Two days before Mike and Carmen's lunch date. "What would you like to drink today," the middle-aged waitress asks as she beams down at the young man eyeing the menu. She hasn't seen him before, but from the looks of it, he needs a good meal. His cheekbones are too sharp for his young face and his willowy frame is lost in his baggy clothes. "Just water, please... I am... I was actually wondering if you could help me with something," he says as he looks up and sets the menu aside. He pulls out a small photograph of a smiling young girl and holds it up. "My kid sister ran off after getting into a fight with our parents. The bus ticket she purchased was for this town. I was wondering if you might have seen her around recently. We need to find her before she gets herself hurt," the young man says and the waitress looks closely at the image for a second before nodding. "I sure have. She came in about a month ago asking if we were hiring. Quite a few of my regulars were wor
STANLEY POV I smile as I watch Mike and Carmen send each other glances while Mike drives. The romance between them is blossoming and I think Mike is going about it the right way. He isn't rushing her and he is letting her control all contact. Anytime she gets excited or laughs she touches him and I can see how happy that makes him. She is completely comfort around us now. She is a part of our family. Mike pulls into the parking lot and I unclip my seatbelt. "It won't take long. I just need to speak with him and see his resume," I say, and Tabitha folds her arms. "And why can't I know what he is being hired for again," She says with one of her elegant eyebrows raised. I grin and kiss her cheek. "Sometimes a man needs to hire a random guy to do something nice for a special lady," I reply, and Carmen giggles as Tabitha gives me a fake pout. "Fine. And this guy isn't a shifter? Nothing fishy about him," Tabitha asks and I shake my head as I open my door. "Tiny human
THIRD POV As Mike bends down to confirm what his ears already know a blood-curdling scream vibrates the room around him. He turns around quickly and manages to grab Tabitha before she can touch her dead mate. The blood is still oozing from Stanley's chest, but his heart is no longer beating. As Tabitha screams and sobs in Mike's arms Mike looks back at the knife buried in his friend's chest. It's clear the metal is pure silver and long enough to pierce through someone's heart. A weapon that normally belongs to hunters. "Tabitha, I have to call Dan. Just close your eyes and hang onto me okay," Mike whispers as he tries to reposition. Tabitha doesn't even hear the request. Her pain is drowning her. She feels as if her soul is being torn into two pieces. The smell of blood is so thick in the air she can taste the iron on her tongue. "Dan... Dan get everyone and get them up to the office... Stan... Stan's gone. The guy... The human he had coming in to talk to him killed him. C
TABITHA POV My shock is the only thing keeping me from crumbling at this point. I still can't believe that my mate is dead. Gone from this world before we even celebrated an anniversary.I keep waiting for our alarm to go off signaling all of this was just a horrible nightmare, but my child's heartbeat is drumming away, and everyone around me is going through different stages of grief. "Drink this," Sam whispers as she presses a glass into my hands. She wraps my fingers around it and guides the cup to my lips as she realizes I can't even focus on the simple task. Benji and Lewis eye me cautiously before doing a lap around the room again. "We will survive this," Mariah whispers as she watches Sam and me with a sad look. I want to scream at her, but instead, I work the water down my throat as if it is made of fiberglass. The tears I shed at the firm have long since dried on my face and my skin feels almost sticky. "I pray the guys find her before Nick can kill her," Sam
MIKE POV As I push my legs faster and force my nose past its limits I feel a tiny bit of shame prick its way into my mind. Finley and Daniel are grieving the loss of their brother. Tabitha is now a widow. Stanley will never meet his pup... And I don't care. I know that makes me an awful friend. I know that makes me a bad pack mate. But I still don't care. My mind is on one person. A person that is still alive and still needs me. Carmen is all that matters and she has been taken! Kidnapped and probably dragged back to the man she escaped. The man who left inch-wide claw marks down her back. The shifter who can kill her with one simple punch, but prefers to torture and abuse her. Daniel barks and I slow down to allow him to catch up with me. He gets to my side and shifts which makes the entire search party come to a halt. "We need to search abandoned places. The council will have all the commercial forms of transportation covered. He won't be able to move her by plane or bus.
CARMEN POV Nick's heavy breathes are the only sounds in the room as he finishes whatever it is he is doing to the dead man. I still haven't opened my eyes, but I know my time is coming. Nick loses focus quickly when his target goes limp. "You think you are the first whore to hate me? You think I was born this way? I wanted love once. I was just like everyone else when I was born," Nick suddenly growls and my eyes snap open to find him staring down at his dead brother. I didn't even hear him cross the room. I don't reply to his questions or his statement. He doesn't really want me to. He just wants to talk. He likes prolonging things with speeches, but he seems different this time. Almost as if losing Nate truly hurt him. "Nathanial loved me... or maybe he always pitied me. It doesn't matter. He always tried to love me. Even when I hurt him... He defended me once... and fed me when I needed nourishment to be able to heal on several occasions...," he whispers before paus
TABITHA POV I count each one of my breaths as my family waits around me for the rest of the pack to arrive. All of our eyes look dry and bloodshot as we stare at nothing around the room.Hearing that Carmen was safe and Nick was dead brought us all very little relief. Now that the fear is gone all that is left is the grief. Heart-wrenching grief that seems to have suspended us into a permanent state of shock and sadness. Sleep isn't even something that was mentioned when we all climbed the stairs from the safe room. It's as if we all knew rest wouldn't be coming to any of us soon. "They're here," Benji announces unexcitedly from his seat next to the window and we all stand up slowly. Sam takes my hand as we walk to the door and when it opens to reveal a bloody Carmen another wave of tears begins to fall down my face. Nick hurt her and probably said hurtful things while doing it.Images of my mother's tortured body flood my mind. I swallow down the pain. I refuse to lose anyo
CARMEN The car is silent as we drive down a windy back road. I'm not sure where shifter funerals are held, but it doesn't look like they are close to civilization. We have been driving North for hours now and I haven't seen a house in a very long time. Every few seconds Mike has glanced back at me and each time I force a small grin onto my sore face. I don't want him to know how much I hate myself right now. I want him to focus on his family and the loss they are experiencing. I force myself to focus on the pain in my face as punishment for being the reason why Stanley is no longer with us. The stitches are itchy and tight, but I know Hurst did his best. There is very little puckering along the stitches which is good. But I will still have a three-inch-long scar on my face no matter what. A good reminder of what happened the day we lost Stanley. "Boyd, make sure we park on the end," Mike says lowly and the shifter nods in the seat in front of me. Boyd hasn't said much, bu