In order to survive, Darius, the Alpha King, requires his mate. He will perish if he does not unite with her by the next full moon. After searching for days, Darius finally finds her but she is not who he thinks her to be.
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IT WAS ALMOST evening when the Alpha King tiredly stumbled into his room. Waking up that morning to find that he had lost his sense of smell took a great toll on his mind. All he could think to do was run.
Darius ran until he could no longer breathe.
Until his lungs burnt in exhaustion.
Until his legs cried out for a break, and until his brain could no longer think of anything else.
Although the Alpha King had previously prepared his mind for death, now that he had found his mate, it pained him that he would have no choice but to leave her.
Never had he felt so helpless.
The room was as dark as Darius was currently feeling but he could have sworn he left the lights on.
Then he realised that Samuel probably turned them off before leaving for wherever he went.
Standing by the wall, Darius fumbled around for the light switch. It was tragic how in just one night, everything changed.
Besides having a wolf, Darius could almost pass as a human. Even Hunter was now too weak to shift.
"Damn it!" Darius cursed as he hit his side against the edge of something. Luckily at that moment, he found the switch and turned the light on.
The Alpha King turned to check what hit him and saw that it was the wall post. Even inanimate objects were out to bully him.
He continued into the room, heading straight into the bathroom to wash off all the grime from his body, only to stop in his track halfway upon seeing the shape on the bed.
From the outline, Darius could see that it was a human who was too small to be Samuel.
Quickly, he let out the claws in his right hand. With his claws stretched in front of him, he walked toward the bed.
The first thing that caught his eye was a face covered by a mass of red hair. Frowning, he retracted his claws.
"Ophelia?" Darius thought aloud in bewilderment.
"Hmm?" the figure groaned, confirming his thoughts.
She was probably still asleep because she said nothing after that. Darius could barely see her face under the curtain of red hair.
He was surprised that those curls hadn't strangled her from how they were wrapped around her. He thought about how it was possible that she was still breathing.
If his mate was here, the Alpha King wondered if it was because she decided to be with him after all. A smile appeared on his face at the sight in front of him and Darius leaned down to free her face from the death curls.
After brushing the hair off her face, he walked into the bathroom. Possibly tired of waiting for him, Darius decided to let Ophelia sleep some more.
The King wasn't sure how long she had been here and why the Captain didn't bother informing him about her arrival. He could have rushed back to meet her. Who knew how long she was waiting for him?
~•~°×°~•~
Walking back into the room, Darius looked and felt better. Ophelia was already awake on the bed and was watching him arrive.
"You're awake," he started as he sat at the foot of the bed. "Did I wake you?"
She shook her head. "I heard the water running. When did you come in?"
His expression was apologetic. "I came in a while ago. I'm sorry for waking you up while I showered. Have you been here long?"
"No! I mean, yes, but I haven't been here that long."
The Alpha King noticed his mate's response was quick and forceful but he thought nothing of it.
"I see. Did you see Samuel here when you came in?" he asked.
Ophelia frowned. "Are you not going to ask why I am here?"
At her question, Darius clenched his fists. "I've asked numerous times in my head but can't muster the courage to say it aloud.
"I would like to assume it's because you chose to be with me but at the same time, I can be wrong. Forgive me, Ophelia, but I can't bear to be wrong today."
To his surprise, Ophelia smiled. "So you would rather be in denial than be wrong?"
The King nodded curtly, not bothering to deny it any longer. "You have no idea how much power you hold over me. Even your unspoken words have the power to break me."
"You shouldn't give me that much power, what if I get greedy and misuse it?" she asked with a smirk.
"You wouldn't do that," he responded, his voice void of doubt and hesitation.
Ophelia bit her lips but said nothing else but Darius could see the wheels turning in her head. Then she sighed before looking up at him, almost hesitantly.
"Come sit next to me," she said, patting the space beside her.
Darius' legs took him before his mind could think and he slid under the covers beside Ophelia. His breath hitched as she placed her head on his chest and lay there.
The only question the Alpha King could ask himself was 'what changed?' The other day, his mate looked like she would pass out if she spent more than two seconds with him and now, she was willingly cuddling up to her.
Darius wondered if it was a human thing for their minds to change as easily as the weather.
"I know what you must be thinking about. Indeed I wasn't accepting of it at first but over the night, I realised that I have no reason to run away.
"It took a reality smack to the face for me to know that I am now indeed all alone in the world," she told him in a low voice.
Darius could only think that someone was responsible for hurting his mate. Someone who was probably tired of living.
"What happened, Ophelia?" he asked through clenched jaws.
"My mother. She came last night. Remember that I told you she only visited once in the last ten years?"
Darius nodded then realised that she couldn't see him. "Yes, I remember."
Then she began explaining what happened in the space of last night and that morning. Darius went from annoyed, to angry and then became livid.
He tried breathing in his mate's scent to calm himself down then remembered that his sense of smell was gone and he could only perceive her perfume and that pissed him off even more.
In the end, the Alpha King was certain that only by killing the two people who conceived the idea of taking his mate away from him, would he be able to calm down.
