After five years of bliss with my mate, tragedy struck. The pain of the loss caused my mate to become a person I no longer recognized. Two years of suffering followed before I finally made the decision to leave. I began a new life in a new pack, and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I hung up the phone with tears streaming down my face. For the second day in a row, I was up before the sun, and once again, the blame laid squarely on my mate. This time, though, I didn't have to deal with him personally. No, it was so much worse than that.
Apparently, he'd gotten blind drunk the night before, and he showed up on the borders of my home pack in the middle of the night, looking for me. So, repeated calls from my panicked parents woke me up at three in the morning.
I briefly wondered when I'd be able to get a full night's sleep again as I sat cross-legged in the middle of my bed.
The conversation with my parents had not been an easy one. They wanted to know why I'd left Levi, and I couldn't lie to them anymore. They'd known things hadn't been great since Luke's death, but they had no idea of the extent of my mate's downward spiral. I'd been keeping it from them, unable to admit the truth. That the man I loved, the man they loved, was gone, and a drunk, vindictive person had taken his place.
We'd stayed on the phone for over an hour as I told them everything. My mother had cried with me while my father's anger seemed to reach through the phone, vibrating in the air around me. I could feel the violent rage within him, and at that moment, I was glad that their Alpha had sent Levi home before my parents had gotten ahold of me.
I rubbed at the raw puffy skin around my eyes angrily. I needed something to relieve my aggravation before I started the day, or I knew the whole day would be ruined. Deciding to go for a run before breakfast, I tossed the covers off with a huff. I shoved my feet in my shoes and silently went downstairs, trying not to wake up the rest of the house.
When I walked out the front door, I froze in surprise at finding someone sitting alone on the front steps of the packhouse. His familiar scent reached me, and I relaxed, stepping forward. Calder's shoulders tightened, showing he knew he wasn't alone anymore, but he didn't turn towards me.
"You okay?" I asked hesitantly. We weren't close, and I didn't want to be nosy. Any stranger could see he was upset about something, though. His slumped posture and the way his head laid in the palms of his hands gave that much away. I'd never been the type of person who could just walk past someone who was clearly troubled without offering help.
