𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖚𝖘𝖙

The days dragged on.

Each one was more unbearable than the last.

I still looked for Heaven almost every moment of every day. The only thing that had kept me from giving up being the painful tug of the mate bond, proving her to still be alive.

I barely slept; I couldn't have even if I tried.

The emptiness got to me all the time, and my instincts would take over and I'd often destroy a room or two before Antonio is able to stop me.

The pack was terrified, I could sense it. If the rogues could take their Luna, then what else were they capable of?

It was a rare moment for me, sitting on Heaven's bed sulking instead of continuing my rampant search for her.

I gazed around the large space, taking in the features as memories of her played in my head.

My eyes fell on a small journal sitting on her desk.

I could feel my eyes grow wet as I looked back on memories of her sitting curled up as she wrote in that book, tilting it away from my prying eyes with a mischievous giggle.

I couldn't help it; the urge to look into the journal's content was overpowering. So with one swift motion, I snatched the small book from off of the desk, holding it delicately in my large hands.

Flipping to the first page, I started to read.

My head's been hurting,

and my muscles are weak.

So how can I tell that he's real,

and not another hallucination

to make my life less bleak.

I flipped to the next page.

A wolf.

Large and dark,

like the sky at midnight.

Teeth like razors,

and paws larger than my hands.

Yet even as I watched

the monster from my storybooks,

I couldn't help but to gaze in wonder

at the extraordinary thing

that lay before me.

A realization hit me as I continued through the entries.

She's telling our story.

I nearly cried as I realized that she had documented each momentous moment in our relationship, adding in details that I would never have noticed before.

I continued to read, now unable to stop.

He told me about mates.

That I was his, and he was mine.

It's an unfathomable concept,

But I can't help but to believe him.

What else could explain the feeling I get

when he's near me?

His pack looks at him strangely;

like he really is a monster.

But I don't think I could ever see it

the way they do.

Not when he kisses me like that.

Love had always been a distant concept.

I never thought I'd feel it again.

But when he looks at me

like I'm his moon and stars,

It's starting to make me believe again.

Tears fell down my face as I read the last entry.

My mate, the love of my life, had seen me as her hero, the one to make her believe in happiness again. But yet, I couldn't even save her from rogues that had managed to slip past our defenses.

I'd never forgive myself.

My only salvation would be if she ever manages to forgive me.

But I'd have to find her first.

✧ ✧ ✧

The woods were silent and cold, despite the setting of the summer sun.

I trekked along the northern border of our territory, several wolves following behind me.

Marcus, one of the most trusted members of my pack, walked beside me. I had left Antonio behind to take care of the rest of the pack while I was gone.

This border had been the last place that rogues had been spotted, and some of the trackers had managed to find a scent trail that led to this spot deep in the outer edges of the woods.

Their scents were stale and faint, a few days old.

But another scent lingered among them. One that I could easily distinguish from anyone else's.

Heaven's scent.

The smell of fresh rain and lavender enveloped me, as if giving me a reassuring hug.

"Do you think it's a dead end?" Marcus asked. "All the scents are old, and they seem to be disappearing."

"No," I answered, continuing on the trail, "This is the right way. I can sense it."

Marcus did not question me further, and simply stepped back beside me as we made our way further into the forest, the furthest point in our territory from any kind of civilization.

The sun was completely beneath the horizon, the forest completely bathed in darkness.

As she we made our way further, the scents soon became fresher.

"We're getting closer," I growled out.

The rest of the wolves and I began to walk forward with more grace, careful to stay completely silent.

Behind a small copse of trees was a worn down stone cabin.

And it was crawling with rogues.

Heaven was so close. And nothing was going to stop me from having her in my arms again.

"Everyone shift when I give the signal."

I looked back towards my pack members, seeing their nods of understanding.

I waited a few more seconds, studying the layout of the rogue house, determining the most likely place in which Heaven would be held.

"Now," I commanded.

Almost immediately, the sound of clothes tearing and bones breaking filled the air, mine along with it.

Soon enough, I was standing on four legs, midnight during covering my body.

I let rage and pent up anger course through my body, and led my wolves into the fight.