"Dia, are you okay?"
She shook her head. "My head is starting to hurt really bad."
At those words, Stone jumped out of his chair and rushed to her side. It was his natural instinct to protect his mate. Unfortunately, his mate didn't remember that she was his mate, and the move scared her.
Dia scooched back in her bed and held the hand that had been rubbing her forehead up to stop him. "Please don't come any closer."
Stone help up both of his hands to show her he meant her no harm. "Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm a bit on edge from coming here and seeing you in the hospital for the first time. I'm sorry it took me so long to find out, Dia."
She started rubbing her forehead again while squinting her tired eyes. "Can you please leave?" Dia asked hesitantly. Then, with a stronger voice, she added, "I just can't deal with this right now with the way my head is starting to hurt."
He took another step back and let his arms drop to his sides. Leaving would kill him, but he didn't want to cause any harm to his mate, either.
"Would you like me to get the nurse on the way out?"
She shook her head. "I just want to go back to sleep."
He took a sideways step toward the door, then asked her, "Can I come back later?"
This time, it was Dia who dropped her hand as she gave him a suspicious look. Slowly, enunciating every word, she said, "I won't be here later. I'm being moved."
"Can you tell me where you're going so I can visit you there, then?"
Dia nibbled on her bottom lip as she thought.
"How do I know you're not some crazy person?"
Good question. He was almost proud of her for asking it.
"How about I prove it to you until you can remember me? Let me visit you, and we can talk about our life together."
She shook her head as another sharp pain hit it. "Please just go."
Stone walked out of the room with the knowledge he had left his heart behind him. It killed him to do it after he'd had grand daydreams that she would remember who he was and come home with him, but life didn't always work out the way you wanted it to.
He would just have to be patient and help his mate remember.
Chapter Fourteen
One week later …
Stone sat in the cab of his truck, staring at the women's home that his mate was currently residing in. He had come to despise looking at the place, and not because there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, it was a nice place set in the country. He imagined it was very peaceful there for the women who had made this their haven.
No, he despised the Fresh Start Women's Center because his mate was living in it, and not at home with him. For an entire week, he had come here every day, knocking at the door and asking to see Dia. And for seven days straight, he had been turned away with one simple statement: "She's not ready to see you."
He wanted to roar at those words. He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, "Tough shit because I'm coming in, anyway!" Both of those were things he could not do.
Taking a deep breath, he said a silent prayer that today would be the day that his mate came to her senses and took a chance at seeing him. Stone had convinced himself that the night in the hospital, the reason Dia had gotten that headache, was because some part of her subconscious mind knew him and was trying to make her remember. If only he could see her again, she might remember everything … or at least him. However, the stubborn woman kept refusing to see him.
Stone was just about to get out of his truck when his cell phone started ringing. Looking at the screen, he recognized the number as the alpha of Sulphur Springs. They had unfinished business to take care of, and as much as he hated having to wait that much longer to go knock on the door, this really needed to be handled once and for all.
"Hello."
"Alpha Blaylock, I am calling to inform you that my daughter confessed to her crimes."
A little surprised, Stone asked, "Did she tell you where she got the magic from and why she was trying to kill my mate?"
A sad sigh crossed the line before the other man spoke again. "What I am about to tell you, I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourself."
"Depending on what you tell me, I'll do my best to honor that. But if I feel that my beta or alpha female need to know, I will tell them."
"Which is something I understand all too well." There was another sigh before the man confessed, "My daughter was born from a one-night stand I had with a witch. She seduced me with one of her spells, casting it to make me believe she was my mate. I didn't figure out until after she was pregnant that she wasn't truly my mate. By then, it was too late. I've kept my daughter's magic a secret up until now to protect her. What I didn't realize was that I would need to protect others from her, too."
"Well, that explains how she got the magic, but what you haven't explained is why she tried to kill my mate."
There was silence on the other end for a short time, and then the alpha's grief-clogged voice came through the line. "I didn't get an answer directly from her before she was killed by another wolf."
"Who killed your daughter and why?"
"It was Danielle. She thought that, by killing my daughter, she was protecting her great-grandmother somehow."
"It's too late for that. Her great-grandmother killed herself instead of answering any more of my questions."
This time, a frustrated sigh came from the other man. "Then it seems that we'll never know why my daughter did it, since my daughter cast a spell on Danielle just before she died, turning her into a rat. The little bitch scurried away from us the moment she realized what she had become."
Stone heaved a sigh of relief. "It's done, then."
"It's done," the Sulphur Springs' alpha agreed. "I apologize for my daughter's involvement and hope this will not affect the alliance we have."
What was that old adage? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? The Sulphur Springs' alpha had done the right thing, but Stone didn't know if he would ever be able to trust him the same way again. Therefore, it would be wiser to keep the alliance intact so he could keep a closer eye on the man.
"The alliance is still intact, but I would like to know now if there are any more magic-wielding shifters you're hiding."
"None," the other man said. His voice sounded truthful, but Stone would be wary of that pack from here on out.
After the two men hung up, Stone sat silently in his truck for a few moments. He couldn't imagine how hard that must have been for the other man, to interrogate and prosecute his own daughter like that. Not only had the man just lost his daughter, he had just given Stone some pretty powerful ammo to use against him if he had wanted to make a war out of this. Stone could only find himself grateful that the man had done the right thing.
It was hard to believe that after months of worrying and missing his mate, that it was all over. Now he could give one hundred percent of his attention to wooing his mate back into his arms.
Getting out of the truck, he slowly made his way to the front door and knocked. The door opened, and the same woman who had turned him away for the seven days prior was there at the door. His heart sank that this would be the same.
"I would like to see Dia please."
The woman gave him a sad look. "I'm sorry, but she says she's still not ready to see you."
Stone swallowed his pride and gave the woman he loved what she needed-space from him.
Nodding, he turned and walked away, heading for his truck. Hopefully tomorrow would have a different outcome.
Chapter Fifteen
One week later …
"He's back again, Dia," Charlotte, the woman who ran the Fresh Start Women's Center, told her.
Damn, the man was persistent. But maybe that was because he had told her the truth that day in the hospital and he really was her husband. She couldn't think of any other reason why a man would come every day for two weeks straight, only to be turned away at the door, time and time again.
Charlotte looked back at Dia from the window at the front of the house and said, "Maybe you should talk to him this time."
"Maybe I should." She sighed. "He certainly doesn't listen to directions very well."
Yesterday, she'd had Charlotte tell him she needed more time and to give her at least a week before he came back again.
Dia got up from where she was sitting on the couch when she heard Charlotte mutter, "What's he doing?" Two seconds later Charlotte said, "Come look, Dia. He has a sign!"
She picked up her pace until she was standing next to Charlotte, looking out the large bay window.
There he stood in the grass, wearing jeans; a white, long-sleeved shirt; and a beanie on his head with a big white sign that said in bold, black letters: "As you wish, princess."