Getting away with the Alpha's Pup

Chapter 13

Dylan

I clenched my fists together as I watched Cherry’s red car disappear around the bend. I cracked my jaw as I grasped that she’d really gone. I felt something rupture inside of me, and my wolf rose within me, howling in desolation. I felt the beast itching beneath my skin as if nipping and scratching to get out. Yet, I knew if I let my primal instinct take over, the beast would bolt after Cherry again. The urge warred within me, and it took all my strength to wrestle the lupine shadow into submission. I wouldn’t let it surface and chase after her. Not after she’d rejected me so resolutely.

Instead, I returned at an ambling human pace, climbing over a gate into a field belonging to Starsmoon. But the vast and far-reaching fields I ordinarily found so full of space and freedom felt empty today. They no longer had Cherry in them.

She was gone. The knowledge beat through me again like a quake through the earth. As I walked, the memory of her silver eyes, steely with resolve, made me flinch. When she’d made up her mind, Cherry didn’t waver. I knew that about her now. I’d admired her steadfast nature. I’d grown to admire it over the last few months. Her commitment to getting onto a fashion course was evident in the way she’d worked so hard. But now I knew that her resolute nature meant that if she’d decided to leave, she wasn’t coming back. And the worst thing was, with the way I’d treated her, she was right not to.

She deserved better. She deserved to have the real relationship and full life she’d spoken of. As the image of Cherry with someone else crossed my mind, the beast beneath my skin threatened to surge up again, but I balled my hands into fists, forcing myself back toward the pack. The scents of summer crowded the balmy air, stirring the ripe grasses idly as if caressing them. The rich meadow was at odds with my own inner turmoil, and suddenly I hated the temperate weather and craved a storm. I wanted something outwardly to reflect the despair I felt inside. Like the deepest, darkest winter, my wolf howled like a storm through the shattered crevices inside me.

As I passed the guards stationed at the entrance to Lord Hills, the ones who’d called me to tell me that Cherry had seemed upset and driven away, I felt their worried eyes trailing me. I would need to tell the whole pack that Cherry was gone, but my parents, my Alpha and Luna, needed to hear first.

Pulling back the outer door to my parents’ house, I strolled in. My mom was making coffee in the kitchen, and my dad sat on the veranda out back, enjoying the mild day. It seemed strange to see them going about their daily lives as usual while everything in me was raw. I felt as if an enemy wolf had savaged me, and I was walking around bleeding from a gaping wound.

The light in my mom’s eyes dulled as she cottoned on to my unease. “Dylan, what’s wrong?”

“Everything,” I wanted to say.

My dad got out of his chair and hurried into the kitchen. “Son?” The urgent Alpha’s command in his tone forced me to speak.

“Cherry’s gone.”

I watched confusion mar their faces, but my mom’s expression eased. “Oh, she’s probably nipped to her dad’s.”

I shook my head, the words threatening to stick in my throat, but knowing I needed to tell them everything.

“She’s rejected the mating bond. She’s left the pack.”

Their faces showed the same bleakness resounding through me, and I realized it wasn’t better to see my loss so visibly. Instead, their disappointment only heightened my sense of guilt. After all, it was my fault. Cherry had left because I’d failed to nurture our mating bond.

“I can’t believe it,” my mom said, her voice awash with sorrow. She shook her head, her shock making her deny it. “Cherry wouldn’t leave the pack she grew up with.”

My dad’s expression fell too, and I knew he was thinking of my future and the pack’s. Cherry was supposed to be the future Luna of Starsmoon. The weight of the news settled on him, the grave expression on his strong features making him look older suddenly.

My chest felt like it was caving in as I forced myself to admit she’d gone because of me. This was my failure. “It’s my fault. I was too obstinate. I refused to accept something I hadn’t chosen for myself. I neglected our bond. My voice grew thick on the last word, and the invisible wound in my chest continued to bleed. With a moment of stark insight, I knew deep down this wound would never heal fully.