The Missing Mate

"Ryan!" I screamed, holding out my hand for him to grab. But he was just out of reach. He was always just out of reach. "Scarlett wake up you were screaming again." My roommate threw a pillow at my head, startling me awake. I sit up rubbing my head, trying to get the nightmare out of my head. "You were dreaming of him again weren't you? Your mate." I cringed at the word mate. "Ryan's haunting me." I reach onto the coffee table grabbing my coffee, ready for more questions. "Maybe he's not dead." I stop, my drink hanging halfway to my mouth. "I mean I talked to a Witch and she said that when you have recurring nightmares about someone it's usually that they're trying to reach you." She was rambling to get everything out before I dismissed her like I always did. "Yeah did she say anything about dead mates? He's gone, been gone for 4 years Mace. He haunts me in my nightmares so I can never move on." I look at her finally gulping more of my coffee down. "You only have one mate. He knew that, that's not why he's communicating with you. Plus you don't even try to move on. You're as loyal as it gets babe." She was right. I didn't look, never even bothered, because what was the point when no love can ever compare to the love of your mate. But my mate was dead, and I'll never feel that love again. "Mommy I need yo help." My 3 year old daughter came running into the room to me. "Yes baby, what do you need help with?" I asked her pushing hair behind her little ears. "Mommy I need help reading dis." I unfolded the paper she handed me and froze. "I'm not dead sweetheart." It was his writing. I couldn't believe what I read. Someone was playing a sick prank on me. They had to be. Right? He's dead. That handsome devil has been dead for 4 years. I watched him fall, heard him scream until there was no more to hear.Felt my heart ripped from my chest while my wolf danced on his grave. My mind and body were an internal battle ground for months until my daughter Adira was born. In a lot of ways she saved me and my wolf. "What's it say mommy?" Her little voice broke me out of my trance. "It says that you should get a special treat for bringing this to me." I stood up and handed Maven the paper. "Have your Witch look at this." I walked out of the room getting Adira a popsicle from the freezer before returning to the living room. Maven was staring at me with an I told you so look written all over her face. The smug b***h. "I'll get her to look at it tomorrow morning. But he's not dead, how do you feel?" She didn't know the whole story. I was overjoyed but I could hear my wolf growling now. "Great now just lean a little to the left and perfect." I Was in the middle of a session when someone knocked into and my tripod knocking my camera and I to the ground. When the dark purple hair hit me in the face I knew immediately who it was. "Maven!" I Was annoyed extremely annoyed. "HI." She laughed and picked herself up from the ground, dusting herself off. I stood, picking my camera up and reattached it to the tripod. "I'm so sorry." I told my clients who were smiling and telling me it was fine. "Give me five more minutes and I'm all yours Mave." I acted annoyed but in reality I was happy to see her and eager to hear what she had to say. I hurried my shoot along and packed up my equipment then turned to Mave. "He's alive but he's in some kind of trouble and I have no idea where he's at." She looked heartbroken for me. But what I was feeling was anything but broken. I'd find him. When we got home I started packing my bags. "Hey can you watch Adi for me while I'm gone?" Mave looked at me like I grew a second head. "You really think I'm going to let you go on the quest to find your dead undead mate by yourself? Yeah no. I'm coming with you. My bags are already packed." She had on her take no s**t tone. Which meant she was serious. I growned. "What am I going to do with Adi?" I had nowhere to take her. "Could she stay with your parents?" I looked at Mave and knew it was a bad idea. "You really want your 3 year old daughter to stay with a bunch of psychos? I barely got out of there alive. But sure throw your daughter in the lion's den." Mave shrugged her arms in mock. She really was a sarcastic b***h sometimes but she was the best friend I could ever ask for. "You're right. Ugh I hate when you're right." I threw my head back in frustration. "Which is only like 90 percent of the time." She smirked. "OK well I guess she's going with us then." I hated the idea of bringing my daughter into any possible harm but at this point I had no choice. I was just hoping this wouldn't be too dangerous. Seeing the worry on my face Mave walked up to me putting her hand on my shoulder. "We'll protect her." She reassured me. "Where we go mommy?" Adira asked as I buckled her into the booster seat of my truck. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to raise false hope. I probably shouldn't have done it to myself. "We're just going on a trip honey. Why don't you go to sleep? Ok baby?" She lifted her blanket up higher cuddling it closer to her. "OK mommy." She smiled at me and I kissed her on the forehead before closing the door. "Who's driving?" Mave asked, throwing another bag into the bed of the truck. "Better question which direction do we go?" We hadn't discussed the details, just packed bags and decided to leave. "Did your Witch give you a direction?" I asked Mave walking around to the drivers side of the truck. "No she just said that we'd know when we were getting close. Before you ask no she didn't say how we'd know either. She just said we'd know." She climbed into the truck with a bit of a struggle. Mave was short, with green eyes and dark purple hair. Watching her get into my lifted truck was funny, lucky for her she was strong and could pull herself up. "So just pick a direction?" I asked and she nodded her head. I started driving west towards the last place I saw Ryan. I didn't want to go back, didn't want to relive every horrible thing that happened there but if I wanted my mate back I knew I had to. After 5 hours of driving I couldn't take it anymore. "Hey Mave?" I shook her awake. She had fallen asleep about 2 hours after we hit the road. "Yeah?" She said looking at the time on the clock. 2:00 am. "Want me to drive?" She started unbuckling her seatbelt and I pulled over. We traded seats wordlessly. "Which direction?" She looked over at me. "Just drive west." That's the last thing I remembered before I drifted off to sleep.