Page 9 of Mate Forsaken

“I know.”

“Wait,” she said, frowning. “Are you the alpha?”

“I am,” he replied. “When they had their mating ceremony, he took over her pack as Alpha because her father had the wasting disease. I became Alpha for the Shadowhide Pack.”

She shook her head bemusedly. “I still can’t get over this.”

“After the dust settled on that, I went searching for you.” He tumbled back into the memories. “I visited every pack. Tracked down any lead that came my way. I emailed the packs overseas. Each and every response came back with a no. I thought maybe they were lying so I offered a reward for information.”

“You put a bounty on me?”

“I did,” he said unapologetically. “Yet each year passed without a word. Until a few days ago. I got a phone call sayingyou were with the Sheridan Pack, so I came right away.”

“Did you get permission from Alpha Jericho?”

“Not exactly.”

“Are you crazy? He’s going to read this as a challenge.”

“If you leave with me now, he never needs to know.”

She jerked back as if slapped. “Leave with you? I’m not going anywhere. This is my home and I can’t abandon my students.”

“You’re a teacher?”

“Yeah, I went to Florida for college.”

It made complete sense now. “You went to the human world. That’s why no pack had heard of you.”

She shrugged. “I taught human children for years, until I read about the need for a teacher here in Colorado. I decided it was time to rejoin my kind.”

What could he say about that? Nothing, really. He drove her away and he couldn’t fault her for trying to build a life away from shifters. It made him wonder if love could survive the bitter years between them.

“I want you to come home.”

“Iamhome,” she stressed angrily. “You don’t get it, Miles. Shadowhide is not my pack any longer, just as I’m no longer your mate. This is the path you chose for us instead of trying to find a way that worked for everyone.”

He shook his head, unable to accept her words. The mate bond between them still pulsed, so he knew she had to feel it as well.

“You walked away from me so easily,” she continued, a sob straining her voice. “There is nothing in this world that would make me trust you again. Now, if that’s all, you need to leave, and by that, I mean you need to go back to your pack. Leave me with mine.”

He stood up and stared down at her. Her beauty still tookhis breath away.

“I have loved you all my life,” he said, his voice shaky even to his own ears. “I will never give up on us. I make a vow right now that I will love you until my dying day. So, if you think I’m leaving you here to go back home, you clearly have forgotten how stubborn I can be.”

He wasn’t going anywhere. Guess it was time to talk with Alpha Jericho because he had to make a plan to woo his runaway mate.

Chapter Five

Later that night, Circe lay in bed staring up at the darkened ceiling. Her mind was too jumbled to relax and sleep. She hated Miles for showing up and tossing her once more into a hurricane of broken hearts and dreams.

Giving up on rest, she rose and slipped on her robe before making her way to the kitchen. As she waited for the coffee to brew, she walked over to the bookcase and slid out a photo album she had stashed on the bottom shelf. Out of sight, out of mind, or so she thought. After fixing a mug of strong, black coffee, she sat down at the table and opened it.

Her as a child.

Him right next to her.

Her as a teenager.

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