Page 74 of His Arranged Plus-Size Mate

I watched Asher grab him, throwing his arms around the man’s neck and squeezing. My eyes widened as the man crawled up Asher’s arm, blood falling from the marks.

He squeezed harder and twisted violently. You could hear the snap, and I jumped. I couldn’t breathe. I knew what the guys could do, but watching it was insane.

I looked over at Brandon, who had done the same thing. The guys both lay dead. Brandon waved at the group. “Let’s go.”

I moved with the others and hurried toward Asher. “You’re bleeding.”

“It will heal. We don’t have time to worry about these wounds.” He grabbed my hand, pulling me along. We needed to keep moving.

Kaleb and Westley came around a tree. “There were two more that we took out. The camp is up ahead. A large group of them is lounging around, but not enough to be concerned. I think a lot of them are away, which is going to work in our favor.”

We continued to walk until we could see the clearing ahead. The wide open space had a dark feeling as you got closer. Brandon pulled us all to a stop.

“Alright, we split here. You guys stay here until you know the coast is clear to move in. The rest of us are moving forward. We will get the others to follow.”

“Stay alive,” Kaleb added, looking at Westley and me.

“Same goes to you.”

We watched as they all moved forward. I could see Asher was bouncing on his heels. His eyes stared at the guys as they walked away.

I squeezed his hand. “They’re going to be okay. We’re going to get through this.”

We could hear footsteps and ducked low. And then we heard it. The sound of screaming erupted in the distance. I ground my teeth together and felt Asher’s hands tighten on mine. I didn’t know if that was part of the distraction or if one of our guys had gotten hurt. We wouldn’t know if that was part of the distraction or if someone was hurt.

“We’re good to go,” Westley said, pulling himself up.

We moved out of the treeline and into the open space. The air felt dense, and I hated how it felt like something was crawling on me.

“Where is the body buried?” Westley asked.

I scanned the area and pointed to a patch of rocks. It was a large space, big enough to have a house. And the more I stared, I realized that it was the rubble of where the house had sat.

We moved together, hurrying over toward the space. I looked around, trying to remember where exactly they had laid the body down. But a scream filled the air a lot closer to us.

I turned and froze. A hybrid stood just a few feet away from us.

“Shit.” Westley cursed.

The hybrid came charging at us. Asher moved in front of me as Westley bent down and shifted. He charged at the hybrid, slamming it into the ground. The sound of claws ripping against skin filled the air.

“Find the body, Hazel!” he yelled, knowing it was only a matter of time before others showed up.

“It’s here,” I said, pointing toward a spot. “Chelsey, help me.”

We all started to pull the rocks, shoving the large ones aside. I couldn’t breathe as we moved dirt. I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.

I felt my hands shaking as I dug, not finding anything. Had I been wrong? Was it not here? Had they moved it, worried we would come looking for it? But I could feel the energy. I could feel the pure rage that was put into this place, which meant it was still here. I kept seeing him over and over. I understood the anger. I got why he wanted revenge. What happened to his wife was horrible.

“You’re making a mistake,” A voice spoke, a shiver rolling over me.

“Do you really think they deserve to live? They raped her! They killed her! They are the ones that deserve to suffer.”

I looked over at Chelsey. Was she hearing the voice?

Chelsey kept digging, which told me she wasn’t. I tried to shake it off as we got to a large wooden coffin. We yanked the lid off, and inside was the body.

It was bones at this point. Even the fabric of his clothes was disintegrating. The smell of magic filled the air, and I held my breath.