“I know it’s not fair to keep doing this to you,” Sebastian said, looking at me for the first time all day. “Maybe, I should go, too.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I snapped. “I’m trying to get you to marry me, to legally pledge to spend the rest of your life with me. And you’re thinking about leaving, too? I can’t take this. Jesus Christ, the men in my life are fucking nut cases.”
“I just meant it might be easier for you if you didn’t have to deal with my beast’s issues.”
“Your beast? Right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me.
“This isn’t just your panther,” I answered. “This is you. You love him, and you’re pissed that he left you. Your beast is a fucking weak excuse. If you think I don’t know, you’re crazier than I thought. Hell, you’ve already told me you love him. Were you under the impression I didn’t fully understand the scope of that? You’d been sleeping with him for months. How could you not love him?”
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Of course, it bothers me! It kills me that I can’t have you all to myself. But for us, for some fucked up reason, we need him. He’s part of this family. It may be untraditional or, hell, even unacceptable. But I couldn’t care less. If he walked in that door right now, I would strip you naked and we’d both ravage your body. Again. Because I don’t think you’ve felt whole since the last time we did.”
The bell over the front door jingled, and we both froze, staring at each other for a moment before I ran for the front office, Sebastian hot on my heels.
I tried not to look disappointed to see Darla, one of the panther pack, standing in front of Bryce’s desk. Bastian didn’t bother to hide his feelings. He just walked away, and within a minute, I heard him resume his blasting of the remnants of my brother’s cage.
“What’s up?” I asked her, motioning for her to sit in Bryce’s chair.
“All of the men have disappeared,” she answered, her voice completely dead and monotone.
“Excuse me?”
Her abruptness took me by surprise. She was one of the few panthers I knew well, and we’d always been friendly. Before Bryce’s beast had chosen Sebastian, we’d talked about Bryce choosing her as a mate to help him run the pack. She was a great girl, and I think Bryce choosing Bastian had really hurt her. Before becoming a panther, Bryce had always preferred women. We’d all been surprised by the alpha’s choice of partner, even him.
“The men in the pack, they’ve all gone. Picked up and left. They didn’t tell their families or their bosses or their friends that they were going. Two days ago, I started getting phone calls from the wives and girlfriends, asking if I knew where they were. But none of the men had said anything to me. Everyone is just gone.”
“Bastian is still here,” I countered, nodding toward the ruckus from the back.
“I know. That’s why I’m here. With our alpha gone, Sebastian’s supposed to be in charge of the clan. I’m hoping he can call them back.” She glanced toward the destructive sounds still emanating from Bastian. “It’s two nights until the full moon, and it’s a blood moon. Plus, there’s going to be an eclipse. The pack shouldn’t be separated with so much lunar activity happening at one time. We get wild enough with a normal cycle. With all of this shit happening at once, it isn’t likely to be a walk in the park. I can’t imagine where the guys could have gone.”
“Do you think it’s because Bryce isn’t here?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over Sebastian’s noise.
“I’m not sure… What is he doing back there?” She stood and walked toward the rear of the building. I was grateful for it. Maybe, another panther could talk some fucking sense into my boyfriend because I certainly wasn’t having any luck.
I took out my phone and scrolled through my messages. The last time Bryce had contacted me had been about two weeks ago. When he’d gone, he’d left a message that he would be unreachable, and for the most part, he’d been radio silent. But on a few occasions, he’d sent word that he was okay. That was all. Just random “I’m still alive” texts.
When the first few had come through, I hadn’t told Bastian, figuring if Bryce wanted to talk to him, he could do so directly. But when the lack of contact had gotten too stressful for my lover, I’d finally told him I’d heard from my brother and he was okay. It had seemed to calm Bastian to know that Bryce wasn’t dead somewhere, so I’d made sure to share all future communications. There had only been two more.
I, on the other hand, sent Bryce texts almost daily. At first begging him to come back, promising to talk things out like a grown up, even offering to step aside if he and Sebastian needed each other that badly. I just wanted our family back together. Since all I’d gotten in reply to my personal messages were a generic, “Still alive, no time to talk feels with you”, I’d stopped.
Lately, I’d only sent random updates on what was happening around the office. Nothing personal anymore. If he wanted to be gone, I couldn’t make him come back, but if I could make sure he didn’t forget us completely, wherever he was, that would have to be enough. For the moment.
I considered sending another message, letting him know what Darla had told me, but I thought I should get the whole story before letting Bryce in on it. If I was going to have a surefire way to get him home, I wanted to make certain it was completely legit,
