Royally Mated

Chapter 13

*Colton*

1 Year Later

I had been searching non stop for Tala and any hint of where she could be or who could have taken her. But I was still without a clue. I think Micah was suffering even more than I was. I knew he missed her and sometimes I heard him howling for her. When he and I went out on hunting trips over weekends he would sneak off and in the distance I could hear him howling the distressed howl of him calling for his mother.

I had been a hard year and for a few months of Tala being gone I had gotten so depressed I couldn’t stand to move let alone raise a child. Tala’s family and my parents helped a lot at this time. For a couple weeks my mom took Micah and looked after him while my father tried to help me come out from the agonizing pain I was in. Mates aren’t supposed to be apart, and Tala being gone this long was just tearing away at my heart and the deep need I had for her grew with each day and each passing moment.

Next week is Micah’s fifth birthday and as happy as I am for him, all I can think about is the first time I got to hold him in my arms, sit with my mate and just in the heaven that had become my family. But now….now it was just a painful reminder that Tala was missing and I had no clue if I would ever see her again.

Thoughts like that are what always made me stop and horror spread through me. Never seeing Tala again scared me. I wanted to be by her side. I wanted her to yell at me. I wanted to see her smile and play with Micah like she always did at night before he went to bed. I missed the routine of having the most beautiful woman fall asleep in my arms and me to feel like I was the luckiest man ever just because I had gotten the chance to be loved by her.

Micah’s birthday came…and passed. He enjoyed it. Had fun and played with his friends but at the end of the day when it was just us two…I saw him staring out the window with the same longing I knew was in mine.

It was getting close to being two years of Tala being gone, and I was starting to lose hope. I’d had practically the whole world searched for her and no one ever found anything. I…was starting to lose hope.

One weekend I had the house to myself. Micah was staying the night over to a friend’s house. The house was dead silent.

I walked up and down the halls of each floor, not really for any reason but some sort of a distraction to how utterly quiet it was.

It was just after midnight when the phone rang. He answered it “Hello” his voice as low as he felt.

“Colton?” asked a creepy voice.

My brows scrunched. “Yes. Who is this?”

“They call me Max.” His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, eerie and slimy. “I know where something you want is.”

My heart did a flip. “H…how? What?” I couldn’t think fast enough to think of an answer.

“I was scrounging behind a certain house and locked in the basement I saw a certain white wolf that I know you’re looking for.” Tears welled in my eyes. For as sick and disgusting as his voice sounded his words were like a beautiful prayer. “Her eyes change color. She is the one you’re looking for?”

I nearly dropped the phone in complete shock. “Yes” I whispered. Could this be real and true? Could Tala, my Tala, be so close to being back to me? “Where is she? Give her to me?” I begged.

“I’ll don’t have her, but I’ll give you the address. I just need one thing from you.”

“Anything!” I yelled into the phone.

He laughed happily. “I want food. Lots of food!”

I looked at the phone strangely. Food? That’s all he wanted. “Food? You want food?” I clarified.