At least he hoped that was the reason.

For most of his life, Adam had always put his job first, leaving his family second. He had to do that because his job was to protect his family. Anna had understood and had been amazing at staying at home and making sure everything was right there. She'd had her own hobbies, a job, and friends, but she'd separated her life from his work life, as he wanted it. That helped him focus solely on his job during his work hours.

It wasn't the case with Bay. She occupied his thoughts day in and day out. Plus, he couldn't keep thinking of Anna like that; it was getting tedious. And it wasn't fair to Bay. The more he thought about Anna, the more depressed he got that she wasn't there and the fact that he kept thinking about her in the first place.

He checked the wards one more time, nodded to his second-in-command, and went back home. He couldn't stay out any longer. Though he and Bay had talked about what they would do in the future in general terms, they still had to iron out the details.

Like whether they were going to act like a real couple for the rest of their lives.

Could he love her?

His body shook at the thought. His wolf howled and stretched at the surface to say yes. But he couldn't. Not now.

He walked through the front door and inhaled Bay's berry and ice scent. He'd grown accustomed to it. He wanted it to sink into his pores and never wash off. And that made him feel guilty. This never-ending cycle was going to turn him into an old man.

Bay waddled out toward him, and he gave her a hesitant smile, which she returned. He laughed inwardly at the fact that she waddled now, and yet when she needed to run for her life, nothing had seemed to slow her down. He'd followed her trail from his mother's house the moment he'd felt something wrong in the bond. He'd grown shaky, his wolf ready to attack at any moment until they could be sure their Bay was safe. He hadn't even waited for his mother to apologize for saying something she shouldn't have. He'd just known Bay was in trouble and she needed him. And that fact had scared him. It made him think that maybe this could work out.

"You're home early," she stated, and looked a little bit uncomfortable.

"Why are you standing?" It came out sharper than he'd intended, and Bay frowned.

Fuck, this was going to be harder than he'd thought. No wait, this was going to be exactly as hard as he'd thought.

"Because I wanted to greet you at the door." She lowered her head and looked really small. "I guess it was a little foolish. I'm not really good at this whole mate thing."

He walked up to her and brushed a red curl behind her ear. "I'm not really good at it either, but I don't want you to be in pain or uncomfortable. Okay?"

She looked up at him and blinked those big green eyes. "Okay."

"I'm going to head out if you two are settled then," Maddox said as he strolled past them, a knowing look on his face.

"Thank you, Maddox, for babysitting."

A weird look passed over his face at the mention of the word babysitting, but Adam shrugged it off. He just wanted his little brother outside of the house so he could get on with this mating business. Maddox walked out without another word, and Adam turned toward Bay again.

"So what do you want to do tonight?"

Her eyes darkened, and he held back a groan. Hell yeah, but he didn't think she'd be up to it.

"How about we play some music?"

He swallowed hard and nodded. This was one step closer toward getting over Anna. He could do this.

She tugged on his hand and led them to the music room. On his way, he looked over her shoulder at the closed door to the nursery. The night he'd brought Bay back, he'd gutted it, leaving it empty and ready for something new. He didn't want to think about the fact that it might be, no, would be, another nursery. But at least it wasn't a stark reminder.

Bay sat down at the piano and played a soft melody. It seemed to ease the tension out of her shoulders, his as well. He sat down on the bench across the room and picked up his guitar. Slowly he strummed the strings and joined her. She hummed a soft harmony, and he did the same. When her stomach bumped the edge of the piano and she missed a note, she threw her head back and laughed, and he watched the long lines of her neck.

He continued to play absentmindedly but let his gaze lower to the swell of her belly. There were having a baby, a real living being that he had so far refused to acknowledge. With everything going on around him, he'd done his best to ignore the fact that, yet again, things were going to change.

Anna would have wanted him to move on and treat Bay right.

He knew that, and yet he couldn't.

They continued to play, their music blending. As much as he tried to deny it, Bay had inserted herself into his life, and he was growing to like it.

But could he love her?

Twenty years before Anna smiled up at him, her small body, with her rapidly growing stomach, looking like it could teeter over at any moment. Adam leaned down and kissed her softly, relishing how she sank into him. God, he loved this woman.

"You'll be safe, right?" she asked as she rubbed the large swell of her stomach.

"Of course, we'll be fine. I just need to take out the adolescent pups for their first full moon without their parents. I'd rather stay home with you, but they need this too."

She beamed, giving him a huge smile. "I just like to be selfish with you. I love you."

"I love you too." With that, he walked out the door and made his way to the open meadow where he would watch the adolescents change to make sure they were letting the wolf come without forcing it, and then they would hunt.

"Are you ready for this?" Maddox asked as he jogged to Adam's side.

Adam let out a breath and rubbed a hand over his face. "Not really. Anna has been up all night for the past week because she just can't get comfortable."

Maddox patted him on the back and laughed. "She'll be okay soon. She's really excited about the baby. I think that's why."

"You can feel all her excitement, can you?"

"Yep. I actually kind of like it. Usually I can't stand it when one of our Pack mates is pregnant. All that joy and stress just gets a little bit under my skin, you know? But since it's my sister-in-law, I think I like it."

"I don't know how it is you can live all those emotions running through you."

Maddox shrugged but didn't say anything.

"Okay, let's get this over with."

"Don't let the adolescents hear you say that. They are freaking out over the fact that they get to go on a full-moon hunt. You don't want them to know you don't want be here."

"True."

They made their way to the cluster of adolescents, and he growled at them. They each lowered their head in submission, and Adam was inwardly pleased. Most of the wolves here would be submissive, but a few would have alpha tendencies. However, no matter what their attitude and characterizations, they needed to learn the hierarchy. Without that, they wouldn't be able to function as a Pack in dangerous situations.

He watched them all change, noting to himself who he would have to talk to later. Then he and Maddox changed as well, and they were off. He watched the younger wolves use their senses and try to figure out where the deer would be. They didn't normally hunt for wild game, as they ate in human form and enjoyed it that way. But, it was good for the adolescents to learn how to hunt as a pack. Later they would learn how to hunt other wolves by acting and playing.

He'd just jumped over a large fallen tree when pain hit his heart so sharply he felt as if someone had stabbed him. He grunted and rolled to the ground, breathing heavily. Bile rose in his throat, and his body started convulsing, shaking. He tried to stand, but his heart felt like someone had crushed it.

Maddox howled behind him, screeching an unearthly tone that caused Adam to look sharply at him. He froze. Something was very, very wrong.

He barked a strangled sound, and the younger wolves ran to him. They nipped and looked at him, as if trying to soothe him but nothing would help.

Maddox howled again, his wolf body writhing on the ground until he passed out. Adam groaned and shifted back to human, ignoring the intense pain radiating from the quick shift. He staggered to his feet, naked and sweaty. The younger wolves looked at him, some with frightened eyes, others determined. They went over to Maddox's body and nudged at him, but his brother wouldn't move.

He picked him up and groaned. "Get back to your homes. Get me the Alpha," he ordered in rough tones, and the younger wolves darted off. He carried Maddox to the Grove and dropped to his knees. Pain radiated through him sharply again as he tried to breathe.

"Anna," Maddox whispered, and rose to shaky legs to get dressed.

Adam threw on his jeans and ran to his house. His brothers were all at the house, their tension radiating toward him. Jasper stood in the doorway, his long black hair in a mess around his face as rage poured through him.

"The bastards took her," Jasper growled. Reed and Kade growled with him, their bodies taut with energy.

Adam threw back his head and howled, agony whipping through him. "Who?" He growled.

"The Centrals," Kade said as he came up to Jasper's side. "The smell is all over your house."

"We'll get her," Reed promised, a dangerous look in his eyes.

Maddox stumbled toward them and dropped to his knees. "Get her quick. She's scared." Maddox stared up at him with watery eyes than howled before passing out again.

North ran to his twin's side and checked him over. "Fuck, he's in a coma, I think. I won't know more unless I check him out at the clinic. You need to get to Anna fast." Desperation filled his gaze, and Adam shook.

No, not like this.

Adam could feel only their bond, and the sharp hits it was taking. Each time something happened to Anna, he could feel her tug on the bond as if screaming his name. His heart ached, his body pulsed as his wolf clawed beneath the surface, begging to get near their mate. With each strike or burn Anna took, Adam could feel it. They weren't a newly mated couple; their bond was old, settled, more connected. They could feel each other better than most mated pairs. But Maddox could feel every emotion and most of the pain his mate was feeling. Since Maddox could only feel a small fraction of the physical pain, it meant Anna was feeling more. Too much more.

They jumped into Jasper's truck and drove toward the Centrals' den. It'd been years since they'd fought with this Pack. Why was something going on now? The pain intensified in his heart and his mate bond shook, the tendrils between them straining.

Then nothing.

No snap, no spark, no twinge.

Nothing.

His breath caught in his throat, and his body shook. He threw his head back and howled in the cab of the truck, the metal encasing them vibrating with his pain.

"Anna...I can't feel her," he whispered, his voice hoarse.

His brothers didn't say anything; they knew.

If there was no mate bond, there was no mate.

They'd driven maybe another two hundred feet when Jasper stopped abruptly and cursed. Adam was afraid to look up, but he had to. In the middle of the road lay a lump-a naked woman. The moonlight bounced off the light-colored flesh. And Adam staggered out of the car.

Anna.

Like a blind man, he made it to her side, tears running down his face. He fell to his knees, the gravel digging in and cutting him through his jeans. But he didn't feel it. Couldn't feel it. She lay on her side, cradling her stomach. She was naked, bruised, and bloody. The bruises covered her side, her face, and her legs. He noticed the bruising around her inner thighs, and he turned to the side and threw up.

His brothers came up beside him, quiet and cautious.

He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead and kissed a bruise. He cradled her to his body and howled. She was gone. Their baby was gone. His future. The Centrals would pay with their blood.

He would never forgive them. Never forget.

Chapter 15.

Present day Adam cracked open his eyes as the sunlight shone through the blinds, and he exhaled a breath. He hadn't had a dream like that in a while, thankfully. He didn't like to relive the most painful moment in his life.

Bay moved in his arms, her naked bottom rubbing against his erection. He held back a groan and shifted so he wouldn't wake her. She snuggled closer, and he let her. Her very presence seemed to heal a part of him he didn't know could be healed. It was as if she'd filled in that place in his heart that he'd lost yet wanted nothing to do with. She wouldn't and couldn't replace Anna, but she was a healing presence all on her own.

But was that fair to her? Didn't she deserve more than just being someone who tried to heal him? He was getting used to her being in his life, and he enjoyed it, though reluctantly. Could he love her?

Bay turned so she was facing him, and he smiled. He had been doing that a lot recently, smiling. It was weird. When she'd first shown up, he hadn't wanted anything to do with her, didn't even want to want anything to do with her. And yet slowly, over time, he'd begun to like having her in his arms, even though he still used the excuse of the mating urge to get her into bed. But that was all it was, an excuse. He really did like her next to him. Scary.

"Good morning," she said, her voice a husky whisper.

"Good morning. I'm going to take you on a date today." His eyes widened as he heard what he'd just said. He hadn't meant to say that.

She stiffened and gulped. "Why?"

"Because we're mates," he said simply.

"No, that's not a good excuse. Just yesterday, you wanted nothing to do with me. You can't just change your mind like that."

"Yes, I can. And I did."

"No, that's not fair to either of us."

"Maybe I've accepted the inevitable and made a new decision."

She shook her head and tried to pull away from him, but he held her closer, his hands gripping her ass so she was flush against him. "I have no idea what you're feeling, Adam. What happened to make you change your mind? What did you do?"

"You left."

"I left and suddenly you felt that you couldn't live without me? No, that doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know, Bay. I just want you by my side."

"For now."

"I don't know."

She let out a sigh. "I can't just play house with you."

"That's what we're doing now, isn't it?"