Chapter 44


    AARON


    I sink into one of the chairs and try to process everything.


    Leah. Missing.


    Leah. Dying.


    It just doesn’t make sense.


    She’s young. A force of life so bright at times I found it hard to be around her. I can’t imagine her not in


    this world. I can’t imagine that she’s si ck or hurting.


    Or that she’s been suffering for a long time and I never noticed.


    My chest aches and I rub at the center of it.


    Material ? of N?velDrama.Org.


    “I still have to make rounds,” Adam says. “And there is a chance that if Leah left, that maybe she


    doesn’t want to be found. She might be si ck of all of us.”


    I nod.


    I don’t like it, but it may be true.


    I should’ve done so many things differently.


    I should’ve loved her.


    All the nights wasted. All the days when I purposely kept her at arm’s length. All the times she tried to


    make our marriage a real one. Not just in bed, but by being a real partner.


    She’d help in the kitchen and make my food.


    She’d wait up for me in the library, reading one of her books, so I wouldn’t workte alone.


    She’dugh and argue with me, and not back down, no matter how many times I tried to relegate her to


    some background role.


    And now she’s gone?


    Dying???


    But I can’t lose her. I can’t let go.


    My throat tightens. And pain seizes my body. It’s not physical so much as a wave of grief that floods my


    entire being.


    I go to her bed and pick up the pillow. Beneath the astringent smells of the hospital, I can scent her.


    That light fragrant smell of her hair that’s partly her shampoo and, beneath that, the unique, elusive


    scent of her skin.


    Adam reenters the hospital room.


    I can imagine what he sees.


    Me holding a bu nch of smooshed flowers and breathing into a hospital pillow.


    “You, uh, need to see this,” he tells me.


    Sam walks in behind Adam and holds up an ipad. He ys the footage of Leah being rolled out of the


    hospital. He freezes the frame.


    “It appears she left the premises with someone.”


    I zoom in for a closer look. “What the he ll is Brian doing here?”


    “Oh,” Adam says, leaning in. “That’s right. I knew he looked familiar. Brian Leithrow is an Alpha too. He


    I’m incredulous. “Adam, what are you talking about? That man,” I jab my finger at Brian’s face on the


    screen, “is a li ar. I was friends with him until I learned that he lied about everything-his name, his


    birthright, his background. He ki lled old man Leithrow to assume control of his pack.”


    “What!?”


    “Everything Brian has is stolen…And now he has my wife!”