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“Patrick, nothing,” he answered, pulling out of the parking space. “I don’t know what he’s done to you, Mariam, but the girl I love values her freedom too much to settle for a game of whips and chains for the rest of her life.”
The girl he loves?I frowned. “Patrick, we’re best friends, but you aren’t in love with me. You’re waiting for your true mate, remember?”
The driver’s side was quiet for several beats, but I didn’t fill the silence. I stared him down, daring him to challenge what we both knew was the truth.
“Maybe I just needed some time to understand how little that actually matters, Mariam,” he said. “Since the day you left, all I’ve thought about is you. I want you with me every day. I don’t care if you take other lovers. I don’t care if you won’t let me spank you. I don’t care about any of it. I just want you.”
Everything felt like it was happening so fast. If Patrick had said all this a few days earlier, I would have found a way back to him so that he could bite and claim me. But none of what he said mattered anymore. “He’s claimed me, Patrick. Trace bit me like I already told you, and last night we finished the mating bond. It’s done. I belong to him now.”
Patrick swerved over the double yellow line at that news, causing a trucker going the opposite way to honk angrily at us.
“You’re lying,” Patrick choked. “If you were already mated, he would be able to see everything that has happened. He would be on his way to you now, and you wouldn’t give two shits about the people watching us on the sidewalk.”
I shifted uncomfortably on the hard bench seat. “Heblocked me out this morning. I was seeing something in his mind that he didn’t want me to see, so he severed the connection and hasn’t put it back in place.”
"What was he trying to prevent you from seeing?" Patrick asked. His arm stayed firmly planted against me as though I might bound out the door at any moment.
"It was Alexander. What he did to him at the hotel on the night we met, I mean."
"No wonder he didn't want you to see that," Patrick growled. "It shows him for what he is: a hot-tempered monster."
I couldn't argue with that. The memory, even the small part I saw, was terrifying and would make anyone second-guess how stable Trace truly was. If he had shown it to me before mating, I might have tried to scale out the window in my bedroom to escape.
"It's fine. That doesn't matter, either," Patrick said, bringing the conversation back to my mating bond and tearing me away from my thoughts. "There has to be something we can do, and in the meantime, I'm getting you as far away from Tumblewild as I can. If Trace can turn off your connection, so can you. Shut him out so he won't be able to see where we're going."
I considered his request and finally nodded in agreement. "I'll cut him off, Patrick, but not because I don't want to go back to him. I'll cut him off so that he won't track me down and murder you."
__________
The morning had dragged on, first with the crumby update about the Sweetwater pack from Randy and then anawkward visit to Jess’s house to help set things right with her. The interaction had been uncomfortable at best, and Trace sincerely hoped that one day their friendship could return to normal.
They had shared a grin when she mentioned that at least he had been wearing a towel, which gave him some hope for the future. Despite her protests, Trace promised that Mariam would also be visiting her soon to express her sincere apologies.
The worst part of the whole day was maintaining the block against his connection with his mate. Trace’s wolf was pacing again, in much the same way he had when Mariam was running from them. He longed for the intimacy they shared last night and this morning until the alpha had to cut it off abruptly.
Although Mariam had never claimed to have feelings for the bastard at the hotel, even Trace wasn’t cruel enough to show her his final moments. And once it was done, he had decided to keep it in place until after his meeting with Jess to help spare them both additional embarrassment, but now he would be able to join her again.
He concentrated on the part of his mind that she had begun to occupy and unlocked the door that he used to shut her out. His breath caught painfully in his chest when he saw only darkness on the other side. She should be there, along with her wolf. But now, there was nothing.
His wolf whined, stressed not to be reunited with their mate. Trace’s mind jumbled as he tried to make sense of it.Was she hurt? Dead? No, I’d be able to feel the loss if she was truly gone from this world. Did she block me out herself?
He frowned. Why would she try to keep him out of hermind while she worked at the school? Was there something going on there? He started the truck and tried to call her phone over Bluetooth. He listened eagerly as it rang while he sped downtown to the school. Eventually, the phone hung up because she wasn’t answering and hadn’t set up her voicemail.
Trace dialed Randy next, anger starting to build in him. If there was an emergency and she had left her phone at home, he was going to tan her hide. She would regret causing him this much panic.
“Randy,” his beta answered.
“Where’s Mariam?” Trace growled. “Something’s wrong with our connection, and she’s not answering her phone.”
Randy paused, but only for a moment. “I thought you said she was working at the school today.”
“She is,” he spat. “At least, she said she was working there today.”
“You didn’t have one of the guys drop her off?” Randy asked. The question rubbed Trace the wrong way.
“No. I trust my mate.” The words were icy, but at this point, he was beginning to question his own intelligence in allowing her to go alone. She wasn’t leaving him, that much he knew. Her kiss and promise this morning to return to him were solid. But if someone, an outsider, had entered pack lands and harmed her, he would never forgive himself.
What’s worse, he had been the one to sever their connection, making it so she was unable to call out to him for help.
