[Mike]At the meeting on Monday morning, I let Trent and Ben know that Rock had told me where my father was hiding. I was planning to go talk to him afterward. It would give me a chance to see if he learned anything from being cut off from his family, friends, and pack. Part of me really hoped he did. I went into town and headed for the motel where he was staying. We’d talked to Queen Bellamy and she said my father hadn’t applied to her collective. She said she was willing to give him some leeway, but only as long as he didn’t do anything to harm anyone else. If he decided to be an issue for her collective, she was more than willing to show him the door. She didn’t take people fighting the goddess’ will lightly. Most werewolves trusted the goddess and her plans. Queen Bellamy was no exception, but a collective wasn’t as easily influenced by one member as a pack was. When I arrived at the motel, I pulled the slip of paper Rock gave me out of my wallet. It was a single-level motel that looked like it was built in the twenties or thirties and had seen little upkeep since that time. My father could afford better, but I guess the draw of only three hundred and fifty dollars a week drew him in. After he left the pack, I monitored his accounts. He withdrew a large chunk of money, though not all of it, in the first week. That was obviously his effort to be less traceable. Reaching the door to his room, I could smell him. He was definitely there. His car wasn’t parked in the lot, but I’d found it behind some bushes not far off. I knocked on the door and heard nothing. It must have cement under the carpet instead of wood. The door moved slightly and I knew he was looking through the peephole. “Dad, I know you’re in there. I want to talk to you,” I said. “How’d you find me?” he asked. “A source said you were here. Let me in so we can talk.” “No. I’m not leaving the area until I have what belongs to me. You can go back to your precious pack and tell your Alpha that I won’t change my mind,” Dad told me. I sighed. “Dad, please let me in so we can talk. I don’t want to do this through a door and I’m not going to leave without seeing you. It’s been two weeks. Two weeks without your family, your pack… your mate….” “I don’t have a mate. She rejected me and sided with that pup who calls himself a leader. None of you cared when I was a member of the pack. None of you gets to dictate what I do now that I’m a rogue.” “Mom misses you, Dad. It hurt her to do that, but you knew Mom trusts the goddess. How did you think this would go? Did you think she would just give up on everything she believed for your pride? You lied to her. You made her think you believed the fae did something to make Carmen believe Rock was her mate. “She’s getting to know Rock now and she can see how much he loves Carmen. I want you to see that, too. Carmen is better with Rock. She even stood up to Aunt Cathy. Please, Dad. You’re part of our family and we need you home. I know Mom rejected you, but almost thirty years together can’t be that easy to throw away,” I said. He was silent. I wanted him to say something. What I really wanted was for him to apologize and come back home. I wanted him to see the light and realize that family was more important than being right.“You sided with the monsters. If you were really on my side, you would see how wrong all this is. Carmen belongs with anyone other than that monster fae. She’s not better with him. She’s not better until I say she is. Get the hell out of here and don’t come back,” Dad growled. The door shifted again and I knew he wasn’t there anymore. He was done with the conversation. I wasn’t, though. I pounded on the door. “You’re acting like Fenton Aimes, Dad. He thought his daughter was his property, too. Look how that ended up. He didn’t get what he wanted and everyone suffered for it. No one was happy. Don’t go after Carmen. If you do, we’ll have to fight you and you don’t want that. You’ve already lost the support of your pack and your mate, don’t lose even more to whatever this obsession is!” I shouted. There was no answer. I growled in frustration. This was his chance to come back and have some semblance of his honor back. When he still didn’t come to the door after a few minutes, I gave up. I wasn’t going to break the door down over him. Turning back, I started making new plans to protect Carmen. I needed to call Rock and talk to Trent. -[Carmen]-I couldn’t wait for lunch to talk to Gemma. I hadn’t had a chance to see her while I was on the pack lands yesterday. She texted me that she hadn’t found her mate and I felt terrible for her. She was so sure she would find him at the national conference. When we shut down the office, after Viola came back with food, we gathered around my desk. As we ate, Gemma told us all about the conference, including some Alpha blood man thinking he could do whatever he wanted. She told us about meeting a new friend and her friend finding his mate. I could hear the sadness in her voice. “He’s just making you wait for it,” Viola said. “Then he’s going to appear out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet.” “I didn’t peg you for a romantic, V,” Forrest replied. “I’m not… not really. I bet you find him before the year is out. The goddess will bring him to you. You’re of age and following her plan. It’ll happen for you.” “I agree. If we follow the goddess’ path, we will find everything we need along the way. Plus, there is another regional in a year. If I could find Rock, who’s not even a werewolf, you can find your mate.” I told Gemma. “Definitely. Something kept him from this conference. I might be ready for him, but he might not be ready for me. Let’s focus on something else, though. This is a little depressing so close to it happening. What happened here while I was gone?” “Forrest and Pyla had another date,” I said. “How did it go? As well as the first one?” Gemma asked. “It went well. I had to explain to her what happened at the last barbecue. She was wondering why people started treating her differently. Some of Shayle’s friends started acting like real bіtches and guys stopped flirting with her. She didn’t understand the change and I had to tell her that the fight was taken as me staking my claim.” Forrest answered with a sigh. “Did she not take that well?” “She blushed and her tail stood straight up for almost half an hour. I think she liked that, but everything else was normal. She hugged me at the end of the date, but it felt different. I wanted to kiss her. I didn’t know if the different feeling was her accepting me or her being thrown off by the whole situation.” “Having two handsome men fighting over you is enough to make any girl happy. I think she liked it, but she didn’t like you getting hurt for her. What’s your plan now?” I asked. “I can’t do anything about Shayle and her friends. I let Pyla know. She needs to defend herself and her relationship with me. She needs to tell people what her intention is. Right now, they all know what I’m intending, not her. She doesn’t have to fight Shayle, but she does need to either claim me back or refuse me,” Forrest explained. Mating habits were different all over. I loved getting to know the habits of trolls. My child would have to know them, as well. I didn’t know if they would have a troll mate or a wolf mate, but I would make sure they understood both.“Sounds complicated. I thought trolls would be simpler,” Gemma replied. “If I hadn’t been involved with someone, if I weren’t considered a catch, and if I weren’t as handsome as I am, she wouldn’t have this problem. Most of the time, this goes without question. Shay’s planning to make it difficult for her.” Nothing was ever easy, it seemed. I wondered how Mike was doing with Dad. I really hoped he got through to him. The change in Mom made me hopeful to see the same thing from Dad. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though. Ranked wolves were more stubborn than other wolves. We finished our meal and cleaned up before getting back to work. Today, Gemma and Viola were working on the new paperless system. I was getting things put together for the new contracts. Rock would be examining the Master of the territory’s lands today and would give his final assessment on Thursday. If we got that contract, it would be more important to us than any other contract we’d ever gotten. It would create word of mouth and all the other vampires would know that we were doing work for their master. They would select us for work as well. We’d have to stay a little later in the evenings in fall and winter. I was ready and excited about it. Rock pretended he wasn’t excited about the prospect of it, but I knew he was. This was the kind of connection that would ensure our company had business long after we were gone. Our descendants would have a steady stream of income as long as they had the business. “Carmen, I think I just saw your dad go past the front door….” Gemma told me. “Rock asked Queen Maeve to block the business from my father. He didn’t want to risk him finding me while Rock was out. It’s alright he can’t find the front door.” I assured her. “I’m gonna go watch him. It’s close to when the guys come back. Most of them come in through the back door, but Rock comes in through the front.” “Call him and let him know. I want him to come in the back. If my father wants to contact me, he can call. He has my number and he knows I can use a phone. Let him suffer,” I replied. “On it. I’ll let Forrest and Viola know,” she said. I nodded and got back to work. Gemma gave me updates on what my dad was doing from time to time. It seemed like he was getting frustrated. “He’s looking into parts of the wall like they’re windows. It’s like he’s seeing a totally different building,” Gemma said. Shaking my head, I worked on getting my stuff for the day finished. I wanted to be able to leave before he tried the back of the building. If everyone could get back in and leave before he realized there was another entrance around back, I would be more than happy for him to never realize I was ever there. There was a sound like something heavy hitting something solid. It happened a few more times and was followed by a string of curses that I could hear through the closed windows. “What happened, Gem?” I asked. “He tried throwing a brick a few times. The last time, it was really hard and the brick shattered. Part of it hit him in the face. He’s pissed.” “I want everyone to start shutting things down. Rock will be back soon and I want to get out of here without my dad seeing us,” I told her. “Got it. Forrest locked the front doors, so he can’t open them even if he finds them. He locked the others, too. I let Rock know.” “Thank you,” I replied. A while later, I was closing my computer for the night when Viola rushed into the office where Gemma and I were working. “They just got back, but all of the trucks pulled up to the front,” she reported. “Crack the window,” I said to Gemma. When she did, I could hear things more clearly. I could hear the sound of the men getting out of the trucks and the doors closing. A few others jumped out of the back. I could hear the impact of their feet. It was the bigger fae. “What are you doing here, Mr. Rosen?” Rock asked in a loud and commanding voice. “I want my daughter back. Give her to me now, monster fae, or I’ll do something you regret,” my dad snarled. “She is my marked mate. You have no more claim to her. And I don’t take orders from rogue wolves.” “Unaffiliated rogue wolves, either. He’s not a member of the collective,” Carl, one of the rogue employees, said. “So you came here without any protection or anyone to back up your threat and demand my mate?” Rock laughed. “You really think I’m threatened by you?” “I’ll call the human authorities and tell them you kidnapped my daughter,” Dad told them. They all laughed this time. “We’re not afraid of human authorities. All they’ll do is ask Carmen if she was kidnapped and she’ll tell them the truth. Get off my property you insane asshole. No one wants you, not your daughter, not your pack, not even your own mate. Leave this city, because no one will give you what you want here,” Rock growled. “I’ll get her back. I made her. She belongs to me. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll see her reject you and mate with a man of my choosing. Carmen doesn’t know what’s best for her. Only I do.” “Carmen belongs to herself. She is intelligent enough to know her own mind and heart. No one controls her. Stay away from my mate or I’ll break every bone in your body,” Rock told my dad. “Get the hell out of here or you’re going to get the beating of your life and no one will be able to protect you.” My eyes filled with tears, but I wiped them away. I wouldn’t let this make me cry. He stopped being my dad the day he decided I was his property. I just didn’t realize it until much later. “This will not be the last you see of me, monster. I’ll take my daughter back. Mark my words, she will be mine again,” my dad snarled. I heard a bit of a scuffle, then the sound of someone storming off. The men commented to Rock either that his father-in-law seemed like a real peach, that they would report my father to Queen Bellamy, or that it seemed like he was going to have his hands full. I felt guilty for making my mate have to go through this. Rock wanted a mate, but he didn’t bargain for one who was as difficult to be with as I was. Sometimes, I didn’t think I deserved someone like Rock. He was so perfect in so many ways. I would work harder to show him I was worth all the extra effort he had to put into being my mate.