2. Fourteen

~ Harper’s POV ~

The pain wasn't anything I could describe. One second it wasn't there and the next it was penetrating every damn nerve ending of my body. It left in seconds too, even though it felt like I was suffering for hours.

Yeah, it was that intense. 

One second, I was sitting on the chair, going over the reports of Elijah's murder with Aiden, and the next second I felt as if someone stabbed my chest. It felt impossible to think past the fog of pain, it felt impossible to even breathe at the moment.

The words in front of me blurred and I passed out, with my hands clutching my chest.

***

I opened my eyes to find myself in my room. Why wasn't I in a hospital? I was in my bed and my heart clenched for a second as I remembered that the last time, I was in it, I held Zara in my arms.

I hadn't slept in my bed since the night she told me that she loved me and asked me to mark her. I should have marked her. Maybe then, she would still be with me. I snorted at this train of thought. Even if I knew what was going to happen the next day, I wouldn't have marked her. She wasn't ready and now, I don't think she will ever be.

I took a deep breath and noticed that it had already been too long since she had been here. Even my heightened senses couldn't pick up any trace of him ever being here. No smell of pines and chocolates. I only had vivid images of her asking me to mark her.

The door opened and I turned in my bed to find Aiden walking in. I grumbled and sat up, keeping most of my weight on the headboard. I watched Aiden take a seat beside my bed and look at me with an unreadable expression.

I tried to speak but my voice came out all hoarse and gravelly. I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face in frustration.

"Two days." My head snapped to Aiden who was still watching me.

"What?"

"You've been out for two days." Damn! Two whole fucking days!

"Where's dad?" I asked, my stomach grumbling with the lack of food.

"He has gone out of pack land for some urgent matter." What urgent matter? "What happened, man?"

"What do you mean?"

"One second you are all right, working with me on the report and the next moment you're on the ground clutching your chest as if someone's ripping out your organs. What happened?"

"I-I don't know." I sighed. It has never happened before. How could I have just passed out like that?

"I'll get you some food. You look terrible." Aiden chuckled and I playfully rolled my eyes. He got up and my eyes zeroed on his neck. Specifically, on the puncture marks on his neck. His mating mark.

"You marked each other?" I couldn't help but feel jealous. I had found my mate before Aiden, months before, so how did I end up being the one unmarked while my best friend marked his mate in weeks? Agreed that he wasn't that big of an asshole I was, but still.

"Yeah." He looked uncomfortable. I wonder if everyone else in the pack was going to act like this every time the word "mate" was mentioned. Did they think I was fragile as glass and was going to shatter any second? Well, I was but there was no way they were going to know that.

"We just didn't want to stay without each other.

I nodded. "I'm happy for you." And I meant it. Jealousy aside, I was honestly happy that my best friend and beta had found happiness in his mate. He and Samantha both deserved that. "At least one of us got our happy endings."

Aiden shuffled uncomfortably and I internally cursed myself for making the situation more awkward than it already was.

"Could you please get me some food here?"

He nodded and walked out of the room. I slid inside the duvet and didn't realize when I passed out of exhaustion. Passing out is a nasty business.

***

When I woke up again, I was groggy. I turned around slowly, feeling energized after taking my nap (a less pathetic term for passing out). I noticed the tray of food left there for me by Aiden and my lips lifted into a smile on their own. Aiden, good man.

I ate the food like a starved man and walked to the washroom to freshen up. I was feeling a little tired but I knew my wolf wouldn't take too much time to bring back my health.

I called out to my wolf and found him in the deepest recesses of my mind. It has been becoming harder and harder to find my wolf nowadays. Being apart from his mate was making him depressed. This time, I found him, curled up and whimpering.

She left.

The impact of the words hit me full force after a second and I understood everything then. The sudden pain coincided with the moment she crossed the pack's border, effectively cutting off one of the bonds between us. A bond that is important between a werewolf and a human mate. I could feel that the bond had gone weak in the last two days. The pain had originated from the twisting of the mate between us and had resulted in me being passed out from the pain. I couldn't even imagine what Zara must have faced.

My wolf has been ignoring me and doesn't take any heed to my words when I beg him to allow me to shift. But when I express the need to go after Zara, my wolf perks up a bit.

I ran down the stairs, all traces of exhaustion forgotten, and ran down the front steps and out the front door. I shift quickly, and mud jumps into my white wolf, feeling free after so long.

My wolf somehow knew in which direction to run. His instincts took over and I could feel that we were running in the right direction.

I ran as fast as I could, feeling the wind blow through my fur. I could feel my heart pump oxygen to my lungs and my muscles utilizing them. I reached the pack borders in no time and there was no doubt that this was the direction in which she had left. 

I sniffed the air and I smelt another scent mixed with Zara's. My father's. He had exited the pack lands in the same direction as Zara's. My wolf growled at the thought of my father helping my little mate in running away. Surely, she wasn't that desperate to get away from me.

Even though the scent was two days old, I could have easily followed it and brought Zara back to me. Back to home. She must be missing her parents and her brother, Cody. She couldn't have gone very far too; the bond would have stopped her from doing that.

I pushed my wolf to cross the thin line of the border but my wolf whined in my head. Then it struck me. I couldn't leave the border. In the absence of my father, I was the acting alpha and I had responsibilities to the pack, however inconsequential and small they may be.

I could leave the pack lands, I very easily could. But I couldn't run from my responsibilities. So, instead of going on a wild goose chase for my mate, I chose my duties for my pack. If that makes me a bad mate, so be it. As it is, I didn't have a stellar grade in the mate department.

My wolf sat down in the bushes on the side of the road for some time, whimpering for his lost mate. I wasn't in any state to look after any pack business either, so I just laid down in the bushes, as close to my mate as I could be and as far to my pack as I could go.

When night fell, I knew I had to go. A white wolf couldn't just sleep on the side of the road for rogues to hunt and hunters to poach.

I didn't shift. I let my wolf take over once again. He stood on his paws for a moment, uncertain where to go, to the pack house or my grandparent's cabin in the woods. 

My wolf took off in a different direction altogether. I furrowed my eyebrows, clueless about where my wolf was going. It all became clear after a few minutes.

My wolf was panting after a good run and I stood in the tree line, overlooking Zara's home. Her home called out to me and I quickly shifted back into my human form. I knew what my wolf wanted and I wasn't exactly opposed to it. It was a brilliant idea.

I quickly donned some clothes and walked as discreetly as I could towards her house. I stood just below her room's window, the one I had used to climb with Aiden, on the night of his birthday. The day now seemed so far away. Everything was just so perfect then.

Climbing wasn't much of an effort toe and I was glad to find out that the window was open. I'd hate to break it.

I opened the window without any sound and entered the room like a burglar. My mate's room. Zara's smell hit me firsthand and nearly knocked me on my knees.

I walked quietly to her bedroom door and locked it. Wouldn't want her parents to find their daughter's boyfriend in their daughter's bed when she wasn't there. That would be plain creepy and I didn't want to give any more reason to her father to not like me.

Daughter's ex-boyfriend, my brain reminded me. I shut down the train of thought before I could get upset.

I rid myself of my t-shirt and jeans and dove into the bed. Her scent hit me again and my wolf sighed in pleasure. This was bordering on stalking now but neither me nor my wolf cared. I closed my eyes and let sleep take over me. This was as peaceful a sleep as I was going to get.