It’s official my stalker is Mark Henderson. What a normal name for such a monster. A pang of guilt floods me. If I quit that horrible job years earlier like Connor said I should, this probably never would have happened. Love, reassurance, and strength are pouring in from all six of my bonds. Ben squeezes my hand, breaking me out of my spiral.
Harrison moves forward, clearing his throat. “Now that we know his identity, we have a better plan on keeping you safe. We are monitoring his travel and movements in Florida. If he leaves the state, we will know. It also enables us to take some other routes of investigating that my team can do.” He pauses, making me wonder what kind of routes. Logan did say they often do what the government or clients can’t get away with.
He shifts uncomfortably on his feet, an odd movement for him. He’s always so put together and professional.
Ren moves from his perch by the door, saying, “Since we’ve been here, Thea has received four more letters and two gifts.” I can’t restrain the gasp at this news. Why didn’t I know before now? Gods what is he saying in them? Is it more threats against my pack?
“Sweetheart, you need to breathe.” Liam mimics the motion. “In and out.” I follow along.
“I’m sorry Thea, we didn’t feel you needed to read them. They are more of the same as the ones he sent before. However, we wanted to let you know as he’s likely to keep increasing them leading up to his next move,” Ren explains, his crossed arms now resting at his sides.
I don’t know what to feel,it’soverwhelming.
“So what’s the threat level right now? Is he still in Florida?” Micah asks.
Harrison speaks up this time. “He’s still in Florida. We do expect him to follow through on his threat to see Thea soon. We need to be vigilant and as proactive as possible. As I said, we are monitoring his travel. If he leaves Florida, we can take next steps to ensure her safety.”
Everyone is quiet, taking in the information. The stalker—no, Mark Henderson, refuses to give up. It feels like this will never end. I get up and walk out, not saying anything to anyone. I head to my nest, curling in on myself, finally letting the tears fall.
We found him, Connor. I’ll make sure he pays somehow for what he did to you.We promised not to let him win and even through the tears I’ll still keep that promise.
I’m a little restless after our meeting earlier. I can’t seem to focus on anything and I’m just wandering the house. It really is insanely big. The second floor is entirely their bedrooms and bathrooms, along with a couple guest rooms. The basement is a walk out into the backyard, which has their home gym and storage. The main floor of the house is where everyone typically is. Somehow when they designed this place, they made it feel both cozy and open with all the windows letting in natural light.
I catch Parker’s scent, peaches, and follow it until I find him in his plush chair in his office. He has headphones on and his eyes are closed. He looks so relaxed, his body lying sideways in the oversized chair, part of his legs draped over the arm. The LED lights he has are a blue hue before fading into light green.
I walk over and sit on the ottoman next to the chair. Parker opens one eye to peek at me, likely picking up my scent. He moves one of his headphones off his ear as he sits upright. “You okay?” I ask, feeling his anxiety in the bond.
His lips turn up in a self-deprecating smile as he says, “That should be my line.” I grab his hand and squeeze, our unofficial signal for each other—I’m here with you.He leans forward, resting his forehead on my shoulder, never letting go of my hand. I run my fingers through his long blond hair.
“I wish…” He pauses. “I wish I could sweep you away from here so you never have to deal with any of this again.”
“Where would you take me?” I ask, amused, never stopping my slow massage of his scalp and neck.
“Anywhere he can’t get to you.” He sighs. Regret bleeds into the bond. “I couldn’t find anything tying him to what’s happening. That’s supposed to be my job, looking for openings and exploiting them. I couldn’t even help in my own area of expertise.”
My sweet alpha.They’reall going to drive me crazy with their need to fix things and being upset when they can’t. It does more harm than good. “I don’t expect you to be able to do that Parker. I never expected any of you to be able to help resolve this,” I say and tug on his hair, tilting his head to look up at me finally.
“But you know what? Youhavehelped me. In every other way you have helped me get through this, lending me your strength to push through the moments my grief takes over. Never once judging me for being the absolute emotional mess that I am. For loving me when I felt I didn’t deserve anything good. You think that doesn’t have value? I will take that every single day for as long as I live, happily.” I look into his green eyes, hoping my words take root.
“You’re right, Goddess,” he says a little too solemnly. I feel the need to tease him, just a little, to get him out of his head.
“That’s right I am.” I pull harder on his hair. “Don’t forget that, but also don’t bash my mate. He’s a pretty awesome guy who makes me laugh even when I want to cry. It takes a special person who can do that.” I move my face closer and say lowly, “Plus, he’s always such a good boy. I hate to have to punish him for being hard on himself.”
His eyes darken at the phrase. I can feel his need trickle down the bond. I had a feeling that would have an effect. He always submits to me whether knowingly or not when we have sex so I thought we could play around with that in the future. Because wewillhave a future, I’m choosing to believe that.
“Goddess…” he mumbled, his lips almost meeting with mine.
“There ya are. I just got back. C’mon, got a surprise,” Taz interrupts. Parker drops his head in disappointment, making me glare at Taz. “What?” he asks, oblivious. “You too Parker.”
Leaning forward, I whisper in Parker’s ear, “We’ll revisit this another time, I promise.” I give his hand one last squeeze before I get up. The both of us trail behind Taz as he leads us to the front door. “C’mon, get your boots and coats on. We’re wasting time.” Taz claps his hands as if to saychop chop. I’ll chop chop him if he interrupts another moment like that again.
My frustration must be felt in the bond because Parker takes my hand and pushes reassurance to me. As we step out onto the porch, the rest of the pack is gathered along with Harrison and Ren. What is going on?
“Why are we all out here?” I ask, looking up to see Taz’s giddy face. That cannot be a good sign.
He rubs his gloved hands together. “We’re having a good ol’ fashioned snowball fight. It’s all set up on the side of the house. I made a shit ton of ’em for each team.” That sounds so fun, like in a movie. I had never seen snow until this past year. I definitely didn’t play in it either. I’m smiling so much, I can’t contain the excitement.Ahh I can’t wait to do this.
“Seriously Taz, this isn’t the time for fooling ar—” Jake breaks off as he looks at me.
