Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

It makes me nervous how tired Kas is the next day. She's still pale and her eyes don't have their usual

sparkle. She insists on getting out of bed but she falls asleep at the kitchenette table before | can finish

toasting a bagel for her. | carry her over to the sofa and bring her some pillows and her gray and green

blanket. | wrap her up in a little cocoon and turn on the cooking channel she likes. Before | can even

turn around, she is already asleep on the couch.

| call James and request Delilah come check on her to make sure what she is going through is normal.

Once Delilah arrives, she looks Kas over. She agrees that what Kas did to heal me should be well

within her power, but since she isn't anywhere close to her full power with her injuries, it just gassed

her. She just needs rest. Delilah lets me know she will brew up something for Kas to drink that will help

but it will take a few hours for it to kick in. -

“| will stay here with her. I'm sorry, Alpha Bronx, but you need to leave for a while. Give her some peace

and quiet. | will stay here and make sure she's okay,” Delilah says. She writes a list of ingredients on a

piece of paper and hands it to me, "The kitchen should have all these herbs. | need these to make the

tea to help Luna lok- uh Luna Kas.” “Sorry, Alpha, but you heard the boss,"

James shrugs as Delilah closes the apartment door behind us, "| am going to see if | can sneak a

snack from the kitchen. | can take that list to Mrs. Miller.”

| hand him the list and watch him lightly jog down the stairs to the kitchen. | could go workout in the

weight room. It's down in the basement. | don't want to be that far away in case something happens to

Kas. | head down the hall to my office to catch up on work instead. Milo enters the office and practically

jumps out of his skin, in a split second his claws and fangs extend, taking a defensive stance, until he

realizes it's just m e.

“Bronx, you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be lying on your belly or

something?" he grabs his chest and looks at me with concern.

“Kas healed me last night. Now she is tired, so Delilah kicked me out of my own apartment, "| lean back

in my chair with a frown.

“Kas healed you? What? | thought she needed to get her energy back before she could do things like

that," he looks confused, "Wait, Delilah kicked you out of your apartment? How tired is Kas that she

needs Delilah there?”

“Well, let's just say Kas was able to get her energy back last night through our connection and | may

never be able to get in my bathtub without getting a boner again," my mind wanders thinking about last

night, “ but when she healed me, it wiped out every ounce of energy she had built up."

Milo sits in the chair across from me and crosses his arms in front of himself, laughing at the blush that

spreads from my neck to my face.

His stupid, goofy grin is plastered on his face, "That's my boy. We'll have an heir to your throne in no

time!”

“Watch it, Milo," | warn with a growl. He knows | don't like being referred to as royalty in any way,

shape, or form. | do not have a throne, nor do | want one.

“Alright, alright. So Kas healed you. Like fully healed you?”

| stand up and pull my shirt off, exposing my back to him.

“My Goddess. That's incredible," he says in awe, "Cason's gonna have a field day!” “Haha, yeah, I'm

going to need to go see him soon, but more importantly, look at this," | turn around and show him the

spot where my scar used to be under my rib cage. “W-where's your scar? She made that disappear

too?” he stares wide eyed before looking up at me with disbelief.

"That's nothing. Look at this," | lift my eye patch and show him the smooth skin of my eyelid

underneath.

“No way," he murmurs under his breath as he gawks at me. He knows better than anyone how gnarly

the scar on my eye area was, " your mate did that. Son of a gun. | can't believe it.”

“Yeah, she's amazing," | swoon. | feel a pang of guilt about how weak healing me has made Kas. I'm

not sure how | will make it up to her, but | will find a way. Saint would know right away what | should do

for her. He loves our mate so much, but he's not here.

After a moment of silence, a serious mood falls over me, "Milo, | need you to keep acting as Alpha until

we figure out how to get Saint back. | don't know how long it is going to take. What | do know is that |

don't want people to know. It will make the entire pack a target for attacks. It stays between the people

that already know, you, Me, Kas, Marco, James, and Delilah. Not even Lenora, Reggie, or Ashley finds

out. Got it. | will focus on MasonCo business in the meantime. If you need me to cover any of

your...clients...just say the word. | can still do that, even without a wolf.”

“Of course, Bronx. | understand. Anything you want," he agrees, spreading his hands in front of him. |

know for all things in my life, | can count on Milo to be loyal. | trust him with this.

“| felt him for a second last night, Milo. Like, just a fraction of a moment of being able to feel him, after

Kas healed me. He was gone again just as fast. | mean, it's weird. If | concentrate on him, | feel like he

is there, just...disconnected? Lost? Blocked? | don't know how to explain it,” | lean back in my seat

fiddling with a pen. | can feel my mood darken.

"Don't worry, man, you and Kas will get it figured out. Saint and Lex will be back in no time. Until then,

I've got you covered," Milo nods with reassurance.

“Tell you what, when he comes back, we bust open that bottle of Johnnie Blue," | point to the bottle on

my desk, trying to lighten the mood. :

“Cheers to that!" he chuckles.

Milo catches me up on everything happening with the pack. He has done a good job keeping the ship

afloat while | have been out

of pocket. | wouldn't expect anything less. He may be a goofball, but he does everything with precision.

It's one of the reasons | made him my Beta. Once he is done with pack updates, we move on to more

personal things.

He gushes about Lenora and the baby. They got to see it on the screen during their last appointment.

According to him, the baby looks like a lima bean right now but since werewolf pups grow so quickly,

they should know if it's a boy or a girl in the next few weeks. I'm so excited for them. It's a bonus for

Kas and |, we get to be an Aunt and

Uncle. The thought of Kas having a baby isn't even fathomable at that moment, but someday when

we're both ready, we would make that a reality. +

“So in other news," Milo says, clearing his throat as he changes to a more serious tone, "Reggie and |

are closer to finding out how Connors got on your flight.”

My interest is piqued. | lean forward, paying closer attention.

“Apparently, Mitch got a call around eleven p.m. from a man claiming to be your new assistant telling

him you had canceled your flight to France. He says there is no way his mate is pregnant. He just met

her two months ago and they are not at that point in their relationship.”

He pulls out his phone and starts to flip through some notes, "The substitute pilot, Joe Morris, which is

obviously not his real

name, arrived at the airport around three a.m. to do all his preflight checks. He had MasonCo

credentials, so they let him past

airport security with no question. Ashley is working on how he got the badge. She said there was a

Joseph Morris working at MasonCo but he retired last year.”

“Hmm, maybe it was the name that seemed familiar then, not the face? But | swear, there was

something about him that was familiar. | have seen him somewhere before," | scratch my chin recalling

the man's features.

“There was a security camera that caught Connors getting out of the car with him near the back gate

where the rest of the flight staff park. We are still trying to track down his real identity, but we have

some good leads. Reggie has one of his specialists on it.”

“Milo it just occurred to me, but what happened to Connors corpse after | locked him in that cell?”

“You did a number on him, man. There was practically nothing left of his skull. Since his face was

unidentifiable, our clean up crew took his body to a human morgue. Not our problem anymore.” :

“Good fucking riddance," | cross my arms across my chest. | feel a perverse sense of satisfaction

knowing his death was at my hands. Saint would be proud if that had turned out to be one of my final

moments.