Clay’s P.O.V
When I arrived at the town square, I found almost every wolf in our pack present there.
Alpha Nicolas and Luna Maria were both standing at the centre and as soon as they saw Dorothy with me, smiles broke out on their faces in misunderstanding.
“Finally!” Alpha Nicolas came to place his hands on my shoulders. “You’ve come to your senses.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, uncle.” I removed his hands and turned to Dorothy. “Dorothy has something to say. It’s important.”
Everyone looked at Dorothy expectantly, waiting for her to be the bearer of good news, but Dorothy shook her head with a sad smile. “The mating bond is gone. I stopped feeling it this morning.”
Several gasps sounded from all directions as whispers began to rise.
“How is this possible?”
“Is she lying?”
“They must have faked it!”
“There is no way you can make a mating bond vanish!”
“Liars!” “Fakers!”
“They’re being cursed!”
“Everyone! Stop!” It was Alpha Nicolas who roared out the command, before turning towards me. “What is going on? No one understands this…how did the mating bond disappear? Dorothy?”
“I honestly don’t know, nor do I understand what happened,” Dorothy shook her head. “But all I can tell you is that the mating bond vanished this morning and my wolf no longer yearns for him. So, can you please not send him away? Clay is the future Alpha.”
“It’s not my decision, child.” Alpha Nicolas looked at me in disappointment. “Clay chose to leave us. He chose his lover over the mating bond, over his pack.”
What the fuck was uncle up to? Did he think guilt tripping me into staying would work out? And even if it was unintentional, he was making Flora out to be the bad guy.
“I’m leaving because you gave me no choice, uncle.” I told him clearly. “Yes, I chose love over the mating bond, because in my mind, there was no mating bond. It might sound blasphemous to everyone here but my wolf never recognized Dorothy as my mate. And as for choosing to leave my pack…do you really think anyone here would accept my relationship with Flora now?”
I looked into the eyes of my packmates and they immediately lowered their head. “Would anyone of you think Flora and I deserve to be together? Do any of you think that we can live happily without the mating bond? Will you accept us after I rejected Dorothy?”
My questions were loud and clear and everyone lowered their heads, while some shook their heads and others whispered a quiet ‘no’. But their answers were loud and clear. And it was a unanimous decision.
No.
“Then how can you expect me to be happy?” I asked them. “How can you expect me to be your Alpha and represent this pack when no one here accepts the woman I call my love? Flora’s life would be hell here and probably that’s why she left the pack. So now, it’s my turn.”
“Wait!” Uncle called out before I could leave. “What do you mean Flora left the pack? Where is she?”
“How funny, uncle.” I gave a humourless laugh. “Your packmate has been missing since last night and you had no clue? Everyone in her family has been going crazy looking for her. We haven’t stopped searching and Flora’s parents are now going to neighbouring packs to search for her. And what had you been doing all this time? Why did you not know about her being missing?”
Uncle Nicolas looked visibly shaken at the news of Flora’s disappearance and I felt that maybe I had gone overboard by putting the blame on him, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry. He was a good Alpha, but his role as my uncle was coming in between his duties. He was taking my mating ceremony way to seriously.
“I…I had no idea.” Alpha Nicolas ran his hands down his face. “I wasn’t informed. Wh-where could she have gone?”
“We don’t know, but I plan to find out.” I told him, sensing his distress. “I’m going to search the n-”
“There’s no use searching the neighbouring packs.”
I turned my head in the direction of the oddly familiar voice and narrowed my eyes at the senior soldier. Garrick Scott. Flora’s first lover and one of Riley’s most trusted men. However, I had never quiet liked the man, no matter how good he was on the battle field.
He had kept flora safe during the rogue attack and he had been teaching her how to defend herself prior to that, but maybe it was the fact that the man had feelings for Flora, was what made me dislike him even more. I could see it clearly in the way that he looked at her. They weren’t mates because if they had been, Garrick would’ve claimed her by now. He was after all, twenty years older than us. But he had feeling for Flora nonetheless and it made me uncomfortable whenever they were together.
“What do you mean?” I asked him, a bit harshly, as I turned to face the man.
“Flora isn’t in any pack.” He said looking me dead in the eyes. “She in Lindersay.”
“What?” I felt the ground shift beneath my feet. “What is she doing at Lindersay?”
Lindersay was a training ground for higher ranking wolves and future Alphas. It was a sanctuary for lone wolves and lost souls…but undisclosed to many, it was also a shrine. It was The Shrine of Luna, dedicated to the Moon Goddess, Selene…and the women who worshipped her. The Lunar Maidens.
“I don’t know.” Garrick shook his head. “But she sounded desperate. She told me to keep it a secret from everyone and I understood that she must have been preparing herself.”
“Preparing herself?” Dorothy and I spoke at the same time. “For what?”
“Your mating.” Garrick looked at me and then Dorothy. “She had a hunch that you might not be mates so she wanted to escape. She didn’t want to come between your happiness and she knew that no one has ever rejected a mate…until you.”
“Shit!” I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. She had seen Dorothy and me talking but she hadn’t known what came after because I’d seen her leave. If she could’ve only waited a while longer.
“It’s alright,” Uncle reassured me. “We know where she is now. We can get her back.”
“I’ll go.” I told him and turned to get my car right away. But just as I threw my luggage into my passenger’s seat and hopped on, I found Dorothy right behind me.
“Dorothy, I’m sorry but I can’t take you with me.” I told her immediately. “I don’t want Flora to get the wrong idea again.”
But Dorothy just shook her head and looked at the ground. “I’m afraid I did something wrong. And it might have made matters worse for everyone.”
Dread settled in my stomach as I narrowed my eyes at Dorothy. “What did you do?” My voice came out harsh but I didn’t care. “Dorothy?”
She looked up at me with guilty eyes. “I told her about the Lunar Maidens.”
Fuck!