Page 34 of The Alpha's Grave Secrets

I close my eyes, steadying my breath,shit,but then I smell something familiar an almost medicinal licorice scent. Waves of nausea washing over me. Then.

A voice.

Low, gravelly, and too familiar. The one that haunts my nightmares.

It’s him.

My blood runs cold, freezing my movements for a moment before I can come to my senses. I carefully creep out of the stall and toward the bathroom door.

I press my ear to the door, listening to the sound of his voice as he talks casually just outside in the hallway. Be strong, Elara. My heart skips a beat.I need to see him.

My hand reaches for the door handle, and as slowly and steadily as I can, I pull the door open a sliver, just enough to press my eye up to it and see out into the hallway.

My stomach churned as my eyes adjust; the man is laughing with someone, a security guard. It’s him, I know it is, the man who buried me alive.

He turns his head toward the bar at the other end of the hallway.Holy shit, he works here.Now, seeing him in this context, I can remember him; he’s another security guard who usually silently checks IDs later in the evening before people can enter.

My hand shakes as I reach for my phone. I need to tell Kato. I’ve already felt his anxiety buzzing in the back of my mind, like static, faint but there.

“It’s him. The bouncer. He’s here. What do I do?”

His reply is instant.

“Where are you?!”

A chill runs through me. He doesn’t know I left the house. My fingers tremble as I type.

“The bar. ‘Nothing Here’.”

The response is immediate, his anger palpable through the screen. I’d feel it even if it wasn’t raging through our bond.

“Elara, what the hell are you doing there? Don’t move. I’m coming. Stay hidden.”

I breathe in sharply. He can feel me now, and I know it. I let whatever shields I’d mustered up before drop, including the shield I’d wielded into place all those years ago.

I’m sorry,I say down the bond.

I can feel Kato’s shock, surprise, and something like pleasure at having been let back into my mind.

Don’t think you’re getting off that easy,his voice fills my head, my wolf shivering with excitement to have him back.

My pulse quickens, and just as I press myself against the closed door again, I realize?—

He’s gone.The killer is gone.The thought slides down the bond without my permission. I’m going to have to get used to that again.

“I said to stay hidden.” Kato growls back. “I’m almost there.”

I don’t listen, a specialty of mine, and I burst out of the bathroom, scanning the hallway. Nothing. Panic claws at me as I rush back to the bar, searching for the bouncer. He was right here. Where the hell did he go?

When Kato storms through the door moments later, his eyes flash with fury. “You left the house,” he growls, his voice low and dangerous.

“I had to—” I start, but he’s already scanning the room, his gaze sharp and predatory. He wasn’t just angry—he was scared.

“He was here,” I whisper, my voice shaky. “I saw him—he’s a security guard. He checked my ID countless times.”

“A great way to get your address,” he says, and my blood chills again. Kato’s nostrils flare, his fists clenching at his sides. “Where did he go? The security guard.”

The bartender glances at us, recognizing the tension, and steps forward. “ He’s right there.”

---