Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Rejected Mate Chapter 99

Please be there. God, I sound so pathetic and weak. I don't get time to regret the break of silence, or to feel any kind of anything about doing it. A paused breath and then.... Lorey? Is that really you? Baby... oh shit, baby, god. I can't believe it's you. It's really you... you're really, ughhh shit.

There's a second of pause and before I b**t in with a response, he's off again, quietening me with his torrent of verbal diarrhea

Where are you? You have no idea how hard I've been trying to link you for weeks and couldn't get through... not that I blame you, and I know I hurt you, and you're mad. I'm mad too... at me, not you. I'm not in any way mad at you for leaving, so don't think I am okay, because I'm not... Please, tell me where you are... I'm an a*****e, I know this... Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you coming back? Please say that's a yes, and that I didn't completely screw all this up. And, umm yes, I'm here, obviously... almost crashing my truck, but here. I was always here, waiting, hoping, and you know I'll always help you, that shouldn't even be a request when it's a given. God, I miss you, tell me what you need. Tell me what to do. Say something.

The whoosh of babbling completely catches me off guard, and the tone, changing from relief, to disbelief, to again relief, and sheer emotion, almost cripples me. He can't hide any of it from his voice and the surge of intense felling that comes with it tells me our link still exists, and I pick up on his even through this form of communication. It chokes me up, the sheer obviousness that he's really missed me, and is as broken about my contact as I am. There's no anger, complete overwhelm that he can finally hear me in his head. My initial response is to tear up, my throat closes tightly as if it's going to choke me, and butterflies escape within my stomach and go bashing around my insides, hitting every orifice and organ they can fly at. Feeling the same as him, aching with the sudden waterfall of feelings I've been trying to fight for weeks.

Colton.... listen, I don't want to do this over the link, but there's a lot and ... for right now, we need somewhere to go, and you need to be there too. Somewhere safe, because we're going to have a pack on our a*s soon and I can't fight them. There's too many. For right now, I need you to tell me where to go that we can meet, and for you to show up too, with enough of you to hold off some crazy mad wolves.

My hands are shaking with the ferocity of overwhelming pain I'm experiencing at being in his head and having him in mine. The intimacy of it. It's like the weeks apart drop away and it reminds me of everything I miss the most about him. His voice, his overprotective need to take care of me, the way his presence, even in my head alone, makes me feel suddenly safer, cherished, and he's only making it worse by saying everything I've wanted to hear. Why did he have to go be stupid and mark that bitch? We? As in, you're with someone else.

It's the complete crumple of his tone and the hint of hurt that peeks through that shakes me out of my rose-tinted stupor, and I know he thinks I might have found someone, as in, a mate. I don't get why he would jump to that conclusion, unless it's guilt, because he knows what he's done to us and I'm well within my right to replace a mate and say screw him. It's not important, and it miffs me slightly that he would veer to that little word as more important than the rest.

Yeah, WE. Look, he's helping me, he's a friend and WE need to go somewhere safe.

It seems to completely sober Colton up and I almost feel him draw back a little, the link falling silent for a moment as he seems to disconnect and then comes back an agonizing long a*s minute later. I guess it's a moment to pull his head together as jealousy eats him, but good, maybe it's a little bit of karma and he can feel an ounce of what I've been going through all this time. Let him be hurt and think there's someone else.... He deserves some pain. If he jumps to stupid conclusions on limited information, then he can suffer.

Right. Where are you, I need to know so I can replace you, or guide you.

It's that all business tone of an alpha moving in, as logic prevails, and he sobers up with that whip in the face. The babbling happy to hear from me dropping off to wounded male who's trying not to sulk. I know it's hurt him, I can feel it radiating through, and as much as it pains me too, I'm not going to correct him and tell him the WE, is a sixty odd year-old human, and his mom.

I turn to the doctor with a serious expression, head getting back to business and ignoring the fact my legs have turned to Jell-O.

"I need a location, so Colton can help us." I sound odd, strained, and my voice is husky, and hoarse, hinting at tears I'm refusing to shed. I can't deny this is awful, but we need his help.

"Oh goodness, that was quick, and it worked. Clever girl. Yes, location, of course, we're fifteen miles or so from the Hackuuh mountain base, north of Rennington. We head south for a good forty miles from here and we end up meeting the route ten to Normansville. Is that accurate enough?" The doctor scratches his head and goes back to grabbing the steering wheel with both hands before peering back out into the darkness, illuminated only by our headlights. I shrug at him and turn away to focus on the link. Colton, we're fifteen miles or so from the Hackuuh mountain base, north of Rennington. He has us heading south, he says we're forty miles from getting to the route ten to Normansville. Does that help?

The directions mean nothing to me as someone who never ventured out of the valley until recently. I try and only focus on details and not the overwhelming emotions he's passing this way, or the way my own heart rate is pounding sky high and my legs are trembling at being connected to him. It's a bittersweet agony and I'm totally hopeless to defend myself from it.

The Hackuuh? You're not that far, god damn it, Lorey. You're the feeling that I should go south east? And yet I still didn't replace you!........ Tell him to stick to that route, we can meet you as soon as you hit route ten and escort you to where we've been staying. It's not far. If we get there first, we'll head in towards you and hopefully meet sooner.

I knew Colton would push everything he was feeling aside and pull through. It's what he does, and why one day he'll make a formidable leader. His heart always secondary to what he feels is responsibility and what he has to do. The curse that made him choose her over me. Despite everything, even thinking I've someone to replace him, he's still helping. No hint of malice or telling me to go away. I feel kind of guilty about letting that deception stay between us, but I can't quite bring myself to put him right and I sure as hell can't tell him over link that his mother is with us. I don't have the words. He's going to replace out soon enough as it is.

"Stay on track to route ten and they'll meet us, show us where to go.... We're going to be okay." I tap the doctor's arm, seeing the sag of relief as my words filter in and he nods, exhaling a breath he's probably been holding all this time. I guess I do too, because we can't outrun the facility pack, but with Colton and the subs, they won't have a chance of getting at Sierra. It's safety, and success, with very little effort. We need to get to them and let Colton take over.

It does feel weird to know he kept looking though, and admitting something was pulling him where I was, that's odd. Maybe it was his mother finally calling to him too, and nothing to do with me, and I do replace it strange he said they were staying somewhere else and not the mountain. I guess Juan has them scouring further afield for Vampires, and Colton has been using it to also look out for me in case we crossed paths. Please tell me you have the sub pack with you... I have at least a pack of nineteen coming, this might be a fight.