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,

turn toward my dad.

"Mike is glowing."

what?!" Cam steps up next to me, lacing our fingers. "What do you mean

and whatever magic was being

a ploy to get to you, but Elena and Gentry have insisted. As a Beta, my instinct is to protect the Alphas but let them do their jobs, as a father I have two kids at risk here, but I also know that none of you are going to stand by and just let things happen. So we are going to go

seemed to decide the four of needed to be 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,

feel that he is alive, but the vibe is off somehow too. Elena and Gentry step close behind us and says, "He's been

anything else? Spoken? Moved? Anything?' Cam

giving him. This has to be the work of Adrielle, but we don't know how she's doing it or why." Elena supplies. "We don't feel anything unusual about

to get closer." I move to take a step