Donovan
I watched the doorknob to my office turn slowly and didn't even have the energy to brace myself for impact. I stayed sitting in my chair, picking at the flaking leather on the armrest.
"You smell even worse than you look," Amelia snapped.
Though I loved the old batty woman, I was really tempted to rip her head off.
"You were not invited in," I told her.
"Then kick me out."
I looked up at the woman, glaring at me with her hands on her hips. I couldn't help but feel like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar. There weren't many things Amelia couldn't see, and I knew that my hiding place was no longer my own. So what if I had been hiding?
"That's what I thought," she grumbled, stalking up to me like a tiger, "If you don't get outside you're going to rot. Wouldn't be too easy to make up with your mate from a grave, would it?"
Make up with Edith? The thought was enticing.
"I don't know what it is that you expect me to do. She made her choice, and I'm respecting it."
Amelia punched me hard enough to push the chair a few inches. Instinctively, I was on my feet in seconds. Rather than brace myself to attack I simply stared at her in shock.
"Do you really think that you can avoid the girl forever? Or better yet, keep sneaking off to see her as if she's going to dissolve into thin air without you watching her? Maybe you know that being away from her will not only destroy her but it will take this whole pack down with her. You're her mate, my Alpha. You do not belong on this soil without her."
"And you think I don't know that?" I shouted.
Fuck, if there was anything I knew at all it was how badly I needed Edith. I was weak without her. I could feel my muscles deteriorating each day that I wasn't out running with the pack, knew that the small aches and pains throughout my body had started only days after leaving her, and constantly felt sick to my stomach. Every single part of my body needed hers.
"I think you're too stubborn to realize that she feels the same way."
I took a few steps towards Amelia, noticing how she took one back. Without speaking a single word I was back to myself. The Alpha.
"Save me the agony and give me the lesson you came in here for."
"Not only will everyday apart from you be just as awful for her as it is for you, she will die. Her body will shut down. Then yours will follow. You cannot survive without each other."
Fear. I felt fear running through my body. As if echoing Amelia's words, I knew that Edith was somewhere and she was scared. The concept of Edith dying had never even crossed my mind. I had seen it happen before in elder pack members but never connected the dots. It wasn't a secret that people's times came quickly after their mates passed. I didn't know that not being together would bring that upon us.
"Something is wrong," Amelia stated, staring at my face with concern.
There was a flurry behind the door and Max ran inside without knocking, two other pack members at his flanks. Was nobody following protocol these days?
"Edith is gone," Max announced breathlessly.
Fear.
Why are you so afraid, little one?
I took in a long shuddering breath and landed on four paws.
"Gone where?" Amelia asked Max, taking my opportunity of not being able to speak.
Max answered while looking at me, "We lost track of her. Cole won't report back on Imogen, either. He was the closest one to Edith on duty."
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Author's Note: EEP. Hello to you lovely souls and thank you for continuing to stick around with this one. I also wanted to pass along that if you're looking for something else to read between these slow updates check out CHAMELEON on my page. It's officially my new baby. Don't worry, though! I haven't given up on TAFH. Side note, How are we feeling about Edith and Donovan fighting? Heartbreakin, eh?
