Page 70 of Bubblegum Pop

I ran, each step life a fresh knife wound in my stomach, but Zeus was right there, next to where Odin vanished.

Panic consumed me with such a force, I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t feel Candy—there was no chance we could without a bite.

I was only a minute away, it shouldn’t have taken so long.

Zeus burst to life through the bond, his fear deafening me. It sailed high, taut, and I swear I heard a roar from the second flight of stairs. My focus was on him, dread beating me, trusting Zeus would take care of it. As long as he was there, Odin and Candy were safe.

Until suddenly, he was gone.

“No!” I let out a yell of anguish, my hand slamming against the wall to keep myself up as I reached the corridor, my tears running freely as Zeus’s energy was slashed from our bond.

I couldn’t give in. I couldn’t let the fear dominate me. There was no way I could lose my mates. Not like this.

No one would dare attack the club… no one sane, anyway. The danger must have come from breaking our contracts. We’d been with her for five hours. It was too early for someone to find us. So who else could it be?

I cried out as I dragged myself to her door. There was no sign anything had changed except the dead silence of my mates. I fumbled as I punched in the code, but it went red and beeped. Another wave of dread drenched me as I tried again and again, but nothing.

I wasn’t waiting around for security. I couldn’t stand here when my mates were in danger.

Lining myself up with the opening of the door, I drew back, bracing an arm against the frame before throwing myself at the door with all my strength. I bounced off it with a solid thud, pain shooting across my right shoulder and collarbone. It didn’t matter, I had to keep trying. No pain was comparable to my fear.

Whines and growls were pouring from me. Rage fuelled my strength, but it wasn’t enough. If I were Zeus or Odin, the door would never have been a problem.

By the time it gave way, my arm screamed, burning, bleeding. I thought I had dislocated it, but I didn’t have time to worry. My mates were in there.

I fell into her apartment, my head snapping right, my eyes landing on the two huge forms of my mates slumped on the floor. A sob fled from me, part relief, part fright. Because I couldn’t tell if they were alive.

Their scents hit me instantly; the sour taste of sick lemon vodka, rotten passion fruit, and bubblegum so sweet, it stung me like a wasp. There was another body slumped on the floor, dressed in black and, from the size, it couldn’t be her.

I nearly collapsed, my mind flashing back to the bar. Seeing Odin on the floor sent my panic into overdrive. I needed to get to them.

Odin was the closest. Slumped against the bed, upright, I forced myself forward, falling to my knees before him.

“Please. Please, Odin,” I gasped as I extended my left hand, shaking as I reached for his neck. “Please, stay with me.”

Another sob dropped from me as I felt his pulse and his shallow breaths scattering along my arm. “Thank God,” I choked out, quickly running my hand over his body, searching for wounds.

The light on the other side of the bed cast him in shadow, and as I brushed his chest and his stomach, my hand bumped into something small.

Narrowing my eyes, I found a tiny dart, thinner than my finger, red at the end. I just had to pray it was a tranquilliser and not anything deadly.

“Fuck,” I whimpered as I withdrew my hand.

I gathered the bottom of my shirt, leaning forward to pull out the dart and dump it on the floor. I didn’t want to touch it in case it had fingerprints.

My gaze snapped to Zeus. I forced myself to stay calm as I dragged myself across the floor past the other body and towards my mate.

But there was no Candy.

My hands shook as I found Zeus. He was on his stomach, his arm flung out towards the garden door.

Even when we lay together in the hospital after Michael left, both of us broken as Odin healed, I didn’t see him as weak. They were both my strength. They guarded me as I protected them. And finding him crumpled on the floor, with no fight or passion, was more terrifying than Zeus’s wildest nightmares.

“Zeus,” I moaned as I reached for his throat. “Zeus, baby, please. Please be safe.”

I let out a cry, my head falling on his arm as his pulse beat steadily in his neck.