Page 68 of Seducing Sasquatch

I don’t remember much as I threw myself down the mountain, chasing the tire tracks. The sight of that black car with my mate’s scent all over it had me seeing red. How dare anyone take him from me. How dare his father step foot on my mountain without my approval.

A pained growl rips through my chest. I thought I was going to lose him. The way the driver swerved, the car clipping an edge and rolling halfway over the road, had my heart tearing itself in two.

I could have lost my mate. Less than a day after making him mine. Would the fates be that cruel?

My phone buzzes again. I need to answer it.

Pulling away from Blake has my skin burning and my beast clawing at the surface but I step away from my room and slink into the kitchen. Snatching up my phone, my anger fades as my mom’s name lights up the screen.

Sadie.

I answer, “Hi, Mom.”

“Arden?” Her worried voice reaches me. “You haven’t been answering my calls. Is everything alright?”

I sigh, deflating and sinking to the kitchen floor. Resting against the cupboards, I pour my worries out to my mom.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to see you and Dad sooner. I’ve been a little… preoccupied,” I explain.

She chuckles. “I felt you picking Lupins. Everyone did. Even Kevin from three mountains over called me, celebrating how happy he was for you.”

I roll my eyes. Kevin is the recluse in our community. He’s never taken a mate and jokes he never hopes he does.

“His name’s Blake. He’s wonderful, Mom.” I smile.

“I’m sure he is. But you sound upset. What’s wrong?” Her ‘mom voice’ kicks in. The voice that seems to make all my problems melt away.

“His father tried to take him away this morning. Against his will.”

I hear my mom gasp and my dad asking for her somewhere in the background.

“It didn’t go well.” I dip my head, resting my forehead against my bent knee. “He lost his father today. Disowned, just because he wasn’t the perfect son.”

“Oh, honey. That’s terrible,” Mom whispers. “Should I still come by today?”

I suck in a breath, my mind churning. “I think he needs some time. Maybe it’s best we come to yours instead, when he’s feeling better.”

Mom is quiet for a moment, clearly thinking what’s best. She’s too caring for her own good and I’m sure it’s eating at her to not come by and check on both of us.

“Alright, honey. Come by whenever you’re ready,” she eventually answers.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.” I wait for the line to go dead before I drop my phone from my ear.

The cabin is painfully quiet. It’s like he’s not here at all. Each winter, I’ve spent my time in this cabin alone and surrounded by silence. Yet only now do I realize just how much that silence has eaten at me. Year after year, my beast has longed for a mate, yet instead of searching for him, I wasted my time cooped up in this… cave.

Lennox was right. I am some beast that lives in a cave on a deserted mountain top. From where I lean my head against my knees, I gaze at the sliver of light stretching through the air. Dust particles dance and flow in the beam.

I nearly lost him today. But I didn’t and it cost him his only living parent. Disowned. It sits like bile on my tongue.

Blake’s already lost his mother and now his father wants nothing to do with him. Maybe if I hadn’t chased after the car, or gotten in the way, Blake would still have a parent. Even if they didn’t see eye to eye, wouldn’t it be better to at least have someone there for him?

My eyes dart to where the broken Japanese dish sits on the dining table. Chipped into three pieces, it can be repaired. This isn’t the first time it’s been broken.

“Arden?” Blake’s sweet voice is barely a whisper as it drifts down the hallway.