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“Still, maybe.”
“No. I’m not hiding out. Just limiting the chances. I can’t avoid it forever. One day, someone will let something slip, or he’ll run into me.”
“Kade —“
“No. We better get started doing some work. What do you need me to do?”
Dakota refused to let me drive home alone in my van, especially since I didn’t need it with being grounded to the warehouse. He dropped me off on his lunch, deciding for me I was done for the day after four hours of work. I would have felt frustrated at him, but I was exhausted. He even bought me a sandwich on the way so I could have lunch and then nap before my date with Blake.
My mate,moon help me. It felt strange and kind of wonderful to call him that. He’d kept in contact all day. Memes and gifs brightened the monotony of paperwork. I sent him a selfie of me tucked up in bed about to get an hour’s sleep and his reply set butterflies loose in my stomach.
Blake: Wish I was there. You are such a cuddly sleeper.
True, but only with you,I thought. It wasn’t something I was ready to reveal to him. I got the feeling that he liked me a little prickly. Not just willing to roll over and let him do what he wanted. And moon help me, I liked him. I couldn’t help but be won over by how sweet he was. Nothing like the alphas I’d known before.
Living near Sweetwater had done that, though. Had shown me a different side to all the alphas that were in my life. I’d made assumptions about Dakota and he’d proven me wrong.
The Luna had known what she was doing when she made Blake for me. Yet, I was still reluctant to bond fully. There was a part of me that wanted to wait and get to know him better. Not having my wolf aspect guiding me really didn’t help matters, either.
There was also my probable infertility to consider. As an Alpha Mate, they expected me to give my pack heirs. Blake could talk all he wanted about adoption, or other methods of having kids, but our bond wouldn’t allow him to be with someone else. Fated mates just couldn’t cheat.
My only option was to take it slow and see if my wolf returned. With my wolf, my chances of having children were higher, better odds for me to accept.
I spent the time between waking up from my nap and my date with Blake getting ready, picking up the house, and just missing him. It was ridiculous, but the feeling itched at me the whole time. The notion that something wasn’t right, that I wasn’t complete, not just because of my sleeping wolf, but because my mate was too far from me.
Rubbing the mate mark, I noticed it was fading and my heart lurched, bringing me up short. Wasn’t that what I wanted? To be free of the bond so I had time to choose? Could I attribute all my feelings for Blake to the mark? No. My subconscious flashed back to all those times I’d seen flashes of those gorgeous eyes of his in my mind before I’d even stepped into Heatwave and seen him again.
Hell, part of the reason I’d passed out was my physical reaction to him overloading my system. I flushed when I thought about what I’d probably looked like.
I’d been the one that had asked Blake to mark me in the first place. He’d said he was my mate, and I’d trusted him from the start. I’d never questioned it since I could feel it was true in my gut.
I didn’t want it to fade. I’d get him to mark me again if he wanted to, even though I wasn’t quite ready to reciprocate. There had to be a way to make him understand I wanted him. I just wasn’t quite ready, and I needed the security that even a partial bond gave me.
Blake picked me up for an early dinner and a movie with a different enforcer doing the driving. He came to my door, kissed me quickly in greeting, and led me to the car. “I’ve missed you. Is that too much to say?”
“Not really, I’ve missed you too.”
We shared a grin. Blake opened the door for me, made sure I was settled and closed it, jogging around the car to the other side. “This is Kaine,” he introduced us briefly before settling into the back seat with me, dismissing the other man altogether. He was large, likely an alpha, and had tattoos running up and down his thick arms. Close-cropped blond hair added to an unapproachable air.
I gave Blake a look, and I tied on my talisman, and he shrugged. “Later,” he mouthed at me, and we lapsed into silence on the way to the restaurant. I caught the driver, Kaine, looking at me in the rearview mirror a few times, but brushed it off. He probably wondered why my scent disappeared.
“We are having some issues in the pack,” Blake finally explained as we were seated at our table deep within the Italian place he’d picked out.
“What kind of issues?” Anxiety prickled along my skin, certain my father had something to do with it. The man stirred up trouble wherever he went.
Blake studied my face. “The fact your father seems to have vanished is a problem. I’m pretty sure he’s been around the omega housing, but the scent was too mixed with others by the time I could investigate. He couldn’t manage that without help. Now I don’t know who to trust.”
My heart lurched as I worried for the safety of the omegas. “So Kaine?”
“He’s not on my list to watch, but I don’t want talk of it going around the pack. So far, it’s restricted to my brothers and my cousin.”
“Deke?”
“Yeah, Chase can tell if people are lying, so we questioned him.” Blake looked pained. “It sucked to doubt him even a little, but I could never tell when he was running things if he cared about the pack. He handed it over easily. A little too easily, y’know?”
“Did you ever think that he just knew that you were born to lead?”
Blake’s face colored, and it was the cutest thing ever. “I’m serious, Blake. You have such a great reputation.” I grinned at him before sobering. “I think if there are enforcers that are betraying the pack, figure out what Rincoln can give them that you can’t or won’t.”
