14. A New Normal
A New Normal
Kade
A s they had said, Blake and Deke dropped me off at work with time to spare after our breakfast. Blake and I had made dinner plans in Northarbor with another enforcer taking the driving duties.
I kissed Blake’s cheek as I exited the car, whispering, “pack another bag,” and closed the door.
He wound down the window and beckoned me closer, his fingers tangling in my hair as he gave me a proper goodbye kiss that left my knees feeling weak.
He kissed his mark and rested his forehead against mine for a second, then let me go.
“I’ll miss you, my mate.” I was pretty sure that the feeling would be mutual.
Kiss drunk with a silly grin on my face, I turned to face the music.
A cheer went up as I entered the warehouse, with several people dropping whatever they were doing to come over to greet me. My smile was wider than it had ever been, my heart warmed by how happy they were to see me.
“Hey peeps! Thank you for the flowers, Avery, Alex and Taylor.” I hugged each of the ogres. “That meant a lot. Was great to see you, too.” They brushed off my thanks and returned to their tasks as Isaac approached.
“Hey, Kade. I’m so sorry.” Isaac’s face was pinched and tired.
It was awkward to be next to him. Like an entire lifetime of things had happened and separated me from my friend. I didn’t really know what to say to him. “It’s okay. Dakota said you, ah, had some issues?” It wasn’t meant to sound like a question, but there it was.
“Yeah, still though. I’m sorry. Life has been really hard recently. Meera and Ishar aren’t getting on and, well, it’s a whole thing. I’m stuck in the middle.” He shrugged.
Anger bit at me. I’d gone through so much and hadn’t even had one text from Isaac. Not one. And somehow I was supposed to feel sorry for him? He hadn’t even asked how I was!
“Hey, you smell different? What’s that about?” he asked.
“I met my mate.”
“No shit!”
“Yeah, we have a partial bonding. We’re sorta dating, figuring things out.” I really didn’t want to get into it with him. Five minutes in the place and he’s stolen my buzz from that amazing kiss. “Look, I have to go check in with Dakota and see what he wants me to do today. Catch you later?”
“Sure.” He turned to move away before turning back. “Did Dakota really come around to your house and sleep in your bed? Shelby said his scent was all over your house.”
I ran a hand over my face. Everyone was probably talking about it, so I needed to get this out in the open now.
“At the moment, Dakota is probably the closest friend I have,” I said plainly.
“He was my emergency contact and picked me up from the hospital. He looked after me when I could barely function.” I looked around and saw that most of the staff were listening.
Not even hiding it. “I’ve met his parents, his pack.
The whole time he didn’t ask for anything and I think now we are in a great place.
” It was my turn to shrug. “So yes, he stayed at my house. In my bed. My wolf is touch starved, Isaac, so I needed that closeness. He gave me everything I needed before I knew what that was. Dakota got me through something awful and I wouldn’t have managed it alone. ”
“Kade.” I heard Dakota’s voice ring out clearly from the other side of the warehouse, in the doorway of his office. He’d likely heard everything I’d said. “Office please. We’ll go over what needs done.”
“See you later, Isaac.”
“Kade, wait!” Isaac called as I hurried to the office where my friend waited. I didn’t turn around.
“Back to work, everyone.” Dakota barked.
Slumping in a seat, I straightened when Dakota slammed the door shut and marched around his desk to his chair.
He ran a frustrated hand through his thick hair and blew out a breath.
“You okay?” He managed a gentle tone with me, though his irritation was clear.
“You don’t owe anyone an explanation. Especially him. ”
“It’s hardly ideal to be making a scene at work, but it’s better than the rumor mill working overtime.”
“True, but I know you value your privacy and, well... Isaac.” Dakota looked truly concerned.
“Ugh. I totally didn’t see Isaac as such a fickle friend. He’s our union rep. At the very least, you’d think he’d have checked in since I collapsed at work.”
Dakota grimaced. “I smoothed that over, but you can check what I wrote on the incident form.”
I almost laughed. After the last ten days or so, I’d seen so many parts of what made up Dakota that I’d also forgotten he was technically my boss. “It’s cool. I trust you.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I saw Blake dropped you off. Everything okay with that?”
“Yeah, he confirmed my dad is in Sweetwater, but he seems to have given them the slip.”
Sitting up straight, Dakota was fully alert, as if my dad would burst right in and try to steal me out from him at any minute. “It’s cool, Kota. I told Blake that you have me on office work for the foreseeable.”
“Still, maybe.”
“No. I’m not hiding out. Just limiting the chances. I can’t avoid it forever. One day, someone will let something slip, or he’ll run into me.”
“Kade —“
“No. We better get started doing some work. What do you need me to do?”
Dakota refused to let me drive home alone in my van, especially since I didn’t need it with being grounded to the warehouse.
He dropped me off on his lunch, deciding for me I was done for the day after four hours of work.
I would have felt frustrated at him, but I was exhausted.
He even bought me a sandwich on the way so I could have lunch and then nap before my date with Blake.
My mate, moon help me. It felt strange and kind of wonderful to call him that. He’d kept in contact all day. Memes and gifs brightened the monotony of paperwork. I sent him a selfie of me tucked up in bed about to get an hour’s sleep and his reply set butterflies loose in my stomach.
Blake: Wish I was there. You are such a cuddly sleeper.
True, but only with you, I thought. It wasn’t something I was ready to reveal to him.
I got the feeling that he liked me a little prickly.
Not just willing to roll over and let him do what he wanted.
And moon help me, I liked him. I couldn’t help but be won over by how sweet he was.
Nothing like the alphas I’d known before.
Living near Sweetwater had done that, though. Had shown me a different side to all the alphas that were in my life. I’d made assumptions about Dakota and he’d proven me wrong.
The Luna had known what she was doing when she made Blake for me. Yet, I was still reluctant to bond fully. There was a part of me that wanted to wait and get to know him better. Not having my wolf aspect guiding me really didn’t help matters, either.
There was also my probable infertility to consider. As an Alpha Mate, they expected me to give my pack heirs. Blake could talk all he wanted about adoption, or other methods of having kids, but our bond wouldn’t allow him to be with someone else. Fated mates just couldn’t cheat.
My only option was to take it slow and see if my wolf returned. With my wolf, my chances of having children were higher, better odds for me to accept.
I spent the time between waking up from my nap and my date with Blake getting ready, picking up the house, and just missing him.
It was ridiculous, but the feeling itched at me the whole time.
The notion that something wasn’t right, that I wasn’t complete, not just because of my sleeping wolf, but because my mate was too far from me.
Rubbing the mate mark, I noticed it was fading and my heart lurched, bringing me up short.
Wasn’t that what I wanted? To be free of the bond so I had time to choose?
Could I attribute all my feelings for Blake to the mark?
No. My subconscious flashed back to all those times I’d seen flashes of those gorgeous eyes of his in my mind before I’d even stepped into Heatwave and seen him again.
Hell, part of the reason I’d passed out was my physical reaction to him overloading my system. I flushed when I thought about what I’d probably looked like.
I’d been the one that had asked Blake to mark me in the first place. He’d said he was my mate, and I’d trusted him from the start. I’d never questioned it since I could feel it was true in my gut.
I didn’t want it to fade. I’d get him to mark me again if he wanted to, even though I wasn’t quite ready to reciprocate. There had to be a way to make him understand I wanted him. I just wasn’t quite ready, and I needed the security that even a partial bond gave me.
Blake picked me up for an early dinner and a movie with a different enforcer doing the driving. He came to my door, kissed me quickly in greeting, and led me to the car. “I’ve missed you. Is that too much to say?”
“Not really, I’ve missed you too.”
We shared a grin. Blake opened the door for me, made sure I was settled and closed it, jogging around the car to the other side.
“This is Kaine,” he introduced us briefly before settling into the back seat with me, dismissing the other man altogether.
He was large, likely an alpha, and had tattoos running up and down his thick arms. Close-cropped blond hair added to an unapproachable air.
I gave Blake a look, and I tied on my talisman, and he shrugged. “Later,” he mouthed at me, and we lapsed into silence on the way to the restaurant. I caught the driver, Kaine, looking at me in the rearview mirror a few times, but brushed it off. He probably wondered why my scent disappeared.
“We are having some issues in the pack,” Blake finally explained as we were seated at our table deep within the Italian place he’d picked out.
“What kind of issues?” Anxiety prickled along my skin, certain my father had something to do with it. The man stirred up trouble wherever he went.