The Designated Mate novel Chapter 68

I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to barge into my uncle's territory and demand my parents back; I had a strong feeling in the pit of my stomach that that's where they were. But, until I could be sure of that fact, I needed to cover all the bases first. My whole life I'd wondered what my uncle had really done with my parents. Where he'd taken my sister after dumping me and how she ended up in Poppy's birth pack. So many unanswered questions that were chipping away at me with every passing day - hell, every passing minute. I didn't want to ruin my chance at obtaining those answers because I didn't have enough patience.

I rubbed at my chest, trying to ease the discomfort there while reassuring my wolf that we left Poppy under adequate protection. He wasn't having it, though. And, really, neither was I. The only adequate protection there was for her was me.

"Uncomfortable, huh?" Jason asked rhetorically while pointing towards my hand kneading my chest.

"Does it ever get better?" I grumbled out.

"Not really, but it does get easier. To manage, that is. The older your bond becomes, the more secure both you and your wolf will feel. You'll be able to sense her presence better and know for sure how she's feeling and whether she's alright or not. I'm so in tune with Gracie now that, if I really wanted to, I could tell if she's hungry, sleeping, or even using the bathroom," he joked with genuine laughter.

I nodded in response before gazing out the window. I opted not to drive, knowing if I did my wolf would take advantage of the situation and turn the car around and return to Poppy. The stupid mutt only ever had two things on his mind: how to improve her well-being and how to get her into bed. I guess I couldn't judge him that hard as my thought process wasn't much different, really...

I leaned my head against the window frame and closed my eyes, hoping to catch some shut-eye during the drive so my mind wouldn't race the entire drive. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed when I woke up from my impromptu nap only two hours later. I had another eight hours to kill before we'd be there.

I spent the rest of the time mind-linking Poppy; either reassuring her that we would all be okay and continuously going over the plan or trying to convince her to send me photos of herself in nothing but one of my button up shirts. Being the intelligent woman she was, she denied on the premise of saving everyone else in the car from having to stare at my hard-on the rest of the ride.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed by the time Jason and I finally met up once again, both having clearly found nothing to get our hopes up over. I looked up at the sky and noticed that it appeared to extremely close to sunrise. I sighed, my hope dissipating greatly as I realized my worst nightmare had come true; my uncle had my parents and I was going to have to face him to finally get them back and end this thing once and for all.

**

My shoulders were slumped when we all loaded the car once again to begin the trip home. Having come together last night and realized we'd all failed to scent anything, the mood between all of us had become incredibly bleak.