Another Half

November 2011

The bus had been on the road for only a few hours and it was still dark and cold when a deep ache startled Blade awake. She felt the tenuous bond with Nick stretched to its limit, to the point of physical pain, and then—snap!

She closed her eyes and looked for what was left of her bond, but all she saw were silvery wispy shreds that shrunk away to nothing like white tendrils of cigarette smoke. Her bond, which had consistently weakened in the past year, was now gone. Blade knew Nick was probably still cheek-to-cheek with a slab of greasy salmon, but when he woke up he would realize that he was finally free of Blade. He could be mated and bound to Nadine and finally be happy.

Talon howled sorrowfully in the deep dark of Blade’s mind. Blade heard her sniff and whine for several hours after. For all her bravado, Talon was deeply hurt by their mate’s slow, torturous rejection. Blade her wolf’s heartbreak, and she poured into her as much love and sympathy as she could.

Unlike Talon, Blade didn’t feel any more physical pain or share her deep sorrow. All she felt was sadness for the lost happy mateship she was supposed to have shared with Nick, bitterness that he had chosen someone else instead, and anger that she let him string her along for so long. It was his cowardice that she would remember him most for.

Andy began to wake up, and Blade wasted no time in discreetly changing his diaper, preparing a bottle of formula, and feeding him. Taking care of Andy was a welcome distraction, but the onslaught of sad memories and dark thoughts kept coming while they continued to travel for several hours into the dark night.

Things were supposed to have turned out different. Blade’s family did not have any issues with Nick being from another pack; even her grandfather had begrudgingly let her go when she and Nick found each other. Felix made Nick promise him that Nick would always permit Blade to pursue her goals, to become Training Master of his pack.

“Well, of course, she can participate in the Trial,” Nick had said pleasantly. “And, I guess, if she bests everyone else, even the stronger more experienced males–well, yes, I suppose she’ll be Training Master.”

Blade smiled. There hadn’t been much conviction in Nick’s voice, but it didn’t bother Blade. If anything, it fueled her. That was the beauty of hand-to-hand combat. It was simple and objective; words mean nothing. If you’re the best, there’s always a pile of bodies to prove it.

After she had won all the trails and left her last opponent a bloody mess on the floor, there was nothing Nick or anyone could say to claim she hadn’t earned her position. Well, anyone except Nadine.

“You may have just passed enough to be the Training Master, you shit omega, but you’ll never be worthy of being the Beta’s mate!”

Her venom had taken Blade by surprise. Even a month after finding each other, Blade hadn’t realized the nature or depth of Nick’s relationship with the Alpha’s sister. Nadine’s venom put her on notice, and every hope Blade had about her life with her mate began to unravel after that.

Wolf Law taught she and Nick were Fated to be together. The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes, her mother had told her once. It was the reason Blade’s mother never sought another mate after Blade’s father had died.

There’s no such thing as second-chance mates, her grandfather had admonished her when she confided in him and her mother about her problems with Nick. At the time, two months had gone by since they had met and, she and Nick had still not Marked each other. He avoided the Marking issue and spent a considerable amount of time at the Pack House, supposedly fulfilling his duties as Beta, instead of with her in the modest home the Alpha had assigned them.

It took almost a year of Nick’s indifference and the death of her loved ones for Blade to do something. She might have gone several years of inaction had Nick not inexplicably threatened to kill Andy, and Blade had to choose between her neglectful mate and her baby. Andy was all she had left.

At noon, the bus pulled into the station of a small town two state lines over, and it brought Blade out of her gloomy reverie. She looked around the bright small town and immediately made her way to the motel three blocks down. She only stopped by a convenience store to buy a few snack bars and several bottles of water. The next bus west was scheduled to leave in three hours, and she had to make sure no member of the local pack saw or sniffed her out; she didn’t want to run any risks.

After she bathed Andy, she changed him into fresh clothes.

“Someday, several years from now, you and me are going to laugh about how we disguised you as a cute little girl in a frilly pink dress!” Blade laughed at his little frown while she put a pink headband around his head. “Okay, okay! I’m sure I’ll be the only one laughing!”

After her own shower and a nap, Blade gathered Andy and her things, checked out of the motel, and left for the bus depot early. It was a crisp day, which made the haul of her backpack, the diaper bag, and the baby carrier a little easier.

They were a block away from their destination when two large men jumped out of a black van that had stopped suddenly beside them. Wordless and without much warning, they grabbed Blade and everything with her, threw her into the back of the van, and slid the door shut. A woman sped them off at full speed.