Chapter 340

He had always hoped that he would find his mate. For all those decades and centuries Lucien had yearned. He had never imagined, however, that it would be so all-consuming. He had hoped that it would be a love like nothing he had ever experienced, and it was. He had hoped that he would be able to feel that his mate loved him as much as he loved her, and he could. Elain was everything he had ever dreamed of. And more.

Lucien had not expected that he would be able to feel Elain's absence. He could feel the distance between them and his brain was unable to focus on anything else. Over and over in his mind, it was repeating. Mate. Mate. Mate. Find her. Save her.

Elain was his entire world, and he had not known that it would be this way. He had expected it to be powerful and he had expected her to be the most important thing in his world, but he didn't have a world without her. Nothing else existed to him right now other than finding her, and he had not ever imagined that when he found his mate that she would be literally the only thing he was capable of thinking about. Her name was repeating over and over in his mind now. Elain. Elain. Elain.

Shivers moved through Lucien as he moved through the city. His entire body was throbbing with the need to find his mate, to get to her. Now that he had been released by Helion, he was free to pursue whoever had taken his mate and he was not going to be kind when he found them. Fire simmered in his veins, and Lucien didn't even try to put a damper on it. He was going to burn them all.

Movement behind the shelves made Elain freeze where she stood. She listened as hard as she could, trying to keep the worried looks from those around her from heightening her panic. As it stood, she rather thought that she was keeping that low level panic she was already experiencing at a fair to decent base level. If it grew higher, however, she didn't know what she might do.

The fae behind the shelves were moving and Elain met Ashk's eyes. Almost as one, they both sank down to their knees, moving toward the floor and, instantly, the others began doing the same thing. Elain hoped that, with everyone on the floor and out of eyelevel, perhaps they would not be seen.

"What do you think about what she wants?" One of the male voices from the other side of the shelves asked.

"I don't know." The other said, and Elain thought he did indeed sound a little hesitant. "I've not done anything like that before."

"I'd be worried if you had." The first laughed. "But, I understand you. I was shocked…" The voice was more serious now. "Do you think that you can do it?"

"I guess we have to…"

Elain looked at Ashk and then Tisia, wondering what it was that the two males they could hear were talking about. Ashk shook her head and Tisia had her head tilted as she listened. Both looked as confused as Elain felt. Dread began to pool in the pit of her stomach and she held her breath when the conversation continued.

The first male cleared his throat a little. "I… I guess it makes it a bit easier," he began, "That the rest of them were moved…"

"Yeah…" The other agreed, "That would have made it worse…"

The voices moved and Elain realised that they were heading for the door on the other side of the room, the door that they were all heading for. Remaining as still as possible, she hoped that they would not be seen and she hoped that the two fae males she could now see would not turn around.

Barely even noticing what she was doing then, Elain reached for the bond. Hurt flooded her when she still felt nothing there but emptiness.