I Rejected My Alpha In Front Of The Pack

Chapter 4

On the night of the Winter Moon Banquet, heavy snow began to fall across the Frostpine territory.

Ronan took Serene to the ally estate south of the mountains. Before he left, he asked me to come with them again, saying all the elders would be there, and attending would help me step into the role of Luna later on.

I turned him down.

At 10:17, the care center called.

"Nora, your grandmother is missing," the nurse said.

I shot to my feet so fast my chair slammed into the wall behind me.

"When did she disappear?" I demanded.

The line went quiet for a beat.

"We noticed during the shift change," she replied. "She could have been gone for forty minutes already."

"Did you call the police? Where are the patrol guards?"

"We have already got in touch with them. The nearby patrol units were reassigned to provide security for the banquet tonight. Our staff are searching the ground first."

I was shoving my shoes on when I heard another caregiver mutter off to the side, "It is that watch. She has been looking for that watch all night."

My hand locked up halfway through pulling on my shoe.

"What's wrong with the pocket watch?" I asked.

"It went missing this afternoon," the caregiver said. "She keeps saying Arthur left, and she has to go find him."

I hung up and called Ronan immediately.

When he picked up, loud, clinking party music drifted through the line.

"Where is the pocket watch?" I asked.

"What pocket watch?"

"The one my grandmother keeps with her."

He went quiet for a few seconds.

"Serene has it," Ronan said. "She just needed it for tonight."

I grabbed the wall to steady myself, a searing pain shot through my right shoulder.

"I told you, you cannot borrow it."

"I know. She will return it as soon as she is done wearing it," Ronan said. "I have already sent someone over with a brand new one for your grandma."

"My grandmother is missing."

The music kept playing, soft and bright.

He sounded like he had not heard me right. "What did you say?"

"She could not find the watch, so she left the care center. It is snowing out there," I said, my voice shaking. "Get the patrol units back here. Right now."

Serene's voice cut in from the background, "Ronan, the ceremony is about to start."

"Hold on a second," Ronan said to her.

I heard him walk off to somewhere quieter.

"I will have the on-duty staff look for her. Stay home, and do not go hurting yourself again," Ronan said.

"I need the patrol guards."

"I already told you, I will handle it." He hung up.

I could not get a taxi at all, so in the end the workshop owner showed up to pick me up in his pickup truck.

When we got to the care center, there were only two employees holding flashlights in the entryway.

The back door alarm had been shut off that evening. The duty log claimed the snowstorm had caused a malfunction and it was waiting for repairs.

Outside, several overlapping sets of footprints were pressed into the snow.

I asked where the patrol team was.

The supervisor could not even meet my eyes.

"Alpha said we need to confirm first if she just wandered into another building," the supervisor muttered.

I pulled out my phone and called Mara. She had been the head of the Frostpine patrol guard before a knee injury forced her to retire six months prior. Grandma had altered a formal gown for her once, so I had kept her number saved.

She only asked for the location.

"Ten minutes," Mara said.

When Mara arrived and heard the details of the situation, her face turned grim.

"Grab me the clothes she wore most recently," Mara said.

She peeled off her coat on the porch and shifted into a gray wolf. The rest of the staff split into two teams to search along both sides of the road.

I followed her into the woods.

The wind howled straight at me, swirling thick snow and shoving me off balance more than once. The wolf paused up ahead, circled around a thick bush, and kept running toward the gully.

Further ahead lay a creek sheathed in a thin layer of ice.

The footprints vanished right at the water's edge.

Mara paced back and forth along both banks searching, then finally padded back to me and let out a low whimper.

I got it.

She had lost the trail too.

I held my flashlight up high. The beam swept over tree roots, rock faces, and snow-bowed branches.

Ever since Grandma had her stroke, her right foot dragged a little when she walked.

On a snow-covered rock further downstream, I spotted a short, faint scuff mark.

"Over there," I whispered, my voice barely came out.

Mara bolted toward the spot right away.

We found Grandma next to the abandoned mill.

She was huddled in the wind-sheltered corner of a low wall, snow caked thick in her hair. The cardigan she wore was the one I had knitted for her that fall, with two tiny blue flowers stitched over the worn cuffs.

I dropped to my knees and brushed the snow off her face. "Edith?"

No answer.

"Grandma, I am here."

Her hand was pressed tight to her chest, clutching a flat, round stone in her palm.

It was almost the exact same size as the pocket watch.

Mara had shifted back to her human form by then, wrapped in a blanket one of the team members had brought her, and was calling over the medics.

Someone told me to step back to give them space.

I backed up against the wall, watching as they knelt down, ran their checks, and traded loaded, quiet looks.

Finally, the medic lifted their head.

I did not hear a single word they said after that.

All I saw was that stone slip out of Grandma's slackened palm, rolling across the snow before it went still.

I picked it up and tucked it into my pocket.

My phone buzzed.

Ronan's voice came through, "Did you find her? I just sent my people out."

I stared at Grandma.

"No need," I said.

"Nora, do not talk like that. I know you are mad, just wait till I get back, okay?"

"She is dead."

The line went completely silent all at once.

"Who did you say?" Ronan asked.

I did not answer him.

When the medics pulled the white sheet up over her face, my phone slipped right out of my hand and sank into the snow.

Ronan was still calling my name through the speaker.