Watching Maya leave tore Chance up inside.

This wasn’t how he’d imagined it would go when he finally found his mate. In his dreams, he’d thought once he’d met his mate, that would be it. They’d be together for good. He’d never thought he’d have to watch her walk away, feeling like she was taking a piece of his heart with her.

He turned to his alpha. “Tell me what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“To have her here. I can’t be expected to live here without her.”

Holton frowned. “That might not be my decision to make. It seems she’s the one who needs to come to terms with this.”

“But if she does, can she come and live with the pack?”

Holton glanced away. “I don’t know. This is unprecedented. It would have to be discussed with the rest of the pack.”

Worry trickled through him. He knew what others in the pack thought of him. They’d block Maya living here just to spite him. “You’re the alpha. This should be your decision.”

“I don’t lead that way. If the pack decided having her here would make them uncomfortable, I couldn’t force them to put up with her.”

“Yes, you could.”

Holton lifted a hand, and Chance clamped his jaw shut, hard enough to hurt. The matter was closed—for the moment, anyway. Chance wouldn’t let things lie. No matter what happened, he wouldn’t be content if the pack blocked Maya from coming here. It would be yet another thing to highlight how unwelcome he felt with the Dark Ridge wolves now. He knew he was near the bottom rung of the pack, but that didn’t mean he had to put up with being treated like shit.

Knowing fighting with Holton wouldn’t get him anywhere, he pushed past the larger man and left the meeting house. He wanted to go home, so he could lie in bed and think about Maya. A massive hole had suddenly appeared in his life, and it was a hole only her presence could fill. They were connected now, an invisible cord joining them, and he’d never be able to rest again unless he had her by his side.

Chance crossed the compound, keeping his head down. He didn’t want to bump into any of the shifters involved in the attack that night—Gavin Toller, Stephen Janson, and Ronny Halt—knowing the news of him having mated a human would have spread like wildfire across the compound. It would be another thing for them to taunt him with, and right now, his mood wasn’t in the right place to deal with such a thing. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back. He’d end up lashing out and paying back some of the scars they’d given him.

He reached his house. Even though she’d only been inside the four walls for a short while, he still found that every room and surface reminded him of her. Only an hour ago he’d been fucking her in the shower, fast and hard. His groin stirred with desire at the memory, blood flooding to his cock. He couldn’t continue his life with her not in it. She was his, and he was hers. There was no going back now.

Not bothering to undress, Chance flung himself down on the bed, lying on his back, his arm over his eyes. He needed to sleep, but his thoughts refused to settle. Was she home now, asleep in her own bed? Was she thinking of him?

A sudden spurt of anxiety shot through him, sending his heart racing. He bolted upright in bed, his breath quickening. The certain knowledge something was wrong filled him.

Maya.

Something had happened. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name. Even though she’d walked away from him, he had no choice now but to go to her. She needed him. Every cell in his body insisted upon it—like his skin itched all over and he simply had to scratch.

The fastest way of reaching her was by wolf.

Chance peeled off his clothes, leaving them as a scattered trail across the floor as he ran from his home. Most shifters left the compound before getting ready to shift, but he didn’t have time. The moment he crossed the threshold and was out in open air, he willed his wolf to rise. They were still in the three days of the full moon cycle, so the animal was close to the surface and quick to respond. The shift to wolf was fast and painless, the change happening as naturally and profoundly as water changing to ice. One moment, he was on two feet, the next he’d fallen forward onto all fours, and his jaw had elongated and filled with teeth, his ears pricked from the top of his skull, bringing all the sounds of the compound and the surrounding forest to life. A long, bushy tail elongated his spine, giving him extra balance.

He sprang forward, already moving at a gallop. He ignored anyone he passed, surprised exclamations following him. He didn’t care. They were all going to be talking about him anyway. This would give them something else to gossip about.

Chance ran back through the forest at full pelt. His powerful legs propelled him forward, his tongue lolling from his mouth, his hot breath panting into the night air. His only focus was reaching the outskirts of the town and the diner when he’d mated Maya on the booth bench.

Though he felt like he’d been running forever, he eventually burst out of the forest and onto the road. The diner was positioned in front of him, but he couldn’t see any sign of life through the bank of windows which stretched across the front.

Dammit. He should have thought to bring clothes. He wouldn’t be able to find out anything in wolf form, and he’d learn even less as a naked man. Humans didn’t approve of people wandering around with no clothes on.

Chance shifted to human form and sneaked around the back of the restaurant where the house was. A washing line pegged with clothes stretched along the side of the house. He located a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that was far too small, but would do for the moment, and pulled them off, the pegs pinging to the ground. Dressed, he hammered on the front door of the property then tried the back, but there didn’t seem to be anyone there either. Chance went back to the diner to discover a harried looking, middle-aged woman in a waitress outfit letting herself into the building.

“Hi, there,” he called out.

She turned to him, a frown deepening the lines in her forehead when she saw him. With his too-small clothes and scarred face, he guessed he didn’t look like he was up to much good.

“Do you know where Maya is?” he asked.

The woman blinked. “Yes, she’s at the hospital.”

Thoughts of her being in an accident filled his mind, and his fears must have showed on his face.

“Oh, no, not for her,” the woman continued. “It’s her father. They think he’s had a stroke.”

Something in his chest tightened. “Ah, shit. Poor Maya.”

“Yeah. They had to revive him here before taking him in. It’s not looking good.”

Pain on Maya’s behalf filled him.

“Look,” the woman said, “I’m going to the hospital now. Do you want a ride?”

Chance nodded. “Yes, that would be good. Thank you.”

They made their way to her car—an old Lincoln that looked like it was held together by more rust than metal. He spotted a couple of children’s car seats in the back.

“I don’t know your name,” she said as they climbed in.

“It’s Chance,” he told her. “I don’t know yours either.”

“Steph,” she supplied. “I worked with Maya—or work for Maya, I guess, since she’s been taking over the place for her folks. How do you know her? She hasn’t mentioned a Chance before.”

“We haven’t known each other long, but she’s important to me.”

Steph seemed to accept that.

Within twenty minutes, they were pulling up outside the small hospital on the other side of town.

As Chance opened the car door, the niggling certainty something was wrong suddenly changed. Anguish hit him like a physical blow, stealing his breath and causing him to rear back at the shock. “We have to hurry.”

He ran toward the building, Steph trotting along behind him, clutching her purse to her side.

He found Maya standing in the corridor, in her mother’s arms, crying great heaving sobs that made a lump catch in his throat and his own eyes prickle with unshed tears. He stopped short, not wanting to intrude on such an intense, intimate scene, suddenly wondering if he should have come.

But then, as though she’d sensed him standing there, in the same way he’d been sensing her emotions all this time, she looked up and directly at him.

“Oh, Chance,” she cried. “My father… he died.”