The Lynx Who Claimed the Sun by Scarlet Hyacinth

from Nicolas, and a second one from Skylar.

    The Lynx Who Claimed the Sun
    65
    From: [email protected]
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: Remember me

    Hi, Garth.
    This is a very difficult e-mail for me to write. I considered and reconsidered these words a thousand times, but I don’t have much time and I’m sick of lies.
    For the past twenty years, I’ve lived in fear, always looking over my shoulder. I don’t remember who I was before, but I thought I was finally free in my new life with you, with our friends. I was wrong.
    I’m not going to tell you not to come looking for me. I know that no matter what I say, you still will try. But please remember one thing. You are a very good man, Garth. You have family, children who need you, and friends who care about you. Don’t throw your life away.
    What we had was amazing. I know I didn’t say it enough, but the time we spent together was the happiest in my life. Just think of me as a beautiful memory and let me go.
    Yours,
    Nico
    P.S. Say good-bye for me to your kits. Tell Corbin I said to take care of his dad. For Preston, a special message: Grow a spine! He needs to be on his own feet now and stop doing whatever his brother wants him to do. Just my opinion, of course. And above all, don’t forget to say I will miss them and their pranks. They might not care about me, but I do care about them.

    The e-mail didn’t say anything else about who exactly had come to get Nicolas or what had happened to make him leave like that.
    Garth peeked into Skylar’s e-mail as well. It was, unsurprisingly, a forward of the message Nicolas had send his friends.

    66
    Scarlet Hyacinth
    From: [email protected]
    To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
    Subject: I’m sorry

    Hi my friends.
    By the time you get this message, I will be gone. I know you probably won’t understand why I chose to do this. In a way, I don’t understand it myself. I just know that I have to go to keep you all from being hurt.
    I’m sorry for lying to you, for hiding my past, and even now, for getting you involved in my problems. You were the best friends a hummingbird, or anyone else for that matter, could hope to have. So, above all, thank you.
    Please, take care of yourselves and your families. And, as one last favor to me, please take care of Garth. He will not understand.
    All my love,
    Nico

    Gritting his teeth, Garth wished he had listened to his heart and taken Nicolas as his mate. He’d wanted to give the hummingbird time to adjust, and now, that could very well be their undoing. Even if their bond was strong, without the claiming, Garth couldn’t follow Nicolas to wherever the man had gone.
    Then again, Garth had no knowing if lynxes could or could not bond that way. He’d been impressed by the extent of Soren’s connection with Daniel, but Soren was a wolf. It might be different with felines. No matter. He’d worry about it later, much later. Perhaps he couldn’t detect Nicolas through their bond, but he would stop at nothing until he found his mate. And he knew exactly where to start.
    It seemed very suspicious that Bella had showed up at the same time with Nicolas’s mysterious kidnappers.

    The Lynx Who Claimed the Sun
    67
    He found it strikingly easy to shut down his emotions, just like he’d done many times in the past while working for Byron. There was no time for suffering. He needed to get a move on and find his mate.
    If Nicolas didn’t turn up in LA by nightfall, Bella should start to expect a visit from him. Now more than ever, he was glad he’d fired Gina the day before and chosen to take the kits to the agency nursery until he found another babysitter.
    There was one more thing to do. He dialed Skylar’s number again, and the seahorse answered in moments. “Any news?” he inquired.
    “No, but I found some suspicious photos in Nico’s apartment. I think someone has been watching us. We need to get everyone to