Atonement (#2 of the Spike pack)

The missing mate

The day flew by, and the next thing I knew, I was being pressed inside a room with Ash and Jamie, claiming we had to 'get ready together' and 'work on or bromance' or whatever? I had just sighed and went looking for some booze in the fridge, which, unfortunately, had none at all.

“Alpha, why is there no alcohol in here?” I asked him, seeing how he turned to face me.

“Because the Luna is pregnant and, therefore, there will be no alcohol in my house.” He answered me, giving me his usual face, the one which told me not to speak back or he would kick my ass again.

“Dang it.” I sighed, closing the door from the fridge, as I decided to get myself ready to be sober. And a few minutes later, I had my dark blue pants on and a black shirt. And quietly thanked the Moon Goddess, that Lana and Jamie wanted to keep things 'casual', and therefore nobody needed to wear a tuxedo or, even worse, a bowtie!

An hour later or so, we were standing downstairs in the living room, which Addie had transformed into some sort of romantic scene out of a Nicholas Sparks movie. I did need to give it to our Luna. The woman could organize a damn party when she needed to. While all I needed to do, was just stand there and be present for the event. Thinking about which she-wolf I was about to f**k later that night to keep myself occupied.

I couldn’t help but look at my brother, Jamie, as soon as Lana had arrived in the room. And I looked at the both of them, as they interacted with each other. And I couldn’t help myself but to feel jealous at what I was seeing. Not that I wanted to be with Lana, not at all. She was now like a sister to me, she was Jamie’s, so she was 'hands off' forever, from the first second that I had seen her. So I wasn't jealous because Jamie had Lana, but I was jealous of the way they were acting around each other. The way they looked at each other, spoke to each other. As if they were the center of each other’s universe. Like only they mattered, and I felt jealous, because I still wanted that to, I just knew for a fact, that I would never get it, never find it.

I looked a bit further to my left, where my Alpha and Luna were standing. Ash had his arm wrapped around Addie, while she rested her head against his shoulder, and I almost had to roll my eyes just by looking at those two. f*****g love birds… And I saw how Addie was stroking her small baby bump. And another small inch of pain struck through my heart, knowing that this, too, would be something that I would never have, never witness, never experience. I would never have a mate again, so automatically, I would never have kids either. I would never end up like my old man, just impregnating someone because I was stupid enough to let that happen. No, I had only ever wanted kids with my mate. So again, no mate, no kids. And that was final. Even if it still hurts in my heart. Someday, the pain will stop. Someday, I will find a way to fill up that gap inside of me. Somehow.

After a foolishly romantic mating ceremony, the lovely couple had gone up to mate, as all newly mated couples would do to complete the mating ritual, and our Luna was bossing every male in the room around, making sure that the floor would be free to dance on, and drinks would be standing ready for when the other guests would arrive shortly. Which once again, left me no room to think, about who I would choose tonight as a fuckbuddy. Luckily for me, I didn’t even have to look. Because once the party was on a roll, the she-wolves were able to find me all on their own. I even had to bite the inside of my cheek, to not burst out in laughter, as a very drunken she-wolf walked my way, pretending to be sexy, but failing miserably.

“Hey Luke!” He screamed, way too loud for the music.

Oh f**k, one of those

the kind that gets so drunk, so they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

The kind where I needed to head over to her place.

Well, better than nothing, I guess?

“Hey… you!” I smiled, once again having no clue what this girl’s name was. I didn’t think I had f****d her before, but well… one could always be wrong. I normally didn't pay much attention to their faces or names anyway. Not that I would f**k an ugly girl, but still. I hated to kiss, it was too intimate for me to share, so I avoided it all together. Just f**k and be done.

“So, any plans for later?” She asked me, which made me raise my eyebrows.

“Why? Are you inviting me for something?” I asked her, hearing her giggle again, a drunk giggle, which was way too loud and way too annoying for anyone who was sober. Reminding myself to get shitdrunk myself tonight, or I would never be able to tolerate this one.

“Well yeah, if you want to have a good time.” She grinned, biting on her straw as she peeked at me from underneath her fake and far too long eyelashes.

“Sure, I’ll find you when I’m ready to go.” I told her, nodding and turning around as I stepped away from her. I didn’t need to stay and hang with her, she was so f*****g horny I didn’t even need to do anything but pull my pants down.

Well, let’s find my Beta and get this show on a roll.

I spotted Jamie after a while, a damned smirk all over his face. And once again, a bolt of jealousy struck through my heart. Jamie looked happy, so f*****g happy. He had his arm wrapped around Lana and I honestly couldn’t remember ever seeing him so… at ease? As if the girl he was holding was the center of his universe, and another pinch of jealousy came as I looked at Lana, and saw that she looked at Jamie the exact same way. Now again, I wasn’t jealous of them, I was jealous at the situation. I wanted to be like that, I wanted to have that. I wanted such a person.

Fuck

I wanted a person…

I wanted my person

Lana and Jamie talked to each other, after which Lana walked off and Jamie’s eyes found me, grinning once again.

“Where did the lovely bride go?” I asked Jamie, who sighed deeply as he looked into the direction that Lana had just walked into.

“She thinks she is starting to feal her wolf. She wanted some privacy.” He told me.

Right

Lana was a human when she met Jamie

Which meant that now, after the mating ceremony, once their blood had been mixed

Lana would turn into a wolf herself soon.

Fun times!

“So, found someone to fill up your bed with tonight?” Jamie asked me, and I nodded, taking a sip from my beer. Jamie knew everything about me, and still, he never judged me, not once. He was just there, listening when I needed someone to hear me.

“ You are one little male-w***e Luke, let’s hope one day, your mate will be able to see past that.” He sighed, looking over at me, and all I could do was laugh hard and shake my head at him.

Me?

A mate?

yeah right…

“If my second chance mate… if I would even be able to find her, is in any way, shape or form like that b***h Francesca was, then I am just fine keeping up with this lifestyle of mine.” I answered to Jamie, meaning every word of it. Even with Francesca being a b***h and now dead, she had broken my heart, and I honestly didn’t believe I would be able to survive a second round of that. We both looked up, seeing how Ash walked over, his face not looking like the celebrating kind, but the kind where he needed help from his Beta and Gamma.

“What? What is it?” Jamie asked him, seeing how Ash frowned as he looked at us.

Shit

This is not good.

Something is wrong here...

“The pack borders, I just got linked by a warrior, Alpha Trevor is back, and he is not sounding happy. Something about Robert, he wants to talk to us now, says that it is very urgent.”

What the hell?

Alpha Trevor was the Alpha of the Grey pack up north, his son and soon to be Alpha Robert, was Lana’s ex out of all people. After using her as a punching bag one too many times, Lana had run for it, to the middle of nowhere, where she had met Jamie, her true mate. Robert, clearly having issues with understanding the meaning of the word ‘no’, didn’t know how to back off. Clearly, I had not kicked his ass hard enough the one time I had seen him a couple of weeks ago.

Ah… Good times.

“You’re the boss…” Jamie sighed, clearly not happy that this Alpha was disturbing his mating ceremony. The one night where everything was meant to be about them, was now being turned into another shitshow of Alpha testosterone. But I was quickly pulled out of my daydream of beating up some little prick, when Mason walked over, his face looking troubled.

“Something is wrong! We need to gather everyone” He yelled at us, over the music.

“I sense magic, and it’s not mine or Charlotte’s, do you have another wizard or witch here tonight?” He asked Jamie, to which he shook his head, looking at Mason, a strong wizard who lived in another pack, but who had come here to protect Lana from her psycho ex for the time being. And I knew what Mason was saying was true, we had zero magic inside the Spike pack, that’s why we had Mason and his mate Charlotte even come into our pack in the first place, to protect Lana. Or maybe to protect us all from a potential magical attack.

I don’t know what happened, but something inside Jamie seemed to snap, as he pushed Ash and Mason to the side and started to run. We all followed him as he ran towards the bathroom, yanked open the door and looked at… nothing.

“No” he whispered, frozen in his place. And that’s when I knew something was terribly wrong.

“No!” he screamed this time, running towards the open window, and looking outside, and that’s when I knew that we were too late. Something or someone had taken Lana, Jamie’s mate, my new sister. And I felt myself fill up with anger, knowing that when we would find her, someone was going to die!