Free Rane's Mate by Hazel Gower Page A

attention. Now, on closer inspection, she could see he wasn’t in
very good shape either. “What happened?”
    He didn’t even glance down at her as he stated, “We were at
the bowling alley, all having fun. I never thought they would come to a bowling
alley. There was no warning, no nothing. All of a sudden we smelled the sulphur
and everywhere we looked there were fucking demons. Fifteen, I’m telling you,
fifteen, they swarmed in with minions and zombies. There were only eight of us,
that’s including my sisters, Remy, and Bengie.”
    He shook his head like he was trying to dispel a nasty
thought.
    “Bengie, he… I don’t think they knew his potential when they
let him go and haven’t come searching for him. He fucking kept three, and I
mean three huge demons from Remy. I…we can’t…can’t…” He shook his head. “And
wow, Remy wasn’t doing so bad herself with minions, but once the four demons
surrounded them, they just...”
    He seemed to choke as he spat out, “Remy was amazing. She
set demons on fire, burnt most of the minions that way. Demons are different to
minions, they can take the pain.” A tear fell out of his eye, sliding down his
face. “It felt like hours, although I’m sure it was only minutes, when the
stupid fucking police started showing up and shooting the demons. It made the
fuckers stronger. Finally reinforcements came, but they weren’t enough. Faith
couldn’t, Faith… She didn’t see how many. We didn’t know how many. So they only
sent eight more and we really needed double. All of us fought as best we could
until more help arrived, but with the demons enhanced from the lead bullets the
stupid humans used...”
    He glanced behind her, and she felt Rane’s arms come around
her waist.
    “I’m sorry, man, one of your human army men is dead and one
is in critical condition. None are as bad as Remy and Bengie.” Tears were
freely rolling down Jamie’s face now as he whispered, “They’re in real bad
shape.” Kirby could barely hear him as he said, “I don’t know if Remy will
survive this. We have had problems as we cannot chance a hospital visit,
especially with Bengie. Remy’s not…”
    Faith jumped up from the lounge, Rane’s mother let go of
her. Her eyes turned an eerie color as she seemed to lose focus and yell out,
“Call Arden, he has to come home, now! Call Arden, call him.”
    Everyone turned to Faith. Della touched her shoulders.
“Sweetheart, he’s not due back from his away team for three more weeks. They’re
in Canberra, and it will take him hours to get here.”
    “I don’t care. Get him here now or I will never
forgive you.”
    Everyone gaped at Faith. Rane’s dad came up and tried to
pull her in for a hug, but she fought it.
    “No, no, he has to come. She’s his mate.”
    “Faith, she can’t be Arden’s mate. He would have recognized
her, or said something by now. She’s been friends with you for years. No, she
can’t be.”
    Sara spoke through sobs. “No, this is the first time Remy’s
been out here. We never understood why Faith never had sleepovers or invited us
to her house for visits. Faith just never wanted us to, and Remy didn’t come to
Kane’s thirty-fifth birthday party. We have only ever been around your
daughters, Jamie, and Devlin, although recently Kane too.”
    Everyone stared wide-eyed at Faith. Her lips were pursed and
her eyes seemed to be flashing with anger. “What? Stop looking at me like that.
It’s not how I envisioned them meeting. I saw it differently, but…” She looked
at Jack and then at everyone. “They’re messing with the future, so I don’t see
why I can’t. If she dies, the future I saw will be out of whack anyway. All I
know is she can’t die.” She glared at everyone in the room, before she added, “None
of you can tell him, or her, why he has to come home.”
    Rane growled at the same time as his father and then
everyone gave a reluctant nod. Jack slowly walked away with his phone to