14. This here is...

Darren.

I’m an Alpha. I’m supposed to be confident and assured but right now I feel anything but. I’m nervous and anxious. You would think that this is my first time taking a woman out.

I stare at my watch for the millionth time. Mayra is supposed to be here any minute now. I arrived earlier than planned. After all, a gentleman should never keep a lady waiting.

“Could you please calm the fuck down…Your worry and nervousness is infectious” Kai growls at me, though there is no heat behind it.

He may try to hide it. May try to play it cool, but we both know he’s a nervous wreck.

“I’m fucking trying” I snarl right back at him.

I run my hands through my hair. I always do this when I’m nervous or anxious.

“Well, try harder!”

Ignoring him, I focus on the entryway to the VIP section of the restaurant. I didn’t want to miss her entering. Actually, I didn’t want to miss anything when it comes to her.

Mayra both excites me and terrifies me. I haven’t felt this way about anyone since I got mated to Ren.

Some would ask, what about Miranda? Didn’t you love her? Wasn’t she the reason why you threw everything you had with Ren?

At that time I thought that I loved her. In fact I believed that I loved her more than I loved Ren and that’s why I did what I did. Now though, looking back, I realize I never did.

Miranda was an obsession. An unhealthy one at that. Like I said, I am an Alpha and Alpha’s have one of the biggest egos there are. Miranda choosing Sebastian over me, her fated mate, wounded that ego.

My obsession with her stemmed from wanting to prove to her that I was better than Sebastian. I wanted to show her that she lost golden years with me by picking Sebastian.

Our relationship was unhealthy. I knew that but I still held on. Because I wanted to prove a stupid point.

I knew she was cheating on me. Deep inside I knew that, but I didn’t want to accept that.

Accepting it meant that I had to admit that I was wrong. Wrong for allowing my pride to get in the way.

Wrong for allowing her to sink her claws into me after she broke me the first time. Wrong for choosing her over Ren.

I will always regret holding myself back with Lauren. I will always regret how I treated her and I will always hate myself for the pain I caused her.

I should have pampered her and treated her like a queen, instead I let the ghosts of my past hold me back from loving a good woman. A woman that gave me my beautiful daughter.

“She forgave you…you have to let it go because she’s happy. The pain led her to her soulmate” Kai tells me softly.

I sigh and run a hand down my face.

“I know” I simply answer.

He is right. Ren and Sebastian may not be fated mates, but they’re soulmates. You just have to look at them to know that they belong together.

I shake those thoughts away and stare at my watch.

I frown when I realize that twenty minutes have already passed. Mayra should have been here fifteen minutes ago. It was unlike her to be late. She is always on time with no second to spare.

Taking out my phone from my pocket. I unlock it and dial her number. She doesn’t pick up. I try her again but still she didn't pick up.

“Something is wrong” I say more to myself while standing up.

“Agree. She’s never late and if she couldn’t make it then she would have called and let you know” Kai adds.

Without bothering with the waiter, I leave. Once I’m outside, I immediately jump into my car and start driving. I was going to head straight to Sebastian's pack to make sure that she’s alright.

Five minutes into the drive, I frown when I notice an abandoned car. My frown deepens when I realize it’s the same model and color that Mayra drives.

“I fucking don’t like this” Kai, begins pacing in agitation. I can’t blame him because I was feeling the same.

“Neither do it”

I park my car and get out. In a few steps I’m in front of the car. The number plate confirms that it is indeed Mayra’s car.

My heart begins pounding when I see the driver’s door open. Not only that, but everything she owns is still inside the car. It’s like she left in a hurry.

“Something or someone scared her”

I nod my head at Kai’s deduction, then close my eyes and sniff the air. I smell her scent but alongside it is the disgusting smell of rotting flesh.

Pinpointing the direction she went, I am about to follow her scent when my phone rings.

I growl at the interruption. The need to crush my phone very powerful. I needed to go after her cause who knows how much danger she’s in.

“Pick it up, maybe she’s the one calling” Kai pleads I doubt it, given we were basically surrounded by nothing but forest. I still pick it without looking at the color ID.

“What?!” I growl into the phone.

I was scared and irritated because whoever was calling me was wasting precious time.

“Darren?” Ren’s scared and panicked voice cuts through the silent night. “You need to come to the pack, now!!”

She doesn’t give me time to answer before hanging up. I don’t know how I knew it but I just did. Deep down I just knew her call concerned Mayra.

Taking her personal things, I get into my car and break every speed limit. I was going to get someone to drive her car back once I got to the pack.

The good thing about driving like a maniac is that you get to your destination in record time. I’ve never been this scared as I get out of my car.

Krystal’s warning keep playing in my head and I’m just fucking terrified that something bad has happened to Mayra.

I walk through the door and follow the scent of Ren which is mixed with that of Sebastian, Micah and Mayra.

I find them in the living room. Standing over Mayra who was lying on her stomach, eyes closed with a wound on her back that looked like it was from a claw.

Immediately, I rush to her. “What the hell happened to her?” I’m unable to keep Kai from coming to the surface.

“We don’t know. Our border patrol heard a howl near the border and when they went to inspect it they found her lying on the ground” Ren is the one that answers. Her voice shaking as she speaks.

“Mayra, baby, come on…wake up” I push the hair away from her face.

Her wound was healing but not as fast as it should be.

I whisper soothing words. Hoping she would open her eyes. I was worried. An irrational part of me afraid that she will never wake up. I was supposed to protect her yet I failed her.

It was minutes later when she woke up with a groan. I swear I almost fucking cried.

“What happened?” she asked as I helped her sit up.

I hold her close to me. Being mindful of her wound but not wanting her far from me.

“You don’t remember?” Sebastian asks, standing in front of her. His hands on his waist.

She takes a minute but I see it the moment she remembers.

Ren wobbles over and drops next to her. I never understood their relationship but I was glad she had someone loyal like Ren as her friend.

“What happened, May?” She enquires softly. Holding her hand in comfort.

“I was on my way to my date with Darren when I stopped on the side of the road. That’s when I saw red glowing eyes staring back at me. I got out of the car and began to run when I realized that those eyes were moving towards me. It chased me” she croaked and clenched her shaking hands.

“Why would you stop?” I am puzzled.

“Raya wasn’t feeling well. She was making me nauseous” she averts her eyes and I just know that she’s lying.

I notice Ren and Sebastian frowning. They also know that she’s lying. That she was hiding something.

“You didn’t shift” Sebastian adds.

Mayra shakes her head. “Raya was too nervous and scared. There wasn’t time to calm her down so I could shift”

Another lie.

“So what happened after you ran?” Ren asks.

“It chased me. Through the forest. I knew that if I could get near the border then I would be safe, so I ran in that direction. I don’t know how long I was running but I was getting tired and that’s when it clawed me. I didn’t think I would ever wake up” she replies, her voice full of emotion. Tears filling her eyes.

I wanted to find whoever did this to her and make them pay. Torture them for days before ending their pathetic and miserable life.

“Did you get a look at what the person or thing looks like?” Micah, Sebastian’s Beta, stares at her.

Mayra turns to look at him with a frown.

“No, and I wouldn’t have time to do that given that I was being hunted and my life was in danger” she answers sarcastically.

“What do you think?” I ask Sebastian.

We didn’t have much going on except that the thing had glowing eyes.

“The patrols said that they heard a howl so I’m guessing it was a werewolf but it still doesn’t make sense that it has red eyes. No werewolf has red eyes” he replies.

“Do you think it’s the one that has been killing werewolves? Maybe Mayra was meant to be its victim but she got to the border and the patrols came to her aid before it could kill her” Ren suggests.

“Shit” I curse just as Sebastian says “Fuck”

That made perfect sense. If it’s true then we’re dealing with something we have no clue about.

“What are you three talking about” Mayra asks, her face puzzled.

She was the only one of the four of us that didn’t know about the werewolf killings.

Ren was about to answer her when the doorbell rings. Everyone stops talking when someone, probably an omega, goes to answer.

Whoever was at the door was probably a stranger that’s why they rang the bell. By their scent, one was human and the other was part werewolf.

“Sorry to come here so late, but it’s an emergency” the sweet and kind voice says. “I’m looking for a woman named Mayra.”

Mayra takes a deep breath at those words. We all stand up and head to the door. All of us curious as to why a human would be looking for Mayra this late.

We get there and Mayra freezes. Standing stock still. Looking like a block of ice. Since she was ahead of us, I step forward and look over her shoulder.

Standing before us is a woman in her mid-forties and holding her hand, looking scared and unsure is a beautiful little girl with green eyes and blond hair.

“Are you Mayra?” the woman asks, smiling kindly. “This here is…”

She doesn’t get to finish her sentence.

“No!” Horror and anguish in her voice, Mayra suddenly screams, right before she falls back and collapses in my arms.