Page 23 of Mating Season
I sigh, that’s true. Of course that’s true. It’s a reasonable explanation for my unreasonable panic. It must just be the coming moon. I need to be focused on trying to get Rosalie to let me complete the claim before the full moon. Maybe I should have picked up something more romantic for dinner—like spaghetti and meatballs and wine. I should have been more focused on woo’ing her instead of respecting her space. But I know my scent is affecting her. She’ll cave soon. The question is... will she cave soon enough?
The elevator opens on the penthouse level.
“Rosalie, I brought home some burgers.” I am such a failure as a Woo’er. My shoes echo over the marble floor. I put the bag of food on the counter. “Rosalie?”
She’s not in her room or on the main floor. I race up the stairs to find my closet has been ransacked. The money on the nightstand is missing.
“Rosalie!” I climb the final set of steps up to the roof. I’m panicked, but I’ve also convinced myself she’s just having a drink from the cabana bar or maybe she’s in the hot tub.
I feel my eyes glowing and a partial shift coming over me when I find the roof as empty as the rest of the penthouse. I glance down to see my claws fighting to push through. I take a long slow breath.
Relax. Relax. Relax.
It isn’t as though I can do full shifts without the direct power of the moon.
After several tense minutes I feel my eyes go back to normal and my hands are once again just hands.
How could she have gotten out? Or did someone else get in? What if she’s just in the bathroom and I’m being crazy? I goback downstairs to check her bathroom, but the penthouse truly is empty. There’s no sign of forced entry, and no one could have gotten up to the penthouse without my literal thumbprint. I go back to my closet and notice the rappelling gear is missing.
Back to the rooftop.
My heart drops into my stomach when I see the glint of rappelling gear and the rope tied around the pole. There isn’t enough rope to get to the ground. And if she’d fallen, the entire perimeter of the building would be roped off with police tape. Unless it just happened.
I take a deep breath and look over the edge. And that’s when I see the missing window. I pull up the rope, get into the harness, and climb two floors down.
I can smell her here. Okay, so… she ran away. That’s better than the alternative. I just have to get to her. I’m going to have to tell her about the vampire threat and just hope she doesn’t think it’s some made up bullshit to trick her into accepting the mating.
I eat my burger on the way. I barely ate today, and I can’t be half-starved when I reach her. I’m irrational when I’m hungry.
But when I reach Rosalie’s apartment building and get out of my Jeep I don’t smell her—not in the parking lot, and not at her door or window. More importantly, I don’tfeelher. And that’s when I really lose it.
She could have gone somewhere else, but why don’t Ifeelher?
I should feel her. Even when I’m away from her, there is this ephemeral thread of connection that I can sense like some piece of her is always with me. Did it just now break? When did it break?
She’s dead. I lost her.
I begin pacing the parking lot like a mad man. I want to do something but there’s nothing I can do. Do what? Resurrect her?I don’t even think that magic works. And even if it did… she’d come back wrong.
I spend about fifteen minutes having what I’m sure must be something halfway between a panic attack and a nervous breakdown. And yet… the grief doesn’t come.
She’s mymate. Where is the crushing grief? All I feel is anxiety. And that’s when it occurs to me. She’s not dead, she’s beenbitten. That’s why I can’t feel the link! I race to her apartment and bang on the door.
Otherworld beings don’t share our reality with humans. Humans cannot be trusted. The only humans we ever let in are mates. But I’m the last of my line, who’s going to stop me? I need something of Rosalie’s and her friend is just going to have to learn about magic today.
“What the hell?” Nikki says when she opens the door. I smell food coming from the kitchen. I’ve clearly interrupted her dinner.
“I need Rosalie,” I blurt out.Great, job, Cooper. You sound like a psycho three year old.
And that’s when her face changes, and I notice her red-rimmed eyes. Fuck. Yeah, her friend has been missing for almost a week and I didn’t even let Rosalie call anyone. In my defense I didn’t think it was going to take this long to complete the claim, and I didn’t trust her not to yell into the phone that she’d been kidnapped. But seeing what this has done to her friend, combined with how I’m feeling right now. Yeah, I’m an unforgivable dick.
She looks like she’s about to start crying again.
“I know where she is,” I say. I mean that’s not exactly true. I don’t know where she is or I wouldn’t be here right now trying to negotiate my way into a human’s apartment. The clock is ticking, and I don’t know how much time Rosalie has, but if she’s still alive after being bitten, whoever has her doesn’t intend to killher immediately. This realization stresses me out even more. I don’t want to think about all the things a vampire could do to her—especially a vampire with the self-control to bite but not kill.
Nikki’s initial annoyance-turned-to-grief has now shifted to suspicion.
“You took her! You’re the man from the woods, aren’t you? The man she was fleeing from.”
