Arielle’s POV:I felt my the strain of my weight upon my shaking legs, and soon enough, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. I was sweaty, panting and tired.Yet to my consternation and despair, Lilian had yet to break a sweat.“Let’s stop here for today,” she finally said, making me feel the sweetest bliss of relief run through my body.“Thank the goddess,” I managed to say, as I watched my friend and warrior of the pack approach me and lower her hand to me so that I could take a hold of it and pull myself up.With a grunt and gasp - man, my body really hurt - I stood up, stumbling a little as I tried to catch my breath. “This training thing is harder than I thought it would be.”She let out a short burst of laughter, shaking her head at me.“Don’t worry,” she consoled me. “The hard part is always the beginning. After a while it gets better and better...”“I don’t feel like it would ever get better,” I whined, walking through the training grounds and casting my eyes around the
Questions and RealizationsArielle’s POV: I was unable to think properly, and I was sure that Lilian had noticed my absentmindedness a long time ago, but she must have dismissed it as fatigue caused by the training. Thankfully, I was able to use that excuse to part ways with her, and she bade me goodbye stab intersection leading to our separate places. Inside my chest, I felt how the pack bond bloomed in my chest, increasing and waning with equal levels of warmth each time. The pack bond seemed to be active somehow, I noted with my science/inclined observation. I still had no idea what might have caused this, but I needed to at least try and figure it out. Without a word to my assistant, I went up the stairs and entered my suite, moving to the bookshelves now filled with the books I had brought with me to the Redding Pack when I had first arrived. I needed to research on what is causing me this pain in my pack bond, and what I suspect had caused me to heal that boy from this mo
Meeting the EldersRichard’s POV:I was so damn tired by the time I reached home, entering into the pack compound. I felt the bond a lot in my chest like I was once more at peace - I was home, finally.It had been two days since I left the pack, on an impromptu mission, as I had informed Darren. Sometimes, I thought wearily, the life of an Alpha weighed down on me, and was too deeply ingrained in me. Instead of resting up after the night of the full moon festival, I had immediately gotten up early the next morning to prepare my things to leave for the next two days. Darren had to see off the delegates from the two packs that attended the festival in my place.I frowned even deeper as I thought about the events of the full moon festival. I still had something weighing down on me apart from my inability to have some rest - my mate bond had been activated.After so long , I had finally found my mate.I felt it that night after I transformed, like someone was calling out to me and pulling
Richard’s POV:After that long meeting I had with the Pack Elders, I was already feeling the most drained that I had ever been in my life. However, I had to straighten myself up and keep on going.Because I knew without a single doubt that Darren would be waiting for me in my study. He would report to me on the goings on of the pack while I was away, and any urgent mayters that he had to attend to in my absence.That was our usual routine after I got back from a mission, and now I was mentally prepared for wherever he had to say. After all, I had not only asked him to do a few specific things for me as well. Therefore I was definitely not surprised when I opened the door of my study and found my friend sitting in the couch to the side.“Hey, man,” he greeted me while standing up. “How did the meeting with the Elders go?”I let out a groan as I moved towards the bar where I had a half-finished bottle of whiskey. Pouring two fingers of whiskey for the two of us in two crystal shot glass
Meeting ContinuedRichard’s POV:Darren huffed, and I saw him cross his arms over his chest, before speaking.“Well, since you’re so insistent on knowing,” he began with a joking tone before his expression turned serious. “I wanted to know what you thought about Arielle and Leon.” I cocked a brow at him, confused at his question. “You now know that they used to be mates. Or at least, according to Arielle, before he then rejected her. What do you think about that?”I then understood what he was asking.“You want to know if that has changed my opinion of her,” I stated rather than asked, and he nodded at me.I frowned down at my hands clasped in the desk, trying to figure out the words to at in response. In fact, how could I even explain how I actually felt? Would Darren understand?“To be honest, I don’t really know,” I slowly began, only for my best friend and Beta to snort out loud.“Come on, Richard. We both know that it’s bullshit. You care much more than you think you do,” Darren
Convincing RichardRichard’s POV:I watched the face of my friend as I asked him that question, and Darren simply scoffed, shaking his head at me.“Don’t you realize this by now, Richard?” He sounded like I was the idiot right then. “Really, you cannot even see this right now?”I gave him a glare; he knew that I hated riddles and being kept in the dark very much.“Darren, if you’re going to tell me, then don’t try to act smart,” I gestures to my face. “As you can see, I’m not in the mood for that. If you have any ideas, on who my mate could be, let me know.”“It’s simple,” he replied while having his head with a laugh in his throat. “Don’t you see that the only woman who you have found yourself attracted to all this while is our very own resident pack doctor? Arielle Grey?”I froze as soon as he said her name; her? Really?“Don’t look like that, Richard. It’s the only possibility in my mind,” my best friend and Beta said to me. “If you don’t want to believe me, fine. But at least cons
Arielle’s RealizationArielle’s POV:I just could not get a single break.I sighed for the fifth time in just two minutes, looking through the patient’s file quickly to get a grasp of the situation.“The same thing, again,” I murmured to myself. “Another bout of the flu...”It was one of the seasons that I dreaded the most - flu season. It was not overly common in these regions that many children in the pack would have this sort of illness, but it did happen every few years. This was because despite us being immune to many things, including over 99 percent of influenza strains, there was a strain of the flu that only werewolves could catch, thus, it tended to spread like wildfire within a pack of only one person caught it. It occurred in mostly children, and nursing mothers, which meant that the majority of my patients today had been mothers and children. Ever since the early hours of 5am today, I had been at work, even foregoing the morning run that I had begun to make into a habit,
Richard Fucks Up Richard’s POV: I was at a loss on what to do. She had just left the office like that, looking confused and in every way unable to talk. I had thought that she was simply going to shut the door when she brushed past me and said “Give me a moment”’ but it only turned out that she had the mind to run away. I had been knocking at her door for hours, and my hands were already tired.I had no idea what to do.all I could think of now was how badly I ducked up; I should not have gone to her that way. I should have found a way to make things easier. Her assistant had already been up to check if Arielle would answer the door to her, but it had been all to no avail.Luckily, there had not been any patients which required an emergency treatment, It it was still so disheartening and gut wrenching, just how much that Arielle was going to do to avoid me from now on. I stood at the hallway, facing her door still when I heard footsteps. I did not need to turn my bead as I alread