24

Alpha Arnou turned his gaze slowly away from her to the doorway through the door as his fingers kept stroking her hair and repeated in a lost tone, “let me take care of you.”

Daciana awoke to the coldness, silence, and loneliness of an empty house—her mate was no where in sight. Battling the relentless pull of gravity urging her to remain still on her bed, she made it carefully to her feet on unsteady legs. A fog of confusion from the sound sleep she just had still hung loosely above and around her but wiping her eyes with the back of her palms, she set out in search of her mate. Close enough to the entrance/exit door of the palace she picked up the familiar scent of her lover that gave a better sense of direction to her. Outside in the lawn, on a bare monolith, sat the love of her life in melancholy staring blankly into the woods.

“Arnou,” she called with deep affection as she made her way towards him.

Arnou’s POV

Staring thoughtlessly into space, Arnou sat with an empty mind. Nothin