It seemed like the best way forward. I wanted to tell him that she was his mate, but he was so upset I thought it would be best to leave it for the moment and tell him in the morning after everything had calmed down.
“I agree with Keri,” Scarlett said as she put a hand on his shoulder. “Leave it alone for the moment and once everyone has had a chance to get over the shock of it, she may be more open to the idea of talking to you.”
He looked at his sister and then gave me a brief nod.
“I need to go and see Curtis,” I said to Blake. Although I was still healing, I felt exhausted and just wanted to lie down for a little bit but I needed to tell Curtis that the mission was off. We would have to come up with another way of dealing with the dangerous rogues.
“I’m coming with you,” he stated. He wrapped an arm around my waist and walked me to the medical center where Curtis was busy talking to a nurse.
“What happened?” he asked as soon as his eyes settled on me.
“The mission is off,” I told him.
“Why?” he asked with a frown. “It was the only solution we had to deal with a coming attack from the rogues.”
I had my reasons but I couldn’t reveal them until I’d told Kyle.
“It doesn’t matter. We have to come up with another way,” I told him firmly, hoping he’d accept that.
He studied me for a moment.
“There might not be another way,” he said firmly.
I couldn’t believe that. There had to be another way to keep us safe.
“Come on,” Blake said as he took in my paleness. “It’s time for you to rest.”
“But—” I wanted to argue with him but he cut me off.
“You can rest and I will handle whatever needs to be dealt with,” he assured me as he led me out of the medical center.
There were times when I got annoyed when he bossed me around, but then there were times it was nice to just give in and allow him to take over. Back in my room, he helped me into my bed and my muscles eased as I lay down.
“I’m going to meet with the others to start discussing strategies on keeping the rogues from taking us over,” he told me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I wanted to be a part of that discussion so I sat up.
“No,” he said firmly. “You need to rest.”
He was right and I knew it. I sighed as I lay back down and allowed him to leave. At some point I drifted off to sleep and awoke at the sounds of a commotion. I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus them in my brightly lit room. I saw Blake standing beside Kyle and the door to my room was open.
“She’s gone,” Kyle yelled angrily and I struggled to understand what was going on. I sat up and looked at Blake, who stood beside him trying to calm him down.
“Who’s gone?” I asked when my mind struggled to catch up with what was happening in front of me.
“Crystal is gone.”
“Give me a minute to get dressed,” I said to Kyle. He was upset but he turned and left.
Blake closed the door and I got out of bed and got dressed. My mind was running through possible places of where she could have gone, but I kept coming up empty. By the time I was dressed I walked out of my room to a waiting Kyle who was pacing up and down.
“Calm down,” I told him. “We will find her.”
I needed to reassure him even though there was a possibility we might not. If someone didn’t want to be found, there wasn’t a lot we could do about it.
“Where was the last place anyone saw her?” I asked.
Kyle looked at me.
“The gate.”
