7. Hollis

Chapter seven

Hollis

I got up early so that I could cook my mate breakfast. We’d gotten off on the wrong foot, and I was confident we could rectify that this morning by starting with a hearty breakfast. I made bacon, eggs, biscuits, and breakfast sausage. I also considered making pancakes because I didn’t know what she liked to eat, but I thought that might be going overboard.

“Smells good,” Rome said when he entered the kitchen. “Do you think she drinks coffee?”

I contemplated his question and nodded. “Yeah, I think one of the pictures in Parote’s file showed her at a coffee house.”

He made a pot of coffee, and I waited until he sat at the table with a cup before asking, “What’s the plan for today?”

“Today, we try to put the shit back in the horse and go with the soft approach, which we should have done from the start,” Rome replied.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” I told him, “we all chose to try and kidnap her instead.” “I know, but I worry that we’ve fucked up,” he replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

I’m not sure when we all started deferring to Rome as our pack leader, but he hasn’t led us astray yet, and I didn’t expect him to now.

“We haven’t fucked anything up that can’t be fixed,” I assured him as I put Mia’s breakfast tray together. “As soon as she realizes we are her mates, it will all work out.” I poured a cup of coffee and added the mug to the tray. Turning to face him, I asked, “Exactly how are we going to get her to realize this?”

“I’m pretty sure once I disable the implant, the block on her mate bonds will disappear,” Theo said, entering the kitchen. “The issue is, I’m not sure how soon we want to do that. It’s going to hurt, and she’s already been hurting from whatever the fuck that drug Parote gave her did.”

“We aren’t waiting,” Aiden said, following him in. “I don’t like the idea of hurting her any more than you do, but it’s too risky to leave it active.”

“Aiden’s right,” Rome sighed. “It has to happen today.”

“Well, while you all figure out how to get her to agree, I’m going to bring her breakfast, “ I announced. “Let’s hope she’s in a more agreeable mood today.”

I grabbed the tray and headed to her room. Balancing it in one hand, I unlocked the padlock and stuffed it in my pocket. “Good morning, Mia,” I said as I opened the door. “I hope you’re hungry because I cooked too much food.”

The smile on my face fell as I looked around the empty room. My eyes fell on the open window, and I roared angrily as I threw the breakfast tray against the opposite wall. We put bars on the windows but forgot that Mia was a fucking cat and could easily slip through them.

Fucking stupid!

I stormed from the room just as the others came running.

“What’s the matter, big guy?” Rome asked cautiously as I panted, steam puffing from my

nose.

I pointed at the room, and they went inside. “Mia’s fucking gone,” Aiden snarled. “We should have had someone standing guard.”

I didn’t usually hang on to my anger long, but hearing Aiden’s helped mine dissipate even faster. I stepped into the room with them and looked around again.

“Why does she keep running away from us?” Theo asked sadly.

I clapped him on the back. We all knew the reason, but it didn’t make it hurt any less every time Mia turned away from us.

“We’ll find her again. I can track her still,” I reminded Theo. I left the room and went to where my computers were set up. There was no way of knowing when Mia escaped. Hopefully, she didn’t have such a head start on us that we would have to pack up again.

As the others huddled around me, I pulled her location up on the screen. “She is at a truck stop north of here. The data shows she’s been there for a couple of hours. Looks like there is a diner there.”

“Ok,” Rome said. “Let’s get dressed and head out. Keep an eye on her and let us know if she starts moving again.”

I pulled it up on my phone and kept my eye on the screen as I returned to my room to shower and dress. We would approach her differently this time, and I wanted to make sure I looked and smelled my best. We haven’t made good impressions on her so far, but that was going to change.

The drive to the truck stop was silent until we pulled into the parking lot and parked at the opposite entrance from the diner so that she didn’t see us coming.

“Happy vibes, everyone. We’re in public, which will work in our favor, but it could be detrimental to Mia if we scare her too badly and she shifts. All we want to do is talk to her, explain who we are, and that we want to help her. This time, the decision has to be hers.”

“And if she doesn’t want to come with us?” Aiden asked.

“Then we stick to her like glue to watch over her until she does,” Rome replied.

We went inside and had to walk through the convenience store part of the truck stop to get to the diner. I immediately spotted Mia, her white blonde hair shining like a beacon. She was staring out the window with a sad look on her face. All I wanted to do was scoop her into my lap and cuddle her until she felt better, but I knew that was the last thing she would like from me right now. To her, I was the monster in the night out to get her.

We weaved toward her through the tables, but she didn’t sense our presence until it was too late. Her eyes searched frantically for an escape route as we approached. Theo cheated and used some of his vampire powers to reach the booth first to slide in beside her. Rome and Aiden sat across from her, and I grabbed a chair from a nearby table to sit on at the end of the table.

“Hello, Kit,” Rome rumbled.