Trace and Me Only!

"Now...tomorrow would just make it harder..." she said sniffling a little and got up, "Am I taking my clothes too?"

He nodded. "I'll 'mail' them to your apartment for 'winning a contest'," he chuckled. "I'll put a check in there with the clothes with enough money to last quite a while. You can buy your nephew's birthday present," he kissed her forehead.

"Thank you." she murmured and kissed his cheek.

He kissed her and nodded. "Go get ready. I'll wait for you."

She nodded and went through some of he shopping bags to find something decent to wear.

He watched her every move, unable to take his eyes off of her now, knowing that he only had one more hour with her at most.

She picked out another sundress that was light blue with some beading around the top front, then some flipflops. She came out a few minutes later and sighed, "I guess I'm ready."

He nodded and took her hand, his eyes lingering on hers before he walked out with her.

Lucan was walking the halls and noticed them. "Where are you going? The sun will be up in an hour."

"I'm taking her home. Scrubbing her so she can be with her family," Kaden answered the leader of the Order.

Lucan frowned but didn't argue. "I wish many years for you and your family," he told Beth before he left to his own quarters.

Kade blinked, not expecting that response out of his leader, but didn't object. He walked her to the car up in the garage and drove her to her apartment. No one was there, thankfully. He walked her to the door, not taking his eyes off of her.

She didn't really say anything the whole ride there, but as she stood on that doorstep she couldn't help but break down and cry. "I'm sorry about this..." she said and hugged hm tightly.

He hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head. "Why are you sorry," he asked, lifting her chin gently and kissing her as if the world were going to end tomorrow.

She kissed him back, holding onto him tightly. She didn't want to let go, she felt drawn to him and it hurt severing the ties.

He didn't want to let this woman, his mate, go. But he knew he had to, for her happiness and security. "The sun will be up soon," he murmured, reluctantly pulling away. "I have to go..."

She nodded biting her lip, "Just erase my memory...do it." she told him, bracing herself for whatever was next.

He put his hand over her brow. "You won't remember anything about what you've experienced the past few days," he murmured, putting her in a trance. "You went away for a vacation without telling anyone, just needed to get away. You came back without telling anyone, arriving just before sunrise this morning. When I lift my hand, you won't see me. Simply walk into your apartment and go to your bed and get some rest," he murmured, slowly lifting his hand.

She opened her eyes slowly blinking, looking right at him, but seeing nothing. She walked into her apartment building then took the elevator up to her floor, unlocked her door and walked in, quietly passing her sister and her nephew asleep on the pullout couch and went into her room and fell asleep.

His heart tightened in his chest, seeing her so expressionless as she looked at him. It hurt even more to see her walk away so easily.

Could he have fallen for her?

Yes, he could have. He did.

He'd fallen hard.

Soon, Bethany's nephew Chris came in because he noticed that the door was open to his aunt's room. It was never open since she left. He went and jumped on the bed and poked his Aunt. "Aunt Bethy? Where were you?"

Bethany rolled over and pulled the pillow over her face. "Not now, I'm tired..."

Kade left before he could be noticed and went to go put Beth's things in a box, along with a check for quite a bit of money. Enough for the kid's college, or a new house (and house payments). The memo on the check simply read "To you." He taped the box up and would drop it off in a couple days, wanting to keep the green dress he'd slipped off of her, just to keep her scent with him. It was a selfish act, but then again, she wouldn't remember.

Jamie walked in after Chris woke her up saying his Aunt was back, "BETHANY WHERE THE HECK WHERE YOOU?!?!?!" she yelled jumping on the bed, "It's not like you to just leave without saying anything!"

Bethany sat up, 'I went on a vacation...I had his one night stand and on a whim we went to Hawaii hence why I was gone for a bit, he was really rich. Except, I don't remember much." she said quietly.

Jamie shook her head, "You're the responsible one here. Only I would manage something so incredibly responsible."

"Whats a one night stand?" Chris asked curiously.

"Oooh nothing you need to learn about for a long long time." his mom told him scouping him up, "Come one, we have to call the police and tell them Aunty Bethy is back. I'm sure she needs her rest after an eventful weekend."

As the next couple nights passed, Kade had abandoned his missions, keeping a close watch on Beth to make sure she was alright. She truly was happy with her family, he saw. He was glad to see the smile he was never able to. Not aimed at him, anyway. The third night that he watched her from the shadows, he left the box by her door, addressed to her with no return address.

The next day Bethany was out on her way to work when she saw the box. She looked around for someone who might've dropped it off, but didn't see anyone. She dragged the box into the living room and opened it, clothes, lots of clothes. Bethany opened the envelope that had a check with her name on it and tripped over herself in shock. "JAAAMIE!!!"

"Mmhm?" she asked and came in the room, she looked at it and grinned ear to ear, "Did you have sex with this man? If so you might wanna take a pregnancy test cause that looks like 18 years of child support to me. Oh wow look at all these clothes!"

"If I'm not pregnaunt...how about we upgrade to a bigger apartment or something?"

Kade chuckled from his hiding place in the shadows, remembering her refusal of the money he had just given her. He felt a presence behind him and growled-stopping short when he realized it was Lucan.

"You've been abandoning your missions," he stated. No accusations, just fact.

Kade looked down, shamed. "I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure she was alright..."

"For three nights in a row? She's fine, Kade. I don't care if you watch her, but at least kill some rogues first."

Kade nodded, his head still bowed. Lucan left and Kade stole one last glance inside the window at Beth's smile before he fell in behind his leader.

Another month or so passed and they upgraded to a bigger apartment, except she started having nightmares. That these vampire things would attack them, but they were just dreams right? Except she felt like she was being followed, and she just couldn't tell Jamie about it, she wouldn't believe her.

Kade had asked Gideon to look into where they'd moved and easily found it. He watched her through her window as she slept, before it was time to go back to the compound.

One night, he saw her tossing and turning. He snuck in through the window he'd watched her from, mentally locking all the doors, and tenderly kissed her brow, stroking her hair. If she woke up to find him, he could easily scrub her again. But he couldn't stand the thought of her suffering. "It's alright, Beth," he whispered softly. "You're safe. I won't let anything happen," he promised.

She felt soothed by his presence and calmed down a bit, but she still trembled in her sleep clutching her pillow close to her, "no...please...not him...not him...he's so young!!"