Destiny concealed, p.13
Destiny Concealed, page 13
Rolling over onto his other side, he began patting his hand around on the other side of the bed only to find it empty. His eyes flew open and panic gripped him immediately, but he forced his heart to slow, for his brain to process. She wasn’t there, so maybe she was in the bathroom.
Tilting his head, his tired eyes focused on the bathroom door, but it was open and the room was empty. The kitchen, maybe? Straining his ears, he listened for the tell-tale signs of breakfast being made, but all he got in return was silence.
All right, he’d let himself panic now. Throwing the blankets from the bed, he slid his feet into his slippers and drew on his dressing gown. Where could she be? The thought that she’d run out on him crossed his mind for a half a second, but he wouldn’t let the idea take root. She wouldn’t disgrace him like that. She was probably out at the store getting something nice for breakfast, or out for a run or something.
In the kitchen, Zeke opened the fridge first then the pantry. Both were fully stocked with their usual breakfast foods. Returning to the bedroom, he found Saskia’s running shoes still under her side of the bed. He did notice something else as he peered under the bedframe though. The small carry-on she kept under her side of the bed was gone.
“Oh no,” he murmured, popping up onto his feet once more. Jerking open the drawers of her dresser, he was horrified to discover some clothes were missing. Legging it out of the bedroom, he paused with his hand on the internal door that led into the garage. Gathering his courage, he opened the door only to discover her car still there. Slamming the door shut, he stalked through to the kitchen and grabbed the phone from its cradle.
Punching in her cell number, he paced, his anger fighting for domination over his concern. Her phone rang out, and he talked himself into believing she was out somewhere and couldn’t hear it.
He glanced at the time on the microwave. It was only just after seven. Nothing but cafes would be open, and even then they couldn’t be that loud.
Slumping down onto a stool by the phone, he forced himself to think. Where could she be?
“Saxon,” he all but growled, standing up and going to collect his car keys. He should give Saxon a courtesy call first considering the hour, but Zeke’s anxiety to make sure Saskia was okay was too much, demanding he go now and find her himself. His wolf was on board with that idea, too.
In the garage, he buckled himself into his car and hit the door opener on the visor. The garage door opened agonizingly slowly, the whited-out landscape filling the rearview mirror. He reversed out of the drive, shutting the garage door as he went, and started heading downtown to Saxon’s apartment.
There was little traffic on the roads, which was great because Zeke wasn’t sure how well his stress levels would do with the added pressure. Finding a park in front of the building, he got out and jabbed at the intercom button on the wall.
It took a while, but eventually Saxon’s sleep-heavy voice answered.
“Yeah?” he barked.
“Saxon? It’s me.”
“Zeke?” He sighed, then said in an almost resigned tone, “Come on up.”
There was a buzz and Zeke pulled open the door. He rode the elevator up to the third floor, walking purposefully toward the apartment he hoped was harboring his mate.
The door opened before he could knock, and the expression on Saxon’s face told him everything he needed to know.
“She’s here?” he asked, stepping inside and shucking his coat.
Saxon took it from his hands, opening up a closet door and putting it on a hanger. “She came around about one o’clock this morning.”
Ezekiel closed his eyes up tight, a combination of relief and fear clamping down on his body. He was glad she was safe, but afraid of what her running in the middle of the night meant.
Zeke sat down heavily onto the sofa, turning to Saxon. “Did she tell you why?”
He nodded, looking grim.
Zeke swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Well?”
“I think you should hear it from her.”
He nodded woodenly. “Where is she? Still asleep?”
For some reason, that irritated Zeke. She was still sleeping soundly after running out on him in the middle of the night. Wasn’t she upset? Wasn’t she feeling guilty for what she’d put him through that morning?
“No. She was gone before I got up, but her bag is still here, so she’ll be returning soon.”
“Do you know where she’s gone?”
Saxon shook his head and stood up. “Can I get you some coffee while you wait?”
“Sure.”
Ezekiel watched his brother-in-law start the machine and grind the beans himself. The rich, heavy aroma of coffee soon permeated the apartment, easing some of the tension in Zeke’s shoulders. If Saskia had spoken to her brother about why she ran, she might even tell him.
Hopefully.
“You know I like you, right?” Saxon asked, holding a cup of coffee in front of his face. Ezekiel shook himself. How long had he just been staring out into space?
Accepting the cup, he replied, “Yes.”
“You should know that I told her she could stay the night, but she had to go home to you in the morning. I won’t allow her to ruin your reputation.”
“So she’s thinking of leaving me?” he asked, his voice hollow.
“She’s… You need to speak to her. She’s the only one who can tell you how she’s feeling.”
Zeke nodded. Saskia was going to leave him, but Saxon had talked her into staying. Had he been so unbearable to live with? Had he pushed her too far? He thought back to the night before—how his desperate need to be with her had made him touch himself in the most inappropriate way in front of her. He was such an idiot. Saskia was a proper female, with sensibilities, with good manners. Of course his behavior had offended her.
“She shouldn’t be too much longer,” Saxon said, offering him a look of sympathy.
Zeke didn’t need it from him, but he took it, sitting there, waiting for his mate to return.
Casey was following Alex, who was following Saskia. She didn’t really have a good feeling about it, but what other choice did she have? She was an Alfheim wolf in Helheim territory without permission. She’d be killed if found, but maybe if she stuck with Alex, she would be able to explain the situation to the Helheim alpha.
“Umm, you didn’t tell me Saskia was a werewolf,” Casey said, talking to Alex’s back.
“I didn’t put the pieces together until I became one.”
Casey thought that was weird, but whatever. “Where do you think we’re going?” she asked, taking up a position at Alex’s side. Saskia was ahead of them, her pale fur being dusted with snow each time she swept past a shrub.
“Don’t know. How far from the city are we?”
Casey shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe fifty miles?”
He looked up at Saskia then back to her. His wolf had been front and center for a lot of the time since they’d discovered the female. “She wouldn’t have run all this way from her place to here. She must have a car somewhere.”
Alex suddenly stopped, pushing a branch out of her way and waving her through. Casey jumped over a small ditch and found herself on a small road. Alex stood beside her, his gaze on Saskia, who was approaching a car parked up on the shoulder. He started after her, but Casey pulled him back.
“Give her a few minutes.”
“Why?” he asked, his eyes fixed on the spot where Saskia had ducked out of sight behind the car.
“She’s shifting back. Remember what I said about that? It’s not pretty.”
He nodded and relaxed his muscles. She could practically see the cogs working in his head.
“She’s safe.”
“I know,” he replied, eyes still unmoving.
“Man, oh man, you got it bad,” she muttered. Casey could practically smell the pheromones in the air. Had he known what she was before he was bitten, or was that some kind of silver lining in the whole Bitten wolf situation?
“Alex?” a voice asked from behind the car. He was moving before the end of his name was spoken. Casey followed, peering over the edge of the trunk when she got there. For her nosiness, she got a growl from Alex that she promptly ignored.
He glared at her. “I don’t want you to see her naked.”
She snorted. “Please. I’ve been a wolf since I was born. Being naked in front of each other is like breathing in front of each other: normal.”
Saskia was shaking, a combination of a quick Change and the cold hitting her hard.
“Alex, check her car for clothes.”
He looked reluctant to leave until Casey smacked him in the arm. “Now,” she ordered.
She smiled as he growled again, but did as he was told. Crouching down, Casey hooked an arm under Saskia’s and pulled her up to her feet. The female looked at her warily, her nostrils flaring.
“You’re not one of us,” she whispered.
Casey shook her head. “Nope. I’m an Alfheim wolf.”
“What are you doing here in our territory?”
“Saskia, get dressed. Please,” Alex said, announcing his arrival spectacularly—Casey was shoved out of the way as Alex muscled his way past her, helping the other female to dress. The whole time, Saskia was looking up into Alex’s face, a look of wonder in her eyes.
Yeah, it was a real Hallmark moment.
Alex led the woman around to the passenger side of the car, relegating Casey to the back seat. As soon as all the doors were shut, her wolf sat up, suddenly alert. Puzzled, Casey drew in a breath and held it. This couldn’t be Saskia’s car. It was definitely a male’s, and his scent made her heart trip in her chest.
Suddenly her skin felt too damn tight for her body. “Umm, whose car is this?” she asked as Alex started up the car.
Saskia turned around to look at her. “My brother’s. Why?”
“No reason,” she replied quickly, trying to breathe through her mouth. She was so not going to drag any more of that masculine spice into her nose if she could help it.
Casey sat back and tried to focus on something else—anything else. Oh look, she found a quarter in between the seats. She pocketed the coin and glanced up when Saskia sucked in a breath, on the verge of speaking.
“Alex, what happened to you?” Saskia asked. The words were barely whispered, but Alex’s head snapped around like she’d used a loud speaker.
“Look, I know I was MIA from your life, but—”
She shook her head. “No. Not that. What happened to you?” She leaned forward and inhaled once more. “I did read the scent right. You’ve gone through the Change, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” Alex replied, his voice like gravel.
“When? How did this happen?”
Alex cleared his throat, glancing back at the road. “I went hunting on Friday. I just…had to get out of town for the day.”
“On Friday?” she murmured, lost in her own thoughts as she looked out the windshield. She knew the significance of that date. Had he realized it too?
“Yeah,” Alex replied softly. “Friday made it a year since our first…and only…date.”
“Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry I ran out on you. I’ve thought of nothing else for an entire year.”
“Even on your wedding day?” he asked, his tone icy. “You are married now, aren’t you?”
She cringed at the malice that had laced his words. “Mated,” she replied softly. “We call it being mated, and yes—even then.”
“Why did you agree to go on a date with me if you were already promised to someone else?”
She turned to him, wanting so desperately to reach out and take his hand. “I wasn’t at the time. I had to lie to you.”
“Why?”
“Because you were human and I’m…not. You have to understand that there are rules I have to abide by. I can only get mated to a male from my species.”
“Even if you don’t love them?” he asked. When he turned to her, the look in his eyes nearly made her heart break. “You don’t love him, do you? Because if you did, you would have forgotten all about me.”
Saskia closed her eyes, feeling the tears roll down her cheeks. He was right. If he had meant absolutely nothing to her, she would have forgotten about him by now. But she hadn’t because she still wanted to hang onto the feelings he invoked in her.
Dashing away the tears, she looked at his handsome face again. “If you were bitten on Friday, where did you go? Surviving the Change is difficult.”
He grunted, flipping on a directional signal to get onto the first sealed road they’d seen in a while. “Casey and her brothers found me. Took me in. Fed me.”
Saskia looked over her shoulder at the petite female strapped into the backseat of her brother’s car. Her red hair was hanging loose around her shoulders, her green eyes watchful. “And where did you find him?” she asked Casey.
“On the edge of our territory,” Casey said. “Closest we can figure is that he walked for almost two hundred miles after he was bitten. He was about two days in when we found him—severe headaches, vomiting.”
“And your alpha let you look after him?”
She shrugged. “We’ve been finding a lot of Bitten wolves on our land and we like to rehabilitate them. We leave killing them only as a last resort.”
Saskia turned her body back around. Her words were a dig at how Antain had run the pack for so many years, but the rules were the rules. It meant keeping the pack’s bloodlines pure.
“Alex, why did you come back here?”
He glanced between the road and her, his eyes guileless. “I came back here for you.”
Saskia’s chest tightened and she looked out the passenger window, pensive for a moment. “Why now?”
“I’m sorry?”
She faced him again while her heart still hammered frantically in her chest. “Why now? It’s been a year.”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “You were engaged to someone else. I respected your decision.”
“And now I’m mated to him. So I’ll ask you again, why come back now?”
Alex was staring hard through the windshield, watching the road for non-existent dangerous drivers. “Remember when I saved you from that asshole who tried to get into your pants at the party?”
She nodded. How could she have forgotten? He had been so fierce in protecting her. He’d had the reaction most mated males would have had toward their females if they had been in the same situation.
He continued, “Well, I didn’t realize what it meant at the time, but I saw your eyes change color. It wasn’t the first time either. And then when I met Casey and her brothers, I noticed the same thing happened to them. I now know that it was your wolf pushing through your eyes. When I realized you were also a werewolf, I thought maybe that would change things between you and me.”
“Alex—” she interrupted.
“But,” he said, stopping her from saying anymore, “if you’re mated, I’m going to respect that.”
She sat back into her seat and let his words wash over her. He had come back for her, and he was going to respect her mating to Ezekiel. He was even more honorable than she’d first thought. If only she had met him after he’d been bitten. Things could have been so very different for her.
Alex had just taken the exit that would take them downtown, back to Saxon’s apartment.
“I know you don’t live here anymore,” he murmured as he pulled up to the front of the building, “but I don’t think I could handle seeing where you live with your mate.”
She wanted to tell him how bad things were between her and Zeke, but she kept quiet. There was nothing that could happen between them now. Their fates were sealed; hers in a loveless mating, his as a Bitten wolf. The repercussions of being on Helheim land would have to be addressed soon, and he would either be killed or sent packing back to the Alfheim pack, if they’d take him.
Without warning, a fresh wash of tears fell from her eyes.
“Hey, Saskia,” Alex said, touching her shoulder gently. Her wolf was suddenly front and center, whining at her to let him touch her more. “Don’t cry, baby. I’m sorry I said those things to you, but I want to be honest with you. I couldn’t handle seeing where you live so happily with your mate. It would cut me up inside.”
She shook her head, waving his explanation away. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Let’s just get upstairs.”
Saskia led the way up to Saxon’s apartment knowing that this would be the last time she would ever lay eyes on him. After she went home, he would be sent away and the life they could have had together would once again be a dream.
Taking her apartment key from her pocket, she slid it into the lock and twisted it.
“I’m going to hang out here for a bit,” Casey said softly.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re worried about me, Alex,” she replied, forcing a smile onto her lips. “I’ll just give you guys some time alone together first, okay?”
Alex nodded and Saskia opened the door wide, ushering her guest in before her.
While still pulling her key free, she called out to her brother. “Saxon, I’m home.”
“Saskia.”
The key fell from her fingers, landing with a dull thump on the carpeted floor. She spun around to find Ezekiel standing there, his wolf’s eyes fixed on Alex.
EIGHTEEN
Saskia’s gaze fell onto Ezekiel, taking in the firm set of his jaw, the crease between his eyes. She couldn’t tell from sight alone whether he was angry or worried.
“Ezekiel, what are you doing here?” she asked quietly. She wasn’t prepared to see him yet. And she definitely wasn’t prepared for Alex to meet him.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he replied equally as softly. His eyes were fixed on Alex, who was standing beside her. Taking a step forward toward Zeke, Alex mirrored her, earning him a glare from her mate.
She looked at Alex, shaking her head at him, hoping that he saw the warning in her eyes. To his credit, Alex backed away.
