Word Count : 3452

Reese

When they were back in the game room there was absolute silence for a few minutes before Drew spoke.

"What did the letter say?" Drew asked Reese. "I didn't get to read it, what did Celie say in the letter?"

"She said they were being bullied and that Harper was the school punching bag. She told him Harper was rejected and humiliated by her mate in front of the whole school, and then that Celie was rejected too. She said they were leaving and getting as far away from this pack as possible and for us not to look for them." Reese said slowly.

"Did the letter say who was doing it?" Ben asked nervously, he'd been one of the main bullies, harassing the girls daily.

"No, she didn't name any names." Reese answered. "Do any of you know who rejected Celie? I didn't see or hear about her getting rejected. She said he did it after school, away from everyone else because he was embarrassed by anyone knowing she was his mate."

"I did it, it was me." Adam said, his voice barely above a whisper, tears had started sliding slowly down his cheeks. "After you rejected Harper, I thought....I thought, you would laugh at me, and get mad if I was mated to Celie so I rejected her. I didn't want to. I didn't want to reject her, I always liked her."

"Then why did you?" Zach snapped. "Just because Reese rejected his mate you did too? That's a stupid fucking reason to reject your mate!"

"Don't you think I know that?!" Adam yelled. "I didn't think they'd leave. I thought, maybe I could say she was cool, and get you guys to like her, and make it up to her later."

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Zach said. "Seriously, what is wrong with you? You don't just fucking reject your mate. Just for no fucking reason. Adam was right earlier, you are losers, you all are."

"You're no better!" Ben snapped. "I didn't see you riding your white horse in to save them from the bullies."

"No, I didn't help them. I should have, but I didn't." Zach said, shame on his face. "But at least I wasn't mean to them, and I didn't bully them, which is more than any of you assholes can say. And there's no way in fucking hell I'm ever going to reject my mate. Ever. No matter what you guys, or anyone else thinks of her, I will think she's beautiful and perfect, and none of your opinions matter."

And with that Zach turned and stomped out of the room, as he slammed the door open they noticed Charla standing outside, she'd probably been trying to listen at the door, so it was a good thing all the rooms in the pack house were sound proofed.

"Baby?" Charla said, in her high pitched baby voice. "What's going on, where are all the warriors going? Everyone is outside running around."

"They're looking for Harper and Celie, they're missing." Drew said, and Charla started giggling.

"Oh no." Charla said rolling her eyes, still giggling. "What a tragedy. It's about time she finally took the hint." Not even trying to hide her glee at the disappearance of Reese's mate.

But she was surprised to see every guy in the room turn and glare at her hatefully. She was used to them going along with everything she said, having their angry eyes glaring at her stunned her for a second before she smirked and started giggling again.

"Shut the fuck up and get out!" Adam yelled at her, shoving her roughly out the door and slamming it in her shocked face.

Reese

It was getting late, Reese was pacing his room, but his parents still weren't home, he'd been waiting for them to call him, or say anything to him but they hadn't, they must still be working on finding Harper. He couldn't believe she'd run away. His mate was gone, she was really gone, because of him. When he'd realized she was his mate he'd looked around and seen people looking at her, the way they always looked at her and he'd immediately felt self-conscious being near her, being caught looking at her. So he'd decided right then to reject her and save some face. To insult and reject her to make himself look cool. He hadn't stopped for a second to think about the repercussions of rejecting her, about what it would do, to either of them. He'd been telling himself he would reject his mate for Charla, he'd turned 18 two months ago and finding his mate had stopped being something he thought about after a few weeks of not finding her, but he hadn't actually sat down and thought about what would happen when he did, regardless of who his mate had been. He hadn't expected the pain, that's for sure. It had felt like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer that was on fire. He'd never known it could hurt so much to lose your mate, he felt like shit, he felt like the world was falling apart around him, it felt like sorrow, grief, and death.

He'd never imagined Harper could be his mate and the truth was, if it had, it wouldn't have upset him. Harper was beautiful, she always had been, she was smart, kind, and gentle. Sitting here now he couldn't figure out why people bullied her, he couldn't figure out why he had.

What had he done?

He walked downstairs and went into Harper's room; he hadn't been in here in years and he was surprised to see how empty it was. There were no pictures on the walls, no books on the shelves, or items on the dresser, it was just bare. He pulled out a drawer here and there to find them all completely empty, he opened the closet and found only clothes hangers, he could barely detect any of her sweet orange blossom scent. She'd been planning on leaving he realized, she'd gotten rid of everything. He walked slowly over and sat down on her bed, that was the only place he could catch her scent at all, he picked up her pillow and held it to his face breathing her in, tears slipping from his eyes.

What had he done?

He was turning to put the pillow back and something odd caught his eye, it looked like the edge of a composition book sticking out from between the mattress and box spring. He reached down and pulled it out, it was something like a journal, there were comments, quotes, poems, song lyrics, and some meme's that had been printed out and neatly taped to a page. There were no long pages of written commentary on her life, just quotes, and sayings, which must have reflected how she felt at that moment. Some were funny, some were sad, some inspirational, some hopeless. One said, "It's called Karma, and it's pronounced HaHa Fuck You", one was a quote that said "I lost myself trying to please everyone else. Now I'm losing everyone else trying to find myself", another one had a minion on it and said, "If people are talking behind your back, Then just Fart!", that one made him laugh out loud, but the one that got to him said "It's hard to trust when all you have from the past is evidence why you shouldn't."

He closed the book and stood, holding it tightly in his hand, but as he went to leave something stopped him, and told him to look again so he went back to the bed and lifted the mattress and what he saw surprised him. There were over a dozen more composition books neatly placed side by side. He gathered them all up and took them to his room. He looked at the dates on the pages and placed them in a stack by date and sat down to read them. He felt a little like a peeping tom or a pervert, telling himself he shouldn't read her private journals, but he couldn't stop himself, he wanted to know about his mate. The sweet quiet girl who'd been living in his home, eating at his table, cooking with his mother, and being a part of his family for 7 years.

The more he read, the heavier his heart became, he realized the girl who wrote these lines and pasted these meme's was funny, smart, sarcastic, kind, and broken. Broken by him, and others like him. He could have stopped it at any time, he could have made it all go away. He's the alpha's son, he could decide who was cool or not cool, a few words from him would have prevented everything she'd gone through. But instead of helping, he'd hurt, instead of being kind, he'd been cruel, and she was gone now, maybe forever, and he had no one but himself to blame for it.

What had he done?

Adam

Adam paced around his room, he held the Celie's letter in his hands, he'd been holding and staring at it for nearly 30 minutes afraid to read it. All he knew was the look on the Luna and Alpha's face when they'd read it and what Reese said about it earlier. He knew it was going to break his heart, he knew it was going to destroy him, but he had to read it, so he unfolded it slowly, his eyes going over every word. There were tears rolling down his face after the first paragraph, the was crying by the end of the second, and on his knees, sobbing like a broken hearted child by the end of the third.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Celie, you didn't do anything to deserve this." Adam whispered brokenly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it. Come back, I'm sorry, come back, come home. Please."

Harper

Harper sat staring silently up at the full moon through the train window, the gentle swaying of the car and steady clanking of the wheels were relaxing to her. She felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders, she was finally free of the place that should have felt like her home, but instead felt like a nightmare she could never escape. There was a part of her that was cautiously hopeful but another part that was scared. She'd had an unconscious monologue going on in her head since they drove off the pack lands and set off toward their future, a steady constant prayer to the moon goddess to keep them safe, to keep them from turning into rogues, to keep them from being hunted by other wolves. She and Celie were not warriors, they'd never really been trained with the pack, Harper wouldn't have minded training with the pack, she'd always wanted to be a strong fighter like her mother, and she had a strong wolf, but by the time she'd shifted the bullying was so bad that she'd been terrified of what would happen if she trained with the others. She could imagine how they would have attacked her then, in a setting where beating someone up was ok as a 'learning' tool to protect the pack. Her main worry was if she could protect Celie, that was what she prayed the hardest about, the thing she was most scared of, she wasn't really scared for herself, but she was worried for Celie.

Harper's eyes, got heavier and heavier until she finally slipped into a peaceful sleep.

*My child* a soft melodious voice brought her from her slumber. Harper woke suddenly looking around to find herself on a sandy beach with gentle waves washing in under a full moon. A stunningly beautiful woman with silvery white hair the same color as the pale moon above her was standing in the edge of the surf.

"Luna?" Harper asked, surprised.

*Yes, child. I brought you here to ease your fears. I am sorry for what you have suffered. I give you my blessing for leaving your pack, and I want you to know I will be watching over you. I will give you my mark, and it will protect you from harm in other packs, show them my mark and you will be safe in any territory.* She gestured to Harper's arm and looked down to find a tiny image of a moon on the inside of her wrist.

"Did I do the right thing?" Harper asked, unsure.

*You have a pure heart child, it is your purpose to help others, and your pack would not have been the place you could freely do that.* The goddess said sadly. *Do not fear what the future will bring to you, you will know more happiness than you imagine now, the worst is behind you child, the world is before you.*

"Thank you, Luna." Harper said softly, tears in her eyes.

*Wake now and be at peace. You are not alone.*

Harper opened her eyes to see the sun just starting to rise and she found herself smiling, maybe the sun finally was rising on her and Celie.

"Hey Harp." Celie said beside her, she was yawning and rubbing her red eyes. "You're smiling."

"Yeah, I feel better." Harper said, then raised her wrist for Celie to see. "The goddess visited me in my dream last night, she said she is giving us her mark so we will be safe in other pack's territory. If we show them the marks, we will get safe passage."

"What?" Celie said her eyes wide as she held up her own wrist and stared at it.

"The goddess said we did the right thing and we shouldn't be afraid; she is watching over us." Harper said. "We did the right thing, Celie, she said the worst is behind us."

Celie just stared at her with tears welling in her eyes, she bit her bottom lip, and then just nodded her head.

The intense humid heat and blinding sun hit them when they got off the train, and it was a feeling Harper would never forget, hot steamy freedom.

"Ugh, I thought we were never going to get here." Celie said stretching. "I say the first thing we do after finding a place to stay is go to the beach and start working on our tans. Because girl, we are paler than two ghosts in the moonlight."

"I think that's a fabulous idea, my darling." Harper said, winking at Celie. Both of their moods had improved on the three day train ride to get here. The first day had been Celie mostly just crying, the second day had been moping and trying not to cry, the third day had been planning and talking about the life they were going to have.

Harper was going to go to medical school just like she'd always planned, and Celie was going to try to get a job doing graphic design, she'd always been an amazing artist, now was going to be her chance to do something with it. She had never planned to go to college, she'd planned to get mated and have babies and raise them. She thought maybe she could get into an art program or something, she couldn't apply to a college without transcripts, and if the pack was looking for them, a request for transcripts to the school would give away exactly where they were, so they were not about to do that. They were going to change their names right after school started, once Harper was in and registered they could go to the court and change their names and apply for a gag order to keep it off the main records. Then Harper could just change her name through the school and her old name would disappear from their records. It would take one hell of a computer savvy investigator to track them down at this point, she didn't really believe anyone in the pack cared enough to put that much effort into finding them, but she wasn't taking a chance on it. Harper was a meticulous planner, she left nothing to chance.

Reese

A week later Reese was reclining on his bed, reading through one of Harper's journals, getting ready to go to sleep when his parents came into his bedroom, it surprised him, they never came into his room. They called him down to the kitchen if they needed to talk to him while they were at home, or they would call him into their office if they were at the pack house. His stomach clenched when he saw the looks on their faces, and fear creeped into him. Did they find Harper?

"Mom, Dad," Reese said, sitting up. "What's up?"

"How could you?" Luna Sophia said softly, looking at him with tears in her eyes. "How could you do that to her?"

Reese felt sick, they'd found out about the rejection.

"Mom, listen I...I just...I don't know." Reese said finally, it was the truth, he didn't know.

"It's your choice to reject or accept your mate, Reese. No one would take that choice from you. But you should never have done it like that, you should never have humiliated her like that. That was Harper. Our Harper. Our family. Your mate. I've never heard of anyone who could be so cruel to their mate. I just can't even imagine it." Alpha Lucas said, he took Luna Sophia's hand, the bond between them was so strong, he couldn't imagine being capable of such cruelty to her. It had drastically changed his opinion of his son, how could the boy he'd raised be capable of such a horrible act?

"I know." Reese said looking down, tears in his eyes. "I wish I didn't do it; I regret it every second."

"I don't blame her for leaving." Luna Sophia said, "I don't blame her one bit. I would leave too if my alpha's son did that to me. We were supposed to take care of her, we were supposed to be her family, and look what we allowed to happen to her. Cassie will never forgive me for what I allowed to happen to her daughter." Tears were rolling down her face now, the sorrow, the pain, and guilt on her face was killing him. His mother blamed herself for what he had done, for the pain he had caused.

"I'm sorry." Reese said, the tears slipping out of his eyes. "I'm sorry, Mom, I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I really don't, I've been trying, but I can't figure out what I was thinking, why I did it, I just..."

"Sorry isn't good enough, Reese. You made her feel like a burden and a disappointment to us. You made her think we didn't love her or want her here. I can't forgive you for that." Luna Sophia said as she got up and left the room.

Alpha Lucas just sighed, he took a long look at his son, a son he didn't even recognize anymore after the things he'd been hearing.

"Dad...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Reese started, but his father just shook his head and left without saying another word.

Reese sat on his bed, tears streaming down his face. His parents had never looked at him like that before, they looked at him like they didn't even know who he was. The disappointment and pain on their faces was killing him.

Reese opened the journal to a random page and read the quote at the top of the page, the words broke what was left of his heart.

"Today my forest is dark. The trees are sad, and all the butterflies have broken wings." Raine Cooper

Harper

A week later they were doing exactly what they said they were going to do, they were laying on a beautiful beach, watching the sea gulls fly overhead and listening to the calming crash of the waves. That's what they continued to do for at least an hour a day, sometimes they went in the afternoons and sometimes they went at night and gazed at the stars, and they always went on the full moon. Harper never forgot how the moon goddess had come in her dream, how she had brought Harper to a beautiful beach, Harper was pretty sure it was this beach, so every full moon she came here, and she brought the goddess a dozen snow white roses as a show of gratitude for her blessing.

Please Vote if you like this chapter!