It had been ten long years, but right now, she almost had to think it had all been worth it.
Chapter 18
Hale glanced at the rearview mirror as he parked his SUV in front of the diner, gazing at his reflection and wondering if his pack mates would be able to tell from his face that he’d spent nearly the entire night making love with his soul mate.
Because that’s what he and Karissa had done—made love.
Yes, the sex had been incredible—beyond imagining—but the soul mate bond he’d formed with Karissa last night had been even more special. He could feel it in every fiber of his being. He only wished he could have told her that.
Had she felt the connection like he had? It was terrifying to think that she hadn’t. For all he knew, Paladins couldn’t form the soul mate bond. Karissa did already have a bond of sorts…with Athena.
Jumping out of the vehicle, Hale headed for the door of the restaurant, cursing as he realized he was almost fifteen minutes late for breakfast with the guys. Maybe they wouldn’t notice.
They were supposed to brainstorm a plan on what to do about the Balauri. It would likely be a waste of time, since they had no new leads to even start with, but they had to try and come up with something.
The diner was reminiscent of something out of the 1950s, complete with black-and-white floor tile, parlor chairs, and red booths. There was even a retro jukebox and old-fashioned Coke machines. Overall, the nostalgia was pretty damn cool. More importantly, the food was outstanding.
Hale found Carter, Mike, and Connor waiting for him in a big booth at the back of the diner, mugs of coffee in front of them. He slid into the empty space beside Connor. The moment he was seated, their server immediately came over to pour coffee for him. He smiled at the gray-haired woman and thanked her.
“Everything okay?” Mike asked when she left, his tone more curious than concerned. “You seemed a little distracted when you walked in, and it’s not like you to be even a few minutes late for work…or breakfast.”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Hale said, taking a second to peruse the menu even though he already knew what was on it. “Karissa stayed at my place last night and it took a little while for both of us to get ready this morning. You know, with the one bathroom?”
He didn’t bother to point out that the number of bathrooms in his apartment hadn’t actually been the cause of his delay. Instead, it had been the fact that there was only one shower—and a rather small one at that. He and Karissa had barely fit, regardlessof how close they’d gotten to each other. Which, he had to admit, was pretty damn close. But they’d made it work well enough—until they’d nearly run the apartment complex out of hot water.
His pack mates regarded him thoughtfully, looking as if they completely understood, which struck him as rather fishy. They couldn’t possibly know about last night—or this morning.
“You know, if you were busy with Karissa this morning, you could have told us,” Mike said, giving him that fatherly look he got sometimes whenever he talked to someone in the Pack, even if he wasn’t that much older than the rest of them. “We could have handled this on our own and given you some more quality time with your soul mate this morning.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Hale said, picking up his coffee and taking a sip. “Karissa had to go see Deven about some clues he found regarding the person he thinks hired Bagley.”
He would have said more, but their server chose that moment to show up to take their orders. His pack mates opted for various combinations of bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, and pancakes.
Hale went with the same, his mind preoccupied with other thoughts. Some of it was the stuff he’d been thinking about that morning in bed with Karissa and their soul mate bond. But mostly, he was worried about her being out and about on herown. He knew it was simply his inner wolf being overly protective of his soul mate, but the whole purpose of her staying at his place while Bagley was running around was so he could help keep her safe. How was he supposed to do that if he wasn’t with her?
But Karissa had refused to let him go with her, telling him that while she appreciated the thought, she still had a job to do, and she was going to do it. She refused to let her concerns about Bagley affect how she did that. While Hale completely understood what she was saying, that didn’t mean he wasn’t still worried. After ten frigging years, he’d finally gotten her back. Just the mere thought of losing her again made it difficult to breathe.
“You okay?” Mike asked, jarring him from his thoughts. Hale looked up to see his pack mate studying him with that patented concerned-slash-curious look. “Your heart is beating a mile a minute all of a sudden.”
Damn, sometimes he hated being on a team full of other werewolves.
Hale opened his mouth to answer, even if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Fortunately, he got a reprieve as two servers came over to the table with their breakfast food. The moment they left again, he immediately slathered creamy butter and maple syrup all over his perfectly cooked chocolate chip pancakes, then concentrated on adding salt andpepper to his fluffy-looking scrambled eggs, hoping Mike would forget his earlier question.
But when the silence began to stretch out and all three of his pack mates began glancing at him out of the corners of their eyes, he realized he was going to have to say something to steer this conversation in a safe direction or they’d be bombarding him with even more questions in another minute.
“So, what’s the latest on our five Romanian gladiators?” he asked, pausing with a big forkful of syrup-covered pancake hovering above his plate. “Any tips come in yet through the hotline on a possible location?”
Carter snorted as he dug into his over-easy eggs. “Hundreds of them. Unfortunately, none of them are worth looking into.”
“Which is difficult to believe,” Connor added. “You’d think that five guys as scary-looking as the Balauri—who never seem to be far from their tactical gear and heavy weaponry—would stand out in a crowd. Somebody had to have seen them, right? Especially after yesterday’s news coverage.”
“Maybe the reason we haven’t gotten any tips on them is because they’ve left town?” Hale suggested, nibbling on a piece of bacon, even if he didn’t believe it himself.
“Somehow I don’t think we’re going to get that lucky,” Mike muttered. “They’re out there somewhere, waiting for the right time to make theirmove. If they continue to follow their established pattern, it will be soon and against a target they know will get our attention.”
On the other side of the table, Carter frowned. “Do you honestly think they’ll bother trying to lure us into a fight again?” He took a sip of coffee. “If Davina was right about these guys looking for a good battle, wouldn’t they simply show up at the SWAT compound and come straight at us?”
“Considering that this Tamm guy seems to have a personal vendetta against Hale, I think we might have to worry about them coming straight after him,” Conner said.
