Conrad is already tired two weeks into her job.She's over it.Charlotte went home last week, after a week of getting to know her mate, promising to come back every weekend she could until she was able to secure a transfer, which Conrad was attempting to help her with.Jeanne was still being weird with her since they had their disagreement over making fun of Meg, so Conrad felt slightly isolated.She had become pretty friendly with everyone in the office, especially Aaron and Scarlet, the two trackers.They had gone out together the week before, and got absolutely smashed.They had all regretted it the next morning, but they enjoyed it before then."Do you have the files for the interviews?" Carlos asks, swinging into her office abruptly.He scares the shit out of her for a minute, and her heart is in her throat with fear until she recognises him."Yeah. They're on the table over there," Conrad mumbles, opening one of her eyes to stare at him."Are you okay?" He questions, furrowing h
How had he forgotten Sabrina was off school this week?"Why are you cooking? You never cook," Sabrina points out, wrapping her arms around her father's waist."No, I know; how did you get here?" He asks hesitantly, and Sabrina rolls her eyes, looking far more mature than her seven years."Jackie's mom dropped me off," Sabrina sighs, unwrapping herself from her father and walking over to the counter, standing on her tip-toes to see what was on the marble."It's a smoothie. Do you want some?" He asks, and Sabrina nods, giving him a wide smile.She's missing one of her baby teeth since the last time she was home, and he had made sure to send the school money for the tooth fairy as soon as she had called him to let him know.He felt bad for missing out on so much of her life, but he knew it wouldn't make sense for her to do schooling at the capital.He worked so much, and she had nobody else to go to; his mom was three hours away, and she had little interest in the grandchild her son had
The next month is more or less hell on earth for everyone involved.The work is hectic and repetitive, and Conrad is on the verge of tears when their interns arrive.Amber Adamo leads the pack, a look of nervous excitement on her face.The nervousness vanishes, replaced by a wide smile when she spots Conrad leaning against the counter in the kitchen area.Amber waves frantically at Conrad, who's eyes widen as she recognises the girl, giving her a wave back.She has a nasty gash on her leg since the day before, and it hasn't healed, causing Scarlet to be rather concerned about her fellow tracker.Her knee-length jumper dress exposes this slash, and it's forced into the spotlight as she walks towards the interns.She clears her throat quietly, blinking away her tears.She has a cup of coffee in her hand, something she doesn't love to drink but is desperately needed this week.They have annual reports to do, and whoever was doing them before Conrad had a very loose grasp on both formalit
She hates mud.She hates it even more when it's almost up to her knees.Conrad looks over her shoulder, making sure Scarlet was close by."You doing okay?" Conrad calls, adjusting the bag on her back."I fucking hate this," Scarlet screams, stomping her foot.Mud flies upwards, nearly hitting her."I know," Conrad sighs, waiting for her friend to catch up."Why couldn't they send Aaron? He's taller than both of us; it would be safer for him to be in here," Scarlet whines.Conrad offers her hand, which Scarlet manages to grab.Conrad hauls her forward, and Scarlet is finally beside her.They stop moving, leaning against respective trees."I still don't see anyone. I think Amaretti is doing this on purpose, torturing us," Scarlet scowls, taking a swig of the water from her bag."I don't think he's that brave," Conrad snorts, "this is literal hell. I swear to the Goddess, if I don't see a clue soon, I'm giving up."Thunder booms above them and Scarlet glowers at her friend."If it rains
"She can't get away with this," Scarlet cries out, slamming her hands onto the table.They didn't even take the time to change before coming back to the office.Scarlet was afraid Conrad would do something she would regret if they had any diversions.Conrad herself is sitting in the armchair in the boardroom, her face completely blank."Scarlet relax. She won't; we have the tape," Carlos barks back, nodding to Conrad.They had all downloaded the tape, and it had been backed up to the cloud and hard drives in the office as soon as they had arrived.Conrad's eyes are firmly fixed on the hardened mud on her boots, her elbows leaning against her thighs."She'll say it's doctored," Scarlet roars in Carlos' face.A stern look from him makes her step back a little, and he nods.He's still her boss, and his wolf is furious at the disrespect Carlos is allowing."Are you sure she didn't know you were there?" Carlos asks calmly, looking at Conrad.She looks up, pursing her lips."She definitely
Conrad is still embarrassed about crying in front of Carlos, three hours later.She's on the phone with Charlotte while she's wandering around her bathroom, preparing for her shower."Your mom told me to ask you if you're going to be coming home any weekend soon. She wants to book a cruise, and she wants to be home whenever you come home," Charlotte drawls through the phone, cringing as she can hear something fall.Conrad dives after the bottle of conditioner that slipped out of her hands, straightening back up as she puts it onto the shower shelf."Tell her I'll let her know. It's hectic here at the moment; I've been in the office and field the last nine days," Conrad responds, her eyes squeezed closed.She really wants to tell Charlotte about what's going on because her friend could attempt to give her signature half-bad advice."You sound like you have a frog in your throat. Do you want me to get Matt to check on you? Because he will," Charlotte suggests, and Conrad rubs her temple
Conrad feels perpetually awkward any time she steps into his house.She doesn't know why she feels this way, but Jane suggested it was because his mate had, at one point, been here.Even when they had dated before, she always tried to make sure their activities and dates were outside of his home.She was respecting someone who didn't even want their own child, but she can't help it. She's never met Lauren before, so she doesn't know why she feels so rude invading 'her' space."You know where everything is, don't you?" Carlos looks over his shoulder at her, walking into the kitchen and flicking on the lights.It's dark outside, much darker than a typical summer evening. Conrad thinks there will be a storm, regardless of what the weather forecast said."Yeah, I think so. What were you thinking about for dinner?" She asks, leaning against the wall beside the door of the kitchen."I don't know. I was going to make lasagne, would that be okay?" He questions, and she smiles slightly, noddin
"I'm not letting you sleep in a room by yourself," Carlos repeats, his jaw clenched and his arms folded."I'm not letting you watch me sleep!" Conrad replies, completely exasperated."I don't want to watch you sleep; I just want to make sure nobody kidnaps you," he shoots back, pacing in front of the bedrooms."Carlos, why would anyone kill me? I'm a tracker; nobody knows who I am! You're delusional," Conrad complains, slamming the door to the guest bedroom."Get changed and come into my room. I don't want you to die," he yells through the thick wood, rubbing his head.He's tired. The day had emotionally exhausted him, and he sent an email to his therapist asking for a meeting tomorrow instead of the one he had booked last month for the following week.She hadn't gotten back to him yet, but sending the email had calmed him down enough to function moderately appropriately.He strolls into his bedroom, stripping off his shirt and wandering over to his chest of drawers, digging through t
Josephine and the elite teams did exactly what they had set out to do. They had moved so efficiently that they had knocked out most of the command structure entirely before the hyenas had a chance to even sound an alarm to warn the others that their doom was coming.Any who did not actively fight, were given the choice to end their days there and now or move semi willingly to an enclave Josephine had been working on for far longer than Alexander had realized. To Josephine, Melody was just another target, one of far too many in a larger pattern. One that Josephine had been working to end on her own long before Melody had even been born.Alexander was in awe as Guillermo filled him in on the progress during a rather social seeming jog several weeks after the incident; which was all Alexander could bring himself to say about it all. Still working on it with his therapist. But things were going better. He was focusing on being a dad, and decided to take up carpentry. If he was going to li
Melody drove up to the familiar house, the smell of burnt clutch heavy in the cabin of the vehicle. Melody didn't know how to drive a manual, let alone an old truck with a heavy gear shift and broken power steering. Thankfully it didn't matter. The truck just had to get her here. Looking all normal, and human and alone. If the truck had to stay behind because Melody had wrecked the transmission on the relatively short easy drive over, no harm done. Flint would carry her to Alec's pack lands and virtual sanctuary until they could arrange to get back to their own home.The home looked significantly worse than she was prepared for. The picket fence she had admired that first day hadn't been painted in a while when she had left, and hadn't been touched since. Many boards were missing or broken. Beverly must have hated it, she had been a realtor and she was good at it. At making homes look good enough that people wanted to live in the warm homey environments she created. Looks were often d
"You don't have to do this yourself, Guillermo and I can take care of it.." Alexander pleaded with Melody. That evening as she insisted on preparing everything to travel across the country to execute Frank. Throwing random clothes into a suitcase while she stomped around the room on feet far too heavy for someone of her size."Yes I do!" she was nearing hissing at him as she insisted strongly. She paused, packing the suitcases, "I need to do this, he hurt my whole family Alexander. He needs to pay for it. I need him to pay for it. To know he brought his end on himself, I want him to know." Her words were so heavy with with such a finality to them, that Alexander, never able to really say no to her finally gave in. She could come on the mission, only if the shrink and doctor cleared her first. After this afternoon's panic attack, and early pregnancy he was sure she wouldn't get the clearance from the doctor. She's pregnant, no doctor would let her go out to murder their step father.He
Alexander and Melody spent their time with their kids and Diana. Letting Alexander's mother take care of everything while Melody and Alexander played on the floor with their kids, ate snacks, and just enjoyed the peace of their family. Raven was stomping around in her room out back, apparently a nap was not coming easily. "I guess it's not all she hoped it would be?" Alexander ventured softly while James was cuddling in his lap, almost asleep with a picture book in his hands."She has wanted this all her life, maybe dropping a vampire sighting on her this early wasn't the best idea." Diana said, softly, her voice like a lullaby as James drifted off to sleep. Melody was just returning from putting Ansley down for a nap, and smiled at seeing James limp in his fathers arms. She came over, gently and carefully picking the little boy up who snuggled into his mother's body as she picked him up, and took him to have a nap as well. Giving Alexander some time alone with his mom."Alpha doesn'
The next morning it was confirmed by Guillermo that Frank and Robert had almost certainly had something to do with Beverly's murder. Randy was only innocent of this particular crime because he was already in prison for a statutory rape charge. A combination of wire transfers from offshore accounts, messages on burner phones, and finally a time line established when Guillermo searched recent security and surveillance cameras around the small town where Melody and Alexander had met. Trying to figure out what had happened and when.Beverly was a woman who liked routine he learned, and even though she couldn't find a job after she had been laid off, had tried to keep busy. She volunteered, working at the animal shelter some days, food bank on others. Spent an hour or so in the town library applying for jobs before hitting the grocery store before heading home to cook for her family. She didn't seem to interact much with anyone in the town. She hadn't carried a cell phone in over a year be
The first couple photographs showed three women, roughly Melody's age, nothing else in common between them. They were all of different heritage, but all were very dead, by the similar ragged horizontal slash across their throats. No metal blade had opened their throats, that was the mark of a clawed hand. Then there had been two men, Melody didn't know them, but her heart filled with sadness as she realized these were all probably the dead mates to alphas. Who in turn according to Alexander research, never knew their mates were taken and murdered, instead thought they had been rejected. That each of these people had been stolen and their lives ended, causing echos of heartbreak for so many people, filled Melody with guilt that twice she had been taken, and twice she escaped mostly unharmed. She didn't know why she was ok in her home now, and these people weren't.Alexander was just finishing up with Guillermo, his own worry at a new level with the news from his head of security. He dr
This was how his life should have been. Raven would be unbearable if she ever learned that she really had been right all along. She was born for this, Alexander wasn't. He didn't feel any guilt at all now. As he laid Melody in a rocking chair so he could run a bath for her, he checked on his mother as she did the same for Ansley.James was staying with Robin and her family tonight. James adored his older cousins, and seeing how other people lived their everyday lives. He was a nosey kid, Alexander hoped he didn't drive his very controlled sister insane overnight. James was more in tune with his grandmother or Lark. Almost like Robin could feel his worry, Alexander's phone buzzed with a notification, he checked and saw a video of a wide grinning James holding a Mario Kart Steering wheel in his small hands, his face aglow with joy as he tried to play with his older cousins, who were laughing at his eager attempts to widely steer around the course. The sound of generations, and blended f
Melody awoke with the most unwelcome deja vu. The particular heavy and slow feeling of waking up after having been knocked unconscious. Judging by the rhythmic pounding and pain radiating from the back of her head, it had been physical this time instead of chemical. She didn't know if that was better or worse, she still felt sick and nauseated, and the headache was worse, but her body didn't feel as clumsy.The overwhelming wrong feeling had diminished, but things were certainly not right. But at least she was able to think now. She looked around, lovely another cement room from floor to ceiling, a single caged in bulb in the ceiling for light, and a clean, if uncomfortable pallet underneath her. Things smelled clean, which at least wasn't offensive and an improvement on the first kidnapping. Melody wasn't scared this time, she was boiling under the surface like a secret lake of lava.Yup, she had been kidnapped again. Ansley! Where was her daughter? Who had taken her. Melody knew she
The next week was perfect, better than ever before. Alexander was scheduled to see his counsellor at least twice a week, he was getting Raven up to speed on current pack issues and general local politics. He felt lighter. Like himself in a way he had missed without even realising he had been missing something at all.Melody's days were a little more boring. Delia had texted her on schedule all through the weekend through until Sunday night. Then she had called to let Melody know she was taking a week off school and going on vacation with the man she had gone home with on Friday night; and was still with. Melody had worried about her friend, but after talking on the phone, Delia was safe, and happy, and excited. So Melody wished her friend well. Maybe the dark tall brooding man Delia was with was a shifter too, and Delia was his mate. Melody gnawed on her lower lip wondering how she would even try to ask her friend if that was the case, without letting too much slip if Delia wasn't in