Gabriel’s POV
I stared at Annie’s laptop. My whole body was trembling.
He hit her. He touched her.
Nick was shaking next to me. I don’t think he realized, but he hasn’t stopped growling since the moment Annie played the video.
“Why did you insist we watch this?” Jacob asked, his voice trembling.
“Because she told us where she is,” Cassie said with a small smile.
My eyes snapped to her.
“What?” Nick, Jacob, and I asked at the same time.
Cassie took the laptop and played the video again. It was the part where Victor was asking her who killed Calvin.
“You are protecting someone, little witch,” he said. “I am not a fool. I will break you.”
“You can try,” Aria said defiantly. “I thrive where others barely survive. I won’t break down that easily.”
Cassie hit a pause and looked at us. “I thrive where others barely survive. Curious choice of words, don’t you think?”
I furrowed my eyebrows.
“Get to the point,” Nick snapped at her.
I grabbed his arm. “Calm down, Nick.”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I am sorry, Cassie. But, please, hurry up.”
She nodded and grabbed a book from the coffee table. I didn’t notice it before.
“This is a book of plants that Aria and I used to love when we were kids,” she said. “We read it for hours and memorized everything inside of it.”
“I remember,” Jacob said. “You two got lost one time when you tried to find some rare plant that doesn’t even grow on this continent.”
Cassie laughed. “We were so confident that we would find it.”
“Why is this book important?” I asked nervously, interrupting their trip down the memory lane.
“Well, when I heard Aria tell Victor that she thrives where others barely survive, I recognized that immediately,” she explained as she flipped through the pages.
She stopped, and a huge smile spread across her face. She handed the book to Nick, and we guys came closer to look at the page.
It was about a plant called Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus). There was a picture of the plant, and below, in big bold letters, something familiar was written.
This one thrives where others barely survive.
I gasped and looked at Cassie and Annie, who had huge smiles on their faces.
“We found the area to the north where this plant grows,” Cassie said. “She saw it, recognized it and sent me a message.”
We were still staring at the girls, unable to speak.
“Why are we still here?” Mike spoke after a while.
“There are no warehouses in that area,” Annie said. “Which means, they are keeping her underground.”
“We need to locate the entrance,” Cassie added. “It is still a pretty big area.”
Nick growled and clenched his fists. “No. I am not waiting another fucking second. Do you have any idea what I am going through?! I want to burn the whole fucking world down! I want to kill the fuckers who took her from me! I want to rip the fuckers who touched her to pieces! I am not fucking standing here another minute! Give me the fucking map!”
All of us were staring at Nick in shock. By the end of his rant, he was screaming so loudly that my ears hurt. His face was red, his posture rigid. He looked like he could explode any second now.
I moved and stood in front of him. I knew I was risking so much, but I couldn’t let him continue like this.
His angry gaze landed on me, and if looks could kill, I would be six feet under right now. He wasn’t a man right now. He was an angry, possessive, territorial wolf. And all of us were standing between him and the thing that belonged to him.
He was the definition of danger right now.
“Nick,” I said calmly, raising my hands in surrender. “Hear me out, please.”
He growled, his eyes flickering from brown to black.
“I know you want to go to her,” I said slowly. “I too want that more than anything in this world, believe me, but we can’t go blindly, Nick. We could put her in even greater danger than she is in right now.”
He remained silent, and I took that as a sign to continue.
“Think about it, Nick,” I said. “What can we do right now? Go over there and storm the area looking for an entrance? It is probably well hidden, and he would know we found the location. He would move her, and we would lose the one advantage we have over him.”
He started breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His eyes never left mine. I was right and he knew it. He was fighting the wolf inside him. He was fighting Nate, who wanted to go to his mate. But Nate wasn’t a man. He was an animal. He can’t think rationally. He relied on his instincts. And his instincts were telling him to go to his mate. Nick was the one who will have to make Nate see that going over there right now wasn’t our best option.
And knowing Nate, that will be hard. He was one stubborn wolf. And getting a mate only made him stronger. I think Nick’s warlock side didn’t overpowered his werewolf side anymore. The mate bond made his wolf a lot stronger and a lot more present than he ever was before. I could see that clearly.
“You are right,” Nick said through his teeth, after a few moments of silence.
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he plopped down on the couch.
“I am sorry, Cass,” Nick mumbled. “I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. But I am burning inside.”
“It’s okay, Nick,” Cassie said as she sat down next to him. “I understand. No need to apologize.”
I glanced over at Jacob and Blake, who were looking at Nick with frowns on their faces. They didn’t like that he snapped at Cassie.
“If we can’t go there and raid the fucking forest, what do we do?” Nick asked as he looked at me with desperate eyes.
Nick’s POV
I can’t explain to any of them what I was feeling inside.
It was like a thousand small needles were piercing my skin from the inside.
It was like a thousand hot flames were burning my organs.
My heart was broken. I think it just broke into a thousand little pieces and fell down to the bottom of my chest.
And the anger was all-consuming. There was no beginning or end. It just burned through my blood, begging me to do something, to kill, to rip apart, to enjoy his suffering.
I could feel Nate’s pain too.
It was different from mine.
It was more animalistic, more angry, and more unhinged.
It felt like Nate was clawing at my insides. Biting and scratching to reach the surface. He wanted out. He wanted to sink his canines into everything and everyone separating us from the one thing we want most.
Our mate.
She was the only one who can remove the needles, extinguish the flames, and glue my heart back together. She was the only one who could make the anger go away. She was the only one who could calm Nate down.
I needed her.
I fucking need her.
I didn’t know how long I could go without her.
It had only been a few hours and I already felt like I was dying.
I had to get her back. I will do anything. I will fucking trade my life for hers if I had to. My life wasn’t worth living without her anyway.
I felt remorse when I snapped at my friends. But I couldn’t help it. I knew they meant well, and I knew they wanted to find her as much as I did, but Nate didn’t. Every time they said we couldn’t do anything right now Nate saw that as a threat. He saw them as an obstacle between us and our mate. And I had to work so fucking hard to keep him from ripping them to shreds and running to find her.
Gabriel was right. I know he was. I think even Nate knew he was right. But it was fucking hard. Seeing her with her lip split open and watching him hit her was the hardest thing I had to do. I didn’t want to think about him touching her again because there was no telling what I would do. There was no telling what Nate will do.
“I think we should take shifts and survey the area,” Jacob said.
“I was just about to suggest the same thing,” Gabriel nodded. “We need to know where the entrance is. We need to know how many people are there. We need as much information as we can get before we enter.”
“We can’t be seen,” Jacob said.
“We should go in pairs,” Mike added. “Jack and I. Jacob and Blake. Gabriel and Nick.”
Gabriel nodded.
“What about Cassie and me?” Annie asked with a frown on her face.
“No,” all of us guys said in unison.
“Why the hell not?” Annie asked angrily. “I am a wolf. My senses are sharp. I can help.”
“Annie, no,” Gabriel sighed. “Something could happen. We would be worried the entire time and it would only distract us.”
“What do we do then?” Cassie sighed.
“You can stay here and find out everything you possibly can about that fucker Victor,” I said.
Annie and Cassie sighed and gave us a small nod. I could see they weren’t happy, but I couldn’t give a fuck. They were not putting themselves in danger. Gabriel was right. We would only worry about them, and it would distract us. Not to mention, Aria would kill us if something happened to them.
I looked at Mike, who was glaring at me.
“What?” I asked him sternly.
“Can you keep your cool, Nick?” Mike asked me and raised his eyebrow. “You can’t freak out during your shift.”
“Yes,” I growled. “I will not do anything to endanger her.”
He was a complete and total idiot if he thought I would do anything to put her in danger. I should kill him for insinuating something like that.
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I can’t go around killing people just because they said something I don’t like. No matter how pissed off I was.
“Good,” Jacob said, interrupting us. “Show us the area, Cass.”
Cassie spread the map on the coffee table and pointed at the circled area.
“There,” she said. “That’s where that plant is growing.”
We nodded and I stood up. “Okay, how do we do this?”
“The area is pretty far,” Gabriel said. “We will have to drive there, leave the car on the side of the road, and walk the rest of the way.”
“We should keep the shifts short,” I added. “Four hours each, maybe.”
“I agree,” Blake nodded. “We need to keep our senses sharp and overdoing it can only lead to mistakes.”
“We will cover small areas each and we will rotate,” Gabriel said and grabbed the pen. “Mike and Jack, this will be your area.”
Gabriel circled a small area on the map.
“Jacob and Blake, you will cover this one,” he continued and circled another area. “Nick and I will cover the rest.”
The guys nodded and pulled out their phones to take pictures of the map. I did the same.
“If you see anything, don’t fuck up and react immediately,” Jacob said sternly, mainly looking at me. “Come back and all of us will go. We can’t be sure how many of them are there. Two of us probably won’t be enough to take them down.”
I nodded, not really liking what he said. I already know it will be fucking hard to control myself.
“Who will take the first shift?” Jack asked.
“We will,” Gabriel and I said at the same time.
If there was a slim chance of finding something out today, I wanted to be the first one there.
“Good,” Jacob nodded. “See you in four hours.”
