Page 12 of Wolf Revealed

“Good,” Mike said, sounding relieved. “And Lark?”

“Yes?”

“We’re going to get our son back.”

Lark nodded before remembering he couldn’t see her through the phone. She opened her mouth to tell Mike to be careful, but he’d already hung up. She resisted the urge to call him back. If she and her pack were going to get to the art museum in twenty minutes, they needed to hurry.

Chapter five

“You realize this is probably a trap, right?” Xander asked from where he was hiding on the floorboard in the back seat of Mike’s SUV. “Roman wants you dead as much as he wants this flash drive.”

“Yeah, I know,” Mike said, checking the clock on the dash for the dozenth time as he drove, afraid he wasn’t going to make it to the museum in time. “But it doesn’t change the fact that I have to show up for the exchange anyway. I need to get my son back.”

“I get that. But you can’t be so focused on Kal that you forget how dangerous Roman can be, especially if we’re right about him being a supernatural. He’s depending on you being distracted.”

Mike ground his jaw. “You don’t have to remind me about what kind of man I’m dealing with. I’m going into this assuming he’s going to try to kill me. I’m not going to let that happen. I have a son to get to know.”

“We’re in agreement on that,” Xander said. “And while I probably shouldn’t be asking you this before confronting Roman, have you thought about what’s going to happen with you and Lark after we get Kal back?”

Mike didn’t say anything for a moment. Xander was right. This probably wasn’t something he should be talking about before facing off against Roman. But he’d be lying if he said it hadn’t been on his mind.

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it. But honestly, right now I’m trying to compartmentalize and focus all my attention on getting Kal back safely. I can’t waste a lot of bandwidth on anything else.”

So, why was he thinking about it?

“Is it bizarre that a part of me still wants to make a life with Lark?” he asked quietly, turning onto North Harwood, the street where the museum was located. “Why would I want to have anything to do with her after what she did? I should be furious with her.”

“No one would blame you if you are. I can’t help wondering why you aren’t, though.”

Mike frowned, not sure where his pack mate was going with this. And more importantly, not sure he wanted to know.

“I mean, by all rights, you should be mad as hell,” Xander continued. “Most people would be. Which means there must be a good reason you’re not.”

“Such as?” Mike prompted when Xander didn’t elaborate.

“Such as maybe you and Lark are soul mates,” Xander said carefully, as if he expected Mike to blow up at the mention of those two words.

Mike considered denying it, but when he opened his mouth to do just that, his inner wolf let out a howl that had him quickly changing his mind.

“I thought we were soul mates even before I was a werewolf, back when we first met,” he said softly. “I mean, it would explain why I was never interested in having a relationship with anyone else after Lark died, or left, or whatever. Once she was gone, there was this big gaping hole in my chest that would never heal up. I thought I’d found my soul mate, and then lost her. I didn’t think there would be a happily ever after for me like you and everyone else in the Pack.”

“Except now there could be,” Xander pointed out. “Assuming you can look past everything that happened. Do you think that’s possible?”

“I don’t know,” Mike said honestly. “While you’re right about me not necessarily being furious at Lark, that doesn’t mean I’m not mad. She stole a decade of my happiness away. Hell, she probably wouldn’t even be here now if Kal hadn’t been kidnapped. That’s hard to get past, even if she used to be my soul mate.”

“Used to be?” Xander popped his head up from the back for a moment, doing a double-take. “What do you mean by that? If Lark was your soul mate then, she’s still your soul mate now.”

“Is she?” Mike countered, relieved to see he was closing in on the museum. Another quick look in the rearview mirror confirmed Xander had gone back to hiding again. “Gage is the one who told us that just because two people are soul mates doesn’t mean they’ll end up together. Free will plays a part in the relationship. If you believe a werewolf can form a bond with another person by the things they say and do, then it makes sense that you can break it by those same actions.”

Xander didn’t have anything to say to that. Which was good, because Mike was done talking about it.

“I’m turning into the museum parking lot,” Mike said. “Get Gage on the radio and make sure everyone is ready. I’ll have my earbud in the entire time, but will be limited in what I say. I have to assume Roman will have eyes on me from the moment I get out of my SUV. I’ll leave the keys in case I have to go somewhere on foot.”

“Copy that,” Xander said as Mike pulled into an empty space and killed the engine. “Good luck.”

Mike locked his handgun in the glove box, then took a deep breath and stepped out of the SUV. He hated going into this situation without a weapon, but he knew Roman would never let him keep it.

As he walked toward the museum, Mike forced himself to focus on finding and rescuing his son. Right now, Lark and any possible future they might have together needed to take a backseat to that.