Chapter 9
Tim
Tim sat in his idling truck at the edge of the werewolf community and tried to convince himself that letting Ali walk away had been the right decision. Every nerve ending in his body disagreed.
His hands trembled on the steering wheel, fingers going numb in waves that started at his fingertips and crawled up his arms like ice.
The mate bond was tearing itself apart inside him, shredding his nervous system with surgical precision.
Twenty years of careful control, twenty years of keeping his needs buried and his emotions locked down, and now his body was staging a full-scale rebellion.
The logical part of his mind kept insisting he'd made the smart choice.
The protective choice. Ali could have a real career exposing supernatural medical discrimination, could make changes on a national level instead of hiding in a truck with a cryptid who turned every simple supply run into an international incident.
But logic meant nothing when his enhanced senses were screaming that his mate was gone, missing, lost.
His vision kept blurring at the edges. Food tasted like sawdust. Even breathing felt wrong without her scent in the air around him.
"Big Timber," Luna's voice crackled over the CB, cutting through the fog of misery that had settled over him like a burial shroud. "You need to see this."
Tim forced himself out of the truck, though every movement was like swimming through concrete.
The simple act of walking required conscious thought, his body's natural coordination disrupted by the absence of his other half.
Around him, the convoy had transformed the werewolf community into a medical miracle.
Dragons were providing heat for the medical stations, yetis were hauling supplies with careful gentleness, and werewolf children were receiving the insulin that would keep them alive.
Victory should have tasted sweet. Instead, it tasted like nothing at all.
Luna met him at the medical station, her alpha senses immediately cataloging his distress. Her nostrils flared as she scented his emotional state, and her expression shifted to concern.
"You look like death walking."
Tim's voice came out as a rasp, his vocal cords apparently forgetting how to function without Ali there to talk to. "What did you need to show me?"
"The children. Look at them."
Tim forced his blurred vision to focus on the young werewolves receiving treatment.
They were laughing, playing with stuffed animals provided by the convoy members, their parents crying with relief as insulin brought them back from the edge of diabetic comas.
Life where there should have been death. Hope where there had been despair.
"They're alive because you made this happen," Luna said, her voice carrying the weight of pack authority. "Because you were willing to risk everything to get them what they needed."
"We made this happen. The whole convoy."
"A convoy you organized. A mission you led." Luna's eyes were steady on his, reading emotions he was too exhausted to hide. "A fight you're about to abandon because your mate called you on your controlling behavior."
Tim's fragile control cracked. His scent spiked with territorial aggression so sharp it made Luna take an involuntary step backward. The emotional release bled out through his pores.
"Stay out of it, Luna."
"Like hell I will." Luna moved closer, her own alpha nature refusing to back down from his dominance display.
"You think I don't know what it's like to be separated from your mate?
My husband died in Iraq fifteen years ago, and the bond breaking nearly killed me.
The difference is, your mate is still alive.
You're just too scared to admit you were wrong. "
The words hit him where he was already broken, but he kept his face blank. "I wasn't wrong. The federal deal would give Ali a platform to help supernatural communities on a national level. She could do more good in Washington than she'll ever do hiding in a truck with me."
"And you made that decision for her."
"I made that decision for both of us."
"No, you made that decision because you're terrified." Luna's voice gentled, but the words cut deeper than any shout could have. "You're terrified that given a real choice, she might pick her career over you. So you're ending it first to protect yourself from that rejection."
Luna was right. Twenty years of solitude had taught him that he was meant to be alone, that wanting more was just setting himself up for disappointment. Finding Ali had been like discovering he could breathe underwater. Losing her was drowning in slow motion.
"She deserves better," he said, the words scraping his throat raw.
"She deserves a partner who trusts her judgment." Luna's voice carried the patient authority of someone who'd survived her own losses. "Tim, I've watched you two together. She doesn't want better. She wants you. But she wants you as an equal, not as someone who makes decisions for her own good."
Before Tim could respond, his enhanced hearing picked up the sound of approaching vehicles. Multiple engines, moving fast, with the distinctive rumble of law enforcement interceptors. His body reacted before his mind caught up, adrenaline flooding his system and sharpening his senses.
"We've got company," he said, his protective instincts flaring despite the absence of his mate.
Through the trees, he could see a convoy of patrol cars approaching the werewolf community. But these weren't Grizz's Fairweather County units. These were newer, sleeker vehicles with markings he didn't recognize.
"That's not local law enforcement," Luna said, her own alpha instincts kicking in. "Those are state units."
The CB radio in Tim's truck crackled to life with Grizz's voice: "Big Timber, this is Sheriff Lawman. I've got state police and federal medical units en route to your location. This is official assistance, not arrest operations. Repeat, this is medical assistance, not hostile action."
The iron band around Tim's chest finally released. Grizz had figured out the truth. The system was actually working, for once.
"Copy that, Sheriff. We appreciate the support."
"Big Timber, there's something else you need to know.
Sheriff Cottonmouth has been relieved of duty pending federal investigation.
But before they took him into custody, he made some threats about stopping the convoy permanently.
Threats that included specific individuals. You might want to watch your back."
The relief evaporated like water on hot asphalt, replaced by cold fury that made his vision sharpen to predatory focus. "What kind of threats?"
"The kind that make me think he's not planning to go quietly. Keep your people safe, son."
As state medical units began arriving to assist with the werewolf children, Tim realized that the convoy had succeeded beyond his wildest hopes.
They'd delivered the medical supplies, exposed systematic corruption, and triggered federal reform of supernatural medical access.
Everything he'd worked toward for fifteen years was finally happening.
And Ali wasn't here to see it because he'd been too terrified to trust her with making her own choices.
His phone rang, displaying a number he didn't recognize. He answered it with the reflexive wariness of someone who'd spent decades avoiding official attention.
"Mr. McGraw, this is Deputy Attorney General Sarah Martinez. I understand Ms. Franklyn is no longer with your convoy?"
"She left." The words came out flat, emotionless, because feeling anything right now would break him completely.
"Mr. McGraw, we have reason to believe Sheriff Cottonmouth may attempt retaliation against convoy members and key witnesses. Ms. Franklyn's documentation of his activities makes her a particular target. Do you know her current location?"
Tim's blood turned to ice water in his veins. The mate bond, which had been a constant ache since Ali left, suddenly exploded into sharp panic that wasn't his own. Somewhere, Ali was afraid. Somewhere, Ali was in danger. And every instinct he possessed was screaming at him to find her.
"What kind of retaliation?" he asked, though his body was already moving toward his truck.
"The kind that makes witness protection necessary. Sir, we need to locate Ms. Franklyn immediately."
Tim was already climbing into his truck, his hands steady on the wheel for the first time since Ali had left. The panic coming through the mate bond was getting stronger, more urgent, and he could feel her terror like acid in his veins.
"I'm on my way," he said, ending the call.
"Tim," Luna started.
"Keep the medical operation running. I have to find Ali." Tim started the engine, the familiar rumble settling into his bones like coming home. "She's in trouble."
"You don't even know where she went."
Tim was already moving, his enhanced senses reaching out for any trace of his mate's scent, any whisper of the bond that connected them. She couldn't have gotten far, not with the mate bond pulling at both of them like a stretched rubber band.
"I'll find her," he said, and for the first time since she'd left, his voice carried the absolute certainty of a legend who'd never failed to complete a delivery.
Because this wasn't about protecting Ali from choices she might regret anymore. This was about protecting her from a corrupt sheriff who saw her as a threat to be eliminated.
And Tim would level mountains before he let anyone hurt his mate.
***
ALI
Ali sat in the airport bar nursing her third bourbon and trying to pretend the constant ache in her chest was just heartbreak instead of the mate bond slowly ripping her apart at the cellular level.