Page 11 of Forsaken Desire
The room Karol had pointed at when she’d shown me around had its doors wide open, and I stepped through. A group of people sat in a row of seats as they faced a screen.
I plopped down beside a girl and folded my hands in my lap. She tapped away at her cell phone.
I didn’t even get his contact information. How would I call him? My heart sped up, but I took a few calming breaths. That was the last thing to get all worried about; it wasn’t like I had a phone yet. He also knew how to find me . . . and I did him: Room 201.
Surely, after I’d agreed to visit him, he would have said something if he planned to leave. But I was regretting my resolve. Already, I craved his presence.
The woodsy scent of a shifter crossed near me, and I lifted my gaze to someone striding past me. He stopped, looking downat me. I struggled to hold his gaze. He was more dominant than me.
His eyes widened, and he inhaled deeply. It was the shifter Karol had greeted; she’d called him Alex.
“Hey,” he said casually, raking his eyes down my body.
“Hi.” I tried not to be awkward, but it was harder than I thought. Clearing my throat, I rubbed my palms on my lap. His smile widened, and he seemed to inhale again. Was hesniffingme?
A human male walked in front of him and dropped into the seat next to me. I stiffened, tightening my arms so I wouldn’t take up much space. I didn’t want to touch any male other than my mate.
4
Iwent directly toward the computer on the long desk. Every second I didn’t have her before me, near me,withme, I burned.
She was alive. The thickness coating my throat hadn’t stopped, and I doubted it ever would. Having her so close yet not being at her side—clinging to her—was agony. I’d rather be sliced a million times.
The human male manning this computer watched me with wide, frightened eyes. He sat frozen on the desk chair, staring. I clicked on the screen to enlarge the one in the conference room.
No one should be watching my mate but me.
“Leave,” I snarled. The surveillance room emptied. I zoomed in on her.
Josephine.
A shiver crested up my spine, and my cock throbbed.
My gentle mate.
She clearly didn’t remember me, nor what I had done. I wet my lips, and my hand trembled on the mouse as I enlarged the window more. Orientations were always held in the conference room, but why the fuck were the chairs so close together?
I speared my fingers through the front of my hair. If I showed up, I had no doubt I would be outed. Alpha, and the owner of the hotel she worked at. It would blow up in my face.
It was too much, and she already seemed jumpy. I couldn’t have her putting more distance between us.
I’d have to get my shit in order before I told her who I was.
Alex stood in front of the screen where the orientation slides reflected off the screen. He droned on, waving his hands around as he spoke. Without audio, I didn’t know what was happening, but I was satisfied with having eyes on her. She huddled between a female and a male, hunching into herself as if to make herself smaller.
Four long years since I last saw her.
She wasn’t dead.
I shuddered, dropping my head.
She wasn’t dead.
Every piece of my life had been planned. When I first saw her, my future was lined up, by my choice. My mating ceremony was set. My future was set; I was to mate Cierra. Joining the two families had been my motivation because land equated power. Especially the large piece that Cierra’s family would bring to Wilder Pack.
I’d reacted in anger. How could I have a fated mate? She’d seemed so young, so unaware—the antithesis of the women I usually preferred.
I’d lashed out, rejecting her, hurting her so she would go away. It was wrong, and her absence didn’t hit me until she’d left.
