Meet me in the Emerald Forest

Chapter 5 Lukas

"That can't be good for your health." Garrick pointed out as I continuously banged my forehead onto the top of my desk.

"Have you heard anything from Mateo?" I asked, leaving my head on the desk with my eyes closed against the pounding headache I was currently giving myself.

"Clementine checked herself out of the hospital and is driving back here with her brother." My head snapped up at Garrick's response.

"She just had surgery."

"Yes, I'm aware." Garrick nodded.

"And Dr. Moreson discharged her?"

"Not exactly. She signed out against medical advice. She ran into Mateo and nearly bit his head off." Garrick snorted.

"Mateo is supposed to be invisible." I said with a warning growl.

"She had no idea who he was. It was just an accidental run in, no big deal." Garrick shrugged.

"I can't believe she was shot in the first place." I let out a frustrated snarl.

"She is an FBI agent."

"Yes and I can't believe that one, either." I grumbled.

The whole staying out of my mate's life plan wasn't going so great, admittedly. Over the last seven years, I've managed to get away with not speaking to Clementine or otherwise interfering in her life. Mateo has kept a constant supply of guards at her side, successfully maintaining invisibility and switching up the guards so she didn't start recognizing anyone. I tried to stay away from her and her care as much as I could, being anywhere near her was far too difficult for me.

But, occasionally, throughout the years, I've slipped up. When she graduated high school and then college, when she completed the police academy, and several times throughout her more dangerous cases working with the FBI. The closer to danger she got, the more restless my wolf was and I was forced to visit her more often. Which wasn't easy, considering she hasn't been home since she graduated high school.

"You're the one who let her walk away without marking her." Garrick scoffed.

"I'm not going over this again, Garrick." I snapped at him.

Nobody was very thrilled about my decision to leave my mate alone.

"She's not a little girl anymore, Lukas, she's a grown woman and she's coming back home." Garrick leaned over my desk with a stubborn expression.

"That doesn't change anything." I argued.

"Why the hell not? You said you let her go because she was 17 and had her whole life ahead of her. I still think that was stupid but I understood your reasoning. Now, she's 25 and on a well established career path so you're not ruining anything." Garrick said.

"She's still a human who knows nothing about us." I stated. Garrick slammed his hand onto the top of my desk and looked pissed off,

"And whose fault is that?" He growled at me. I sighed and stood up, pushing my chair away and walking around the desk.

"How can I take what's left of her innocence away?" I said in a soft voice with my back to Garrick.

"What are you talking about?" Garrick mumbled.

"She's had so much bad stuff in her life already. All she has left is the life that she knows. I would shatter her vision of the world by telling her about the supernatural. How can I take away that belief when it's all she has left?" I spoke directly from my heart. I heard Garrick sigh behind me and then his hand was on my shoulder,