Derek
Derek had missed Kyra to a point where he’d wondered if he was going to survive it.
He’d thought about going after her every single day for the past six months, which added up to roughly one hundred and eighty days. But he didn’t go.
He felt like it would be insulting to his pack for him to forgive her instantly. She’d wronged them, and everyone knew it. Yes, she’d been brainwashed, and her story was heart wrenching, but that didn’t change what she’d planned to do.
So Derek had wrestled with that. He’d talked Roman’s ear off about it, until finally, two months before, Roman had slammed his fist down on the table. “Dammit, just go after her! I can’t take it anymore.”
That was truly ironic, considering that Roman had let his mate go for five freaking years, but okay, Derek understood his point.
“You’re acting like an idiot!” Roman yelled. “Anytime someone brings her up, which is often because you’re moping around with your eyes all sad, you growl at them.”
“I do not growl,” Derek insisted. But he knew it was true. At first, no one mentioned Kyra’s name. Then a few shifters did, because they were angry that he didn’t do a better job of vetting her before letting her onto pack land unrestricted. He agreed with them, and they’d come up with a new process for guests who were potential mates.
Then after everyone had heard the full story of what she’d been through, people started asking why she wasn’t there. Tristan had asked just a few weeks ago, “Why isn’t she here? You know everyone is already over it. They’re satisfied with the vampires’ punishment, and when they found out how Victor set her up, several of the wolves were ready to go over to Canada and personally rip his fucking throat out. You do know that, right?”
It warmed his heart to know that his brothers felt protective of her and that they were sympathetic, but they didn’t understand. They had been duped by a young female shifter.
He had been fooled by his mate.
He wasn’t sure if anyone else could really understand that. Sure, Roman tried. He thought because he and Everleigh had gotten their wires crossed for years that it helped him understand what Derek was going through, but it really didn’t. Everleigh had never planned to help turn part of the pack into hybrid vampires and murder the rest of them on a mass scale.
And Roman had broken up with her because he’d been an immature asshole at the time. There was really no comparison at all.
So Derek thought about his mate all the time, and four months after she left, he had completely forgiven her. But he still didn’t know what to do.
One day when they were out scouting for new land, he finally asked Roman the question that had been plaguing him. “If I ever made it to that point, would you allow Kyra to join the pack, assuming she was interested and that the other members accepted it?”
Roman let his head thunk against a tree trunk. “Dammit, I thought I made it clear. Yes! I think at least fifty members have asked if you’re ever going to go after her.”
Roman had ranted for a few more minutes, but Derek ignored him. Afterall, Derek was the mate here, not Roman.
Then finally right before Christmas, six months to the day after she left, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He’d known where she was living for month. He’d kept track of her, knowing that if she got herself into trouble again, he’d intervene. But she seemed like she was making a good life for herself.
He took a pre-dawn flight south and made his way to Kentucky. He was going to figure this out, once and for all.
Then as soon as he saw her, he couldn’t believe he’d ever let her walk away. Not for six minutes, certainly not for six months. But he’d rushed their time together before, which was one reason he hadn’t noticed what was going on.
She brought him inside her house, and he sat down on the sofa. He updated her on the pack, and then she updated him on her current life. Finally, he had to address the elephant in the room.
“Kyra, I’ve missed you terribly. But as you know, we have a complicated relationship. I want to see if you’re interested in possibly starting over. Could we go out on a date? We never really got to try that.”
Kyra just sat there for a moment. He wondered if he’d lost his chance for good. Then she burst into tears. He patted her back, not knowing if he was helping or not. Had he pushed her over the edge?
Finally, she got up and grabbed a towel from the kitchen and dried her face. “I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting that.”
“What were you expecting, exactly?”
“I thought you were here to check on me. You know, because you felt sorry for me.”
He had felt sorry for her, but that didn’t need to be said. “No, I deliberately chose to come see you.”
She flung herself at him again, and he caught her in his arms. “Yes. I would love to go on a date with you.” She peeked up at him. “But how would that work? Long distance?”
“I thought I’d stay here in town while we see how things go. It’s not fair for me to expect you to move back to Alaska on a trial basis.”
What would he do if she never wanted to move back? At this point, he was pretty sure that he’d move to Kentucky to be with her, and that he’d just find a way to visit the pack once a month. That’s how strongly he felt about his mate. But he didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on her, not until he was certain that he was ready for a full commitment.