Zoey
I glanced at the dining room clock for the twentieth time. The hands hardly seemed to have moved at all. Despite the various tasks Luna had given me, it had still been the longest four hours of my life. As I continued filling little silk sachets with candies, I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take the guys to handle the situation at the border.
Luna told me that it would take 3 hours for them to reach the border, which would mean another 3 hours back at full speed. Even if they'd immediately found their guys and turned around, it'd be another two hours before they'd be back. If the patrols were hurt, they might have to go slower.
"Zoey?"
I jumped and looked up from the sachet in my hand. Luna smiled and reached out to grab my hand.
"I know you're worried about him. Van's team is the most elite in our entire military. They've trained for every kind of situation. There's nothing that can surprise them," she assured me.
I nodded slowly and squeezed her hand. "I must seem like a pathetic mess to you, worrying about the last person who needs worrying about."
"There's nothing pathetic about worrying for the man you care about, Zoey, no matter how trained he is."
Whether she knew more than she was letting me believe or it was a lucky guess, her understanding gave me a little bit of peace. She wasn't teasing me or pushing me for answers either, but a part of me desired her support.
"Is it super obvious?" I asked her.
She let go of my hand and went back to filling sachets with candy. "...obvious that you and my son have mutual interest in each other? Just a little..."
I flushed when she winked at me. She was his mother, so she was probably more tuned into what was going on. Maybe it wasn't as obvious to others.
"Someone asked me just the other day why Van hadn't formally introduced his mate to the pack yet," she continued with a straight face.
"I'm not—" The words died in my throat as I caught the shadow of a smirk on her mouth. "We can't be sure that he's my second chance mate. It seems too good to be true, too coincidental to be possible."
Luna tied off the sachet and added it to the box we were slowly filling. "Maybe you're right; maybe you're not. You won't know for sure until your current mate bond is broken. Once it is, I hope you'll continue staying with us while you discover what's next."
She made it sound like she already knew that Van was my second chance mate, so of course it would be right for me to stay. It would be very strange to leave shortly after finding a mate. No one does that. But my circumstances were far from normal.
"What if he's not my second chance mate? Wouldn't it be strange for me to continue staying here after the danger has passed?" I couldn't imagine any of them kicking me out, but I could also see how it might start gossip in the pack if I continued to stay without being officially announced as Van's mate. As an elite military man, he didn't need that kind of gossip circling around him.
Luna offered a sympathetic smile. "Did Van tell you that?"
I shook my head. "We decided to take things one day at a time. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"Then don't worry about it until you know for sure," she affirmed. "Wait until your mate bond is broken and see what happens afterwards."
A tightness exploded in my chest like someone had punched me. I dropped the sachet on the table—sending little candies everywhere—and pressed a hand to my chest. The next couple breaths hurt, not quite enough oxygen reaching my lungs with each one.
"Zoey? What's wrong?"
I scrunched my eyes closed and focused on getting a deep breath in before answering. "I don't know. All of the sudden, it's like someone punched me in the lungs."
She sprang out of her chair and rushed to stand next to me. "Has this ever happened before?"
"No," I wheezed. "Any pain I've ever felt was physically inflicted on me. This is something else."
She grabbed my hand and pressed to fingers to the inside of my wrist. "Your pulse is normal, but you're obviously feeling something. Is it possible your mate is being attacked?"
"I've seen him be attacked before, and I felt nothing then," I explained. "It can't be him."
"Well, it definitely appears that you're experiencing sympathy pain. The only other person who you're possibly linked to and who might be under attack right now is Van."
I twisted sideways to look up at her, eyes wide. "But... we're not connected! How could I be feeling his pain?"
She sank into the chair next to me and squeezed my hand. "I don't know, Zoey. If it's not Van's pain, I don't know what else is happening to you. I've never heard of anything like this before."
If we are feeling Van's pain, my wolf jumped in, that means he's possibly hurt. What if he's too injured to come back? Then what do we do?
His team would never leave him there, I answered her. They will come back.
Can you find out what's going on? Alpha must have some way to contact them to know the situation, right?
"Is there any way for us to know what's happening with the guys?" I asked Luna.
"That's a good thought. Let me go ask Lucas. He's probably got a way to contact them."
I laid my head on the table and took some more deep breaths as she rushed from the room. I'd endured a lot of pain from Jax over the years in Midnight pack, but somehow this was far worse. When I knew the cause of my pain, I could figure out how to handle it. But I had no idea what was causing this, so I didn't know how to deal with it. If it continued for any considerable length of time, it would quickly drain my energy.
I don't know how long she was gone, but Luna returned at the same speed she left.
"I'm sorry, Zoey. Lucas said that the team went on this mission blind... He has no way of contacting them, and they haven't reached out or reported. We just have to wait to see what happens."
A blind mission. That sounded just like Van's team. They were faster and more efficient if they didn't have to take the time to set up comms with people back here. There was no way of knowing what was going on or if they were okay. We'd have to wait, and I would hope that they'd come back safely soon.
Eight hours later...
"They should have been back by now."
I paced the length of Van's room for the hundredth time, one hand pressed against my throbbing shoulder and the other wound into my hair behind my head. The pain hadn't gone away, and we still had no word from the team. It had been twelve hours, the maximum time Van said they'd be gone. Hopefully they were on their way back and weren't thinking about trying to contact anyone. That had to be it.
"They'll be back soon," I whispered to my wolf. "They're all fine. He's fine."
I repeated those three sentences over and over as I continued to pace the room. No matter how many times I said it, I couldn't convince my wolf that they were true. She let out a little huff with each pass of the room. Truthfully, I agreed with her.
"They're back!"
The cry echoed through the house. I didn't know who said it, where they were, or how they knew. It didn't matter. The moment I heard that announcement, I bolted from the room and ran down the hallway. Luna emerged from her room just as I flew past, and I knew she'd follow after me. Even though I wasn't the strongest wolf, I doubted anyone would be faster than me at the moment.
I slowed just enough to push open the patio door open. The guys were just emerging from the trees, the five of them with the two patrols. If my wolf hadn't been giving me a speed boost before, she certainly did now. I jumped off the patio stairs and sprinted towards the team. At the speed I was going, I couldn't really tell if they were seriously hurt or not.
Van jogged ahead of the rest and met me in the middle of the backyard. I didn't even try to slow down. He caught me before I fell or took both of us to the ground. With his arms tightly banded around my waist, some part of me finally relaxed. I clung to him as tight as I could, not caring who might emerge from the house and see us.
"You're okay," I cried, the tears breaking loose all at once.
"I'm okay," he confirmed, burying his face against my shoulder. "I'm sorry that we're so late. I'm sorry to worry you."
"What happened? I was doing stuff with your mom, and it suddenly felt like I got punched in the chest."
He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me away just far enough to look at me. "Wait. When was this?"
"...like four hours after you left," I answered.
"You felt that?" he gawked.
"Felt what? What happened out—" I glanced down at his shoulder, and my heart pounded against my ribs. "Van!"
Blood had soaked through his jacket at his shoulder. He wasn't grimacing, but there were a couple pained lines at the corners of his eyes.
"I'll fine," he murmured, squeezing my shoulders.
"But... there's a lot of blood," I sputtered, a new wave of tears coming down.
"It stopped bleeding hours ago." He cupped my face in his hands and swiped at my cheeks with his thumbs. "I'm a lycan, remember? I heal faster than the strongest werewolf. I'm fine."
I pushed his jacket aside and pulled the collar of his shirt down far enough to see where the blood had come from. It was a small wound, linear like a knife blade rather than round like a bullet. It was mostly healed over, but there was still some scabbing. Either way, he'd been hurt.
"I'm fine, Zoey," he repeated yet again, pulling my hand away so he could hug me again. I wrapped my arms around his chest and rested my forehead against his collarbone. We stood like that for a couple seconds.
"Let's go inside, okay?" he whispered. "It's dark out here and getting colder. Let's go up to our room; I'll take a quick shower, and then you can tell me how worried you were about me. Okay?"
"Okay." I turned to tuck myself against his side, and we followed the team into the house. Luna and Alpha swooped forward when we stepped through the door. Van released me just long enough to hug his parents, and then he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
"I'll talk to you guys tomorrow," he promised them. "Right now, I need to help Zoey calm down. See you in the morning."
We trekked upstairs and into his room. After a pleasantly long hug, he deposited me on the bed and ducked into the bathroom for a shower. As I'd been too busy worrying about him, I took the time now to change into my pajamas. Sitting on the end of the bed, I stared at the floor and absently let me feet swing. He was back safe, so I could breathe again. Oddly enough, my shoulder still ached a bit.
If his would has healed, why do you still feel it? my wolf mused. Shouldn't the pain be gone by now?
Can't you connect with his wolf? Why don't you ask?
She shrugged and made no move to talk my suggestion. Why not was a mystery to me. Some days she was all action, and other days she let me do everything.
"Please stop looking so glum."
I looked up to find Van standing in front of me. He'd changed into a cotton T-shirt and a pair of lounge pants, and his hair was still wet from his shower. He looked down at me with slightly widened eyes and a hint of a smile.
"Cheer up. You're making me worry," he scolded gently, framing my face in his hands and pressing a kiss to my forehead. "And don't you dare apologize. Just show me a smile."
He knew me too well, already knowing that I would have said 'sorry.' I swallowed the word and put on a smile as he requested. His smile instantly grew bigger, and he rewarded me with another forehead kiss.
"That's much better, isn't it?" He sat down next to me and held my hands. After a minute of staring at our joined hands, he looked up into my face.
"I'm truly sorry to have worried you, Zoey. I got focused and forgot to let someone know that we were delayed."
I nodded and squeezed his hands. "You're used to doing things a certain way. I get that. You're back, so that's all that matters."
He studied my face for a minute before lifting a hand to cup my cheek. "You were really freaked out, weren't you?"
I didn't want to seem petty or immature, but my bottom lip pouted out as I nodded slowly. It was the truth, so I might as well admit to it.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "It won't happen again."
He crawled backwards onto the bed, pulling me with him. He stretched out on his back with an arm under my neck. I laid on my side with my cheek against his probably-still-healing shoulder, but he didn't seem to mind or be in pain. My wolf recognized that we were safe, and she relaxed. As the tension left her, I could feel my body relaxing too.
"You are truly something, Zoey," he murmured. "You have been through terrible things because of your mate, yet you are worried about me. What did I do to deserve you?"
"...absolutely nothing," I answered.
He tightened his hold around me and growled. "Hey..."
I giggled and hugged him. It didn't matter if we 'deserved' each other or not. We were together now, so that had to count for something.
"What do you want to do once you're free from him?" Van quietly asked.
"Anything... everything..." I answered. "But part of me is scared that I'll always have to be looking over my shoulder for him in case he retaliates."
"He won't dare retaliate. If he tries, he'd have to explain his motive. You will have a chance to tell your story, and no one will back him once you do. Besides, the alpha of Midnight won't risk the hostility of the lycans by letting his son go after someone protected by them."
I glanced up at him. "Will I? ...be protected even after the fact?"
He nodded. "I've been thinking about it. My parents can grant a special, lifelong protection policy. It's rare, but they've done it. It guarantees the protection and support of our pack for as long as you live—no matter where you go."
"But how do others know I'm protected?"
"You can get a special mark, essentially a tattoo," he explained. "Or carry an identity card with you. The mark is easier, because it's just part of you."
While I wasn't overly eager to get a tattoo—even if it would protect me—it definitely seemed like a plausible option. I should definitely ask Luna about it in the morning. A protection policy like that should be in place before I break my mate bond and make Jax super mad at me.
"Okay... This is way too much serious talk for me," Van sighed, settling his cheek against my forehead and closing his eyes. "Let's leave it for the morning. It's been a long day, and I just want to sleep knowing that I'm back with you."
I nodded and followed his example. With my eyes closed, I blocked everything else out and listened to the matching beats of our hearts. The gentle tapping did its magic, and I drifted off to sleep.