Chapter 3

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Alex groaned.

His body was sore due to the exertions of their so called prince, he was not beneath considering mutiny. This has been the story for the last two months, since he walked away from his mate.

God only knew why?!

All he said that she asked for time.

That idiot!

He goes barbaric on her and bites off her neck and claims her without her consent and suddenly he had to go all uptight and gentlemen.

If only they would have stuck around for a few days, Evy would have got her wolf and then it would not take a lot of coxing from a mate to make her lift tail.

But noooo!

He had to honor her word and shit and because of that they had been jumping around the world in hoops, busy building alliances but also conducting extensive training sessions with their ally's, every single pack they would visit they would have a friendly sparring competition, getting in to shape as he called it, which meant relentless physical exercise and activity where you would almost drop unconscious with exhaustion by end of day.

In the last two months that had visited Africa, Asia busy forging alliances and strengthening their existing ones and now currently were cooling their heels in Brazil, luckily their trip to Brazil was of human nature, Maxwell was here on a business trip, to oversee one of their holdings.

The Roma family apart from being werewolf royalty was also one of the biggest business houses in the world. Via their private equity firms they controlled companies across the globe and Brazil was one of many countries in which they had their presence. So while Maxwell was busy they had some reprieve.

He knew what Maxwell was doing, not that he didn't. Maxwell was keeping his mind off his mate and exerting his wolf so much that he would not have time to breathe, think or even trying to wrestle for control with him. He could only imagine what the separation was doing to him and his wolf.

He had not expected it to last this long, he expected someone from Evelyn's pack to knock some sense in to her about what she was doing to her mate, it did not happen. So, finally he took matters in to his own hand, he had called Nick and given him a piece of his mind. If Nick was as invested as he claimed he was in the welfare of his pack members, it was in his best interest to ensure that these two knuckle heads got together as soon as possible.

All they had to do was get them in close proximity and he was sure, nature, the mate bond and hormones would do the trick.

He would not mind Maxwell exerting all that energy on his mate if that meant getting him off their backs. He immediately blanched at that thought, he was not completely over the fact the Evy was Maxwell's mate, the irony did not escape him! Of all the people in this world...

"So what do you think?" Maxwell's voice broke him out of his revive.

"Huh?" Alex said looking at him lost.

"Where were you?" Maxwell asked, knowing that Alex was zoned out.

"Anywhere but here!" he disgruntledly grumbled.

Maxwell narrowed his eyes at Alex "Are you saying capturing the man who is responsible for my father's death is not important?" his tone was challenging. Maxwell had been droning on about a plan they had revisited a thousand times before his mind wandered in to la la land.

Alex looked him squarely in the eye, one of the very few people who could do that to him "I am not saying that. What I am saying is that what you are doing is not going to help. We already have folks in place doing exactly that" he sighed expiated.

It was true.

When their liaison in CIA had send them the transcript of Charles telephone call and possible location to Sebastian. They had literally hired a private army to comb the area for this "Charles". The downside was that this was an army of humans not wolves. They could not send in their wolves or Nick's wolves in to the lands controlled by American council without serious repercussions.

So they did the next best thing. They hired a private army, these folks who regularly worked for Pentagon as contractors they had been highly recommended and a lot of these guys were in Montana for the last one month or so. So far, no lead had turned up.

And that meant only one thing, this Charles was safely hiding in a pack territory away from the watchful eyes of humans. Humans however good were no match to a werewolf who would smell them coming from a mile away. But this private army would also serve a useful purpose. If Charles even stepped out of the Montana's pack territory they would know and follow him and try and detain him with the special weapons Roma had provided them. So essentially Charles was trapped. With so many folks looking for him he would know there was an army of humans camped around the pack lands.

It was Alex's idea to make the search as noisy as possible instead of the usual discreet. So the message would go back to Charles that there were people looking for him and if he stepped out of the pack lands they would know it. Right now it was a stalemate, they couldn't go in and he could not get out and this arrangement suited Alex just fine until they found out a way to extract this Charles.

So far, they met dead end. If they sent in a private army, they would be slaughtered so they had to use Uncle Sam's help and at this point their source in CIA was not willing to have an operation mounted inside US territory.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Maxwell asked breaking in to Alex's thoughts.

"I am not sure what we need to do, but I know for sure what you need to do" Alex quipped back. He had to remind Maxwell of his stupidity at least once a day hoping that if would joust him in to action. So far no luck, he was stubborn as a mule. Both of them were. Knuckleheads!

Maxwell narrowed his eyes again and thinned his lips in displeasure.

"Look, we are all beat how about we do this tomorrow?" Adrian chimed in playing the peace keeper, which was very unusual as it was usually Adrian and Maxwell who usually were at loggerheads and Alex who played parley. Apparently their roles had now reversed.

Maxwell gave a curt nod and stormed out and Alex sagged in his seat.

"Cut him some slack brother" Adrian admonished.

"What do you think I have been doing for the last two months" Alex sighed and added after a moment "It's not good for them to be apart this long Adrian, I am really worried. Have you seen Maxwell lately" Alex said voicing out his concern.

Adrian nodded, Maxwell had lost weight and was having mood swings like a sine wave.

"Even Roma is worried" Alex added, Adrian just raised an eyebrow in response.

"What! We talk, she is worried and I agree" Alex defended. Maxwell would not like it one bit if he knew they are all talking behind his back.

Adrian's shoulders sagged even he was worried "But what do we do?"

"I already did" Alex declared.

Adrian looked confused.

"I called Nick and told him to get his shit together and have Evelyn call Maxwell" Alex confessed.

Adrian shook his head in disbelief "If he ever finds out, it's you head on a platter."

Alex shrugged "if he finds out" he said dismissively "and if it works, the last thing in his mind will me my head" he said with a glint in his eye.

***

Maxwell had sulked in his room and finally fell asleep. Alex had no idea how hard it was to keep his wolf under control and he was not helping things, he showing weakness would only strengthen their case and he under no circumstances would go back uninvited. They had not been there to see her poor opinion of her mate and he would not make that impression worst by breaking his word to her.

He was jolted by a sound and got up disoriented, he could see the light on his phone's screen glowing, ringing with an unknown number, first he wanted to disconnect but something made him pick it up. He accidentally dropped the phone on the bed when he pressed the answer button and hurriedly picked it up. To his credit he was still not fully awake.

"Hello?" a very hesitant voice floated down the connection.

"Yes?" He asked curtly.

"I..um.." the voice hesitated and his body awoke enough to recognize who it was and his senses went in to overdrive.

"Evelyn? Is that you?" He asked, still not believing that he would ever hear her voice over the phone.

"Um..yes. Is it a good time...if not I can call back or you can call me whenever you are free..." She was rambling nervously.

"No.No. Perfectly ok. Is everything all right? Did anything happen?" he asked now in full alert mode. Her three months were not up, so why was she calling him now? Did something happen? Now his mind was going in an over drive, panic welling up. He sat up in the bed in full alert mode his sleep had vanished into thin air.

"No! Nothing like that...nothing happened" She immediately reassured.

He relaxed a little "Oh...ok. So?" he trailed off, not sure how to continue this conversation he was clearly lost why she called him. He was so not ready for this call.

He heard her take a sharp intake of breath over the connection "Max?" she said "Can you come back?" she directly came to the point.

"Why?" He mentally kicked himself, his mate was asking him to come back and here he was asking reason instead of heading to her like right now. "What I mean is, you still have school right?" what he wanted to ask was, what changed? And why now?

"Yes" she responded "I...I did not know a lot of things back then that I do now. I am sorry Max" She said sounding miserable.

"Hey, it's ok. Whatever it is" he said trying to reassure her. Clearly lost why she was apologizing to him.

"Please come back Max. I need you" She whispered. What could he say to that? How could he resist that? It was not possible.

"I will be there tomorrow" He responded. Any other response was not even an option.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" She sighed in relief. Making his heart beat erratically, she wanted to see him? This was a miracle.

"Well then, see you tomorrow" he offered. Feeling awkward.

"Ok. See you then" She replied equally awkwardly and then some silence on the phone as both did not know what to say

"Max. Come back fast. Can't wait to see you" She said shyly and hung up.

He stared at his phone not believing what just happened. His mate wanted him back! She couldn't wait to see him! A slow smile appeared on his face. He would leave first thing in the morning.

He was going back to America. Back to his mate! And this time there would be no force in this world that would keep him away from her.

***

Evelyn's heart was pounding when she hung up the phone. She had finally spoken to him and asked him to come back.

Something changed in her, a calmness descended over her that was missing since she turned, it took a moment to realize it was her wolf, she was at peace! Knowing that her mate was coming. Since she turned, her wolf had been difficult to control always agitated, easily infuriated. She would turn at the drop of a hat and managed to destroy her entire wardrobe.

But for the first time in two months she found an inner peace that she never had, this reinforced her belief that she did the right thing. But what still shocked her was the overwhelming response of her wolf when she spoke to her mate, it was as if her wolf was in control and it was when she had told him that she couldn't wait to see him. Her wolf was impatient to meet her mate and she was not allergic to this idea as well.

She knew she still had one month to finish school but it would give her time to know her mate, so when she had to leave her home she would not be leaving with a stranger.

For the first time since she found her mate she had a feeling everything would work out. With that reassuring though she went to sleep.

Tomorrow he would be here.