My Secret, My Bully, My Mates

"We have a problem." My dad grumbles, "And it can't wait." "Someone had better be dying!" Dakota almost yells at him.

"Possibly. We don't know what's happening, but we think Skylar, Gentry and Elena should go together. Which means all eight of us are going to need to move. Now." My dad says.

"Eight?" I question doing the mental math. "What happened that we need to go and our mates need to be present?"

"You act like we would let you go anywhere near something so magically bad that all three of you would be needed without us." Dakota grumbles in my ear.

I roll my eyes and ignore him. “We have done magic so many times together, what's changed?"

I try to move, but Dakota won't let me go. I turn awkwardly in his arms, hold his face between my hands and look him in the eyes.

"Dakota, I know that you want to protect me, but I need to stand next to you, on my own two feet. I promise, I won't be more than a couple feet from any of you and I will hear you if you tell me your instincts say it isn't safe. I need you to treat me like an equal right now, okay."

takes a deep breath and then lets me down without any words, but keeps me right in front of him. I'm sure if he opened his mouth a whole string of profanities would come out. But, he's doing his best to

turn toward my dad.

"Mike is glowing."

up next to me,

whatever

this is a ploy to get to you, but Elena and Gentry have insisted.

on our own, since no one joined us in Cam's truck. The twins and Oliver are fuming over being interrupted again. I actually agree with them this time, and regret needing to train right at this moment. Once we get to the bunker where Mike is being held, our team converges and is standing guard outside while Cam, Kota, Oliver, Nickolas, my dad, Elena, Gentry and I head inside. The door opens to a small landing and a set of steps. We follow it down until the air becomes cooler and we see the inside of a metal bunker containing five cells. Mike is sitting in the corner

but the vibe is off somehow too. Elena and Gentry step

done anything else?

Adrielle, but we don't know how she's doing it or why." Elena supplies. "We don't feel anything unusual about him right now, is there anything off that you feel, Skylar? Because this is probably a message

get closer." I move to take a step forward when