In the living room, Zara is standing at the whiteboard, already in deep concentration. She has her laptop in one hand and a dry erase marker in the other. “Hey, Pocket.” I stand beside her and look over her shoulder as if I have any clue what she’s doing. “Hi,” she says in a distracted tone. Her brow is knit, and she is muttering something under her breath at the laptop screen. It’s obvious she barely recognizes that I’m standing here. “Want me to order dinner? Then we can go to the other side of the penthouse, so you can look around.” I resist the temptation to wrap my arms around her waist. She looks at another line on a spreadsheet and counts on her fingers. “Dinner? Uh, yeah. Can I get a cheeseburger?” “A cheeseburger? Of course. Whatever you want, Pocket.” I can’t take it anymore. I pull her hair away from her shoulder and kiss the crook of her neck, making her lean into my face and giggle. “Sorry. I got distracted.” She clo
“Hey, Pocket, it’s going to be okay.” I sit her on a stool at the breakfast bar and kiss her cheeks where the tears are staining her face. “We’re going to figure it out. If this was your parents’ home, maybe there was a paper trail. If you want me to find out where they are, why they left, I can do that. I can get people on it this week.” “No. I want to forget about them. They wanted nothing to do with me. I want nothing to do with them.” She wipes the rest of her tears from her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get upset like that. It’s stupid.” “Eh, no. It’s not stupid at all, Zara.” I pull her into a hug again and rub circles on her back. “I would be worried if you didn’t get emotional. It’s a big deal.” Just then, I get a notification that the driver was here to deliver the food. I have the front desk send him up while Zara puts place settings on the breakfast bar for us. Once we settle in and she seems more calm, I give her a gentle reminder that she and I stil
“Come on, Lavender. It’s time to get out of the car. Look, Mom is here, so is Dad. Zara will sit next to them until it’s time for her to go up front for questioning. Okay? Plus, the Alpha and Luna Regents are here. Their guards are all here and on high alert. No one is going to hurt you. No one is even going to try. They would be crazy if they did.” I hold my hand out to my scared little mate, while she shivers in the passenger’s seat of my Range Rover. We have been trying for twenty minutes to convince her to get out of the car and go into the packhouse for Rocky’s trial. “Zara… er… Lavender, it’s Amy. Keller’s mom. Listen, sweetheart. I can’t even imagine how scared you are, but Phil and I will not let anything happen to you. Trust me, there are plenty of wolves in there that don’t like us either. We know how to handle them. You’re safe with us. I promise.” Mom stands next to me and strokes Zara’s hair. “I’ll hold your hand the entire time until you have to testify. Okay?
When I finally get Zara calm enough to sit by herself, Mike asks questions straight from the list he gave us. He tries his best to be calm and patient to get the best information he can out of her. “That was torture for me. I can’t imagine how she feels. Tomorrow is going to be a real treat.” Mike says when he gets back to his seat. I quietly remind him that Zara is my mate and should treat her that way before he gets too out of line. “Miss Wilson, is it true that you ran away from the scene of the crime?” The pack lawyer asks. He slams his hands on the table in front of him. I feel myself standing up to stop him, but Mike pulls me down. “Mister Craine, WATCH yourself.” The Alpha Regent growls, rumbling the room. His onyx black eyes glare at the lawyer, who bows his head in submission. “Treat this witness the same as any other who has a special consideration. I will not sit by and let you or anyone else in this courtroom intimidate her. Do I make myself clear
Mom makes Zara and me eat a few more bites of our food, and we head back to our seats. As we make our way down the aisle, more pack members growl or snarl at us. Guards promptly remove them and help us keep moving. For the afternoon session, the Luna Regent leads the proceedings. Her voice is beautiful, but doesn’t give me the odd sensation it had before. She calls Alpha Williams to the stand and the lawyers question him for over an hour. He has nothing productive to say, but I am acutely aware that he keeps looking over my shoulder at Zara. Before they dismiss him, the Luna a question that he seems prepared for. “Alpha Williams, why do you believe these seven guard trainees tried to attack Rocky?” “Hanlon’s Razor.” He says with confidence. The Alpha Regent sits forward. “Forgive my ignorance, Alpha Williams. What the Hell is Hanlon’s Razor?” “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Alpha Williams no
Zara is quiet when we leave the pack house and on the ride home. She perks up a little over takeout Thai food for dinner, but then excuses herself to the living room.I let her work and go to my office to read some of her journal, like she asked me to. The entries don’t seem to be in chronological order. Whatever page she opened to, is where she would write, giving the entries a sense of urgency. Some of her writings are dark and disturbing. Not like the Zara I know or love at all. This is beyond the walls she described trying to crush her. It’s like she has resigned herself to the shadows they have created, just waiting until the day they fall. I try to imagine the mind of someone who could write about hurting themselves, but I can’t, especially not her.As I flip through the pages, reading bits and scraps of paper that Zara has haphazardly pasted into the book. One scrap has my name on it. The surrounding words were random, mixed in with odd glyphs
When I wake up in the morning, I reach out my arm to pull my mate to me, but Zara isn’t there. I open my eyes to confirm what I already know, then sit up quickly and look around for her. The bathroom light is off and her scent is faint in the room. “Rocky, where did she go?” I jump out of bed and throw the bedroom door open. I try to swallow down the panic. “To get ready, I think.” But he doesn’t sound too sure of himself. I run down to Zara’s room and knock on the door. “Zara? Are you in there, Pocket?” I listen closely, but there is no answer. Her scent is stronger here, so she must be inside. I crack the door open and peek in. The bathroom is dark, but the bedroom light is on. I step in and look around. There is a minute sound in the closet. Shit. “Zara? Are you in there?” I approach the closet door and open it slowly. She is crouched down in her usual hiding spot behind the shoe boxes, trembling under a blanket, hoping to go unseen
Mom and Dad meet us in the parking lot of the pack house. I get out of the Range Rover and walk around to help Zara, but she tries to make a break for it before I get there. Dad deftly catches her by the waist and kneels on one knee, bringing her down to sit on his leg. “It’s alright, young lady. You don’t need to run. We’re here for you. Wherever your wolf thinks you need to go, that won’t help you. Not today at least.” Dad strokes Zara’s back to calm her, still holding her tight around the middle with his other arm. “We are going to be sitting right behind you. No one’s gonna mess with you.” “O-okay. Okay. Let’s go now while I have Lavender under control.” She stammers, shivering with tears in her eyes. Mom takes her hand and I take the other before Dad loosens his grip on her. We meet Mike just inside the doors to the pack house and let one of the Regent guards escort us to the front of the courtroom. “You’re going to be fine, Pocket.” I kiss her forehead