His Broken Human Mate (Book 13 of The Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 53

The Day Before

Finding Callie turned out to be pretty easy, but it did not make Cade happy. Instead he was furious and hurt. He'd left Missouri shortly after he'd informed Dane that Calypso was missing, and spoken to her shortly after he'd landed. Her text had hurt him deeply. Having his own mate reject him had hurt way worse than he'd been prepared for. Akela had been whining and crying in his head pretty much since. 

'We'll get her back,' he told his wolf, trying to reassure him. But Cade knew that he himself wasn't reassured, and he was talking as much to himself as he was Akela. And Akela knew that too.

But talking to her had made him realize that she wasn't being truthful with him. His great grandfather had given him quite a bit of advice on how to discern if someone was lying, and he knew Callie was. It was the first time he'd ever caught her in a lie too, and he didn't like it, but it made him realize that something else was going on, something else was at play. He intended to find out what that was. 

At worse, Cade knew he would have to ask her to reject him. And that would have to happen in person. She couldn't do it over the phone. But he hadn't brought it up, and didn't intend to unless it became absolutely necessary. He hoped it didn't come down to that. He'd fallen completely in love with her, and having her reject him now would tear him apart. It would destroy him. He was under no illusion to anything different. 

Dane had turned out to be quite helpful though, and Cade had met up with him right after he'd arrived back at the pack house, going straight to his apartment after he'd dropped off his own bag. All of Calypso's stuff was still there, he noticed. 

Lexi had immediately invited him in and they all settled in the living room to discuss Callie. Cade had told Dane about the phone call, while he told Cade about his and Lexi's search for Calypso. 

"Her car was up there in the parking lot. I ended up having it towed back here," Dane told him. "We ran into some woman there who told me Calypso was there the day after you left but she never showed up the next day, which was the day you called me and told me to find her."

"Short little woman with blond hair and big blue eyes?" Cade asked him. 

"Yeah."

"Probably Courtney. She's Callie's friend," Cade told him. 

"You call her Callie?" Dane asked in surprise. 

"I do. And don't start thinking you can call her that too." Cade shot a glare at him. 

"You love her." It wasn't a question. 

"Of course I love her." Cade shook his head. "I love her so much already."

"Well shit. You're not going to like what I have to say. I ended up coming back to the pack house and having Trevor hack into the camera footage at the grocery to see what we could see. Calypso got in a limo after he shift ended. The limo sat there for about fifteen minutes before it finally left. Calypso never got out of it." Dane crossed his arms over his chest. "Trevor tracked it all the way out of town. He's impressive."

Cade nodded. "That he is. But who was in the limo? Or do you guys know that?"

Dane gave him a grim smile. "We backed the footage at the grocery store up. It's her ex. Gray. He went inside the store and talked to her, then he left. She came out about twenty minutes later, at the end of her shift and got in the limo."

Cade frowned at him. "Why in the world would her ex come up there to see her? Knowing what I know, I can't even begin to figure out why she would go anywhere with him. That guy was a complete dickhead to her."