An Alpha's Longing

Chapter 4

MALEK'S POV

The blonde woman's eyes blazed with a fury that reminded me uncomfortably of my stepmother when she was

about to order an execution. She stepped fully into the apartment, her gaze sweeping over the destruction I'd

inadvertently caused, before fixing on me with laser-like intensity.

"I asked you a question," she said, her voice dangerously quiet. "Who are you, and what did you do to Alyssas

apartment?"

"Abby, wait-" Alyssa appeared behind her, slightly out of breath like she'd been running. "I can explain."

"You better start explaining fast, because it looks like someone ransacked your place." The woman - Abby -

crossed her arms over her chest. "And why is there a guy in medieval costume standing in your living room?"

I straightened to my full height, attempting to salvage what remained of my dignity. "I am Prince Malek of-"

"Oh, hell no." Abby held up a hand. "I don't know what kind of con you're running, but if you think you can

sweet-talk your way out of this-"

"He's not a thief," Alyssa interrupted, closing the door behind her. "Well, I don't think he is anyway. It's

complicated."

Abby's expression shifted from fury to confusion. "Complicated how?"

"He showed up at the bus stop last night trying to pay with gold coins and claiming to be royalty from another

realm. I thought he was going to get mugged, so I brought him here."

"You brought a crazy person home?" Abby's voice pitched higher. "Alyssa, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking he seemed harmless!" Alyssa protested. "And he was! Until I left him alone and he apparently

decided to redecorate."

Both women turned to look at me, and I felt compelled to explain. "I was attempting to clean and organize your

living space as a gesture of gratitude. Unfortunately, the fixtures in this realm appear to be far more fragile than I

anticipated."

Abby stared at me for a long moment, then turned back to Alyssa. "He really talks like that all the time?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"And you said he thinks he's from another realm?"

"The Moonstone Realm, to be specific," I interjected. "I'm a werewolf prince searching for my destined mate."

I expected Abby to laugh like Alyssa had, but instead, her expression grew thoughtful. She walked closer,

studying my face with an intensity that made me slightly uncomfortable.

"Werewolf, huh?" she said finally. "What pack?"

The question caught me completely off guard. "The... the Moonstone Pack. How do you know about packs?"

A small smile played at the corners of her mouth. "Lucky guess. Can you shift?"

"My wolf hasn't emerged yet, which is why I'm in this predicament."

"Okay, this is insane," Alyssa broke in. "You're actually entertaining his delusions?"

"They're not delusions if they're real," Abby replied mildly, never taking her eyes off me. "Tell me about this mate

you're looking for."

Finally, someone who seemed willing to listen. "She exists in this realm, but I've never met her. There's an

ancient blood pact between us that's keeping my wolf bound until I can find her and fulfill my promise."

"What kind of promise?"

The question I'd been dreading. "I... don't know. Not entirely. The seers said I made it in a previous life, but they

didn't explain the details before sending me through the portal."

Abby nodded like this made perfect sense. "And how long do you have to find her?"

"Less than three months now."

"What happens if you don't?"

"I lose everything. My wolf, my throne, my very essence as one of our kind."

"That's a pretty high stakes game," she said thoughtfully. "No wonder you're desperate."

"I am not desperate," I protested, though even I could hear how hollow the words sounded.

Alyssa threw up her hands. "This is crazy! Abby, you can't actually believe-"

"Stranger things have happened," Abby cut her off. "And look at him, Lys. Really look. When's the last time you

met someone who could maintain this kind of detailed fantasy? He's either completely delusional, or he's telling

the truth."

"Those aren't the only two options!"

"What's the third?"

Alyssa opened her mouth, then closed it again, apparently unable to come up with an alternative explanation.

"Right," Abby said. "So let's assume for now that he's telling the truth and see where that leads us." She turned

back to me. "First things first - we need to clean up this mess."

The next hour was spent attempting to restore the apartment to its previous state. Abby proved surprisingly

capable at repairs, managing to reattach the water fixture I'd broken and sweep up the ceramic fragments while

Alyssa worked on drying the soaked furniture.

I found myself relegated to holding things and staying out of the way, which was probably for the best given my

earlier efforts.

"So tell me more about this mate bond," Abby said as she worked on the water fixture. "How does it work

exactly?"

"When two destined mates meet, there's an instant recognition," I explained, grateful to have someone actually

interested in the details. "A connection that goes beyond the physical - soul calling to soul."

"And you've never felt anything like that with anyone?"

"Never."

"Not even a hint? A flutter of recognition?"

"Nothing." I paused, watching her work. There was something oddly familiar about her movements, a grace that

seemed almost... but no. That was impossible. "The seers showed me a vision of her in the portal. Dark hair,

walking through the city. But the image was unclear."

"Hmm." Abby's tone was carefully neutral. "And what will you do when you find her? Assuming she's not

exactly thrilled about the idea of leaving her entire life behind for a stranger?"

The question everyone kept asking. The one I still didn't have a good answer for.

"I suppose I'll have to convince her," I said finally. "Show her that we're meant to be together."

"And if she refuses?"

"She won't." The words came out more forcefully than I'd intended. "She can't. The bond between us-"

"Doesn't give you the right to force her into anything," Abby finished quietly.

"I would never-"

"I know." She looked up from her work to meet my eyes. "I can tell you're not that kind of person. But you need

to be prepared for the possibility that she might need time to accept this. That she might be scared or confused."

The thought of my mate being afraid of me was almost unbearable. "I just want to meet her. To explain."

"And then?"

"Then we'll figure it out together."

Abby nodded approvingly. "That's a better answer."

As we continued cleaning, I found myself studying the space more carefully. The walls were covered with images

- some looked like paintings, others appeared to be captured moments in time, though I couldn't understand the

technique used to create them.

One image in particular caught my attention. It showed Abby and Alyssa together, but there was something

about Abby's expression, the way the light caught her eyes, that made me pause. There was a depth there, an old

sadness that seemed at odds with her cheerful demeanor.

"That was taken last summer," she said, noticing my gaze. "Alyssa's birthday party."

"You look..." I struggled to find the right words. "Haunted."

She went very still. "What do you mean?"

"Your eyes. There's pain there. Old pain."

For a moment, something flickered across her features - surprise, maybe even recognition. But then she turned

back to her work, and the moment passed.

"Everyone has pain," she said simply. "It's part of being human."

But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.

By evening, we'd managed to restore most of the apartment to its original state. The viewing screen was beyond

repair, but everything else looked reasonably normal.

"I'm sorry," I said as we finished. "I was trying to help."

"Next time, just... don't touch anything," Alyssa replied, though her tone was less sharp than before.

"Actually," Abby said, "I have an idea that might help with your situation."

Next I saw her tapping into something I had never seen before. A pile of metal that lit up when she touched it,

another metal beast of some sort?

“What's that” I asked her.

“Oh this?” She said holding up the metal thing.

“Yes… that”

“Are you serious right now?” Alyssa cuts in as she walks in, “You don't know what a phone is?”

A phone? I thought to myself.

“Well, like Alyssa said, it's a phone and I'm checking for something on it”

“What are you checking for?” I asked still confused on what a phone is.

"Research materials," she explained, nodding for me to come close to the table. "Folklore, mythology, paranormal

studies. If werewolves exist, if there really are other realms, then someone somewhere has documented it."

I stared at the screen of this thing in amazement. "You would do that? Help me research?"

"Why not? It beats watching television all night."

"I still think you're both insane," Alyssa muttered, but she sat down at the table with us anyway.

For the next several hours, we pored into the ‘phone’ together. I was learning how to use it as well, most of the

searches contained information I knew to be false or incomplete, but occasionally I found references that made

me sit up straighter - mentions of pack hierarchies, descriptions of mate bonds, even a few paragraphs about

realm-walking that weren't entirely inaccurate.

"Listen to this," Abby said, reading from a particularly ‘website’ as they called it. "'The bond between true mates

transcends not only physical death but the barriers between worlds. A promise made in love can bind souls

across multiple lifetimes, creating connections that neither time nor distance can break.'"

"That sounds like what the seers told me," I said, leaning closer to read over her shoulder.

"And look at this part: 'However, such bonds come with great cost. The binding soul carries the weight of

separation across all incarnations, while the bound soul remains incomplete until the promise is fulfilled.'"

A chill ran down my spine. "What does that mean?"

"I think," Abby said quietly, "it means your mate has been suffering because of this bond. That she's felt

incomplete her whole life without understanding why."

Gideon's whispered words in the portal chamber came flooding back. The nightmares. The inability to form

lasting relationships. The part of her soul that had been trapped by my selfish promise.

"Oh god," I breathed. "What have I done to her?"

"Hey." Abby reached out and touched my arm. "You didn't choose this. You said the promise was made in a

previous life - that wasn't your fault."

But the guilt was overwhelming. Somewhere in this city was a woman who'd been suffering because of a promise

I'd made centuries ago in a life I couldn't even remember.

"We'll find her," Abby said firmly. "And we'll figure out how to fix this."

I looked up at her, struck by the conviction in her voice, the determination in her eyes. There was something

about her that made me want to believe everything would work out, that maybe I wasn't as alone in this as I'd

thought.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

She was quiet for a moment, her fingers still resting on my arm. "Because I know what it's like to feel incomplete.

To feel like part of your soul is missing."

Before I could respond Alyssa cuts in.

“Okay enough of the myth and stuffs, I need hands downstairs. Breads won't bake itself.”

“Oh right, how can I help?” I asked, even though it wasn't my thing to do manual labor, I had to repay the

accommodation I was getting.

“Let's get down, I'll show you a thing or two that shouldn't give a prince that much of a hard time.” She said

with obvious sarcasm that still made me itch for her head gone.

We went downstairs and I was tasked with cleaning duties, CLEANING DUTIES, a whole like myself, cleaning

the mess of two puny humans, unheard of.

“Can you two help me check if there's still flour at the back for me?”

“Sure” Abby replied as she went to the back while I followed.

As we were searching I couldn't get my mind off what she had said earlier about feeling incomplete, was she also

suffering the same predicament as me?

“Are you also looking for your mate?” I asked Abby.

From the looks on her face I could tell she was stunned but was also holding her laugh in.

“I didn't appear out of nowhere looking like a medieval knight now did I?”

For the first time, it didn't feel like an insult, we just laughed it off. Then Alyssa walked in.

"Did you guys find anything, or are you just going to stare at each other all night?"

Abby pulled up a sack of flour and we went back to the main room and for the rest of that day I was getting

taught how to bake, but the question still lingered in my mind, where do I go from here and how do I find my

mate