Gone, Found and Freed

Chapter 10 - Gone

POV Ace

                I woke the next morning without the perfect warmth I was expecting to have for the first time in my life. Instead, I felt nothing. I reached over prepared to wrap my arms around the love of my life. Instead, there was nothing there. I sit up in the bed looking around the room and Alina is no where to be found. I get up and see the door to the bathroom cracked and push it open. She isn’t there either. I open the bedroom door and head into the kitchen and living room area of this tiny cabin. She’s no where. I take a huge wiff of the air around me and realize that she isn’t anywhere close and hasn’t been in a while. I peek through the curtains and notice that her jeep is gone.

                “Where did she go?” I say aloud to myself confused beyond belief.

                Max’s voice broke through yawning, ‘Oh she left last night.’

                ‘What?’ I respond trying to register what Max was telling me.

                ‘Yeah, remember that stupid thing you did about six months ago that I told you not to do because it would eventually come back and bite you in the ass?’ He responded in a mocking tone.

                ‘If this is about Layla then it’s not possible. I never mentioned Layla to Alina.’ I snapped back at him.

                ‘That doesn’t mean she didn’t find out.” At that he put up a block between us and retreated into the back of my head. Stupid mutt, who does he think he is? As if he would know whether or not Alina found out about Layla or not. I mean, how would she?

                I walk back into the bedroom looking for a note or something as to where she could have gone. I pick up my phone but realize quickly that she and I never even exchanged phone numbers. How could I not have my own mates phone number? What is wrong with me? I mean, granted, I never thought she would ever be away from me. EVER, but here we are.

                *ding*

                I unlock my phone and see a message from Layla.

                “If somethings going on, I just wish you would tell me! Ignoring me is really getting old Alex! I deserve more than this!”

                I roll my eyes. I go to reply to the message but then realize that there’s a bunch more that I never opened.

                “What the hell..?” I say aloud to myself.

                ‘See told you it would come and bite you in the ass later.’ Max’s annoying voice chimes back in my head.

                ‘Oh, nice of you to join us mutt!’ I respond annoyed.

                ‘Have you figured it out yet?’ He said with that smirking tone of his.

                ‘Figured what out?’ I’m really starting to get annoyed with him now. If he knows something then he just needs to fess up. ‘What do you know Maximus?’

                ‘I know that while you were sleeping, your phone went off like crazy. Shortly afterwards, mate was gone. You put the pieces together stupid human.’ He said so matter a factly that I just wanted to reach into my own head and strangle him.

                ‘So, you’re saying Alina went through my phone?’ I asked concerned.

                ‘I’m just telling you what I hear and felt. She may not have and just decided to get up and disappear for no reason after the mating ritual. Yeah, cause that’s what NORMAL she-wolves do. Right?’ He said with a little bit of attitude.

                ‘Okay Max, I get it. But what do we do? How do I find her? I just need to talk to her and explain the situation.’

                ‘You mean the situation where you just sorta forgot to break up with your girlfriend after finding her? Yeah, good luck human.’

                ‘I don’t need your attitude Max, I need your help. Are you going to help me or not?’

                ‘Needless to say, but I have spoken to Lily.’ He said making my heart race with hope.

                ‘Where are they Max?’ responding with a growl.

                ‘She won’t say. She just said that they’re okay and to not go looking for them.’

                ‘That’s not good enough Max. Try to reach her again and tell her that I want to talk to Alina and explain myself. If she could please come back because… because I need her.’

                ‘Well played Romeo. I’m not saying that.’ I swear I could feel his eyes rolling.

                ‘I SWEAR TO GODDESS MAX! If you mess this up for me…’ I said yelling in my own head before he cut me off.

                ‘YOU ARE THE ONE WHO MESSED THIS UP! I TOLD YOU NOT TO GET INVOLVED WITH THAT DISGUSTING LAYLA IN THE FIRST PLACE!’ he responded yelling back at me. And at that he put up a wall between us that I couldn’t break. I know he’s mad at me and is upset that our mate is gone, but instead of making me feel shittier he should just help me. I can’t contact Alina if she isn’t within the pack territory. He can contact Lily whenever he wants with no issues. I just hope that he comes to his senses and tried to reach Lily before they get to far and I can’t find them at all. I mean, I guess I could go out and try and find Alina’s scent and follow it, but that chances of it still lingering are next to none. Firstly, she took the jeep making it next to impossible to track. You can’t keep a scent once someone gets into a car. Secondly, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

                ‘Please Max, just try.’ I say with complete sincerity behind my words hoping he took the wall down. I just know that if I loose our mate, he will never recover and he will never forgive me for getting involved with Layla.

                POV Alina

                I feel empty. I’ve only been gone for three hours and I already feel the mate bond pulling me back to him. I don’t want to go back though. Whatever he has going on with that Layla girl is obviously something special to him. If it wasn’t, then he would of ended it when he found me. I can understand him not doing it right away, but he’s basically been living with me for two days now. No where in that time frame did he think to call things off with this Layla chick? And then to turn around and mate with me, along with marking me?

                ‘Maybe he found us and just completely forgot about her.’ Lily chimes in on my thoughts.

                ‘Really Lily, that’s what your coming up with? You’re so naïve.’ I say rolling my eyes. How can she possibly believe that?

                ‘I’m just saying, you never know Alina. You didn’t even give him the chance to explain. You didn’t even talk to me about what I wanted before you just left. All you do is run from your problems. Why can’t you for once just give someone a chance?’ I could hear her whimpering through her words and it broke my heart even more. I know she misses her mate just as much as I do, but I just don’t want either of us to get hurt. We’ve both been through so much already in our lifetime that I think me avoiding another pain filled incident would do us some good.

                ‘Lily, I just don’t want us to get hurt. We’ve been through enough in this lifetime don’t you think?’ I say trying to sound as reassuring as I can to try and comfort her, but I knew that it really wasn’t going to help.

                ‘What if mate won’t hurt us? What if he’s the one that changes everything for us? We won’t have to run and hide anymore Alina. We can have a normal life as a Luna. Please return to mate.’ she was full on whimpering at this point that it almost made me cry as well. I do want to go back. I want to go back more than anything, but… I’m scared. What if he chooses her over me? I decided to come clean to Lily and tell her that that is what I’m feeling. I feel like she understood but also thought that it was absolutely ridiculous at the same time. She and I both know that it’s impossible to feel something for another after you’ve marked your found mate. One’s wolf wouldn’t allow it.

                ‘You could be right Lily. What do we do?’ I ask looking down at the clock on the radio in the jeep. It’s now almost 7:30 in the morning and I know that he most likely already noticed my absence.

                ‘He does know. Mate knows we’re gone and why we left.’ Lily comes through not answering my question from before.

                ‘How do you know that?’ I ask with my heartbeat speeding up.

                ‘I talked to Maximus. He told me. Ace wants you to go back to the cabin, he wants to explain everything to you.’ She says with a little bit of hope in her tone.

                ‘You talked to Maximus and didn’t say anything? When did you talk to him? What exactly did he say?’

                ‘He first contacted me when we reached downtown. He just wanted to know what was going on and where we were going. I told him what was going on but didn’t tell him where we were going because I didn’t even know where we going.’

                ‘What did he say when you told him?’ I ask almost not wanting to know.

                ‘He said he knew about Layla and that he told Ace not to get involved with her from the start because he knew that she wasn’t his mate. He said that Ace was sick of waiting for their mate and started things with Layla six months ago.’ She answered and I could tell she was being honest and leaving nothing out.

                ‘Wait, you said “first”. Has he contacted you since?’

                ‘Yes, he contacted me about thirty minutes ago. He said Ace knows everything now as well and wants to talk to you about everything and explain. I told him that you were hurt and that I didn’t think we were going to end up going back, but he said that Ace is lost. That he feels guilty for everything. He didn’t want you to find out about Layla that way. That he was waiting for the right time to tell you and end things with her so that there wouldn’t be any conflict.’ She explained.

                ‘I want her gone Lily. I don’t ever want to have to see her in my life Lily.’

                ‘Neither do I Alina, but can we do that? Can we ask Ace to kick a wolf out of the pack simply because we are jealous of her?’ she asked. I mean, yeah, she did have a point. Could we do that? Would Ace even agree to that?

                ‘Can you tell Max that? Can you tell him that the only way we’re coming back is if Layla is gone?’ I ask with a newfound confidence in my voice.

                ‘I can try Alina. I know Maximus will be all for it. He hates Layla, but I’m not so sure Ace will like that to much. He is an Alpha and Layla is one of his pack members. No Alpha likes loosing a pack member regardless of the circumstances.’ She explained this all to me and to be honest, I didn’t care one bit about his ‘Alpha Pride’. He either wants me or he wants her. Now is the time for him to choose.

                ‘I don’t care Lily. Those are my terms. He can take it or leave it.’ I can sense her nodding in agreement and understanding and then she disappeared. I left her alone because I knew she was reaching out to Max through their wolf link. I guess I’ll find out his decision soon.

*****     Hello readers. I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to update this story. I know you all have been inquiring about it and I've been slacking. I'm trying to figure out how to fit writing fall into my life smoothly. I do love to write and give you all wonderful works that you all can really get into. I hope you are all doing well during these rough times. I promise to update again very soon. I'm thinking I will update this story on Tuesday's and Thursday's and the new book "Alpha Ying and Beta Yang" on Monday's and Wednesday's. I just have to see how that schedule plays out. I am a full time student atm and also work full time. But I am making the most of my time. Chapters may end up being posted late at night or I'll post multiple at a time to keep y'all updated. Thank you for your patients everyone. XOXOXOXO     *****