Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide
Chapter 31 - Stone (Part 1)

Stone grimaced when he picked up a whiff of something strong and pungent. Hector did too and frowned.

“What is that?” Hector asked. “Some kind of cleaning solution?”

“It’s foul,” Stone muttered, covering his nose and mouth with his napkin. It was clouding his mind and making him dizzy.

Hector covered his mouth and nose too, looking around at the humans gathered around them at various tables.

Loud chatter filled the open space as the milk steamers hissed and whistled, knives chopped away on cutting boards in the kitchen preparation area, and coffee machines gurgled and dripped as they brewed Aubree’s liquid heaven. Could the humans not smell it too?

“It’s making me dizzy,” Hector said.

Stone’s heart skipped a beat as icy-cold dread filled him. If it was affecting Hector too, there was no coincidence. Through all the noise and smells, he could no longer hear Aubree’s heartbeat, her steady breathing, nor her footsteps.

Something had happened.

He caught Hector’s gaze as their eyes widened and jumped to their feet.

“Aubree,” Stone said before switching to Lykostroya as Hector followed him to the washroom. “Do you hear her?”

“No.”

They marched down the hallway, where the sharp smell grew in strength. They couldn’t even pick up Aubree’s scent as the foul chemical stench clouded their senses. Stone held his breath as he opened the bathroom door to the ladies’ room, but it was empty.

Swearing, they looked to the emergency exit next to it and pushed the door open. It led them out to the back of the café, but there was nothing there besides the dumpster next to the parking lot.

Aubree’s scent was already being picked up and scattered by the wind.

Stone cursed loudly, his eyes flying around for any sign of her disappearance. He strained his ears, filled his lungs, but the sounds and smells of the city turned against him and he was left with nothing.

A slew of mental curses whirled through his head as panic gripped him. How could this have happened? How could he have let his guard down for a second?

He couldn’t lose Aubree. He had to replace her.

His heart was racing as he gripped Hector’s shoulder for support.

Flashbacks of racing through the forest and discovering Adelaide and Arthur’s lifeless bodies crashed down on him. His vision blurred. Pain seared through his chest. He couldn’t breathe.

“Stone,” Hector called, his voice sounding far away despite standing right next to him. “Pull yourself together. We’ll replace her, okay? We’ll replace her.”

Stone pressed his hands to his face as he dragged in lungfuls of air.

His fingers brushed through her long, dark brown tresses as he cradled the severed head to his chest. The once warm, vibrant brown eyes now dull and distant as they stared back at him. His tears fell on her cheeks before he pressed his fingertips to Adelaide’s eyelids and drew them closed, never to gaze into those deep browns ever again.

Not again. He couldn’t lose his soulmate again.

Firm hands shook him as Hector called him back from the dark, painful recesses of his mind. Groaning, Stone tried to push back the haunting images and the pain that gripped him, focusing on what they had to do now, and that was to replace Aubree before it was too late.

He ran his hand through his ponytail as he gathered himself. Reverting back into warrior mode, he whipped out his phone, and called out to everyone in the mind-link, waking them all from sleep.

“Did you sense anything in the café?” Stone asked Hector as he searched through his contact list.

He shook his head. “Nothing. Just humans.”

That was all Stone had sensed too. Why would humans kidnap Aubree, though?

“Carina has to be behind this,” he said as he found Colten’s phone number. He tapped the call icon on the screen and held it up to his ear. “She must have hired a few humans to follow us and kidnap her when given the chance. I didn’t even notice, I was so preoccupied with—”

"Hello?" Colten answered on the other end, cutting Stone off.

“Alpha, we have a problem. Gather your best wolves and meet me at Morning Joe’s Café immediately,” Stone said. “My mate’s been kidnapped.”