Taken by my mate

Spencer

I barely slept. After my late night run around the property, I shifted and checked in with all of the patrols. I had gathered the information about the corpse that the Alpha hadn’t shared and went to the graveyard to check out the area. Everything looked undisturbed but I sniffed around anyway for anything amiss. A corpse coming to life…. That was something I had never fought before.

I ran until I was tired enough to pass out naked in my room, barely making it to my bed, and woke up mid morning to the sun. Showered, got dressed, left my room and headed for the Alpha’s bedroom without thinking. The guards were all gone and I knocked tentatively before I remember the doors were basically sound proof and opened the door, calling in for the Alpha or Evadiene. Both were absent, along with Sequoia, and I went to find them. My first stop was the kitchen; empty, then the Alpha’s office.

I knocked gently, thinking my words through carefully. “Come in.”

When I opened the door, the Alpha was sitting in his same clothes from the night before but he looked like he had showered so he must have stayed in one of he guest rooms. He looked up at me, face stern, and nodded like he had expected to see me. His gaze returned to whatever he was working on as he spoke.

“Spencer, yes, what is it?”

“I was just checking in for anything that needed to be done today. I noticed the guards in the house had been relocated and didn’t want to be the only one not doing my part.” I spoke evenly but he was smarter than that.

He looked up to me slowly over his nose. “Are you asking me why there are no guards outside my bedroom?”

“I trust your decisions Alpha, I was merely….”

“Are there, or aren’t there, guards stationed around the access points to the room Evadiene was sleeping in?” He asked directly, holding his pen like meant to break it.

I didn’t hesitate but braced myself as I replied, “there aren’t.”

He growled loudly, pulling out his phone and calling one of the guards he had placed there last night. I was glad he cut the middle man and turned the phone volume up for me to hear as he asked why the man and his men had abandoned their post. He nervously replied that the Luna had left the room earlier that morning, and insisted that they were only there to guard the room while she slept. Alpha demanded to know where she had gone and he said she had mentioned wanting to fix a car, go for a walk, and read. The man offered to help search for her, but he was lucky Covyn refused.

“You have found yourself a task,” he said as he stood up. “I will search the library. You check the garage on your way outside to check the property, notify me if you find her. I will be checking inside the main house.”

I nodded and left to do as instructed. I almost hoped she was trying to fix the car alone but the garage was absent of Evadiene’s scent and no one there had seen her. Some of the men had dragged Alpha’s truck back to the garage, confused as shit that they could smell blood in it and were sure someone had been gravely injured but found nothing. I shrugged my shoulders and told them I had nothing to add to their questions but instructed them to cover up the truck and keep it to themselves until more was known. I started running around the property but I couldn’t smell her strange scent anywhere so I was sure she hadn’t gone outside at all that morning.

I glanced in all the windows as I passed them, eventually catching her on a treadmill in the gym. I stopped in front of the window and waved but she didn’t look like she was seeing anything. Her face was bland as porridge but I could see the turmoil in it. No one was that distracted and mentally calm.

The Alpha was coming up behind her as I stood there and I hoped he would see what I did. A woman who had made up her mind on what she was going to do, whether it hurt her or not, and was now bidding her time to enact her plan. Evadiene would destroy herself for everyone here, and I couldn’t help wishing she had never met our Alpha.

—-

Covyn

I had searched half the house before I overheard someone say the word ‘luna’ and I stopped them.

“She’s in the gym. Has been for two hours already, just running on the treadmill in the corner,” they told me uneasily, but I had grown soft in the days since Evadiene had arrived and hadn’t even punished the guards that took her word over checking with me.

I huffed with frustration as I made my way toward the gym.

Two hours. She’s been running for two hours?

When I walked in my face was still firm and people parted uneasily from my path as I walked between machines. Their faces looked between us, none of them clearly thinking her being there had been a problem. I had the distinct impression that all of them had been individually making it their personal mission to keep an eye on her and make sure no one bothered her.

“Evadiene,” I called as I got near but she didn’t turn. I growled slightly, trying again, “Evadiene!” I had nearly reached her when a hand touched my arm and I turned to see Lucas, who was normally long done his gym session by now and outside.

I growled at him but he stood firmly against me, which was a stranger occurrence than it sounded. He made a gesture in covering his ears and looked me eye to eye.

“The Luna’s wearing headphones,” he said, his voice more respectful in tone then his actions. “She can’t hear anyone. Hasn’t even looked anywhere but out the window since she started, even when I brought her a bottle of water an hour ago.”

I nodded, noticing the untouched bottle beside her phone. “Thank you. I have her now, you can move on with your training.”

He blanched at me recognizing he was out of his routine, but nodded and left. I continued walking toward her, looking to catch her face in the window but it was blank and distant. When I finally stood beside her she still didn’t notice me, but I touched her upper arm and in a second she had pulled her arm back from my grip and picked up the water bottle like a weapon she meant to hit me with.

In seeing it was me she held her arm back, the water bottle poised to strike over her should and, her feet stopped, her body sliding down the belt of the treadmill and off the end to stand on the floor. Her legs wobbled beneath her, I recognized the feeling from running so long that you forgot you were tired and standing still was almost more effort than the moving.

She looked wide-eyed at me, realized her position, and lowered the water bottle, her chest heaving slightly and her cheeks flushed from the activity. I could see the bright red headphones under the hood of my sweater and realized sadly that I had promised to buy her clothes and things to make her more comfortable last night before everything else happened.

Evadiene stared at me for several seconds before pulling her headphones off and I could now hear the volume of her music. “Alpha,” she said her voice falling for a minute like she was so distracted she couldn’t remember my name. “Covyn, what is it?”

I reached for her hand and brushed my thumb over the back. “I heard you’ve been here two hours already.”

“Have I?” She seemed surprised but her stomach began rumbling with the reminder.

“Have you eaten?” I asked instead.

“Don’t waste the food,” she muttered with all the self-loathing I felt in her chest.

She was tearing herself apart more than anyone else ever could. I felt Sequoia at my feet, pushing against the back of my leg. The next thing I did was picked Evadiene up and wrapped her legs around my waist. Right now, I was going to forget everything else because nothing else mattered.

Her arms joined themselves around my neck and I heard the water bottle fall to the floor. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“No, no I started this.” I pet the back of her head through the hood, feeling her headphone tap against my back as I walked out of the gym.

*Device unpaired!* the headphones called out as we neared the doors, but before we could head back someone else had heard it as well and pressed the phone into my hand. Her music started up again and she laid her head on my shoulder.

“Do you ever feel like you made the wrong choice, but if you went back you know you’d make the same mistake again?” She whispered.

I squeezed her. “All the time.”