The Mate Deal

Chapter 17

It was a five minute run, and when I got to the graveyard, I searched, row after row of markers, searching for the one gray stone that would say “Richard Haynes”.  After the longest hour of my life, I found it.  There were still some dead flowers laid down at the base of the grave.

As I stood, reading the stone, I realized I was standing on top of my dead father, and moved over a couple feet.

No one had thought to contact me?  No, of course not, I thought bitterly.  Why would they?  I was the girl mated to a vampire.  No one would have contacted me for anything.

Besides, I didn’t exactly leave my number and other contact information with them when I left.

I began to cry.  The tears left my eyes and trickled down the fur on my wolf face.  I never had loved this man under this dirt.  But now, it felt so wrong not to say that I never wanted him dead.

“Richard Haynes, father, husband, son, friend, leader” it read “1967-2012”

I felt betrayed that no one thought I deserved to know.  I was hurt that something like this had happened and I hadn’t been among the first to know.  But more so, I hated myself.  A story like this must have been in the news all over the country I should have seen articles about it all over the internet.  I could see the headlines in my mind; “Crazy mental patient kills ‘werewolves’” or “Psycho path shoots innocent.”  Had I seen these headlines months ago and just dismissed it, not bothering to read more?

I forgive you, I thought, as if I was saying it aloud, telling him I could forget all he’d ever done.  I forgive you for being the worst father ever.  I forgive you for never supporting me.  I forgive you for not listening to me, for not believing me.

Now, all those things seemed meaningless and petty.

And that was when I heard the growling behind me.

Tyce was sitting in the pack house, watching football on TV, cursing his life.  It was just another day since Stephanie had left a year and a half before.  He hadn’t seen her since last May, but still the smell of her skin lingered in his mind, haunting him at night as he attempted to sleep.

His mind always played tricks on him, and he always thought he smelled her scent nearby.  The first few times, he’d actually gone looking for her, only to be extremely disappointed at the results.  Eventually, he’d learned to block out any senses.

“Come on, Man,” David had said.  “I don’t know what you’re always so depressed about, but it needs to stop.  Now.”  However, things never changed.  David didn’t even care that his little sister was gone.  But then again, why would he?  He was the reason she was gone.  Eventually, Tyce had nearly ripped his former friend’s throat out.

To David, it was just a joke.  A prank on Stephanie.  Tyce had never told anyone that his mate was Stephanie.  He had tried, but her father never believed him.  When he found out it was David who told their dad that Stephanie was mated to a vampire, it was too late.  It was months after she was gone.

Tyce had no way of contacting her, and he knew she would never want to see him again, even if she knew she was wrong about him getting her kicked out.  There had been problems before that.

“A wolf!”  There was a sudden commotion throughout the pack house.  Tyce stood up, knowing he had to look into it.  When the Beta was murdered, David should have become beta, but the rest of the pack decided against it, and instead, Tyce was chosen.

“A wolf!”

Tyce left the room and saw people looking out the front door at the cemetery.

“What’s it doing,” some children were asking their parents.

“I don’t know,” he said responsibly, “but I’ll go see.”  He took off through the door, shifting as he left.  He approached slowly and quietly behind the wolf, until he was about two yards away, and he growled at the other.

It was a female with dark fur.  She hadn’t heard him come up behind her, and now, she spun around, backing up slowly towards the former Beta’s grave.

“Who are you and what do you want,” he said into her mind, a very tiring and weakening task.  It would all catch up on him later.

“Just visiting,” came a reply.  Tyce looked at the wolf and noticed her face was nearly drenched.

“You’re on pack territory,” he reminded her.

“Yes, I know.”

“Who are you,” he demanded again.

“A former member.  Who are you?”

Tyce was hesitant.  “I’m the Beta.”

The wolf was confused.  “David,” she asked.

“No,” he said.  He supposed it was a reasonable question.  If she used to be a member of the pack, she would know that David should have become Beta when his father was killed, and wouldn’t have known about him.  “I’m Tyson O’Connor.”

“Tyce,” she asked quietly, weakly.

“Who are you,” he demanded again.

She backed away, as if trying to figure out how to get away.  “I’m nobody,” she insisted.

“Nobody who is on pack grounds.”

“I was just leaving actually.  Come to pay my respects to a former Beta,” she insisted, and then before Tyce could do anything to stop her, she was running away towards the end of the cemetery, to the woods.  It was a good place to hide in there.  The children of the pack had always liked playing there.

He knew he had to follow her, find out who it was, discover if she truly was an old friend, or a danger to the pack.  So for the first time since he’d turned them off, he turned his senses back on, and sniffed to try and identify the unknown wolf’s name.

He realized a little too late that it had been obvious.  She’d practically admitted to who she was.  But still, it was the last scent he’d ever thought he’d smell again.  Hers.

He took off after her, although she was already lost in the woods.  But if anyone ever knew her way around those woods, it had been her.  When they were younger, they would play hide and seek with David, and she was always the last to be found.  However, once, Tyce had found her secret hiding place.

She had been hiding there every time they played for years, and never been found.  This one game, he found her, and decided to not tell her.  He let her stay in the woods all evening, but even in the dark of midnight, she’d gotten herself out safely.

He knew that, because the girl he was following to that exact hiding place was Stephanie.