Stone Solitude (33 page)

Just for a little while.

Just until she could learn to live with a missing heart.

One year later….

Daisy sat on the bed in the hotel room, oblivious to the magnificent view just beyond the balcony. In the morning she’d wake up and appreciate the beautiful white sand and the enticing bluer than blue water of Hawaii but tonight she was still jet lagged. For the past year she had been travelling far and wide, chasing down any lead she came across in her quest to find Roman. From the Serengeti to China to Australia and everywhere in between with no trace of him, she was starting to think Apollo took Roman off to Mount Olympus or some equally mythological world. If it weren’t for Dominic and Jeanette and their unfailing companionship and love, she might have given in to despair long before.

She had traveled to Greece in the off chance that Mount Olympus wasn’t just a myth and she’d be able to track down Apollo. Unfortunately, while the mountain range did exist, the portal to the gods’ world was expertly concealed. Since they were so close to Rome, she made a point of searching out his brothers, specifically his twin brother. Remus had looked almost exactly like Roman, from his golden hair and brilliant, sapphire blue eyes to his impressive physique. But there was cynicism in his eyes that had eluded Roman despite two thousand years of imprisonment.

It had been torture because he looked like Roman but he wasn’t Roman and when she met him after she had had a little bit too much to drink, she told him so. Staring at the wall, seeing the past, she remember the conversation with him as if it was only a few hours ago instead of a few months.

“Who?” he asked, a slight smile starting to curve his sensual lips.

“Your brother,” she said with a hiccup. Reaching up, she cupped his beloved face and tears stung the back of her throat because it wasn’t Roman. “The one none of you remember. The one I fell madly, passionately, desperately in love with.”

“Then he is a lucky man,” Remus said with a mocking smile.

Daisy’s lips curved up because if they hadn’t, she would have lost it and she would never have been able to stop crying. “He doesn’t remember me.”

“Then he is a fool,” he crooned, reaching up to touch her cheek.

But she jerked her head away before he could touch her, laughing at his poor attempts at seduction. “Promise me you’ll try to remember him. It isn’t fair that he should be forgotten by all of his loved ones. Well, except for his father but then Apollo is special, isn’t he?”

He grabbed her arms and jerked her closer, his eyes blazing with new intensity. “How do you know my father?”

Ignoring his question, she continued on, “It is worse to be forgotten by you since you share his face. But I guess it doesn’t matter since he no longer remembers you either.”

“Tell me how you know my father?” he repeated, shaking her in his impatience to get answers. But she could only frown up at him, wondering what the hell he was talking about and why couldn’t he be Roman, her Roman. And then wondering where the two behemoths came from who looked enough like Roman for her to know that they had to be his brothers as well.

Their hands were on her non-Roman as they looked at her with unspoken apologies in their eyes. “Let her go, brother. She’s just a girl.”

But Remus’s eyes burned with emotion and she wondered if a part of him remembered Roman, if she kept picking at him, the blinders would fall off and his memory would return. Holding his eyes, his blue eyes that were so jaded and sad, she whispered, “Try to remember him.”

That’s when Dominic appeared, disheveled and slightly out of breath. Jeanette was right behind him, her skin glistening and a soft light in her eyes. Daisy knew the moment Dominic saw Remus as her brother sucked in a sharp breath and blurted, “Jesus.”

Daisy was about to say something when Dominic grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him, concern in his eyes as he asked, “Is it him? Have we found him?”

Daisy had shaken her head no and no longer had the ability to fight back the tears. With a helpless gesture, she stumbled away from the group, knowing her brother and best friend would follow.

She stayed away from gargoyles after that.

And through it all, there was Dominic and Jeanette, completely, irrevocably in love Dominic and Jeanette. Even though they knew they were destined to be together, they held off on bonding because they weren’t ready to have children. Despite having to traipse after a girl on a foolish quest to find her love who had forgotten her, they enjoyed travelling. Seeing the world with their own eyes had done amazing things towards making Dominic grow up and become the man Daisy always knew he could be. Jeanette made no secret about falling in love with him again, over and over.

There was a knock on the door and before she could say anything, Jeanette entered the room. “Hey, how are you holding up?”

Daisy almost smiled but she was too tired, too disappointed. “I think I’ll be ready to head home after this.”

“You’re giving up?” Jeanette asked as she sat down on the bed.

Pressing her lips together, inhaling through her nose, she slowly shook her head no. “Not exactly. But we’ve been chasing after a ghost for a year and we’re no closer to finding him than when we started.”

“You never know,” Jeanette offered, resting her head on Daisy’s shoulder in sympathy. “Maybe he’s the wolf that’s running amok here on the island. After all, wolves aren’t supposed to be on Hawaii.”

With a frown, Daisy shook her head. A part of her hoped it was Roman, that she’d finally found him but the other part prayed it wasn’t. The reports had been sketchy, since no one wanted to admit it was a wolf. What they all seemed to agree on was that the creature was making a general nuisance of himself. Daisy was sick with worry that if it was Roman, he had gone feral and there would be little anyone could do for him except put him down and she couldn’t live with that. “I know. It just seems weird that his father would leave him here to fend for himself, though I guess I don’t know what Apollo would or wouldn’t do. But I’m afraid to get my hopes up. Again.”

“Then I’ll hope enough for both of us,” Jeanette offered. After a moment of silence, Jeanette asked, “What will you do when we get back home?”

“I’ll probably finish up college,” she said on a sigh, though that no longer held any appeal for her. She had learned more in the year of travelling than more than two years in college and however many years in school before that. “Plus, with the twins, I’ll probably be needed to help out around the house.”

Jeanette snorted, “I still can’t believe your mom had another set of twins.”

Daisy’s smile came a little more easily as she thought about the newest additions to the Tremain household, Vivienne and Veronica. As always, though, her thoughts drifted back to her Roman dilemma. Apollo had told her not to go chasing after him but she hadn’t listened, figuring she was more determined than him, forgetting he was a god. It didn’t matter because she wasn’t going to give up the search. Once she was back home, she would use whatever resource she could get her hands on and try to approach the problem from a different angle. No matter what, she wouldn’t stop until she found him.

If she were very lucky, they could become friends and then lovers once more. If she were less lucky, she’d find him and he’d already be mated to someone else and she would have to be happy for him because he was finally happy.
If
he was happy. If he was miserable, she would do whatever was necessary to free him from his bond if he was in utter despair.

Pressing a kiss to Daisy’s cheek, Jeanette stood up and let out a jaw-popping yawn. “I’m going to head back to the room and see if Dominic has learned anything about our mysterious wolf. Do you need anything?”

Shaking her head no, she said, “I’m good. I’m just going to crawl into bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow is either going to be a great day or an awful one.”

As soon as Jeanette left, Daisy didn’t crawl into bed. Instead, she dragged her sorry carcass over to the balcony and leaned against the railing, breathing in the tropical ocean air. Sometimes she wished she didn’t have such a strong connection to Roman, that she could move on, because it was so difficult to keep getting her hopes up only to have them slaughtered when she didn’t find him. But the idea of moving on made her heart ache unbearably so she kept searching.

Her phone rang so she dug it out of her back pocket. “Hello?”

“Hey, sweetheart,” her father’s calming voice murmured from the other end. “How are you doing?”

She smiled because everyone was asking her that these days, not that she blamed them. “I’m good. What’s up? Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” he quickly assured her. “I just have a small favor to ask of you… and your brother, of course.”

“Anything,” she said, meaning it. After this last year, she owed her parents a debt that could never be repaid for their unwavering support and love. If her father asked a favor of her, she would grant it in a heartbeat.

“I hate to ask this of you,” he continued, making her a little nervous. “But the Alpha of the Alaskan pack is interested in a… more permanent alliance between our two packs.”

Daisy swallowed because she knew where this was going and despite her vow to do whatever he asked, she wanted to tell him no. “I’m not….”

“Of course not, sweetheart, and I told him that the choice is yours and it isn’t likely he will be your choice. He still wants to meet you,” he said quickly before she had to say the words. “It would be advantageous for you to meet with him as a representative of the Tremain pack, not as a potential mate.”

Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Fine. After we deal with this thing here we’ll head up to Alaska. They’re just north of Fairbanks, yeah?”

“Yes,” he said. After giving her the rest of the information, they said their goodbyes and hung up and Daisy was left with even more on her mind because now she had to worry about how not to offend an Alpha.

Hot, fetid breath moved over her cheek, pulling Daisy from a deep, dreamless sleep. Slowly, she pried her eyes open and came face to face with a wolf, a wolf with blue eyes. Pushing her hair from her face, she blinked again to see if she was imagining things. But, no, the wolf’s eyes were definitely blue. In a sleep roughened voice, she croaked, “Roman?”

Instead of shifting back and having a conversation as humans, the wolf nudged her neck, making his intentions known without words. Pushing against his heavy chest, she shook her head, “If you want to talk to me, Roman, you have to shift. I’m still latent. Of course, you don’t remember that, do you?”

Reaching over, she turned on the lamp that was on the night stand, blinking to adjust to the sudden bright light. The wolf was still there, sitting on her bed and staring at her. “Roman, you have to change. I know it’s difficult but listen to my voice and follow it out of wherever it is you are.”

The wolf let out a low growl which sent a shiver of dread down her spine. Pushing back against the headboard, she realized there was nowhere for her to go. If Roman didn’t shift, she was going to have to deal with a feral, horny wolf and his sharp claws and deadly fangs. “Listen to my voice, Roman. Try to remember being a man. Please.”

A tear slid down her cheek because in all of the scenarios she had envisioned, being killed by him when she finally found him was not one of them. If Apollo were standing there, she would rip his head off for doing such a shit job of protecting Roman. The bastard had let Roman go feral on an island with no wolf population. “Please, Roman.”