\u201cI\u2019m on my way,\u201d Tristan said, ending the call and immediately starting the bike again with more force than necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The jealousy I\u2019d been trying to suppress flared hot and ugly in my chest. Of course there was a she. Of course Tristan had someone he\u00a0<\/p>\n
cared about enough to drop everything and race to her side in the middle of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
46\u00a0<\/p>\n
I should have expected this. Men like Tristan \u2013 strong, protective, devastatingly handsome \u2013 they don\u2019t stay single. They don\u2019t spend their\u00a0<\/p>\n
nights watching over broken girls like me unless they\u2019re just being kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thought made my stomach twist painfully. I\u2019d been so stupid, letting every gentle touch, every concerned look, every moment he\u00a0<\/p>\n
chose to stay with me instead of going wherever he used to disappear to at ten o\u2019clock, get to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I let it all get into my fucking head. Even though I knew there\u2019s every tendency that he has a mate. Who wouldn\u2019t have a mate?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He made a sharp U\u2013turn that had me gripping him tighter to keep from sliding off the bike. The sudden movement pressed me against his back, and I could feel the anger and worry radiating from him in waves, his muscles tense beneath my hands like coiled springs ready to\u00a0<\/p>\n
snap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wanted to ask who she was, what had happened to her, why he looked like he was ready to tear apart anyone who had hurt her. But I couldn\u2019t form the words. Part of me didn\u2019t want to know, didn\u2019t want to put a face to the woman who clearly meant so much to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We drove for about twenty minutes through streets that became increasingly empty as we left the city center behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan was pushing the bike faster than he\u2019d ever driven with me as a passenger, taking corners with a precision that spoke of years of experience but also a recklessness born of desperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city blurred past us in streaks of light and shadow, neon signs becoming ribbons of color in my peripheral vision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found myself pressing closer to him, whether for warmth against the night air or comfort in the face of the unknown, or just because I knew this might be one of the last times I got to hold him like this without an excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once we reached wherever we were going, once he was reunited with his mysterious woman, there would be no reason for him to stay\u00a0<\/p>\n
close to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The wind whipped through my hair despite the helmet, and I could smell his scent even over the rush of air and exhaust fumes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pine and motor oil and something uniquely Tristan that made my wolf whimper softly in the back of my mind. Even Claire seemed affected by him, though she still wouldn\u2019t respond to my attempts to reach her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, we pulled up in front of a sleek glass building that I didn\u2019t recognize. It looked like some kind of medical facility, all clean lines and soft blue lighting that gave it an almost ethereal quality in the darkness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The architecture was modern, expensive, the kind of place that catered to people with money and secrets. Tristan\u2019s bike announced our\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
18:36 Fri, Jan 2 d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 38\u00a0<\/p>\n
arrival with its deep, throaty rumble as we came to a stop in the nearly empty parking area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A young man who looked slightly younger than Tristan was already waiting for us by the entrance. He had the same alert posture and sharp eyes that marked him as pack, that predatory stillness that all wolves carried when they were on edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He approached Tristan the moment we parked, his movements quick and purposeful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHas he been found?\u201d Tristan asked without a beat, his voice carrying that alpha command again as he swung off the bike in one fluid\u00a0<\/p>\n
motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
46\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authority in his tone made something deep inside me respond automatically, my wolf recognizing the power even if I was still processing what it meant. This wasn\u2019t just concern or anger \u2013 this felt like an alpha protecting his territory, his pack, his people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still searching for him,\u201d the younger man replied, his frustration evident in every line of his body. \u201cI\u2019ve sent out teams to sweep the\u00a0<\/p>\n
entire territory, but it\u2019s like he just vanished.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t track him down?\u201d Tristan\u2019s voice was deadly quiet now, the kind of calm that preceded violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Alpha. It seems like he covered his scent trail somehow, or he\u2019s left pack lands entirely. I can\u2019t establish a mind link with him anymore. It\u2019s like he\u2019s completely cut himself off from the pack bond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alpha.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 38 \u201cI\u2019m on my way,\u201d Tristan said, ending the call and immediately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}