Chapter 40 - Mate Bond

Xavier had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. He kept trying to mindlink Luci, but she wouldn't respond. He had felt her despair and wanted to know what was wrong. When he finished meeting with his father, he ran to their room, but she wasn't there.

He saw her purse on the table, and her phone was lying on the top, so he figured she hadn't gone far. When he came out of their room, he ran into Bexley, getting ready to knock.

"I came to see if Luci was okay after the way those nasty women spoke to her when we were out shopping. Is she in there?" Bexley tried to look around Xavier, but he stopped her.

"No, she's not here. What women are you talking about?" Xavier asked, concerned.

"While we were shopping, a group of women ran into us, elbowing Luci in the side. Then they began calling her names and saying she would never be their queen. Luci was upset, but she pulled me away before I could claw out their eyeballs. When we got back to the palace, she said she was going to lie down, so I wanted to see how she was doing." Bexley saw the anger in her brother's eyes.

"Do you know who these women were? Talking to their future queen like that will not be tolerated." Xavier was ready to throw them all in the dungeon for hurting Luci.

"No, I don't know who they were. If Luci isn't here, where is she?" Bexley asked with concern.

"I don't know. I tried to mindlink her, but she's not responding. Her phone and purse are in our room, so I'm going to try and follow her scent." Xavier began sniffing the air and picked up Luci's scent right away.

"I'll come with you." Bexley followed Xavier as he ran down the stairs and toward the front doors of the palace. When they got to the guard stationed there, he stopped.

"Did you see Luci come out this way?" Xavier asked the guard.

"Princess Lucinda walked out a few minutes ago and went towards the gardens." Xavier felt a moment of relief as he and Bexley ran to the gardens. Maybe Luci just wanted to get some fresh air.

When they got to the gardens, Bexley and Xavier separated. They sniffed the air and followed her scent, eventually ending up in the same place.

"Her scent is strongest right here, but then it's gone. Where could she be?" Xavier said as they looked around the area. They both ran in different directions, looking for her, yelling her name over and over, but there was no response. When they went back to the spot where her scent was strong, they looked around to see if they saw anything.

"Xavier, look." Bexley held up a small bag, and his blood ran cold as he read what it said. It was scent-masking herbs.

"Why would she mask her scent?" Xavier kept trying to mindlink her, but it was as if she was no longer there. He knew that she was now too far away to receive a mindlink.

"You don't think she would leave because of those women, do you? They were loud mouthed nobodies." Bexley knew Luci was upset, but she never thought she would have this reaction.

"When Raymond threatened her, he said nobody wanted her to be queen. He even said that everyone in the kingdom wanted to keep me from being king just so she wouldn't be queen. I told her not to listen to him, but these women obviously share the same opinion as Raymond. Luci said she would leave before costing me the throne. Bexley, we have to find her."

Bexley had never seen her brother so distraught before. He was in tears as he fell to his knees, holding his chest. She squatted down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders.

"We'll find her. I'm sure she's also feeling the pain from being away from you because of the mate bond. Use that to find her. Let the mate bond be your guide." Xavier listened to what Bexley said and knew she was right.

He stood up, tried to push past the pain in his chest, and focused on Luci. Xavier looked around and noticed branches were broken above the wrought iron gate near where they were standing.

"She jumped over here. We walked the gardens just a few days ago, and we noticed there was no one monitoring this section." Xavier thought about what they had done in that part of the garden, but it made the pain worse, so he cleared his head and focused on finding his mate.

"Alright, let's go. Do you want to take some guards with us?" Bexley asked, but Xavier had already leaped over the gate.

"No, not right now. Let's see if we can find her first." Bexley leaped over the gate to join her brother, and they started running, looking for broken branches and disturbed brush as they went.

Xavier continued trying to mindlink Luci but still couldn't reach her. As they ran, he became more and more desperate to find her. She was a vampire, but she didn't know the forest around the palace. He was worried that rogues or someone else would get their hands on her.

Bexley watched her brother and knew he was getting more and more worried about Luci. She was surprised that Luci would take off like this. It must have shaken her up more than Bexley had thought.

After they had been running for almost an hour, Xavier came to a stop. He could feel that they were getting closer. He tried to mindlink her, and he felt her, but she was still blocking him out. With her covering her scent, he couldn't pick that up either.

Xavier slowly walked around the area, and Bexley followed him quietly, not wanting to break his concentration. He suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.

"Do you smell that?" She stopped and sniffed the air. Her eyes widened in fear.

"Rogues, lots of them. We have to get to her. She won't be able to fight off that many." They couldn't follow Luci's scent, so they followed the scent of the rogues.

Xavier could tell the rogues were spreading out because the scent was starting to surround him. All he could think about was getting to Luci. He had to keep her from getting hurt; nothing else mattered.

When Xavier and Bexley got close to where the rogues were, they slowed their steps so they could sneak up on them. Bexley jumped into a tree so she could look down over the rogues to see what they were doing. She almost screamed at what she saw but stopped and mindlinked Xavier instead.

*"They have Luci, and they're trying to rip her clothes off. We have to hurry; she's trying to break free, but they're holding her down."*