44. Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Mason
Doctor Singh’s office was officially closed for the holidays. The sign above the parking lot that read “Mountain View Veterinary Clinic” was no longer illuminated. Inside, no fluorescent lights shone through the opaque front windows.
Fortunately, the type of work Doctor Singh was doing on a night like tonight wasn’t official.
I scanned the empty lot, and the dark road beyond before making my way around the landscaped shrubs and to the back of the building. A dumpster reeking of animal waste was positioned beside two steel doors. I crouched beside the dumpster, holding my breath as I searched around the bottom of the metal until my hand found purchase on a hidden key case.
Singh had repositioned it since the last time I was here. Probably paranoid after having so many shifters coming and going while Gage recovered. I strained my arm, yanking the magnetic case off the dumpster and hurrying away from the disgusting smell as some startled critter made an escape out the other side.
Senses open, I checked over my shoulder one more time before unlocking the steel door beside the dumpster and swinging it open. Closing it quietly behind me was tricky. The door didn’t fit exactly right in the frame, the metal warped where something—someone—large had hit it at full speed.
Below me lay a set of stairs, dark but for the fine line of blue light coming from beneath a second door at the bottom. I took them one at a time, careful to keep my steps soft.
I couldn’t risk alerting my target. Last time the place was empty before I ever made it through the second door.
She wouldn’t get away from me so easily again.
Singh was in his office. I could tell by the sound of shuffling papers and muttering. The man was always talking under his breath, crunching numbers out loud or questioning his own chart notes. At his age, with how often he was up at odd hours helping patients off the books, it was a miracle he was still coherent.
I owed him a lot. My whole team did.
But right now, I wasn’t interested in Singh. I passed his office, following the dimly lit hall through the basement. The three patient rooms Singh kept were empty, doors gaping to reveal tidy beds and empty chairs.
A shadow moved at the end of the hall, spilling out of a half-open supply closet, and I nearly broke into a sprint. She was cornered now, with nowhere to run or hide, and my wolf was vibrating with anticipation.
He loved the hunt in all forms. Stalking, chasing, bearing down on a creature with his teeth at their throat.
This wasn’t that kind of hunt, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have his fangs ready.
My jaw ached from the urge. That was the least of my problems. Lately, everything hurt—pounding head, burning chest, stiff joints as I held the wolf at bay.
He didn’t handle rejection well, and this one was particularly painful.
Glossy black hair shifted over narrow shoulders as I moved silently into the room. She’d cut it since the first time I saw her, the length giving her round face a more angular appearance. That was the only part of her that looked sharp, a telltale softness showing through her oversized scrubs.
My hand was over her face before she could react, muffling the scream I knew would come. Her elbow made a valiant effort to dislodge me, slamming into my stomach over and over. I flexed, easily letting the blows glance off.
Lifting anything from a hundred-pound dog to an injured shifter made her strong—stronger than I expected—but not strong enough to break free.
“Don’t scream,” I told her as I turned her to face me.
Her cheeks were flushed, curved eyes wide with terror. I didn’t want to scare her. In fact, I hated myself a little for the stink of fear that filled the small space.
But this was the only way. For weeks, I’d been trying to catch her, and for weeks she managed to avoid me.
Doctor Singh was responsible for more than one escape. I was glad the old man was on her side, even if it was maddening to be kept from my target for this long.
I tried to give her space, tried to focus on the job and put her out of my head. It didn’t work, of course. How could it when the distance became a physical discomfort that kept me awake at night? I made my best college effort to handle her rejection with pride. I really did.
Until we dragged Gage into Singh’s basement three weeks ago and I realized why she was hiding from me.
“What the hell is your problem?” She smacked me, hard. “I thought you were a psychopath!”
I could have been. Some shifters stayed off the radar because they knew they wouldn’t receive fair treatment at a human hospital. Some shifters came to a place like Singh’s because they had something to hide. In both scenarios, an injured shifter was dangerous.
Zoe had no business doing this kind of work.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Are you kidding me? You snuck up on me like a murderer and you didn’t mean to scare me ?”
“You didn’t leave me much of a choice, baby girl.”
She crossed her arms over her stomach, backpedaling until she hit a nearby supply shelf. “You had a choice. You could have left me alone.”
“If you want to cut a guy loose, the least you could do is tell him so.”
Her lip quivered, and she refused to meet my eyes as she said, “I told you I was in the middle of a breakup. Things didn’t go according to plan.”
I stormed up to her, looming as I growled. “If you tell me that you’re back with that asshole, I’m going to lose my fucking mind, Zoe, and I don’t want you to see that happen.”
She was still looking at anything but me. “It’s not really your business, Mason. I’m sorry if I hurt you but I had to do the right thing.”
“Explain to me what you think the right thing is.”
“It’s complicated!” She snapped, trying, and failing to shove past me.
“Ain’t nothing complicated about this,” I told her with teeth bared. “You’re my mate, and that baby you’re carrying is mine. ”