Page 6

Lifting her hand, she hesitated when an unfamiliar scent hit her nose. It was rancid. Putrid almost. She inhaled again and grimaced. Either someone forgot to take out their trash or a dead something was lying around. Hayden pushed aside the smell and cleared her throat before knocking. When Nico didn't answer, she became worried. She knocked again before calling out, "Nico? Are you here?"

She waited for what seemed like forever then Nico opened the door. He stood in front of her with a sheet over his hips, looking rumpled and sexy. His skin was a little pale and his eyes were glassy. But she chalked it up to working a long shift or being called in on his night off.

“Hayden,” he said, his voice rough from sleep. “Shit, I’m—”

“Nico? Who’s there? I thought you were coming back to bed?” a woman’s voice filtered out of the apartment and everything inside of Hayden shattered. Her heart broke. Her stomach pitched and rolled.

“Fuck,” Nico growled. “Hayden, I can explain.”

“What?” Her vision blurred as her feet carried her away from the door. “You can’t explain this, Nico.” She heard his feet pounding behind her and she ran faster, needing to get away from him.

She didn’t understand what was happening to her. This inexplicable yearning to run away and never come back. The disgusting smell made sense now. She remembered his words all those years ago it seemed, sex smells bad to those who aren’t mated, especially when it’s two mates who are doing it. Had Nico been lying this whole time to her? Had he lied to her so she would have sex with him? Was it some prank? Hayden pushed out of the fence pulling at her clothes as Nico continued to call out to her.

No. No way, she couldn't look at him. Couldn't bear to see him standing there in nothing more than a sheet, knowing there was a woman up in his apartment. How stupid of her to think people like her, who endured tons of bullshit all their lives, got their fairy tale ending. Her wolf howled in outrage. The bone-crushing weight of knowing her mating—if it was that—had been severed or in fact, never was. He called out to her again. She couldn't stay there. She couldn't hear what he had to say. She'd given him her virginity. Been told since she was fourteen he was her mate. No. She had to leave. If she stayed, she'd throw up. If she stayed, she'd beg him not to leave her. If she stayed, she'd be the fool.

Hayden fell toward the ground. Her wolf finally took over after all those years, and she headed for anywhere but there.

Six more weeks and she would have been eighteen and they could have started their lives together without hiding what they’d been doing. Six weeks and she’d be ready to graduate. Now, it seemed like none of it mattered anymore.

Without Nico; what was life?

Nico Lopez stood in the parking lot of his apartment, not only hungover as a mother fucker, which couldn't happen for shifters but also disoriented as fuck. When he heard the pounding on his door, he'd winced in pain then felt the unmistakable weight of a person next to him who shouldn't have been there. He cracked his eyes open then mentally cursed a blue streak, because the sunlight hurt like a bitch and because the woman in his bed, he couldn't remember bringing home, let alone ending up naked with her, stirred.

The knock came again, and he fought off a wave of nausea, again, not something shifter experienced often, before starting for the door. What had he done the night before? He went out with the trainees from the jail. All of them, like him, would be promoted to deputy in a few short weeks. Yet, what no one knew was that he couldn't stand touching another woman since he'd had sex with Hayden. That afternoon changed everything between them, whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not.

He'd been so fucked in the head that afternoon, he hadn't realized he marked her until she'd been in the shower, cleaning up. There on her right breast, near her nipple, was his bite. He'd gone deep too, making sure it would stay. If she ever saw it, he didn't know. They'd promised each other never to talk about the moment until she was of age, and no one could say shit to them. After that incident, he'd made one promise to Kalkin, knowing full well he couldn't fulfill it. He'd never allow Hayden to see him bring home another woman. If Kalkin knew the truth while he made the empty oath, he didn't say a word. Nevertheless, Nico didn't break the promise he made with his Alpha. So, how did he get back to his apartment last night and where had the woman come from?

Fuck.

He couldn’t stand there all day, Hayden was hurting, but so was he. None of what was going on made a lick of sense. Why couldn’t he remember? Nico hurried back into his apartment and found the woman who’d called out to him while Hayden had been waiting on him, laying suggestively on his couch.Shit, I was supposed to go to the pool.Double fuck.

“What’s her problem?”

“None of your concern. You need to get the fuck out of here.” He brushed past her, storming back to his room while calling himself all kinds of names—stupid fucking asshole being the best—and gathered her clothes. He threw them at the woman now standing in his living room with a dumbfounded look on her face. “Sex doesn’t make a relationship, sweetheart.” His stomach pitched and rolled with a mixture of nausea and rage.

“Don’t be like that,” she whispered, reaching out for his hand. “We had fun last night. Bet I can make it a better morning too.”

Nico growled at her, swallowing down the bile traveling up his throat. “Get dressed and get the fuck out. Now.”

She jerked as she quickly dressed then scrambled out of his home. He didn’t care if she feared him in those moments, it was probably for the best. She wouldn’t be coming back around. When the front door slammed shut, he rushed to the bathroom, just in time to puke his guts up. Fuck, he hadn’t felt this bad, in a long ass time. As he braced himself against the toilet, he tried to remember what happened to him once he left his apartment, but most of it was a blur. He went to the usual place with the guys and ordered a beer. While they were having fun with the ladies, he had their backs.

Then what?

Nico's head pounded with a skull-splitting migraine the more he tried to recall the evening's events. His stomach rolled again and gave a hardy heave. He groaned as he vomited, his whole body shaking with the force. Something wasn't right. He let out a shaky breath as he trembled.What’s happening to me?He couldn't move. With his stomach still churning, he knew if he got up, he'd fall back over, and this time, throw up all over himself. His stomach rumbled and he dry heaved twice before bile stung the back of his throat. Now, he was just hurting himself.

Fuck.

He crawled across the floor to his room and grabbed his phone off the table. He had to call Kalkin. He knew the conversation he was about to have would tear a few years off his hide, but he'd deserve it. He broke the cardinal rule. He brought a woman to his home. Plus, Hayden was out there somewhere, alone, hurting, and upset and it was all his fault.

Nico gagged. He hurried back to the bathroom, wobbling on his knees as he dry heaved once more. “Fuck me.” After flushing the toilet, he curled up on the cool tile and closed his eyes. He needed a minute to gather himself before he hit send.

Wasting time is only going to make this worse...Nico let out a shuttered breath and connected the call, using the speaker function.

Kalkin answered on the third ring, “You want to tell me why I’ve had several reports of my niece running through the middle of town howling like a banshee?”

Son of a bitch, word got around quick in Window Rock. “Hayden came here this morning because we were supposed to go swimming.”

“Why do I have a feeling the next words out of your mouth are going to piss me the fuck off?” Kalkin snarled.