Atomic Mage by Garrett Carter (short books for teens txt) 📕

myself so let's take a break I can increase our pace to the camp when we are done, so no harm done," he replied jovially as he turned the barge to come ashore on a small beach before a turn in the river.

Coming ashore Cade beached the barge on a mostly level decent sized beach, essentially a small peninsula caused by the river making a sharp turn as it flowed to its destination.

Thinking the place wouldn't make a bad camp for the night if they weren't on a tight schedule, he followed his mate into the dense tree line to find a spot to relieve themselves.

Coming up short a small ways into the trees Mina placed a kiss on his cheek as she moved into the brush to take care of her urgent business.

Smiling as his mate made her soundless exit with only a little peepee walk in her graceful stride he turned and made for a nice sized tree to take care of his own business.

Having taken a number two before they left their last campsite Cade was patiently waiting just outside the tree line for his mate to return.

A shriek and a roar suddenly cut off by a pained scream had him charging into the trees as if his life was on the line.

Expanding his senses to search for his mate he found her unique signature being held down by something that clouded his scanning ability.

Running towards where he felt Mina, Cade came upon a strange scene as Mina held off what he could only describe as an armored lamia.

Acting without a thought he secured the lamia like reptile in his mental clutches and ripped her away from his suddenly still mate.

Sliding to his knees at the side of Mina's still form he dove into his mate's body with his power to find the reason she was so still, her chest rising and falling imperceptibly.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary besides two puncture wounds on Mina's arm, he after determining she would survive for a few minutes set his furious gaze upon the snake woman still clutched painfully in his power if her labored breathing and pinched face was any indication.

A familiar terror ran through Cade for a moment, his last goodbye with Tony fueling the rage he felt building.

Afraid to leave his mate's side for even a second his gaze remained locked to Mina's glassy-eyed stare as he roughly tore into the lamia's mind.

Stepping into a large cavern with stalactites and stalagmites strewed about he both felt the snake womans fear as well as saw it as a dense sickly green colored fog that permeated the chamber.

Looking into the fog he saw the lamia's mental shield was a floor covered in venomous snakes that slithered within a perfect circle in the vast cavern.

Casting his power over the cavern Cade found the lamia's mindscape doppelganger cowering behind a stalagmite shivering in fear from his forced invasion.

Deciding to skip trying to get past the odd shield, the rage caused by concern for his mate boiled over as he destroyed the obstruction violently, mostly protecting the perpetrator of his mate's condition from the debris.

With the lamia in sight and properly cowed to prevent any stupid thoughts of resistance, he pulled the bruised and bleeding woman to him on the other side of her snake shield.

He found the woman clothed in rags that barely covered her important bits, a filthy, ragged chest wrap and a similarly filthy wrap around her emaciated hips completed her ensemble.

Taking his mate's condition as his first priority he increased the pressure of his grip on all of her fifteen-foot body save her small chest and head before laying down the law.

"You have injured my mate and you will undo whatever you have done to her or I will destroy your mind around you before incinerating your brain dead corpse, and you will do it NOW!" Roaring his demand at the starving woman he matched the pressure on her chest and head to the rest of her body.

Wide-eyed at the man who had thrown her from her meal and overpowered her physical body and tore through the mental defenses that had stood up to all the slavers in the region who had tried to capture her after they had killed her mother a decade ago, Sabine was cowed and released the panther woman who was to be her first meal in weeks after the slavers had chased her tens of miles downriver from a new nest she had made in a small cave in the river bank.

"She is released, please don't kill me, I was just so hungry and she an easy kill distracted as she was." Sabine pleaded in a high-pitched breathy voice, as she was slowly crushed to death by the power of the man before her.

"I will release you in your mind but your body will remain in my power until I confirm my mate is safe and sound. But I warn you, if this is some poor attempt at subterfuge to save the life I hold in my power, you will have just enough time to lament your terrible decision before I make good on my earlier promise."

Releasing her mental body with a contemptuous look he exited the snake woman's mind.

Returning to the real world he was greeted with a look of absolute adoration in his mate's eyes as she flung herself into his arms and felt her hiccupping cries on his chest.

"I am here my Mina and you are perfectly safe so dry those tears and let's meet our uninvited guest," he said as he hugged the distraught panter woman off the forest floor and set her on