Midnight Mate: A Paranormal Romance Standalone

by Heather Hildenbrand

  “Rudy. Is there a point to this call?”

  “Yes. I told him you’d meet him after work tonight.”

  “You what? Why would you do that?”

  “Because he needs someone, Cat.” Rudy’s voice softened. “And so do you.”

  “I get to decide who and what I need.”

  “Look, I’m locking the front door, including the keyless deadbolt. And I’m not opening it again until after ten.”

  My jaw fell open. “This is coercion.”

  “Damn right it is. And an ultimatum: if you don’t go out with him, I’ll make sure the water heater runs cold as ice for the next six months.”

  “You’re evil.”

  “You’re lonely.”

  I bit my lip. Rudy was right. I was lonely. And way too hung upon East to refuse. And after those roses and that note, the least I could do was warn East that Travis probably had it out for him now.

  “Fine. Where do I meet him?”

  “Atta girl.”

  11

  Easton

  I sped through town, my wolf practically breathing down my neck for answers that felt much closer today than they had last night. A short text had woken me this morning. Angus’s message had been clear. I had one shot to meet with the witches and bargain for my healing. I was in. His last line: Don’t be late.

  Considering my appointment was in twenty minutes and the coven wanted me to come to them, I hauled ass.

  The witches’ land butted up against national forest area. It was the most remote stretch of road there was in Midnight Falls. It’d been a favorite hangout for me and my friends as kids. Every game of Truth or Dare usually involved being dared to walk through the woods near the witches’ ceremonial grounds.

  Weird shit always happened in this part of the Falls.

  Like now, cheerful daylight turned to a dark and cloudy sky as I approached the turnoff. If that was the strangest part of this meeting, I was getting off easy.

  No other cars were parked outside the dilapidated cabin when I pulled up. I knew the witches didn’t actually live here; they just used the place to hold meetings they didn’t want humans knowing about.

  I thought of Cat as I climbed out and headed for the cabin’s door. When I’d asked, she’d agreed to come with me despite the knowledge that this place was spelled against anything that wasn’t supernatural. And she would have too. If I’d had time to stop and pick her up. But I couldn’t afford to offend them with something as simple as being late.

  Witches were moody like that.

  Before I could reach the cabin’s porch, the rickety screen door was pushed open from the inside.

  A woman stepped out, her black skirt swishing against the ground as she moved. A narrow face set on a slim, bony body peered down at me. Her dark hair was swept into a severe bun, and the collar of her dress rose high on her neck. Peering down her nose at me, she looked more like a nineteenth-century countess than a modern-day witch.

  “Easton Raines.”

  “Delphine.” I stalled, realizing I had no clue what her last name was. No one did. Delphine just … was. The coven leader and the most serious woman I’d ever encountered. Also, the scariest, if I was being honest.

  She’d once caught me trying to sneak into a coven meeting and threatened to turn me into a speedbump in the town square.

  I kind of believed she could do it too.

  Now, peering down at me, she frowned, and the air hummed with some electric current that wasn’t altogether friendly-feeling against my skin.

  “Why have you come?”

  “Uh, Angus texted. Said I could meet to ask the coven for help.”

  I looked over her shoulder, but no one else had joined her.

  She folded her hands in front of her. “You may state your request.”

  Damn.

  These witches hadn’t changed a bit.

  No sense of humor and no love lost when it came to werewolves.

  “I injured my knee a few weeks ago. Despite all my efforts, it hasn’t healed. I think something’s wrong with my wolf.”

  Her lip curled at my mention of the beast inside me. Not surprising. The witches and wolves existed in a teetering sort of peace pact. It was fragile and constantly leaning one way or the other. Apparently, today, she was leaning toward “screw werewolves.”

  “I can’t help you.”

  She turned to retreat inside and I hurried forward. “Wait.”

  She turned, sniffing.

  “I am willing to bargain,” I said before she could walk away.

  It wasn’t my first choice, but apparently we were skipping Plan A and going right to desperation.

  She turned to face me again, interest gleaming in her dark eyes. Overhead, the clouds roiled, and in her dead gaze, storm clouds rolled there too.

  I planted my feet, unwilling to go any closer.

  “What are you willing to give up?” she asked.

  Damn, we were getting right to the point then.

  “What do you want?”

  The gleam deepened. “You would bargain nearly anything for the healing then?”

  “Not just the healing,” I admitted. “I need to be free of . . . this place. And I need to be healthy to do it.”

  “You hate Midnight Falls that much?”

  She sounded morbidly curious, and I reined in my impatience. I didn’t feel like spilling all my feelings to a witch who obviously was only in it for the gossip.

  “I hate the pain it caused me.”

  She was silent a long moment, watching me with such steady scrutiny I had to fight the urge to look down and defer to whatever alpha vibe she was giving off. What the hell. This woman was powerful.

  “You have nothing I want,” she said finally, and my shoulders sagged in defeat. She was going to refuse me. And I would be stuck like this forever.

  “I knew this was a waste of time,” I muttered, turning to leave.

  “There is another who wants something from you,” she said sharply, and I stopped, turning.

  “What?”

  “There is a woman.”

  My gut tightened. I wasn’t sure where this was going, but I knew Delphine was dangerous. Damned if I’d give her anything on Cat.

  “She’s not part of this.”

  “Your wolf has chosen to tie its fate to hers. You can’t undo what the fates have willed.”

  My eyes narrowed. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised she knew that, but it only made me more wary. “I came for healing. For myself.”

  Overhead, thunder boomed. Delphine’s expression darkened.

  “You came to bargain. This is the price fate will extract.”

  A flash of lightning lit the sky, startling me into silence.

  Delphine’s face began to glow, and despite the fact that I’d grown up around supernatural beings and magic, whatever weird shit she was calling up was really fucking unsettling.

  “At midnight, the mate call will no longer be ignored. When blood is spilled under the moon, your healing will be complete. And the fates will have their offering.”

  Her voice boomed unnaturally loud, and the storm clouds rolled in faster as she spoke. A shiver ran through me, the electric current in the air pricking at my skin.

  I tried to decipher the meaning of her words, but the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like she’d just predicted more injuries. Not exactly what I’d come here for.

  “Whose blood will spill?” I demanded, raising my voice to be heard over the rushing wind.

  At my words, Delphine blinked, and her expression cleared. The glow in her skin dimmed, and the wind settled. She stared back at me, once again the prim and proper woman from before.

  “A mate for a mate, Mr. Raines, that is what the fates demand.”

  “I don’t understand. I just want to heal my knee—”

  “Your knee is simply the calling. It is not the answer.”

  “Then what’s the answer?” I demanded, my patience gone.


  Delphine simply smiled. “A midnight mate—or death.”

  “How do I choose if I don’t understand what it means?”

  “You know what you need to do. The choice is not up to you. In the end, she’ll be the one to choose.”

  Thunder boomed and my phone rang, interrupting what had to be the strangest and most frustrating conversation I’d ever had in my entire life.

  I silenced the call without even checking who it was, intent on getting more information about whatever Delphine’s cryptic proclamation meant. But when I looked up again, she was gone.

  I blinked, looking around.

  Overhead, the clouds were clearing fast, and bright sunlight was peeking through. But there was no trace of Delphine.

  What the fuck?

  I checked my phone and did a double-take when I saw there wasn’t a single missed call in my history.

  Double fuck.

  I charged forward, angry enough to risk the witches’ wrath. Storming up the steps and through the cabin door, I stopped short. The place was utterly empty. No Delphine. No furniture. Nothing.

  My phone rang again, and this time, I answered it, needing something to be real.

  “Hello?”

  “East?”

  “Angus.” I sighed, striding out of the cabin and down the steps to my truck.

  “How’d it go?” he asked.

  “I don’t even know, man.”

  “Okay, well, I got a text saying the meeting was over. Weird, but I thought I’d check in.”

  “Thanks, man.” The meeting was definitely over.

  “Did they agree to help?”

  I walked back outside.

  “Yes…and no.” My mind was beginning to spin with all the possibilities of what—and who—Delphine was talking about. “I need to go, but I’ll tell you about it later.”

  “Okay, man. Sure. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Will do.”

  I drove for the better part of an hour and ended up at Cat’s apartment. She was at work, according to her roommate. But safe. No spilled blood.

  Still, I’d done my best to convince Cat’s roommate I wasn’t going to hurt her, and in the end, he agreed to get her to meet with me. I had to make sure she wasn’t somehow wrapped up in all this. I had to make sure she was safe.

  After I left Rudy, I couldn’t stop replaying Delphine’s cryptic words. Another woman whose fate my wolf had tied to its own.

  Then it hit me.

  Fuck.

  Maybe Delphine hadn’t meant Cat at all. Maybe the “she” Delphine had referred to was someone else much more in need of help with a mate than anyone else. If my mother wanted to leave with me, I couldn’t stay. Not even for Cat. I’d made a promise long before my first love, and it wasn’t one I could ever break.

  Free my mother from my father.

  That was more important than even my own happiness.

  Stopping just short of the very speed bump I’d once almost become, I pulled a U-turn and drove straight to my parents’ house.

  Driving way too fast and feeling way too much, I made it across town and pulled up at my parents’ house in record time. My father’s truck was gone, which was a plus and something I hadn’t been sure of. The fact that it was the middle of a workday didn’t mean shit. He did construction for a pack member, and that meant he got away with sleeping off his benders more often than he should have.

  Another reason I’d known from the start I could never join the Midnight Falls werewolf pack.

  No one came out to greet me as I hopped out of my truck. Not even Andy, who’d never failed to come rushing at the sound of a car door closing. The whole place was weirdly quiet. And still.

  Something was off.

  My wolf’s hackles rose, and my senses expanded, searching for some sign of my mother. The front door was open, the screen unlocked. The hinges creaked as I opened it and stepped inside.

  “Hello?”

  No answer. And still no Andy.

  I made it as far as the foyer when the smell hit me. My nostrils flared as the beast inside me roared. I surged ahead. The scent of blood and sweat and alcohol permeated the house. Furniture, broken and overturned, littered the living room. In the far corner, I spotted a body lying face down.

  “Mom!”

  I rushed over to where my mother lay on the rug, motionless and bloodied. Andy looked up from where he’d laid his head against her thigh.

  He whined at me, urging me to help.

  I pressed shaky fingers to her neck, checking for a pulse as I struggled to remain human. Panic clawed at me until, finally, my wolf sensed her heartbeat. Weak. Small.

  “It’s okay, boy,” I said, talking more to myself than the dog. “I’m here. She’s alive. It’s okay.”

  Nausea ripped through me, and I prayed my words held true.

  I slid my phone free and dialed the emergency line. With quick, biting words, I outlined the situation for the operator who answered.

  Then, I waited, doing chest compressions until the ambulance showed and hoping like hell she kept fighting.

  I had to stay human. For her.

  When she was safe, I’d find the bastard. There’d be time for that later. For now, I stayed close to my mother, careful not to move her yet.

  In the distance, a siren approached. Then another.

  I recognized each of them in turn. Ambulance. Police. Firetruck.

  They’d brought the cavalry.

  “You’re going to be okay, Mom,” I said quietly. “Help is here.”

  Someone knocked on the half-open front door.

  “In here,” I called.

  Footsteps sounded, steady and slow.

  “Hurry up,” I snapped, and the man hurried around the corner, eyes widening when he caught sight of the room.

  “How long has she been like this?” he asked, rushing over and dropping his bag. He checked for a pulse and then nudged me aside, going to work on her in a flurry of movement.

  “I don’t know. I found her about fifteen minutes ago.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Trisha.”

  He stopped working on her and wrote it down on a clipboard, and I wanted to yell at him to stop filling out paperwork and make her better. But I bit my tongue.

  “And you are?” he asked.

  “Easton Raines. Her son.”

  He scrawled that and then thrust the clipboard at me. “Here. Fill this out.”

  I took it and hurriedly filled in my mother’s information. Secretly, I was just glad for something to do. While I worked, two more paramedics joined the first, bringing a gurney with them. Both of them picked up the pace when they saw the destruction and the unconscious patient in the middle of it all.

  I listened while they threw instructions back and forth to each other and the rest of the emergency crew filing in—two more EMTs, a firefighter, and a couple of cops.

  “Do we know what happened?” one of the paramedics asked.

  “I have a pretty good fucking idea,” I said, my voice barely more than a growl.

  The guy eyed me. “And you are?”

  “This is Easton, her son,” the first paramedic said. “He found her like this fifteen minutes ago. Not sure how long she’s been out.”

  “Judging from the dried blood, I’d say she’s been here at least an hour,” the second paramedic replied.

  Panic threatened to overwhelm me then. She’d been lying here, dying alone, for an hour or more? I gave up on the clipboard. Fuck paperwork. Fuck anything else in the world that wasn’t saving my mother’s life. And especially fuck the monster who’d done this to her.

  “Mr. Raines?” The second paramedic leaned in close, forcing me to concentrate on him. “I’m Justin, and I’m going to take a look at your mom now.”

  “Please help her,” I said, barely looking at him before looking down again to be sure he didn’t jostle her.

  “We’re going to do our best,” he assured me, searching for a pulse wit
h one hand and pulling his bag closer with the other.

  “Easton?” A familiar voice cut through the rest.

  “Yeah?” I turned and spotted a face I hadn’t seen since high school. He looked older now, but he was still the same broad-shouldered guy I remembered from all those years ago. The stern expression he wore was a staple. Resting cop face, we’d called it. I’d run up against him once as a minor when Angus and I had stolen his dad’s truck and tore through a cornfield. The sheriff had threatened to tan our hides—but he hadn’t told my old man, which saved my ass more than he could know.

  “Sheriff Wayne.”

  I pushed to my feet as he approached and offered a handshake.

  “Haven’t seen you since you took off for the big city, son.”

  “More like the Falls’ bigger, richer brother,” I snorted.

  “Let’s give the EMT’s room to work.” He gestured for us to step away, and I followed him to the far side of the room. I wasn’t willing to let my mom out of my sight, but space was okay—as long as it meant they saved her.

  “You want to tell me what happened here?” Sheriff Wayne asked.

  His wolf put mine on edge, and I remembered Wayne wasn’t just the sheriff. He was also Tobias’s beta.

  I stiffened. “I don’t report to the pack,” I said.

  “Relax,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m here as a cop. And I want to help your mom,” he added when I didn’t react. “Did you find her like this?”

  I nodded slowly, gauging his level of knowledge. This wasn’t his first visit to the Raines household, but he’d never pushed me to admit anything. Now, though, there was too much knowing in those weathered eyes. Too much anger. And not enough shock.

  “How many times?” I asked.

  “How many times what?”

  “How many times have you been called here for this?”

  He studied me with a hard expression. “Today makes two this year.”

  “Shit.” My hands fisted. She’d never mentioned this during our calls. Never mentioned him laying a hand on her. Or anything requiring police intervention. I’d hoped that meant he’d stopped. I realized now I’d been lying to myself. Denial was easier than facing the fact that I’d left her behind. This was my fault.

  I glanced at her body, still unconscious where she’d fallen. Or where he’d tossed her. Then back to the sheriff.