The Run

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Five years later.

*Oratio’s POV*

It had been five years since my mate Cerys had left, and I still felt the pain. If anything, it had gotten worse. My wolf wouldn’t talk to me, and nothing distracted me. I knew that I was nothing but a shell of the man that I used to be. I was pathetic really. I should be out there, looking for her. But I was so scared of what I might find that instead I hid away in my room back in my parents house, trying to drown the sadness in vodka, brandy, anything I could get my hands on.

My head flicked to the side in annoyance as father called me through the mind link...

Son, your mother and I need to speak to you, please come to the dining room. He had used his Alpha tone on me.

I sighed, lifting myself off of my unmade bed, and dragging myself out of my messy, smelly bedroom. I haven’t had the strength to do anything with my life, including clean. My room was just an example of how far I had really fallen when she had been stolen away from me.  My pack had never found any clues of her whereabouts, and the strange scent that I had smelt in the house we had shared was never scented anywhere else.

I stopped as I saw them – my parents – heads together and seated at the old wooden table. There is absolutely no backing out of this. I sighed quietly. I’ve known for a while now that my parents wanted me to mate with someone else. They were absolutely convinced that Cerys wasn’t coming back. But I couldn’t bring myself to move on, and I would absolutely refuse to mate another. I would rather become rouge then do that. Father had wanted to pass down the Alpha powers to me since I first met Cerys, but I just wasn’t strong enough to take on the responsibility without her, without my mate.

“Come on, Oratio. We have some pack matters that we need to discuss with you now.” My father looked at me gravely, while my mother refused to look up from the floor. My father was a tall, severe looking man. He had black hair, and green eyes, which contrasted with my mother’s blonde hair and blue eyes.

I watched his face intently as I sat myself opposite them on the table. Here we go. I couldn’t help but feel the solid weight of sadness lower itself further into my stomach. “Your mother and I feel that” He cleared his throat a little, obviously nervous “It would benefit you and the pack if you were to mate with another female.” Without replying or moving my eyes away from his face, I furiously shook my head. “Please Oratio. You need to heal and another woman would be able to speed along the process. You need to do it for the pack.” My father soothed, or tried too. He had never had much patience for me.

“No.” It was all I needed to say before his face started to swell, turning an ugly colour of purple. Father wasn’t used to anyone refusing his orders before. “I won’t. I only want Cerys, whether she is alive or dead. Nothing will change that. It doesn’t matter anyway. If I can’t become Alpha, if Cerys doesn’t come back, then you can always pass down the title to Logan.” My father still looked angry at me, and my mother attempted to calm him down by rubbing his knee soothingly.

I knew that he would be disappointed with me, but life wasn’t worth living without Cerys. Logan hadn’t been trained to be an Alpha, but he would do just fine, and as my little brother he still had Alpha blood in him... Probably better than a drunkard like me. I let out a dark chuckle as I pushed my chair back from the table. “Cerys is the only one who can fix me, father. And you know it.” I stumbled back to my room, my body feeling the effects of the bottle of vodka I had drunk earlier on in the day.

It wasn’t fair. Nothing was fair. She was my mate, and someone took her away from me. They stole my entire life in an hour and left me with nothing behind. No note, nothing that I could cling too.