Cole

What...?

How...?

He lied.

What other explanation was there? Ares' house was completely empty even though it was fully furnished this morning. He said he was going away for a few days for work, not that he was moving out.

I walked to his bedroom and found the same thing. No bed. No dresser. No toiletries in the cabinet. Even my clothes, the ones he had said he would wash for me, were gone.

I shook my head, trying to come up with some explanation that made this make sense, that made this okay. Something other than my mate lying to me and leaving me here with no intention of returning.

Maybe he's moving. Maybe his work trip happened to coincide with moving day and that's why he left the key, so the movers could get in. Then he'll come home as planned, just to a different place.

Yeah, right. Wouldn't he have mentioned something? I mean, we hadn't talked very much, but you'd think something like that would come up.

But maybe not.

I reached for our mate bond and could feel that he was asleep on the other side of it. It was tempting – really tempting – to wake him up and demand answers...

But I wouldn't trust them.

No matter how much I wanted to be able to trust my mate, had been willing to trust my mate blindly, I just couldn't anymore. Better for him to think I hadn't come back here and had no reason to suspect anything. Then, I'd see if he returned on his own. Maybe it really had been a highly coincidental move that he just happened to not mention. If that was the case, he'd take me to his new place and I'd see that for myself.

Well, there was no point in staying here. I put the strongest wall up that I could manage between myself and Ares, muting our bond. Then I left, locking the door behind me and leaving the key in its hiding place. Next, I sat in my car and let the tears come. It had been years since I cried this much, and I didn't like it.

Where was I supposed to go now? Home? There was no comfort for me there, not right now.

I was completely exhausted and running low on willpower to do just about anything. Eventually, I locked my car doors, reclined my seat, and fell asleep.

---

"Wait, what?" Lucia gasped.

It seemed to be about all she was capable of saying. First, I let her know what was going on with Gran. Then, I told her about Ares - the sudden mate bond with a complete stranger, him mysteriously disappearing for a few days, and discovering his house completely cleared out. She was finally caught up, and I would have laughed at how wide her eyes were if everything wasn't burning down around me.

"I know," I said, my words muffled since I had my face on the table in front of me.

I was still technically working, but texted Lucia asking her to swing by the café since I needed to talk about everything with someone. We were in an afternoon slump with a couple of people typing away at laptops by the windows and no new people coming in, which made it the perfect chance to talk. Porter was working today, too, but he was taking a break in the back.

"Okay, wow. What are you going to do? Have you asked Ares what's going on?"

"No way. I don't want him to know I broke into his house, and I don't want to give him a chance to lie to me about it."

She bit her lip and frowned into the distance. "Yeah, good point." She sat and thought for another minute before sitting up and snapping her fingers in excitement. "I've got it! Hang on, let me pull up the county auditor's site."

"Yes!" We could look up Ares' house to see who owned it. A sale should show up, and we could get his last name, as long as he wasn't renting.

I opened the maps app on my phone and started retracing the trip to his house to figure out the address. Once I had it, I held my phone out to Lucia so she could type it into the auditor's site.

"Ares Ashcroft," she read.

A shiver ran down my spine and I quickly typed the name into a search engine. There were only a few hits that looked like they could be relevant - just a couple of social media profiles, no other presence. I clicked through each one and found a big, fat nothing. Every single one was definitely not my Ares... if I could even call him that.

"Nada," I grumbled, letting my phone clatter onto the table.

"At least we know his last name, and that he does own that property. Let me check real estate listings," Lucia said. I appreciated that she was trying to stay focused and positive, but I was emotionally short-circuiting and resigned myself to it, dropping my face back down onto the tabletop.

"The property has been owned by the same person for ten years according to this."

I didn't bother acknowledging that, though it did make me wonder how old Ares was. His age was the least of my worries, though.

Bells rang out, signaling the door opening. I peeked up and found one of our regular customers had entered. "Duty calls," I said.

I pulled a cleaning cloth out of my apron and gave the table I'd been collapsed onto a quick wipe-down, more for appearance's sake than anything else, before heading back behind the counter.

One customer turned into another, and then into a steady stream of business that ate up the next hour. Porter was back in time to help with the worst of it, thankfully, and took over manning the counter when I stepped away to join Lucia again.

"I couldn't find anything else," she said without any preamble.

I waved that off. "Whatever. I think I just need to accept that I'm not going to have all the answers right now." Even if we were talking about critically important parts of my life being up in the air: my family and my mate. "In a couple of days, they'll be able to do my grandma's operation and Ares will come back. Until then, I'm just going to try and stay busy."

Lucia grimaced. 'That's not healthy, Cole."

"Do you have a better idea?" I asked, my tone a little too combative.

"No, that's probably what I'd do, too," she admitted. "How are you feeling about suddenly being mated to a man?"

I looked around to make sure no one was in hearing range and leaned in closer so I could whisper for better privacy. "I haven't even had a chance to make a big thing about that." There was way too much going on to add in a sexual identity crisis. Besides... "Honestly, that's the thing I'm least worried about. The sex was incredible."

Lucia laughed. "At least something's going right. Does this mean we can talk about hot men now?"

"Luuuuucyyyy," I groaned. "No. Nuh uh. No way."

"Please? You must see the appeal now."

I shook my head and pressed my lips together. I was not entertaining this.

"What about him over there?" Her eyes flicked toward one of the people who was camping out at a table on the other side of the café with a laptop. Even though she was whispering, it felt way too loud and I knew my cheeks were heating.

"Lucia, please."

She sighed but let it drop. "You're no fun."

"Bah, humbug."

She stuck out her tongue and looked around. "What if we got out of here for a while? I bet Porter can handle things. Doesn't someone else come in an hour anyway?"

Lucia had spent enough afternoons at the cafe with me to know the general flow, and she was right. Honestly... a break sounded great. Especially since I'd been here for ten hours between picking up my dad's shift and coming in early to get the baking done.

"I just need to make a bank run." We tried to make them twice per day so we never carried too much cash at a time.

"Well, get moving." She pulled out her phone to do some scrolling while I got the bank deposit bag and deposit slip ready.

Thank goodness for a friend like Lucia. She might drive me crazy with the nicknames and teasing and nagging, but I knew it all came from a place of love and I knew my life was better with her in it.

She managed to both get me away from work and keep me distracted for the rest of the day.

When I got home that night, Dad's car was in the driveway. That was good for two reasons: the house wouldn't feel so empty, and it meant Gran must be stable enough for him to feel comfortable leaving.

He was watching Jeopardy when I walked into the house. I smiled wryly. It wasn't his usual channel; my dad was more of a National Geographic guy. I plopped down into my favorite armchair and joined him. I watched passively while my mind replayed the last two days. Things had seemed so simple with Ares when we first met, like a force pulling me toward him. Walking away from him hadn't felt like a real option, even as the rational corner of my mind screamed danger! Our connection had become inevitable as soon as we crossed paths.

Or, that's what I thought.

But now...

I really couldn't trust that Ares had been telling me the truth about anything. Was he even away for work? Did he really work in security?

I only knew two things were real. The first was our bond; I was confident he couldn't have done anything to fake that. The second was that it had meant something to him. When it first formed, Ares had cried. I thought they were the same kind of happy, overwhelmed tears I'd experienced. But what if that wasn't the case? What if the connection had actually made him sad? Did he have a partner out there somewhere?

I felt my stomach plummet at the idea. That would make sense, wouldn't it? The tears, the disappearing act. Maybe he was taking time to end a prior relationship he didn't want me to know about, or – worse – maybe I was a side bitch now.

Stop. There's no evidence for any of this.

I could recognize my worries as unfounded but that didn't make them any less persistent. And it wasn't like I didn't have good reason to be suspicious.

I groaned, forgetting my dad was there until he said, "Alright, kid?"

I pressed my lips together as I contemplated how much to tell him. I didn't want to tell him about Ares like everything was sunshine and happiness, not when there was a real possibility it wasn't. I didn't think I could stomach it. And I didn't want to add to his plate by telling him the full story right now. Not to mention, there was a slim chance Ares had an explanation for all of this. In that case, I really didn't want my dad to be upset with him.

"I'm worried," I settled on. It was the truth, and I knew Dad wouldn't pry for details.

"Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, I'm worried, too. Your gran is in really good hands, okay? And she's been in good spirits. That helps."

I nodded. "I'll visit her tomorrow," I decided. I owed her better.

"You do that. I'll call in Sydney to help Porter at the café tomorrow." Dad settled back down to watch TV, considering the matter closed.

I didn't stay much longer. After only getting a few hours of sleep last night – and poor-quality ones, at that – I was overdue for some sleep.

Only two more days, I told myself as I drifted off. Ares would come and Gran would get through her surgery. I just had to get through two more days.