The Lost Mate

Max

I raced towards that tantalizing scent with the mad determination of a starving creature towards food, and lurched to a stop at the edge of the parking lot around the small grocery store.

There were a few parked trucks and a car, but the lot was otherwise deserted. Except for one lone figure moving boxes around at the back of an unmarked delivery truck.

Her back was to me, and she was completely unaware of my presence. I didn’t need to see her face, though. Everything about her was familiar, the smoothly flowing brown hair, longer than I remembered, the curve of her form, slightly more slim, the way she moved, graceful purpose... Different than my memories, but exactly the same.

“Lillian!”

Her head jerked up at the sound of her name or my voice, and she turned in my direction.

“Max!?”

I didn’t know if this was real or if my wolf had finally snapped, and I didn’t care. I had no time to think about all the nagging questions without answers that should have been prompted by the sight of finding her here, healthy, and performing the most mundane task. I was as dazed as I had been the first time I had discovered she was mine.

Her soft brown eyes, so familiar, so missed, were round with shock as I ran towards her across the parking lot.

I swept her into my arms, her familiar scent and feel bringing my wolf to full attention while I chanted her name over and over. Her arms wrapped around me like she would never let me go.

“I missed you so much.” I breathed against her hair. There were different unfamiliar scents on her, but underlying that, it was still the same Lillian, my mate, the only woman I’d ever loved. The shoulder hurts of my shirt grew damp from her tears. “I have so much to tell you. So much since you’ve been gone.”

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. I had no chance to tell her anything that was swirling in my mind, because then I kissed her, her taste so familiar, her touch just like the last time I had been with her. She returned my kiss with the mirror of my own desperate longing.

“You couldn’t feel that I was alive?” I finally asked into her mind, only vaguely aware that there could be humans around to witness this moment. I pulled back from our kiss and feasted my starved gaze on her. She was still so beautiful, even though she had lost weight to the point where it made me worry. What had happened to her since that last moment I had seen her before our lives had been irreversibly fractured?

“I couldn’t tell for sure...” Her voice was tentative, and I questioned what I was missing.

I inspected her more carefully. Her eyes looked tired, slight dark circles under them. What had she been going through? “Where have you been? Here this whole time? Why here? I’ve been searching for you.”

Her lips opened as if she was going answer, but before she could, a silky voice interrupted our bittersweet reunion. “Lillian, who do we have here?”

She pulled away from me as I turned around and snarled, keeping my mate shielded behind my body. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard or smelled the interloper approaching. The male was taller than me by a few inches, and his body was lean and lithe. His face was narrow and features sharp, and the expression in his eyes, while sociable on the surface, held an unidentifiable something that cried ruthlessness.

“A mutt, huh?” He smirked. My wolf reared up defensively.

I growled. “Stay back.”

“Settle down, puppy.”

The insult meant nothing to me, and I kept my eyes fixed on the threat, assessing him. He barely had a scent, which made me instantly think he was a vampire. Everyone knew they were the hardest creature to detect. He was definitely not an oblivious human, at the very least, since his dog implications screamed he knew my nature.

He looked past me, towards my mate, who was holding onto the back of my shirt tightly. “Who is he?” the unidentified male asked.

“No one. Just an acquaintance I knew in my old pack,” Lillian said, her voice a little shaky. I gaped at her words. She released her grip, inhaled deeply, and stepped out from behind me.

I gaped at her unexpected movement. Why was she—

Lillian cleared her throat. “It was good to see you again, but I’ve we’ve really got to go. Come on, Roderick.” She dashed towards the truck with her head lowered.

My brain refused to take in the meaning of her words. “What? Lillian? I’m not just—”

“I can’t, Max. I just can’t. Go...live your life. Just don’t look for me anymore.”

To my shocked horror, she jumped into the cab of the truck and the door locked.

With a final smirk in my direction, the bastard closed the back before he rounded the other side and got in.

The engine started up, and I struggled to understand why she was leaving. “Lillian, you are my life. I can’t not search for you.”

“Max, I...please. Listen to me. Just go.”

I stared as the truck lurched into motion.

I ran after it, all the way through the small community, unconcerned what any humans might think about me. I called after her both verbally and through our mind link, but she responded to neither. The vehicle pulled away from me, and finally rounded a corner where the trees obscured it from my sight. I stopped. My legs buckled and my knees hit the pavement.

What just happened?

My heart felt like it was being ripped out, and my eyes stung, and my wolf howled in agony in my mind. After everything, after I had finally found her, Lillian left me.