Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33372 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33372 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
The bed was empty.
Sitting up, he looked over. Karina had slept beside him. Her scent, though faint, still lingered on the pillow.
“Karina?” He called out her name, to which there was no answer. Throwing the blanket off his body, he climbed out of bed, and made his way toward the bathroom, but there was no sign of her.
He did a quick check of her closet, and he found some of her clothes were still there, but he noticed her bag and a few items had been taken.
“Fuck.”
Rage knew something must have happened to set her off. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed William’s number. There was no answer, it just kept ringing and ringing.
Panic flooded him. Had a rogue wolf taken his mate? No, that wasn’t possible. He’d have sensed another wolf within his home.
He ran through the house, but there was no sign of Karina, not even a note.
She couldn’t have been gone long as her scent was still quite strong. Rushing back upstairs, he changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt, and then made his way out of the house. This time, he didn’t opt for the niceties of driving, but took off through the woods.
He didn’t need to change into a wolf to get the speed he needed.
All he thought about was Karina. He had no idea why she had taken off the way she did, but he was going to get answers. His only focus was his mate.
She’d wanted him. He knew for a fact she also wanted to share the life he imagined. Karina would make an amazing mother, so what had sent her back to her family? None of it made any sense to him. There was no way he was going to allow his mate to leave him that easily.
He arrived at Westblood’s town within the hour. The last time he arrived, he should have just run, but then he didn’t have the focus he did now.
All William wanted was an alliance. Rage wanted his soulmate, his very reason for existing.
Several of Westblood’s pack stopped and stared at him. He didn’t have time for their gossip, and he certainly wasn’t interested in listening to anything they had to say. Instead, he made his way to the alpha’s house.
William didn’t make him knock on the door, as he stepped out of the house. Rage sensed the alpha was about to showdown with him. He didn’t want to fight William.
“Where is she?” Rage asked.
“She’s safe. She is home.”
“Why?” He needed answers.
“I don’t know why. She contacted Rose and asked her to come and pick her up. They arrived twenty minutes ago.”
“You cannot keep me from my mate.”
“I do not want to fight you, Rage, but I did warn you many times. Karina is not like us. She doesn’t understand what it means to be a wolf.”
Rage looked at William as the door opened and Patricia stood there.
“I know what happened,” Rage said.
He noticed the way William tensed and Patricia’s gasp.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Rage ignored him and carried on. “At first, I thought someone within the pack couldn’t stand their alpha being happy. You have five children and Karina is the youngest. Then I wondered if someone was willing to poison the alpha’s mate, why didn’t he do anything about it. Is he a coward?”
William growled. Rage ignored the warning.
“And then I thought about how important it is for you to have this alliance with me. Karina is your blood, as she is Patricia’s, yet she cannot turn into a wolf. Then I realized something. Our wolves do what they can to protect us, to heal us. Your overwhelming fear of the rogues makes sense. Patricia, while pregnant, was harmed by a rogue, wasn’t she? Karina’s wolf did what it could to protect Karina in the womb, but in the process, the wolf died, and allowed her to live.”
Patricia placed a hand on William’s shoulder.
“Yes,” Patricia said. “William and I had gone out without the pack to enjoy a final run. When a woman is pregnant, as you know, she can only transition so many times, and then she must remain in human form until she gives birth. Karina was a strong baby, kicking and making her presence known. So active. During our … final run, I was attacked. We’d been playing and enjoying each other when the wolf attacked and in doing so, I got hurt.” Patricia stopped and lifted the shirt she’d been wearing.
Rage hadn’t even realized that Patricia kept a certain part of her body hidden. Across her stomach, where Karina would have been inside her womb, was the scar from a giant slash.
“I killed the rogue, but he’d gotten his claws into my mate,” William said. He grabbed Patricia around the back of the neck and pulled her in close.