Chapter 7

Luke stopped eating. “Her transition?”

Leah dropped the cutlery onto her plate and covered her face.

“We don’t know exactly what happened that night,” Ben said, reaching out to his woman. He rubbed her back, trying to offer her comfort. “From what we’ve heard from her friends and even Jordan, the night was a huge success. They were celebrating.”

“I heard her, Ben. I know you heard her too.”

“Heard her?” Luke asked. He was tired of hearing Jordan’s name already. The urge to crush him was so strong, but he gained control of himself. He could understand why the boy was besotted with her. Maya was a fucking dream.

“She came home,” Leah said. “We were … in the back garden, but she came home, and we listened.”

“She sobbed herself to sleep,” Ben said. “The next morning, her face was red and swollen from all the tears.”

“And suddenly she doesn’t want my food anymore. I can’t even bake. It’s been so long since I baked anything.” Leah covered her face again. “She won’t even have her favorite, chocolate cake with chocolate fudge buttercream, for her birthday. I don’t get to make her anything. She doesn’t eat anything sweet or fattening. She’s on a strict diet at all times.” Leah shook her head. “Where did I fail as a parent? She is beautiful. She’s our daughter and I love her. What happened that night?”

No one knew. It was their little secret.

Luke looked toward the doorway. He heard Maya moving around upstairs. Her steps were light. Her body hadn’t changed much, but he noticed the paleness of her skin, the sunkenness around her eyes. She was tired all the time. He saw that. And he knew why. She was starving her body, starving her wolf. All because of him. He’d been the cause of her sobbing.

Leah sniffled. “Anyway, I’m so sorry for that. Maya is our only daughter. We have not been blessed with a second child yet, but we love her. We want what is best for her.”

“She has been talking about leaving town for some time,” Ben said. “Neither of us wants her to go, but she’s not happy here.”

“Does the pack have anything to do with that?” Luke asked.

“No, of course not. The pack adores her. She loves the pack as well,” Leah said. “But we know she’s not happy. In the beginning she changed jobs so often, neither of us knew what was going on, or what she was looking for.”

Luke knew. Maya did everything she could to avoid him. That was her end game. He ran a hand down his face and looked toward the doorway. Maya moved around upstairs, and then he tensed up as he heard her rushing downstairs.

“I’m heading out, I’ll be back late, goodbye,” she said.

The door slammed as he stood. He couldn’t chase after her. His breakfast was still in front of him. Every single fiber of his being told him to chase her, but instead he sat down and looked toward her parents. They looked so fucking sad and lost.

“She won’t leave.”

Leah got to her feet. “I don’t want her to leave, but there’s something different about her today. I had hoped she would come around to Jordan. He’s a good boy and he’d make a good mate.”

“Leah, honey, we don’t want that for our daughter,” Ben said.

Luke clenched his hands into fists. All he wanted to do was snap at them and say that Jordan was never going to touch her. No other man was ever going to touch her because she belonged to him. She was his mate. But instead, he kept his thoughts to himself. No one knew she was his mate.

He finished his breakfast and tried to calm Leah and Ben down. The couple didn’t deserve to be so sad. They loved their daughter so much. He didn’t know what to say to them to make it right, but he knew he wanted to.

After breakfast, Ben saw him out. The other man offered him his hand, and he took it, giving it a firm shake. “It’s an honor you have come to visit us,” Ben said.

“I don’t do any of that formal crap, Ben. You know that.”

“I know. The town owes you a great debt.”

“You don’t owe me anything.”

Ben chuckled. “One day you will realize how important a pack is. We had no idea how … weak we were, or how dangerous our previous … you know.”

Luke had noticed not a single pack member would refer to their previous alpha as such. They didn’t speak of him by name or title. He was dead to the pack, not that he could blame them. The alpha hadn’t been able to protect them. Luke had come too late. Men had died, women had been hurt.

He looked behind him. The town had always called to him and he knew why. His mate had been here. Each time he’d left in the past, he had told himself he would never visit again, but each time he found himself coming back again and again. For Maya—always for his mate. A mate he’d not known until that night five years ago.

“I imagine the open road is calling to you,” Ben said. “Where will your journey take you this time?”

“I’ll be sticking around longer this time,” Luke said. “I’m not heading out for some time.”

“Oh,” Ben said. “Do you need a place to stay? We have a spare room.”

Being close to Maya was ideal, but with her parents living under the same roof, he didn’t think it was the best plan.

“Jordan told me last time I was here, that the alpha stayed in a house deep in the woods.”

Ben nodded. “Yes, he did. He would tell us that was his place to talk to the elders and figure out what course of action to take.”

Luke rolled his eyes and Ben laughed.

“Don’t judge, we all thought he was a little strange.”

“And you weren’t wrong.”

Another laugh filled the air.

“If you want, I can take you,” Ben said.

“I’ll get Jordan to take me. This is your Sunday with your wife,” Luke said. “It was a pleasure seeing you again.” He shook Ben’s hand.

If only Ben knew that he was the cause of the problems Maya had. Why was she starving herself? He’d been cruel to her but that was for her own good. He didn’t understand what went wrong, but he was going to find out. He’d been gone too long and the call of the road had started to die. He didn’t even feel the compulsion to leave.

This time, he was sticking around. Maya was his and it was time for him to stake his claim.