Arielle’s POV:I finished up with the last patient and smiled at her as she left my office.The pack bond within my chest tingled nicely - I enjoyed the feeling of being able to sense the innermost parts of the pack, more than any normal wolf within our pack could. I was the future Luna after all, even if I was still learning how to deal with the fact that I had to be known.With a sigh, I got up to get a drink of water. The weather was becoming hotter and hotter for some damned reason, and I didn’t want to get dehydrated.As I finished the last water in the glass carafe in my office, I heard a knock on the door.“Come in,” I called out and the door opened.My brows rose as I saw Ethan step into my office at the clinic.“Ethan,” I greeted him, feeling a little bit happy now that I had seen my friend. It had been over two days since I had seen him last, and in that two days, there had been a lot of chaos.His brows rose too, but not at me. His eyes flickered around the strangely empty-

Arielle’s POV:I didn’t feel ready.I felt numb, like how one prepared themselves for an execution. Richard sent me back to my home to go freshen up; essentially, I needed to dress up as nicely as possible. After all, the pack members attending tonight’s meeting needed to get a good first impression of their future Luna, and I needed to make a good first impression, and sway the minds of our people. All this, so that Elise and her chaos-causing self wouldn’t turn the minds of the people against me.I put on a white jumpsuit - one of my favorite items of clothing - and a pair of designer boots, which I had gotten myself as a medical school graduation present.Having styled my hair as much as I could, I felt a little bit better. Still, it didn’t stop the lead in my stomach from dropping and digging in deeper as Richard’s voice could be heard through the mind link that we shared.‘It’s time, angel,’ he had said.I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly out through my mouth. I repeated

Richard’s POV:I couldn’t believe what the Elders had told me to do.It was a simple ultimatum.And it was one that spelt the death of either my relationship with Arielle, or my time as Alpha of the Redding Pack.They had asked me to reject Arielle, or lose my title as Alpha of the Pack. What was it that I could do against them?It was infuriating; I felt like tearing my hair out with the way that everything was just seemingly being against us.Even my explanations that Leon and Arielle had not had a mating ceremony and that he had rejected her a long time ago, didn’t help in whatever way. It was the only plan, the risk that I took, and it had not paid off.Now here I was, watching my mate in restless slumber. She looked beautiful still, but I could the by the way her face looked so pale, that she had spent all her energy in crying.Lilian was not around, having gone to find some clothes for her to wear. We were in Darren’s and her home after all. It was the closest place to the Hall w

Richard’s POV:I was at her heels, chasing hotly through the forest. My focus was on Arielle and only her - her scent, her heartbeat, her.After Lilian had discovered her missing from the bed we had left her in sleeping, it hadn’t taken me long to rush to the clinic to check her room if she was there. I wish that I had been able to find her there, but all I got was nothing. An empty room which made me growl in frustration and anger.My mate had run from me and this was my fault. I just knew it.It had taken me a lot more time than I ever wished to admit to figure out that the traces of her scent were more recent than this morning. She had been here just now, I realized, in her room.And that was what led me to the forest.Tracing her scent with my high senses on alert, I found that they led to the forest.It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on.Arielle had run.She was leaving.And that, I could never allow, not until my dying breath.I transformed into my wolf form an

Richard’s POV I was unsettled by it all.“You haven’t even sat down since you returned,” Darren noted, still in my study at the dead of night. It was already nearing midnight and yet I couldn’t rest.“I left her there, Darren. I don’t think it’s safe out there for her. Yet she wouldn’t understand,” I bit out, impatient.I kept pacing the length of my study.It had been an hour already since I left Arielle, my mate standing there in the forest. She refused my help, yet I gave it, helping her find a good clearing where she could settle in and rest. Yet that wasn’t enough.“If only she would just agree to come back,” I growled under my breath.Apparently my best friend heard it, for he snorted.I aimed a glare at his face, and he raised his two hands up in surrender.“Hey man,” he said in defense, “you know how she is, and how stubborn she can get. I think she’s trying to just cover all bases at this point. The main thing is that she’s safe and we can find her. At least she’s isn’t far