Page 100 of Hayden's Haven
She was glad Damien had arrived in time to save Truman from Vance, and that Vance was dead, but that didn’t mean she ever wanted to go back to that prison. There were too many bad memories there.
Here, she had friends and mostly good memories. Her wolf whined as she had been doing for the past three weeks since they’d left Hayden on the ground, dying.
“Hayden’s not coming back, is he?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Damien felt the loss of Hayden almost as much as Mila. He wouldn’t lie about this. “I think he needs this.”
Damien was right. Hayden needed to return his home, his birth pack, more than he needed her.
“He’ll come for you,” Damien said, sounding so sure of himself. Well, Damien often sounded sure of himself. That was part of being an alpha. Anything less would make him appear weak, and that was one thing Damien wasn’t.
Mila appreciated that he tried to make her feel better, but nothing would do that, except Hayden, and he wasn’t coming for her. He was battling the demons of his past, figuring out his place in life, and that didn’t include her.
“We both know he won’t,” Mila said as she rose to leave. “And even if he does, it doesn’t change the problem we’ve had all along. I’m a weak shifter.”
Damien chuckled. “When Hayden told me that, and I suggested perhaps you two should simply mate and forgo the blood-bond, he got really mad at me.”
“He was mad at a lot of things.”
“Not like this, Mila. He needs you. That’s why he’ll come for you.”
“Need and want are two different things.”
Damien smiled. “Not always.”
* * *
HAYDEN
Drake had a shitload of problems to unravel, and he lacked the patience and skills required to get his pack in order. After handing Chitman and the stockpile of HEV over to the DSA, Hayden had had to make a choice. Return to Damien’s pack or remain and help Drake. Damien didn’t need Hayden, not like Drake did. While Hayden no longer had the overwhelming need to save Drake from the world, the chance to reconcile was something he couldn’t saynoto.
He missed his Mila. Living with a pack that had so many issues to resolve was daunting, but he was glad she wasn’t with him in such an unstable environment. Each and every day he thought of her. He hated staying away from her, but she was where she belonged, in a pack that was well-adjusted and protective of its own. The shifters of Damien’s pack had accepted her quickly and fully. She was one of them, had been since the day she arrived. Hayden wondered if she had taken the oath to Damien that would officially make her part of the pack.
Hayden had spoken briefly to Callen three days ago when he delivered a shipment of the vaccine. A working vaccine! His Mila had done it! He was so proud of her, and even Drake was impressed, though he managed to give himself the credit for having the foresight to release Mila instead of killing her. His brother was so broken, and Hayden didn’t know what to do about him. Except help him heal the pack.
That’s where life got dicey. There was only so much Hayden could do with Drake’s pack in such a short period of time. The pack had been falling apart for a long time due to a myriad of issues. The SEV-2 virus had taken its toll, killing off several dozen shifters, and left others without their abilities. The latter would be easily rectified with Anna’s treatment. Hayden had already sent a formal request for Damien to send a shifter with the medicine to treat the affected shifters.
The harder problem to resolve, the one that would take time, was that Drake had turned a blind eye to the festering wounds in his pack, starting with his own. These shifters had been mismanaged, abused, belittled, not just by pack leadership, but by each other. There was little if any respect here, let alone a true sense of what it meant to be part of a pack. The downward spiral of this pack had started long before Drake even became alpha.
Change needed to start at the top, with the alpha. Drake still had a lot to atone for, but he wasn’t looking to atone. Drake, as always, wanted results and he only knew how to push. This latest betrayal by Chitman had made him realize loyalty to him was fleeting, and that scared Drake. Drake didn’t scare easily, considering who had raised him.
Hayden was scared though, not for Drake, but for himself. In the three weeks since he had seen Mila, and none of the messengers Damien sent had mentioned her, other than to say she was doing well. She hadn’t sent a letter with Callen, or even a question of when he was returning. He had told her he’d return, but she hadn’t asked about him. Had she decided she was better off without him? She had been through hell because of him, which is why he hadn’t gone for her. He needed to help Drake’s pack and he didn’t want her anywhere near this place.
Drake offered Hayden the position of his second. Hayden was needed here, not like at Damien’s pack. These shifters were suffering on so many levels, and he could make a difference. Serving as second to Drake though? Swearing an oath to an alpha that was his blood brother but whom he did not respect? He couldn’t do it, but neither could he Drake or the shifters who had suffered here. And there were good shifters here along with the bad. The situation—the shifters here—would continue to decline. They could be so much more than they were.
Hayden pushed himself for the last leg of the trip to Damien’s pack. He didn’t even stop to say ‘hi’ to Frank and Mac who were on patrol as he passed over the border. He missed these shifters and blowing past them with barely a bark was hard enough, but he had waited long enough to see his Mila, to hold her, to look into her beautiful face and ease his soul. His wolf pushed harder than him, and that’s when he realized how alone they’d both been, how incomplete they were without Mila.
As Hayden ran past the first cabins on his way toward Aloe’s, his heart raced. Three weeks had felt like three months. No, an eternity. No wonder Drake had gone slightly mad all those years ago. He’d lost his soul mate, forever. Not just a mere separation. How different Drake had been around her as well. Patient, calm, full of potential and promise.
The very thought of losing Mila terrified Hayden. Whatever it took to keep her safe and happy. . . That was his responsibility now, one he gladly accepted.
When he knocked on Aloe’s door, no one answered. He entered, but the place was dark and cold. Empty, void of Aloe and Mila’s scents. Aloe was probably still at Liam’s pack, visiting her sister. But Mila. . . the place didn’t smell of her at all, as if she had been gone from here for some time.
Hayden grabbed a set of clothing from the cubby by the door and dressed. As he neared Damien’s house, he spotted Lars, who stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. There were no other shifters nearby. No one to come to Lars’s rescue.
The pack still didn’t trust Hayden.
“Hi, Hayden.”
