Drawn to You

The Boundary

LOCATION: LUPINE RELME

ALEXANDER’S P.O.V

I visited Aurora yesterday after my afternoon gym session with my Gamma, I trained for hours to calm all of my anger only for it to resurface the moment I saw her. Confused by my own feelings I wasn’t sure if I was angry at the fact, she left me or angry at the fact she was hurt. It is killing me slowly pretending that seeing her handcuffed to the hospital bed, paled face and tubes everywhere isn’t hurting me. Everyone that has seen my reaction to her is concerned, Aurora is supposed to be their Luna and my mate and yet seeing her barely clinging to life isn’t causing me to go into a rampage like most others. They don’t know everything about us, they don’t know that as soon as Aurora wakes up, she will reject me and go to Dylan, back to her parents, back to her original pack. Sitting at my desk with my head in my hands for so long has made them go numb but I still don’t want to move, I just want to go back in time, back to when I first met Aurora and reject her on the spot so she could be with the one she loved. Mason’s familiar voice broke me from my self-loathing, he is a good warrior and has really stepped up to the plate with everything going on, normally my Beta would be guiding me through it, but Aurora’s brother Nathan is visiting other packs, I haven’t told him about Aurora yet. Honestly, I don’t want to. 

“Alpha”

“Yes, Mason what is it?” I say with a sigh, I groaned internally at myself yes, I was an Alpha, but I didn’t have to be an asshole as well, I wiped the sorry frown off my face and looked Mason in the eye, he was a strong fighter, one of my best he deserves respect.

“I checked her handcuffs this morning and they were a little tight, I loosened them for you, I wasn’t sure if you want to keep her that way but while she is in a coma, they don’t need to be so tight right?” Mason shifted from side to side under the heat of my glare, but I refused to acknowledge his question.

“Gamma Nicole visited Aurora this morning, she thought it might have slipped your mind to call Aurora’s parents” Mason jumped slightly at the loud slam caused by my hands crashing into the desk, I hated being like that, but I had to distract him to compose myself, so he didn’t see the guilt all over my face, he knows Aurora ran away to another Alpha, he knows she is no longer Luna, the guilt is burning me from the inside out  I can’t believe I didn’t even think to call her parents and yet I have the nerve to call her my mate.

“You are dismissed Mason” I waved my hand to him as I picked up the receiver.

The phone rang a few times before the beautifully calm and nurturing voice of Aurora’s mother sounded through the phone

“Aurora my darling daughter, how are you? It’s been too long since you called last”  her voice was still light and airy as always, but you could hear the sadness coating her words, she missed her daughter like crazy and called almost every day, they spoke for hours.

“Gamma Hawthorne, it’s me Alexander.” My voice was shaky and all I wanted to do was cry to my mother-in-law over my mate, but I forced myself to stay calm and collected, crying over her will only make it worse when she finally wakes up and leaves.

“Oh! even better my handsome son-in-law, you know I am not the Gamma any more young man, call me Grace” the giggles and excitement in her tone flowed through her words even though she practically growled the last few using her Gamma tone even though she just insisted that she wasn’t one, goddess she is a funny woman and I adore her like my own mother.

Before I could even speak, she asked the question I wanted to avoid for a while. “Lex honey, where is my darling daughter.

“That’s what I called to tell you Gamma Hawthorne” she growled through the phone at me. “Sorry Grace,” I corrected myself and tried to collect my thoughts, so I didn’t say something stupid. “Aurora is in the hospital, Grace” the deafening silence at the other end was indicative of her wanting to continue on.

“She was attacked just outside the Glenwood Border Tunnel” her loud gasp on the end made my throat dry.

“She wasn’t visiting until next weekend, why was she there? WHAT HAPPENED?” Her sobs were not enough to distract me from the fact that with those few words she confirmed all of my suspicions. Ignoring her questions, I continued on I wanted this over and done with now.

“She is in the ICU, She was brought in by a pack member yesterday afternoon. She is in a coma and I will let you know when you can visit.” Her crying suddenly stopped.

“Alexander Logan Lowell, if my lovely daughter, your darling MATE, is in fact in the ICU and in such a bad way, WHY are you not with her, why are you calling me yourself and not next to her bedside, why aren’t you distraught with her pain” She was clearly emphasizing the facts she found important but it did what she wanted it to do, it broke the last of my resolve, I started to cry over everything, the loss of my mate, her betrayal and the shared pain we had through the link.

“How are you so calm dear.”

“Aurora left me Grace” I was sobbing uncontrollably but Grace really didn’t seem to mind. “She left me, I know I promised you all those years ago that I wouldn’t give up on her, but she had her bags packed, she was leaving me for Dylan. Once she is healed, I will let her reject me and move on with him, I promise”

“Alexander, please don’t, you know how much she loves you”

A sad chuckle escapes my chest “Yeah, loves me so much she cheats on me every chance she gets” I let out a loud sigh, my life is miserable my own fated mate doesn’t want me.

“She loves you” Grace whispers out.

“Grace, honestly you are overstepping now, I know you have been covering for her all of this time, I know she is cheating, even though I don’t feel it in the bond she comes home, and I can smell him all over her” I try not to be such an asshole most of the time, but Dusk is making it incredibly hard lately, so the words came out in a low growl. Upset with myself I shake my head and clear my thoughts. “Grace what would you have me do?”

“I don’t know what you should do Alex, but I know what I have to, I will tell her father straight away, we will stay by her side and fix this, we will even move to you pack I promise, please just don’t leave my little girl, don’t leave her heartbroken”

“You hate my pack, Grace. I am certain  you called it the charity case adoption centre once” I appreciate the thought but it’s too little too late.

“I don’t hate your pack, Alex. I just find it hard getting along with the non…. Werewolves” I would normally at her description of the other magical creatures in my pack, non werewolves, goddess she is one of a kind, but I am too wrapped up in my own pain to laugh right now.

“Grace, you know my pack is different and you hate it, that’s why you didn’t leave when Aurora and Nathan moved here, you stayed where you belong and that is fine, we are allies after all”

“I promise you I will make this all better, Aurora loves you, she does, I will go talk-“

“I have to go Grace” I quickly interrupt her  hang up the line before she can make any plans to come, I don’t want her here or her husband and more importantly I don’t want Dylan to come here. They must have planned Aurora running away and if he doesn’t know she is hurt he just might think that she changed her mind and doesn’t want to run away with him anymore. I Hope.  

After countless hours of going through the paperwork sitting on my desk, I can’t help but regret sending Nathan, my Beta away. His absence is the cause of my mountain of never-ending spreadsheets and analytical data on not only interpack but outerpack finances. Now that he has been gone for almost two weeks, I am overworked, not sleeping, not eating and I am still barely getting by all this paperwork is showing me the sheer volume of things he handles for me is too much for one person. After Nicole’s three-year break from pack life to travel she really needs to step up and start taking on some of it, or Nathan could just find his mate already and she can help too. Everything he does for me is incredible. He definitely deserves a holiday, a pay rise, something. I find myself sitting staring at the clock, wondering if I should try and visit Aurora again, I barely contained my rage yesterday and I spend five hours training just so I would be too exhausted to do anything other than watch her lay there. If I go there without training first, I might do something stupid, what if I attack a pack member, or banish her or what if I can’t control myself and flip out causing harm to my unconscious mate. Maybe the fact that she is going to leave me is a blessing. I don’t deserve a mate, even though all alphas have rage issues mine always seemed worse, my father made sure he raised me to be able to control it, but I know that at any minute I can snap. Unlike most Alphas I wasn’t only a dominant wolf, I was a hot-read, rage filled, blood-thirsty wolf craving to conquer the world. It’s really not because I am a bad person or anything, my mind just works different, we were given this Realm to be away from war and fighting and that is all we have done since we got here, the Goddess probably hates us. I want to conquer Lupa Qamar not because I want power but because I want peace. Not that war to make peace makes any sense, all I know is that other Alphas are trouble, no one can rein us in no one holds power over us, and that’s dangerous. Thankfully, I get a mind link that pulls me from my never-ending sorrow filled thoughts.

            Joshua: Alpha?

            Alexander: Hey Josh, what is it? I am in my office if you want to stop by and talk

            Joshua: I wish I could, but I am on south-west boundary patrol  and two high ranking wolves and                             the Alpha of Darkwood are requesting entry to our lands.

            Alexander: Excuse me? They what?

How dare Grace come without confirmation, how dare she bring her husband or the alpha for that matter. Normally I am a fairly easy going Alpha and I don’t think Josh is used to the anger radiating through our bond right now. 

           Joshua: They wish to visit Luna Aurora.

            Alexander: Absolutely not! Tell them I reject their request.

I can feel his fear though the link and I really hope he doesn’t think I am made at him, I really wanted to tell him not to call her the Luna, she isn’t the Luna any more she isn’t my mate anymore, but I can’t if I snap at him, he will think my anger is directed at him instead of the nerve of her parents bringing him along with them. I am starting to go through paperwork again, but the universe is against me today.  

        Joshua: Alpha, they have requested your presence at the boundary, they see my denial of the former Gamma and Alpha of an allied pact’s request is an act of disrespect and they wish to have me demoted.

I can hear the cockiness in his tone, he knows I will never agree with Dylan, he knows that I will show up and defend him. I love all of my pack members, I really do, I grew this pack a lot when I took over, but I made it a place of happiness not just one of obligation and birthright. It saddens me that I have lost sight of that over the last few years, putting all of my effort towards Aurora just to be shown I should have rejected her and focused on the pack. I don’t need a Luna, not anymore.

        Alexander: Okay I will be there soon

I walked as slowly as possible to the boundary just to stall a little longer.

“Gamma Grace, Gamma Nathan, it’s my pleasure please come in” I  shouted before I got to them, I didn’t want to get to close.  Dylan attempted to walk in with them,  and my guards stopped him, I could hear the growl coming from his wolf. It honestly made me incredibly happy to see.  

“Dylan, you have escorted the Gamma’s here safety, you can be on your leave now.” I waved him off as I went to turn around only to be stopped by a sentence that made my happiness turn to wrath, my warriors stiffened as they felt my aura radiating hate towards him.  

“I’m not going anywhere Alex! I knew she was hurt before you did”

“Excuse me?” silence surrounded us staring each other down but he refused to speak. “You herd me dog! If you knew she was hurt, why didn’t you get her medical attention.” 

“Because…Because…” his face went blank and he realised the mistake he just made, admitting to a fellow Alpha that he managed to see his mate hurt before anyone else did.

I had my doubts, but it honestly could have been Dylan that hurt her, but it seemed unlikely since she was running away with him.

“Don’t bother even trying to explain Dylan, but so help me if I find out this was you. I will make you wish your slut of a mother never had you.  Leave my land! NOW!” My roar was enough to make everyone flinch except for Dylan.

“No Alex, I deserve to see her!’ he took a step towards my boundary and that’s all it took for Dusk to take over, my eyes clouded, and my claws lengthened.

“NO, YOU DONT!” I growled stepping towards him ready to attack. Ready to kill this sorry excuse for an Alpha.

“Alexander” her voice and gentle touch calmed my wolf, he loved Grace.

“Yes Grace?” she managed to calm the wolf but not the human.

“Please let him see her, it might help if both of you are by her side, she might wake up faster that way.” Goddess why did you make her my mother-in-law, how am I able to deny a request form her and a reasonable one at that? After thinking it over for a while I realised the faster Aurora woke up the faster, she could reject me and take the pain away.  

“Fine!” my finger directed straight towards Dylan with a clear warning. “You will be permitted to enter my lands under ascot at 12pm every day and you must leave before 4pm no exceptions. You are to bring no guards with you. Do you understand my terms?” I stare him down until he finally breaks eye contact.

“Yes, Alpha Alexander, I accept.”

AURORA’S P.O.V

I thought that if I agreed to leave the empty everything would change. I expected to open my eyes greeted by loved ones like the darkness promised. I had the hope that my memories would return too but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Maybe something needs to trigger it, maybe I need to open by eyes before everything comes flooding back, maybe I need to be stronger. My body feels heavy and stiff like I have been stuck in the same position for too long. While I am awake my consciousness floats around my mind. Almost like I am stuck on a loading screen waiting for something to happen. If I concentrate really hard, I can make out faint voices and sounds, like they are within my reach but covered by a veil. The faint voices return around me and unfortunately trying to concentrate on them too much has drained my energy today, and I drift off into a dreamless sleep not knowing when I might wake again.

The afternoon sky in Autumn is a beautiful time of day, when the sky graced with heavenly hues of orange, yellows and pinks until the sun finally surrenders its place to the moon, wolves and other magical creatures alike are normally out frolicking through the many fields and meadows however today they seek shelter in their houses away from the outside world. As for today the beauty of Autumn has been taken and replaced with dark brooding storm clouds rolling through the sky from the west, taking every last light of day with them. The gentle breeze has picked up into a howling wind whipping through the trees and the ground shakes as roars of thunder tremble through the earth. Today the wrath of The Goddess is coming down full force on Darkridge, her anger over the little wolf from the garden had grown into a mighty storm aiming to decimate everything in its path. Seeing the little wolf alone in her hospital room the Goddess regrets telling her to leave the garden, she might have been better off staying in there. Eventually the wrath of the Goddess subsides, and she decides to stay away from the Palace for a little while, she must stay and investigate the cause for all of this. She grows more confused, but she is slowly realizing that there is more to this story, she left their destiny in their hands without interference from the gods, she now knows that it was a mistake. Something has gone horribly wayward and derailed her whole destiny, her only choice now is to wait and watch it all unfold, at least until the little wolf wakes up.

DYLAN’S P.O.V

After walking through the boundary between my pack and Darkridge I was pleased to see Alex requesting a warrior to escort me to the pack hospital not even having enough care to command him to do it, he trusts his pack, but he shouldn’t, not when I am around. Things are way too lenient in this pack and one day it will be their downfall. The moment Alex was out of site I commanded the warrior to leave my side and continued on to the hospital alone, I felt slightly guilty about the warrior getting into trouble but realised that the soft Alpha Alex would probably let him go with a warning. Slowly strolling through the grounds on the short walk to the pack hospital, I took in the beautiful day around me, the sky was dark and grey, and the wind was lightly howling, clouds thundering in the distance, It was all so… miserable, like the world was sobbing waiting for the downpour of Goddess tears to bring rain from the heavens. It was perfect. I strolled through the emergency entrance like I owned the place, and they must have recognised me instantly as the neighbouring alpha and more importantly Alex’s old friend, they didn’t question for a moment why I had no escort and I was baffled, Alex hated me now so why didn’t his pack care that I was walking around alone. Maybe they didn’t care, maybe they hated him, who knows.

Joy turned quickly to shock the moment I stepped foot into her room, my beautiful Aurora laid still on the bed. I crossed the room to get a closer look at her and my heart stilled in my chest. Her normally honey toned skin looked pale and lifeless, her face looked peaceful but miserable all the same, her eyes where sunken and she had dark black bags underneath them, she had cuts and bruises everywhere. I couldn’t help but stifle a cry as I ran my thumb along her busted lip. Her golden hair was a dull yellow colour and clung to the sides of her face. I went to hold her hand in mine to offer comfort, but the sound of clanging metal made my stomach churn. I whipped back the blankets and saw her two fragile hands cuffed to the sides of the bed. My blood boiled and as I went to break them. the clearing of a voice made me turn towards the door only to see my old friend glaring at me.

ALEXANDER’S P.O.V

Seeing him hovering over Aurora bought out every possessive fibre in my being, I wanted nothing more than to rip his limbs from his body where he stood but with many warriors and the Gammas of Darkwood saw me grant him access to the pack, to murder him now I would have to have a good reason, unfortunately sitting next to Aurora is not a good reason.

“Where is Josh Dylan?” I question, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible and he turns towards me.

“Why is she cuffed?” his voice so small and so soft, slowly he looks back towards Aurora and the look of love in his eyes towards her is killing me.

“I thought the terms of our agreement was for you to be escorted everywhere Dylan”

“Why is she cuffed!” Dylan shouts at me, his fits are clenched, and his knuckles have gone white, I am practically willing him to start a fight at this point, at least then I can actually take my rage out on him with out and issue.

“Dylan! Answer my question.” I spit back, keeping my tone levelled and I can tell by now that the calm tone in my voice is getting to him

“Alex, answer mine! Why is your mate cuffed to this bed.” His voice broke and I sat there dumbfounded.  

“Ha! My Mate! Of course, you rub that in, you know she’s not my Mate anymore” I chucked sadly at him. My heart is breaking and being this close to them is killing me. I don’t know why but Dylan’s face contorted into one of fury and disappointment and I stood there just looking at him in a daze.

I was so rattled by the way he was looking at me and the way this confrontation went that I didn’t realise Dylan’s fist flying straight towards my face, I didn’t have time to dodge it and a loud crack sounded through the room, my nose was killing me and surely there is blood dripping down my face but that’s not going to stop me. I put all my rage and anger into every punch eventually we were bloody and exhausted from both exchanging blow after blow into each other, numerous pieces of furniture had been smashed right there in front of her bed, two nurses managed to pry us apart and I couldn’t help but see past all of the swelling and bruises to the pain my old friend held across his face I am sure he could see the same. We both loved her and neither of us know how to cope.  

AURORA’S P.O.V

I have been fading in and out for days, possibly even weeks now, once I am asleep, I feel nothing, experience nothing, like my consciousness shuts down. When I am awake my consciousness is responsive, but my body is not. I can feel how much colder it is here compared to the Empty, its louder here too. Honestly, I wish I were back in the Empty at least my body responded while I was there. Everything stays the same when I am awake, I hear the same machines whirring and the constant beeping of what I now believe to be an ECG machine, I hear voices talking to each other and sometimes to me, when I focus on too many things, right before I fall asleep, I hear alarms going off and shouting of what could be doctors and nurses, because it is always the same, I can’t ascertain how much time really has passed. The last time I was awake something was different though, I heard shouting and what could have only been punches being thrown and the sound furniture breaking but when I tried to focus to make out anything specific the alarms started again, and I fell asleep.  Today I can hear a man calling to me, begging for me to open my eyes, begging me to come back, begging me to stay with him, he sounds so broken, I wish I were awake so I could comfort him and tell him everything was going to be alright. I tried to move my body but must have drained myself because as quickly as I woke up, I was lulled into the warm embrace of sleep. Today wasn’t really different but I hope tomorrow is.