"Apollo?"
Apollo reached up and rubbed his eyes before turning to face his alpha. "Yes?"
"Alpha Paolo Sanchez finally called me back." When Iben's lips thinned and a guarded look of sadness filled his eyes, Apollo knew he wasn't going to like what his alpha had to say. "He told me that there is no Grayson in his pack."
The Sanchez Pack had been invited to help celebrate Ares and Simon's mating due to their involvement in getting the two men together and Simon's affection for Alpha Sanchez's daughter.
Considering that they had met at the celebration the Sanchez Pack was attending, Apollo had stupidly assumed that Grayson was a member of the Sanchez Pack.
Apparently, he was wrong.
Apollo's shoulders slumped. "Thank you for telling me."
He felt like crying. His eyes burned with the need to release the tears gathering. That had been his last hope. Alpha Sanchez had been out of town and couldn't be reached. For three days, Apollo held out hope that Grayson was a member of the Sanchez Pack.
That hope was now gone.
Apollo didn't know where his mate was or when he was coming back. Hell, he didn't even know if Grayson was alive beyond the buzzing he could feel in the bond that had formed when they mated. The bite mark on his shoulder and his memories of the few scant hours they had together were all that told him Grayson was real.
As more time went by with no sign of Grayson, Apollo was starting to wonder if it was all in his head. Maybe there was no mate bond. Maybe he had never even mated. For all he knew, he had really tied one on and Grayson didn't even exist.
No one remembered Grayson except Apollo.
"I've put in a call to my father," Iben continued. "I've asked him to search through the different packs in the region, looking for anyone named Grayson. He said it might take a few days but he'll make it a top priority."
Apollo sent his alpha a small smile. He didn't feel like smiling, but some sort of response was required, even if it was just to get the others to stop looking at him like he was about to collapse.
"Please tell him thank you for me."
Iben rested his hand on Apollo's arm, much like Hercules had done just a few days earlier, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "We'll find him."
Apollo wasn't sure he believed that anymore.
Chapter 4
Grayson kept to the shadows provided by the thick trees as he trekked through the woods toward the small house just up the hill from the edge of the lake. He had one destination in mind. Well, one person really.
His need to see his mate was overriding his better judgment. Until his mission was completed, he really had no business turning his attention to anything-or anyone-else. Except that his heartache at being separated from Apollo was making it impossible to think, to eat, to even function. He was running on empty.
Grayson was just going to go to the edge of the trees and look at his mate. He promised himself he wouldn't approach Apollo or attempt to speak to him. He just needed to see him, to make sure Apollo was okay.
The deep ache in his chest wouldn't allow anything else.
Avoiding the patrols at the border of Aberdeen Pack territory was harder than he thought it would be, harder than it was the first time he had snuck in. If he didn't know better, he would think the patrols had increased.
Certainly the number of soldiers on patrol had increased.
Grayson was having a hard time avoiding them, and that was one of his specialties. He had spent years training, sneaking in and out of places just to see if it could be done. As large as he was, that wasn't an easy feat.
He stood out like a sore thumb.
He was just a little confused as to why he hadn't already been spotted. He should have been. Grayson knew his stealth skills were good. He had had years to perfect them. But the number of wolf-shifters on patrol should have made it impossible to set one foot inside Aberdeen territory.
Unless they wanted him inside Aberdeen territory.
This could very well be a trap. They could be waiting to see if he returned. He had entered and left Alpha Ibenré Khenti's territory without permission. If he was caught, the alpha would be well within his rights to execute Grayson.
He was really trying to avoid that.
He'd like to live long enough to spend some time with his mate, learn who Apollo was. The man had been so unexpected that Grayson was still reeling from the fact that he had actually found the man of his dreams.
He had been sneaking into Aberdeen territory to speak with Alpha Khenti. The mating celebration of members of the pack had been a great cover, especially considering the members of another pack had been invited to the party. Since neither pack knew the other all that well, Grayson had been able to easily slip in between them. Everyone assumed he belonged to the other pack and they didn't ask questions.
It was a security issue that Grayson would be talking to Apollo about later.
Finding Apollo while he had been trying to make his way closer to Alpha Khenti had been surprising. Grayson had taken one look at Apollo and fallen head over heels. Convincing the handsome wolf that he felt the same had been far easier than he thought.
Grayson would like to tell himself that he hadn't taken advantage of Apollo's inebriated state, but he would be lying to himself. Apollo had been rug-sucking drunk-not an easy feat for a shifter-and Grayson had wasted no time in getting the man alone and into bed. It was wrong and it was underhanded, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat.
He would do anything to have Apollo as his mate.
The man was breathtaking, stunningly handsome and rugged, all hard muscle and growly attitude. He had a hard, rippled abdomen that Grayson could eat off of, spiky dark hair that had that just got out of bed look, and pouty lips that gave Grayson hours of fantasies.
Grayson's cock hardened painfully just thinking about his mate. Apollo attracted him in ways that he didn't even want to contemplate, even if he knew he needed to. He was making stupid moves just to be near the man. If he didn't lose his head for entering another wolf pack's territory without permission, he'd be damned lucky.
Grayson's breath caught and held in his throat when he reached the edge of the tree line near Apollo's house. The man was sitting on the porch with a couple of other shifters, the three men casually talking and sipping on beers.
One of the men had a reddish beard. He was chewing on a toothpick, his feet propped up on the porch railing not far from where Apollo was sitting. The other man had darker hair with a smattering of gray right at his temples.
Grayson couldn't hear what the men were talking about, but the easy manner in which they spoke said it was a casual conversation. Grayson felt no threat aimed toward his mate.
He settled in the thick bushes and drank his mate in, his body humming to life at the alluring sight. Apollo was dressed simply in a pair of faded jeans and a red tank top. God, he looked good in red.
He was balanced on the porch railing, one leg bent and pulled up to his chest, the other dangling down to the porch floor. He leaned back against a square wooden post at the end of the railing, one arm resting on his bent knee, the other holding a beer close to his chest.
He looked so gorgeous. Grayson wished that he was a painter or a photographer so that he could capture this moment in time to have something to remember, something to look at when he was lonely.
And he was lonely so very often.
Grayson felt like he had been lonely his entire life. He had grown up in a close-knit family, one that accepted him just the way he was. But that gave way to the politics of belonging to the alpha family. Most wouldn't approach him because of his size, and those that did only did so because they wanted to get closer to the alpha family or because they wanted to prove that they were bigger, stronger.
They weren't.
Grayson had met very few people that were as strong as him. He had heard through the grapevine that Alpha Ibenré Khenti was one of the strongest shifters ever born, which was the only reason Grayson had even considered entering the man's territory without permission. If Alpha Khenti was strong enough to best Grayson, then the man might be strong enough to protect Grayson's family.
Without a need to dominate others, he had no driving obsession to be the alpha of his pack. That particular position had fallen to the mate of his older sister, and Grayson had been fine with that. He admired the man, felt satisfied with Carlos as his alpha.
He probably would have gone his entire life with Carlos as his alpha if the man hadn't been killed right along with Grayson's sister and most of the rest of his pack members. With the alpha pair and ninety percent of his pack slaughtered, it had fallen to Grayson to find a safe place for those that survived.
He had been looking for one when the most breathtaking man he had ever seen stepped into his line of vision. Grayson had been stopped in his tracks, all thought of his true reason for being in Aberdeen Valley ripped from his mind.
The night they had spent together was just as glorious as the next morning. Claiming Apollo and being claimed in return was the culmination of every birthday wish and fantasy Grayson had ever had.