Night and Neera: A Rejected Mate Story

Chapter 4: It Was A Blur To Me

Néron looked at me as if I was stupid. "She would have had to tell Aymeric, asked his permission, if she was planning to do that. Zetas aren't allowed to make a move unless it's cleared through Aymeric first."

"She might not have known the new rules."

"Oh, come on, Night. Be real. Every pack member knows. Every last one knows how things work with the zetas."

The pain in my chest only seemed to intensify. "Then maybe she just went for a run today because she was pissed."

"Again, not reporting for duty would have to be cleared through Aymeric."

"I hope nobody got to her," Aymeric said in his quiet way. "It seems unlikely with our safeguards, but you left her swinging out there alone, Alpha. A Howl is valuable, even one who hasn't Taken the Blood. Our enemies could take her to prevent you from ever changing your mind."

"So if she's not here and her car is gone, it's obvious she went into work." Stupid chest pain.

"We called the business. She phoned in sick and said she was ill and needed to take an emergency leave of absence. For an indefinite amount of time."

"Then the obvious answer is she's out for a run, without permission, and one of her friends took her car for the day." That had to be it because anything else was unthinkable.

Néron and Aymeric exchanged glances. "Her two good friends are also gone. I checked back with all of the guards for the last twenty-four hours. One said Neera's car went through the gate at 9:37 a.m. yesterday. She wasn't in the car, however."

"Did they stop and search the car? To be sure? Or are they just talking out of their furry asses?" I demanded. 

"No, Alpha," Aymeric said evenly. "There was no reason to stop the car since there had been no orders issued to search vehicles yesterday."

"You also didn't issue an Alpha directive for her to stay on pack lands," Néron reminded me. "Leaving the way clear for Neera to run away from the hell you set up for her when you made her a zeta."

Fucking little brother. Always such a pain in the ass.

"So where is she?"

"Unknown," Aymeric said. "The three of them are not answering their phones."

"What are you doing to find her?" Shouldn't this chest pain stop soon?

I could feel my voice changing as my wolf pushed forward. He didn't like this, didn't like what had happened yesterday. I didn't either, and I wish I could remember why I had --

"The fuck you care?" Néron snapped at me. "You rejected her -- brutally -- you changed her pack status, you didn't order her protection, so you were just about begging for something to happen to her. Now you and your non-Destined One can live happily ever after without all those children you clearly don't want to have and throw the pack into further chaos when you die and there's no successor to take your place."

"Watch yourself," I growled at him, feeling myself on the edge of a change. He might be my brother, but he still had to respect me as Alpha. My wolf demanded it.

"Someone has to make you see what you've done! You've practically alienated the entire pack, Night! You took something sacred to all of us and made it into something horrifying and humiliating. You might as well have torn that poor girl's throat out because you absolutely gutted her. So you tell me, what the fuck did you expect to happen? You didn't issue an Alpha decree that she could never touch Lindsay, so you know how that was going to go. Your Destined One couldn't stand by and watch you with another female -- it was only a matter of time before she attacked Lindsay Morgan and then you'd kill Neera in retaliation. So what sane, clear-thinking person would stay on pack lands just biding her time before she brought about her own death?