I drop my head to my hands. “When I went back, she was gone, along with any trace of her or her parents, just gone. I’ve visited every pack in the United States and most in Canada trying to find her. I knew she felt something for me, but I didn’t know if she recognized me as her Mate. She was so small. I thought she was maybe twelve, thirteen at most. I mean, how would she even know, right?”

Still holding my head in my hands, pulling my hair. “I never found out what pack she belonged to. I didn’t want to raise the question, have some rogue or wannabe Alpha take her and use her to get to me. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

God my chest hurts, I don’t think I’ve cried since I was a pup. Now, I want to cry for the second time today. “Casper, she's gonna hate me. All the stuff you told me she’s been through and some of it, fuck, most of it, was my fault.”

“What about you calling her? No one? Who was with you that she thought you chose your girlfriend over her?” Cass asks kindly.

“I don’t know what I said that night, brother. I was out of my head. Michael and Sid were there, a few others. It took everything I had to walk away, not to take her with me. As for the girlfriend, that would have been Roxanne back then. I loved her or thought I did, anyway. That’s why shit’s been different with her and me for so long. I knew my Mate was out there somewhere. I just thought she ran from me.”

Cass looks at me with pity. “She ain’t gonna like it, man. You leave her and go with Roxanne five years ago. We pull up today, and she is standing on your front porch practically announcing you guys just had a nooner.”

I know he’s right. What was I thinking, being with anyone else? I still feel the need to defend myself about today. “We didn’t have a nooner. She showed up here right before you guys, playing innocent. You know what she’s like, she wanted whoever the new female was to see her here with me and assume I was taken.”

Cass rubs the back of his neck and asks, “What now? How are we going to handle this?”

I look down at my beautiful Mate and answer truthfully, “I’ll tell her the truth, hope over time she understands I never meant to hurt her. Then spend my life trying to make up for my mistakes.”

CHAPTER 8

Sophia

I start to wake slowly. My body is sluggish, content to sleep. My mind, however, is playing catch up with the events that led to me fainting, in the front yard... of my Mate’s home with his girlfriend and brother watching the whole thing. Lovely.

I lift my lids and see a pair of eyes staring right at me from about six inches away from my face. I scream and launch myself back into the corner of what must be a sofa. “Good God, what is wrong with you people? Do any of you know what personal space is?” My chest heaves as I try to catch my breath. Hand over my heart, I will it to slow down. “Between you and Sniffer, I’m owed about ten years of my life back. Thank you very much!” I need to calm down. I’m just distracting myself from the real issue. My Mate, who I now know is the Alpha, is sitting three feet away from me, and even after five years, I want to crawl into his lap and hum with satisfaction.