Beloved (The Playlist BOOK 2)

Song - Eyes On Fire by Blue Foundation

I groan and reach my arm out over the bed, searching with closed eyes for my ringing cell phone.

“It’s on the floor,” Leo’s tired, raspy voice makes my core clench as I roll out of his arms and try to reach the phone without getting out of bed.

“Mom?”

“Bea, are you alright?”

“Yeah, sorry I didn’t call last night... I was...”

“It’s alright, baby. Are you with Leo?”

“Yes.”

“Can you put the phone on speaker?”

I sit up nervously. Leo feels it because he sits up too, concern written on his face.

“You’re on speaker,” I tell her nervously as he links our pinkies together.

“Bea, I was summoned by the Goddess last night. There is going to be a series of abductions in northern California. We already have one confirmed missing person, an Alpha from San Francisco reported his daughter missing last night. According to the Goddess, there will be two more.”

I feel Leo tense beside me.

“She says that vampires are behind it.”

He squeezes my pinky tightly.

“Leo, do you know anything about this?” Her voice is soft and not accusatory at all.

“No, I haven’t heard anything about abductions,” his voice is quiet but I can feel that he’s being honest.

“Be careful, both of you. Something is going on and we all need to be hypervigilant about being safe.” She tells us in her stern mom voice.

When we hang up Leo jumps from the bed and starts pulling on pants.

“I’ll be right back. I have to check something.”

“Don’t do this! Don’t run, Leo! Please, don’t shut me out.”

“I promise, when I come back I will tell you everything. It has to be Chase behind the abductions but I need to be sure. Since I met you he’s gone off the rails. He doesn’t trust me anymore and he’s hiding things from me. Wait here and we will talk about everything once I know what’s going on.”

“Leo, please, let me come with you. We’ll handle this together,” I’m pleading with him.

“I don’t want you around Chase. He’s... I’m afraid of what he might try to do to you. Please, wait here.” The desperation in his voice has me backing down even though my instincts are telling me to stay by his side.

“Hurry back.”

I pout as he pulls me into his chest.

“I’ll be as fast as I can,” he runs his fingers over my mark and we both shiver.

After he leaves I pace around the apartment. I shift and walk back and forth in wolf form. I’m so tense I think my teeth are going to break from how hard I’m grinding them together.

I watch the clock and pace a trail on the carpet.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen.

Twenty.

I shift again and sit at the table with a piece of paper and start to sketch him. His eyes are closed and his lips are parted, showing his fangs. The slope of his strong neck with my mark placed prominently in the foreground.

My phone rings and I sprint to answer it.

“Hello?” My chest falls instantly, it’s not Leo.

“Bea!” Alpha Porters voice is frantic, “is Andrew with you?”

“No, sir.”

Shit.

“Call the council and report him missing! I’ll be right there!” I hang up and run to get dressed.

I run from the apartment and bounce nervously on my toes as I wait for the elevator.

When I step into the elevator Cedric gives me a strange smile.

“Your Highness,” he says as the doors close.

Oh, shit. The mark.

I instinctively run my fingers over my skin.

He nods his head respectfully before I run from the elevator and through the lobby. As I turn the corner to where my car is parked I freeze. Something isn’t right. There are two scents, one I recognize instantly and another I don’t, yet, it’s somehow familiar.

I look up to see April leaning against my car.

“You know, when Chase told me I didn’t believe it. We really have lost him,” she almost sounds sad underneath the rage.

I calmly try to look for where the other scent is coming from. I know we aren’t alone.

It suddenly hits me, I don’t know the other scent but Leo does. It’s a bond connection I’m feeling.

I can’t mind link him but I try to contact him through the bond. I feel panic through the bond, he feels me, he knows I’m in trouble.

“He marked you. Un-fucking-believable.” She steps forward and I cut sideways, running through two parked cars into the street. They have me on speed but I am stronger. I run but I know I’m not fast enough to get away from them.

I feel arms around me and I shift, bursting free from their hold. I bolt down the street but I’m not fast enough, I feel a jolt of electricity searing through my body before I loose control of my body.

I’m fully awake but I can’t move. Whatever they stunned me with has paralyzed me. I’m grabbed and thrown into the back of a van. I’m turned facing away from the drivers but I can hear them talking.

“Chase is going to lose his shit when he sees that she’s marked.”

“I mean... if she marked him and Chase kills her... isn’t there a possibility that Leo will die?”

“It’s possible but there is a chance that he could live with the grief.”

I try to reach Leo but I can’t, my bond with him feels... restricted. My bond with everyone feels like it’s blocked.

We drive for a long time. Whatever they stunned me with has left me with a pounding headache. I shifted back to my human form a while ago and my limbs are starting to feel cold.

When the car stops I’m pulled from the back and dragged into an abandoned warehouse. From what little I could see, we appear to be in the middle of vast farmland.

I’m dragged inside and chained to a chair. I’m starting to feel light pins and needles tingle in my feet. I need to have my escape plan set by the time I can move again.

April brings a large contraption forward and I start to panic internally. It looks like a bear trap. She begins fitting it over my neck, the heavy metal weighing on my shoulders.

“This is to make sure you don’t shift. If you can’t control yourself, these spikes impale your neck,” she smiles sweetly.

I move my eyes around the room. I see Andrew and a girl wearing the same devices.

Shit.