Come for Me 2 (The Hunt #2)

Chapter Two

Alaina

J emma rests a plate on the coffee table, and the couch dips as she sits. Stroking my back, she says, “‘Laina, honey. It’s been days since you last ate.”

My leg is getting better by the day. It isn’t throbbing anymore, but I still can’t make the mile-long trek to aid in the search for Dax.

I miss the pain, miss feeling anything but numbness.

I’ve been rotting on the couch yet haven’t said so much as a word, and I avoid looking at anyone. The pity on their faces is too much of a reminder of what I’ve lost, and I only want to forget.

My wolf is with me, but she’s curled up inside herself as well, not caring about either of us. She won’t talk to me, too disappointed in how I treated our mate.

I don’t blame her.

I can tell when I hug my ribs that I’ve lost weight, but hunger stopped after the first day without eating.

What’s the point, anyway? Wolves don’t survive without their mate—might as well speed up the process.

The misery embraces me, encasing me in its darkness, dragging me further, but I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t make me feel better. In fact, I know it’s making things worse, but that’s why I prefer the company of this depression. It’s the only thing that is okay with letting me feel terrible. Everyone else tries to cheer me up or love and care for me the way I know I don’t deserve. I don’t want any of it. I just want Dax. But then again, I never deserved him either.

Refusing myself of her offer for comfort, I move away from Jemma’s touch, curling into the couch farther.

I want to be left alone.

Jemma sighs but leaves anyway, and I add the guilt for rejecting Jemma’s care as another reason to feel like shit even more.

Misery pats me on the head as I mentally abuse myself with more vicious thoughts.

You weren’t worthy of him, anyway.

I sigh. I know.

Too bad you never showed him that you cared this much when he was alive. Maybe then he wouldn’t have—

My intrusive thoughts are interrupted by the front door opening, and boots hit the floor. It’s Sam.

I look at him, hopeful he’s found something, anything that tells me where Dax might be.

Instead, he avoids my gaze, looking down, and shakes his head.

They didn’t find him.

Sam has done this routinely since that dismal day. He takes a team out, searches until it starts getting dark, comes to Jemma’s home, wearing the same look of exhaustion, and every time, he’s empty handed. Then he sits in the armchair on the other side of the living room, giving me space to grieve but not letting me out of his sight. Never saying a word to me.

Sam and Caleb have been rotating in shifts to watch over me so the other can shower, eat, and search for Dax. With Caleb, it makes sense he’s checking in on me. It’s Sam’s loyalty I don’t understand.

Why isn’t he mad at me? Doesn’t he blame me?

I blame myself.

It was typical for Sam and Caleb to chat about me before swapping places, wanting updates, but there’s something different about this exchange.

This time, Sam doesn’t walk to the armchair, watching over me like he normally does when switching shifts. Instead, he stands there, fiddling with a cloth.

“What?” I wince and sigh. My tone is more clipped than Sam deserves. I add it to the list of reasons to hate myself. “Sorry.”

He nods, accepting my apology.

I wish he’d meet my sass with a witty comeback instead of this newfound silence and respect. I’m craving any type of normalcy.

Sitting on the couch next to me, he hands me the cloth.

My breath hitches at the sight of it. I rub my thumb over the familiar fabric, its color unrecognizable, with blood covering almost its entire surface. His blood.

Like our future, the memory of him is also slipping.

I don’t even remember what he was wearing.

The only thing remaining is an incomplete bond to remind me of what could’ve been if I had just admitted the truth to myself.

I loved my deranged fucker of a mate.

I wail again, and the floodgates open.

Sam grabs me, pulling me into him. “I know, I’m so sorry, Alaina.”

You don’t know. You didn’t lose your mate! is what I want to yell, but I can barely breathe through my sobs, let alone speak.

I don’t know how much time passes where I’m crying on Sam’s shoulder, but eventually, I run out of tears.

Sam explains they were searching below the cliff Dax fell from when they found a significant amount of blood and this torn fabric.

“Did you try mindlinking him?”

Sam inhales and audibly exhales through his nose. “Yeah.” He nods vigorously. “Yeah, I tried. No response.” He rubs the back of his neck.

My memory flashes to Dax. He’s rubbing his neck with a somber look of defeat after marking me. I’m running after Caleb after Dax has experienced the most significant moment a wolf can have. It’s a big decision choosing a mate. Divorce isn’t an option. Only death.

Back then, I thought he was only marking me for territorial reasons, just to be spiteful. I was so furious with him for taking my choice away I was too blind to understand reason in that he, too, was allowed to make his own decision.

He chose me. And how did I respond? I tried to reject him and then when he wouldn’t let me, I left him questioning how I feel about him to go check on my ex-lover.

I left him. How shitty is that?

“Did he know I—do you think deep down he knew?”

I can’t even say the words, which is even worse.

I discover I don’t need to say it at all when Sam hangs his head, avoiding my hopeful stare, pursing his lips shut.

This can’t be how it ends.

“Take me to the cliff,” I insist, swinging my legs over the couch.

Sam stops me, propping them back on the pillow. “Not a chance, Road Runner.” He smiles. “Not until you’re fully healed.”

* * *

I’ve always been alone, but I always felt extra lonely in the colder months. Fall is meant to be a time where you cuddle up next to your significant other with a good book or a movie. It’s one of the perks of being in a relationship. I never had such a luxury. Usually, I didn’t look forward to the fall season. Then I met Dax, and I no longer dreaded it.

But a week has come and gone since Dax has been missing, and I’m, once again, entering this season alone. My wolf’s heartache and my mate’s absence aren’t helping speed up the healing process. I’m able to put weight on my leg again but running is still out of the question.

Ask me how I know.

The search and rescue party officially turned into efforts to recover his body. All evidence points to it.

Dax is gone. And so is any motivation to get better.

My heart is permanently damaged, losing its reason to beat. I’ve become mute, drowning myself in my own misery and despair.

Two days ago, I stopped crying myself to sleep. Now I lie in my dark childhood bedroom. It’s the only room I’m safe from the haunting of my fallen mate—a place I never got to share with him. And now I never will.

Now I waste away, waiting for the absence of my mate to slowly kill me. Maybe the Moon Goddess can find it in Herself to give me a second chance with him in the afterlife. That’s if She can forgive me for going against Her for so long in the first place. But I’ve sworn up and down to Her I wouldn’t fuck it up the next time.

My bedroom door opens, the floor creaking as it’s always done, when someone steps through the threshold.

“The pack and the royal council are going to want a statement from their queen,” Sam says.

If I had any humor left in me, I’d be snorting at the honorific.

Queen. What a fucking joke. I couldn’t be farther from it.

“Alaina—”

I pull the covers over me farther, ignoring him.

“Come on.” He gently nudges me.

I groan. “Leave me alone.”

“We have to get back to Crescent pack—they need a leader.”

“Then, you do it.”

“We have to go.” Sam sighs.

He’s lost his softness. His tone resembles more like Jemma’s when she’s tried to wake me up in the morning.

I let go of the covers, letting them rest over my head, fiddling with my necklace.

“I’m not going,” I say sternly.

I’d gladly walk into hell if it means Dax is waiting there for me. Although I may deserve a version of hell here on earth instead of hiding in the safety of my Dax-free room like a coward. I refuse to go back to the castle, where everything will remind me of Dax.

The covers are yanked off of me, a straight-faced Sam standing over me with them as his captive. I try to grab my covers back out of his hand, but he moves away.

“The council is talking about replacing you as their queen, with me as their king,” Sam emphasizes.

I don’t respond.

“They want me to mate with Olivia,” Sam adds.

“I don’t care.” Accepting he’s not going to give me back my covers, I lie my head back down on my pillow, turning toward the wall, giving him my back. “Just, please, leave me alone.”

“Don’t make me drag you out of this bed.”

I scoff.

He won’t do it. He’s been so patient and gentle these past few days, afraid to upset the “grieving woman.” He’ll give up eventually. All I have to do is wait him out.

So, I stay silent.

Keeping to his word, Sam wraps his hands around my ankles, and I’m pulled off the bed.

“Hey! The fuck—”

My back hits the hardwood floor. I kick at him, but without food in my system—or general will—my energy quickly drains, and I give up.

Sam pins my arms to the side, straddling me. “You are coming with me back to the castle!”

I lift my neck off the ground. “The fuck I am!”

“You think it doesn’t kill me that he’s gone?!” Sam shouts.

I blink, and the bags under his bloodshot eyes come clear into view.

“You think I don’t want to lay in bed instead of spending day and night searching for the mangled body of my best friend? Trust me, I do. But I can’t . We can’t.” Sam’s arms shake, and his grip on my wrists is bruising. But I don’t move, too captivated by his hurt. His tears drop onto my shoulder. “Dax is gone. He’s gone.”

I wince.

“You’ve gotta come with me... If you loved Dax at all...” Sam releases my arms.

Sam sits up on the floor, slouching with his back against the bed. He buries his face into his hands, sobbing uncontrollably, his elbows resting on his knees.

I crawl over next to him. But I’m not sure what to say.

We sit in silence as I listen to him sob.

“You have to come with me.” He sniffles. “If you don’t, they’ll demand I do it.”

I let my head drop back, hitting the side of the mattress.

“Maybe that’s better,” I say.

I clutch my heart and stare into the distance in a catatonic state.

“I can’t. You have to. It’s what Dax would’ve wanted.”

Dax’s words echo through my mind.

My queen .

But after everything I did, no matter what he might’ve wanted, it doesn’t mean I deserve the honor.

“I don’t know . . .”

Sam chimes in. “I couldn’t protect him—”

“Sam, don’t say—”

“But if you do this, I promise I will protect you with my life.”

Is this why he isn’t willing to step up in Dax’s place? He doesn’t think he deserves it?

I smile somberly at his sweet declaration, empathy filling my soul, but I can’t possibly rule without Dax.

“It’s not your fault he’s gone. The kingdom will be better off with you as their king than they would with me as their queen.” He doesn’t respond to my opinion, so I try for the truth. “I don’t even know how to be a queen.”

“Neither do I,” he jokes through his sniffles.

Then, we’re screwed.

“But I watched Dax for years. I’ll teach you everything I know about what it is to rule.”

Sam’s desperate persuasion kickstarts my otherwise inactive heart, which is beating a little longer than I care for.

“I’ll go back with you. But this doesn’t mean I’m going to be queen.”

* * *

As I stand in the Hunter’s Quarters, the crisp fall air acknowledges my presence by the wind hitting my face. I take it as a sign from the universe the Moon Goddess is mad at me.

A podium is stationed where I remember Luna Kathy and Alpha Jack standing before the Hunt started. Now, clutching the stand, representing the werewolves from the royal paranormal council, is a man leaning on a cane and donning a suit and tie.

People whisper among themselves at my arrival, as no one besides Caleb, Sam, and Jemma have seen me since finding a piece of Dax’s clothing.

Sam places a hand on my shoulder, lending me strength.

I smile at him, thankful for his support.

The councilman pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose to read from a paper he’s scribbled on. “I am very sorry for the loss of King Dax Taylor.”

I close my eyes and swallow hard, taking a deep breath.

You can do this.

“At this time, we don’t know who is taking over, as King Taylor, and Miss Grove did not complete the mate bond.”

The hole where my heart used to be sends pain signals to the rest of my body. Without Sam’s support, I’d fall.

Don’t cry now. Not here. Be strong.

“That’s Queen Alaina Taylor ,” Sam corrects.

When did my name change from Grove to Taylor? Not that I didn’t like the idea. It’d be an honor to share his name, but I didn’t deserve it.

“Technically, she’s not eligible to be queen and—”

“Bullshit,” Sam says. “She is Dax’s queen. They may not have completed the mate bond, but Dax had already decided who his queen is,” Sam says.

I am thankful that, while I wasn’t always the best mate to Dax, he always had a loyal best friend like Sam.

Inspecting him more closely, I’m reminded again I’m not the only one who lost someone close to me, the exhaustion evident in his eyes. He’s hurting. Yet, Sam continues to fight for his alpha king.

“She is his queen and therefore our kingdom’s,” Sam states.

“As touching as that is, she was never officially made queen. Unfortunately, even as his royal beta, you don’t get to decide this,” the man claims.

“I didn’t,” Sam says through gritted teeth. “Dax did.”

The crowd murmurs.

“There’s an official process to this.” The man dips his chin to look over at me, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. “I’m truly sorry for your loss, but being only half mated doesn’t give you the right to take over an entire kingdom.”

Loss . Half mated.

No amount of sincerity in his voice could make up for the harshness of hearing those words.

Sam steps in front of me, his frame obstructing my view. “Code section twenty-eight says she does.”

What’s section twenty-eight?

Peering around, the old man drops his jaw, then squints at Sam.

“I stand by my king’s decision,” Sam says.

My inner monologue is going to have a field day with Sam’s use of words to say I am his king’s decision.

Does that mean I’m not Sam’s?

Despite Sam and I seeming to always be at odds, here he is, honoring the wishes of his fallen best friend. The least I could do is carry them out.

“Help me get to the podium,” I whisper to Sam.

With a hand at my back, he guides me, making sure there’s plenty of room for me to walk.

The royal councilman raises an eyebrow at me, pairing perfectly with the smug look projecting what he doesn’t need to say. He steps aside anyway, allowing me to address the members of Bloodhound and Crescent alike.

Among the crowd are looks of pity and uncertainty, but all stare at me the same way as the councilman.

They want their king. And so do I.

I take a deep breath and move my hair to the side, uncovering the rough scar where Dax’s mark is. My fingers brush over the crescent-shaped ridge where his mouth once sank into me. I try not to think about the words I said after he made such an act of devotion.

Mate . My wolf stirs in despair. Our poor mate, who will never know I loved him.

I may not be able to show Dax I love him, but I can care for all Dax loved.

With realization, I grip the podium. Here goes nothing.

“I want to first thank you for all your efforts in attempting to recover your king, my mate. I know I am not him.” I lick my lips. “But I know him. And how important his people are to him...” Then I peer at Sam. “And I know what he would want. Which is why we will be returning to Crescent pack today.”

Sam nods.

I face the crowd. “With me as your queen.”

* * *

“You’ll make a great queen,” Luna Kathy says, squeezing me tight.

Her Chanel perfume penetrates the darkness that surrounds me. For a moment, a motherly comfort warms me. But it isn’t long before I deny myself this happiness, as the longing for family clouds my ability to claim what could have led to that milestone.

The final ache makes itself known.

I’ll never have his pups.

I bite my lip, fighting the tears that threaten to ruin Luna Kathy’s expensive blouse.

She beams at me, holding me at arm’s length. It’s the same pitiful smile everyone gives me and will continue to give me as long as I’m widowed.

I flash a fake smile I hope to master, feigning complacency. Pretending is easier than facing reality.

Alpha Jack clears his throat and pats me on the shoulder. “If you could tame my son, hell, the King of Werewolves, everything else will be a piece of cake.”

He thinks I tamed their king, but I only broke him.

I push the thought from my mind, forcing a dry chuckle. “Thank you. I’ll come visit soon.”

Alpha Jack and Luna Kathy join Jemma and Caleb’s side.

I wish Taya were here. She’d say something witty to make this feel less heavy. She never got to meet him.

Now she never will.

I look to Caleb. “Tell Taya I’ll be back soon, and she can tell me all about her trip.”

He nods.

Part of me wishes she were here to help me forget what Caleb and Jemma tried to help me with up until it got dark. The other part of me is glad she’s traveling with her family as they do every time this year. This time, their trip coincides with her twenty-first birthday.

I’m sure she’s tanning on the beach, hoping for the perfect meet-cute with the hunkiest male who just so happens to also be her mate. If that’s the case, the only advice I have for her is not to run from what’s meant for her. But she’s smarter and won’t make the same mistakes I have.

Sam whistles.

I face him and the others from Crescent in the same spot I stood before heading to the Hunt. Funny to think that, months ago, I was so concerned about not returning to Bloodhound if my mate found me. Now I’d give anything to leave with my mate beside me.

Knowing they’re waiting for me to join them on the journey back, I give my pack family one last glance and turn to face my new one.

I shift into my wolf for the first time since Dax was alive. She’s not showing herself because of me but only for Dax. We both are doing this for him.

Sam shifts into his wolf next, and the rest follow and await my instructions.

The full moon blazes bright yellow, but it’s lackluster compared to the mesmerizing gold irises I’ve had the pleasure of staring into.

I let out a long howl to the moon at the loss of my mate, and the Crescent pack yips and howls in despair.

They’re letting me lead them now, but will they truly let me be their queen?