Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Aviolent replay of the events in the Camden pub dragged me out of sleep.
I shot up, clutching at my stomach. “Stars…”
A body shuffled beside me in the armchair. Breathless, clutching the base of my throat, I turned to Miko, a candle burning on the coffee table.
Only, the alpha wasn’t sitting there.
Basil was.
“What happened?” he asked, reaching for me.
“Where’s Miko?” I got to my feet.
“Gone.”
Iron in my guts. “What?”
Basil stood up, holding out a folded piece of paper. “He asked me to give you this. I have another for his beta.”
Gone? How could be gone? “You saw him leave?”
“I did. Here.”
I took the paper. “And you let him leave? Where are the others?”
“Sleeping. The alpha is not my concern. You are. He has a duty to fulfill. As do I.”
I wanted to be sick as I unfolded the paper, trying to focus my watery eyes on the clean handwriting.
Orion,
Thank you for making me feel something.
I’m sorry we never got the chance to feel more.
Go home. This is your chance to be happy and safe.
Sorry for taking the coward’s way of leaving.
Miko x
He’d put a kiss after his name…
“No. No this can’t… I have to wake the pack up. When did he leave? When… No.” The tears I’d barely held back finally broke free.
“He must do what he must, Orion. I’m sorry. But this isn’t your fight.”
“Miko?” I blinked through the glaze of tears at the curtains drawn across the window.
“You liked him, didn’t you?”
I came out with it. “We mate-bonded.”
He gasped. “You did what?”
“You heard me.” I wiped my tears, my inner fighter rising. This Orion didn’t need to be rescued and taken home. He had to get out there and fight for this man he was falling for. This stubborn werewolf he wouldn’t simply allow to walk out of his life.
“Orion, I—”
I charged for the front door, slamming into it. I grabbed the handle, yanked it open, ready to find the alpha. Chew him out for running away, kiss him through the rage.
But he was already standing on the other side of the door, Belle clutched in his right hand.
“What…” The jolt of surprise struck like a hammer. “Miko?”
He lunged, dropping Belle, pulling me into a kiss. Heat burst, a flood of warm relief. I kissed him right back, his lips belonging on mine.
The perfect matching of flesh.
He broke the kiss, resting his forehead on mine, his hands on my neck. “I can’t… I can’t… I can’t do it. I can’t walk away.”
I wrapped myself around him in a tight embrace, more tears streaming down my face. “Oh, Miko. What are we going to do?”
There were some answers to that question, but only one of them would suffice in Miko’s mind. I knew that much to be true.
Painfully true.
He might be here in my arms right now, but one day he’d be…
…a savior.
And then he’d be gone.