The wind burned my face but I barely felt it because through the bond, I could feel Athena and she was faint but there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her heartbeat was uneven and frantic, calling out to me across whatever distance separated us. I gripped the handlebars tighter and pushed the throttle\u00a0<\/p>\n
harder, and my bike leaped forward like it understood my desperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beside me, Orion was hunched low over his bike and I could feel his rage like a physical presence in the air around us. It mixed with mine until the very\u00a0<\/p>\n
atmosphere seemed to crackle with the force of our combined fury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek led us through winding roads at breakneck speed and his bike took corners that should have been impossible without slowing down. My trusted\u00a0<\/p>\n
commander followed close behind, his face set in grim determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would get to her and nothing would stop me. No matter what waited for us, no matter what trap they had set, I would tear through anything that stood\u00a0<\/p>\n
between me and my mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The airstrip came into view sooner than I expected and when we reached Derek\u2019s private landing area, I skidded to a stop and ripped off my helmet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What I saw waiting for us near the jet made my blood run cold and my wolf surge forward with renewed rage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell\u2026\u201d I breathed, and my voice came out strangled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were more people than I had expected, way more than Derek had mentioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least twenty men in dark clothing stood around the jet, and they weren\u2019t Derek\u2019s usual crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These men looked like soldiers, like killers, and they were armed to the teeth with weapons I recognized as military grade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are they?\u201d I demanded, turning to Derek with my eyes blazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek\u2019s expression was stone cold as he pulled off his own helmet. \u201cBackup,\u201d he said simply. \u201cThe kind of backup we\u2019re going to need if we want to bring\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena home alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
70\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion had gotten off his bike too and I could feel his suspicion mixing with his anger as he studied the armed men. \u2018You didn\u2019t mention an army,\u2018 he said to\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek, and his voice carried a warning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Because I knew you\u2019d argue about it,\u2018 Derek replied without flinching. \u201cLook, you can feel her, right? Both of you can feel that she\u2019s in trouble. Real trouble. The kind that requires more than just the four of us charging in like heroes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the armed men stepped forward and I recognized him immediately. It was Jackson, one of Derek\u2019s most trusted operatives, someone I\u2019d worked with before on assigning riders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Alpha Derek. Alpha Orion. Alpha Tristan\u2018 Jackson said with a respectful nod to us three. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to move on your commands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked from Jackson to Derek and back again, and my mind was racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of me wanted to reject the help, wanted to handle this with just my inner circle, but the rational part of my brain knew Derek was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If this was a trap, if Daxon had prepared for us, then we needed every advantage we could get.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:26 Sat, Jan 10 G MR\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 182\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could see some one driving towards us, which I realize were Orion\u2019s Beta and Gamma.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was the only one that didn\u2019t come with people and it made me feel sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many?\u201d I asked Derek.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Twenty\u2013two of my best,\u201d Derek answered. All of them have worked operations like this before. All of them are expendable if it means bringing your mate\u00a0<\/p>\n
home safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The word expendable hit me wrong and my wolf snarled. \u201cNo one is expendable,\u201d I growled. \u201cBut I\u2019ll take the help.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because I had no other option.\u00a0<\/p>\n
70\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion moved closer to me and when he spoke, his voice was low enough that only I could hear. \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong, Tristan. I can feel it getting worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever\u2019s happening to Athena, it\u2019s escalating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was right and I could feel it too through our bond. The connection was getting stronger but also more chaotic, like Athena was losing control of whatever power she was accessing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 182 The wind burned my face but I barely felt it because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}