Page 18 of His Treasured Mate

I always said I could navigate Collier lands with my eyes shut. This was about as much proof of that as possible. Visibility was horrible, except for the flashes of lightning, but I pressed on.

The only thought in my head was how upset Lily would be if I didn't make it back.

Just when I thought there was no way I could make it and it was time to look for shelter, a flash of something caught my eye and I realized I was back where I'd begun.

With newfound energy I dug deep and battled the wind and rain to reach my destination.

The door wasn't easy to open, but I managed by channeling some additional wolf strength. Closing it was another feat as a worried Cole Anderson ran to assist me.

“Where is Thomas? Why won't anyone tell me where my mate is?” I heard Lily yell.

I cringed. Shit. I probably should have told her I was leaving.

“Lily, he's fine,” Gage assured her.

“Where the hell is he?”

“Slugger, I'm right here.”

It had seemed like the right thing to do despite Cole's head shaking in warning. I didn't understand why he would do that until Lily rounded the corner and shrieked at the sight of me.

Lily

Chapter 5

I froze, staring at the sight before me. Thomas looked pale. His hair was standing up in every direction possible and his left cheek was bleeding. My heart nearly stopped as I realized where we were and what likely had happened.

“Thomas, you tell me right now that you did not go out in this storm.”

His eyes darted to Cole, who just shrugged, and then back to mine.

“We had a few wolves go missing. I had to find them. I had to.”

My jaw clenched. It was a good thing our bond hadn't fully sealed because he did not want to know what I was thinking just then.

Knowing we were being watched by a third of our Pack, I plastered a smile on my face, linked my arm through his and dragged him back to our suite to get him cleaned up and presentable again.

Once we were inside the suite and I verified the dampener in there was turned on, I glared at him.

“What were you thinking?”

Sam walked into the room without knocking. He froze, looked from me to Thomas then back to me.

“I'll come back later.”

Before either of us could respond, he fled like a chicken.

I turned back to my mate. “Seriously, Thomas. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that three of our wolves were missing in this mess, Lil. What was I supposed to do? Just sit by and hope they were okay? I couldn’t do that. What kind of Alpha would that make me? What kind of mate? What sort of example would I be setting for our daughters?”

I sighed. “Fine. I get it. But you can't just run off into a storm like that without even telling me.”

“You would have tried to talk me out of it.”

“I would have talked you out of it,” I corrected.

“Which is why I didn't tell you.”