her. “I can’t keep her. I live with Blaine, and with the babies on the way….”

Torin spoke up. “We can keep her. Teach her to track and hunt, so she can return to the forest one day.”

Cora hugged the baby bobcat close. “Thanks!” She turned to the mother. “Can Dani help her?”