Simply A Sacrifice

Chapter 33: Us

This chapter is dedicated to @starlfall - thanks for the feedback (and for reading)!       :)

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It would only be a matter of time before I came face to face with Adahy while no one else around. I had caught glimpses of him around the pack grounds, but I had managed to make my escapes quickly enough. A few times, it had seemed he might approach me, but by some miracle of fate, someone would always steal his attention before he could make his move.

Since the ceremony, it looked as if he never sat still. He was running around trying to rebuild after the fight. He was managing patrols, working on new security plans and strategizing how we would react in the event of any future attacks. We'd won the war, but not totally crushed our enemy. It was possible they were simply off regrouping, busy with their own strategy sessions.

Beyond that, he had his normal duties of managing the day to day issues associated with running a pack. This included everything from problems brought forward by pack members to managing the common facilities to maintaining relationships with other packs. This last part had surprised me, when Taylor had mentioned it. Logically, there would be more werewolves than just the members of our pack (and Lucas's), but I was shocked to learn that there were packs all over the world. The largest was about 500 members, somewhere in Russia.

Periodically, the unmated wolves of all of the packs would even meet in order to help wolves possibly find their mates and generally increase the genetic diversity in any given area. Apparently, werewolves typically found their mates were other werewolves. Occasionally, they would find human mates, but this was definitely rarer as it often weakened the werewolf gene.

Taylor was my inside source on all things werewolf, as well as all things Adahy. She would often give me updates about him, sensing my need to know without me having to sacrifice my pride and ask. In a way, her indulgence of me in this regard had made it possible to avoid him even longer than I may have otherwise managed. However, she made up for this with incessant nagging of me to go see him.

"Amadahy, just go talk to him."

"Taylor, I can't. I don't know what to say or where to start. Besides, he's clearly busy."

It was true. If all of the aforementioned tasks hadn't kept him busy enough, Adahy also tried to offer support to grieving and traumatized pack members. He was a saint, that one, and intimidating as all hell.

I couldn't keep my eyes off him, whenever I did see him. My wolf would call to him, a tad more desperate each time.

"It's unnatural Amaday," Taylor said, interrupting my thoughts before I could they could turn towards how gorgeous my mate was. "You're supposed to be together. I don't know why you are avoiding him."

"I am not avoiding him!"

"You practically did a belly flop behind the counter yesterday when he came in the cafe looking for Gabriel."

"I needed clean glasses for an order, I was bending down to get them."

"You're lucky Gabriel was in a rush to put some distance between the two of you. If he hadn't ran out to meet Adahy, I am sure Adahy would have come over. He did see you, you know."

"No, he didn't," I muttered, my face turning a deep shade of red.

"He stared in your direction like a lost puppy while he followed Gabe out the room."

"He did not." All of the blood in my body was now in my face, it seemed. "Do you think he did though?"

Taylor rolled her eyes. "You guys are idiots. Both of you. I don't know how much longer I can watch this train wreck of a love story. Talk to him, Ada."