Broken Hearts Mend

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Carly’s eyes cracked open to the reality of a splitting headache and a light all too bright. The sun was out and that meant a brand new day. She quickly closed her eyes again and tried to figure out the last several hours. There was a big gaping hole in her memory where last night should be.  She could remember talking to Ariana alone and that was it.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again to find out where exactly she was laid out. She recognized the inner walls of the room she was using at the trailer. Ok, all good signs, she thought, there was nothing to panic over. Her eyes continued to take in the familiar setting until her eyes landed on the body next to her on the bed.

Marc was asleep and shirtless beside her. She was too scared to peek under the covers to see if he was as naked on the bottom as he was on the top. If her own lack of dress was any indicator, she had a good reason to be scared.

Not a good sign.

EIGHT HOURS EARLIER

The primary objective was finding Bradley and hopefully the answers to some very complicated questions. Marc sat Kid and Ariana down to explain what he knew for a fact and what he and Andrew suspected.

There were three attacks that they knew of; Ian’s murder, Livvy’s attempted kidnapping, and Carly’s slew of bad luck coming from the cops arresting her for first degree murder and the hunters trying to track her down to add to their body count.

Ariana tapped her fingers rapidly on the table top. “Are sure are you that the hunters are after her?”

“They’d know she escaped police custody and would want her found. As we all know hunters don’t want to sit down and have a chat. I wouldn’t send the pack underground if I didn’t believe there was a threat.”

Ariana held up her hands. “Relax. It was just a question.”

Marc continued. “Andrew tracked down the location Bradley’s been seen in. I was headed that way this morning.”

“We can do that.” Ariana offered.

Marc was tempted to believe he hadn’t woken up from last night, that instead the whole day was some crazy dream. Sadly, he knew his luck didn’t work that way. Everything was real. “Because that went so well before? You both have too much history with the guy.” He included Kid into that statement. “I know something about strategizing too. The better idea is if you stay here with Carly while I go track Bradley.”

The new Ariana, the panther/warrior with no ties to the girl she used to be, liked to argue. She wanted to be right and when she wasn’t, it left a sour taste in her mouth. Her expression was tight but nonetheless she agreed with his plan. “We don’t know how far this heat thing runs. You should take Kid with you. He can wait in the car and keep lookout while you talk to that son of a bitch.”

Marc nodded with agreement. “Now we have a plan.” He felt better when he had something laid out with structure to follow.  “Meet me out front in five.” He told Kid before leaving his seat around the table.

Carly was asleep on the couch completely oblivious to what was happening all around her. The cousin she wanted to meet so badly was just in the other room with probably just as many questions as Carly herself had.

Marc was worried for the widowed mate. She had enough on her plate with the love of her life being killed and being on the run from the only life she’d ever known. She didn’t need a heat cycle throwing her system out of whack. Marc knew enough about the woman to envision her horror when she remembered all the things she said to him under the spell of her cycle.  It wasn’t pretty.