***
You never know what you have
until you lose it.
And once you lost it,
you can never get it.
***
A D E N
One month and twenty seven days had passed since I had last seen her. To say my wolf was going crazy without her, would be an understatement.
Not a second passed when I did not think about her and regret my actions. All I wanted her was to be safe and sound knowing that I loved her to infinity.
I sighed as I rose from my chair. The pressures of being an Alpha was already weighing me down and it was a daily struggle to keep up with the ever growing stack of reports about Rogue sightings, attacks, and news from the Guardians.
"You should take a break now, Aden." Stella said, looking up from her work. I gave her a slight nod and a small smile as I left my office for a refreshing run.
Ever since Kiara left, the pack has no Luna and Stella, my sister willingly volunteered to help me run the pack.
Needless to say, Dad had been totally against it. A huge fight had ensued the disagreement, and we weren't in talking terms ever since.
"Let us in, son! Tell us what's wrong!" My mother cried hysterically as I locked myself in my room and refused to talk to anyone.
She left me....She left me.....She left me, thinking I was an asshole who didn't give a damn about her.
Well, she was right. I had been an asshole; but an asshole who thought the world of her. I had my reasons, but I couldn't share my reasons with her. Had I let her in on the truth, it would have hurt her more.
"Open up, Aden! We need to talk!" my Dad called out to me anxiously. I refused to budge.
No one knew what the real reason was. No one except for Stella, and she had been wise enough not to tell anyone else.
I knew the pack members were whispering behind my back. I knew they were calling me crazy and weird, but right now I didn't give a damn.
She left me.... She left me.... She left me, and that was all that mattered.
"This is it, Aden! If you don't open this instant, I'll break open the door!" My father warned me when he finally ran out of patience.
I sat there still unmoving.
The world could stop rotating for all I cared.
"ONE..."
I didn't move.
She left me...
"TWO..."
No response.
She left me....
"THREE.."
She lef-
There was a loud bang as the door flew off its hinges, and my Dad and the rest of the pack peered down at my disheveled form on the ground.
"Oh my goodness!" Mother shrieked running up to me as she embraced me tightly.
I hesitated at first but finally gave into her warm comforting scent as I buried my face into her shoulder.
"We thought... we thought you were," she began as tears flowed down her cheeks in relief, "dead."
I shrugged indifferently. Anyone would think I killed myself or something. And anyway was life worth living for anymore?
Nay.... not without her anyway.
"What's wrong, Aden?" She asked me gently pulling away from me scanning my face to know the truth.
I looked away trying to hide my misery. I couldn't tell her because I knew it would only shatter her. Besides, she couldn't stand up to Dad, even if she tried. She wouldn't be able to help me.
"You need to tell us, son. You had us worried to death." Dad prompted me as he approached both of us. My sister came up behind him, and to my intense frustration, so did Nicole.
I grit my teeth when I saw her saunter up to us with a worried face. But I knew the truth behind the facade, she was just a power- hungry, attention-seeking puppet. Her strings were in the hands of my father just like mine was until I took over as alpha.
"It's nothing, Dad. I'm better now. I...." I said attempting to stand up and wave them away.
It did not work though.
"Clearly, it isn't nothing. Tell us Aden, we need to know." Dad insisted. I sighed as I looked at Stella. She gave me a small nod.
"Kiara is my mate, but I rejected her. It is my fault she ran away. It is my fault she left all of us, and it is my fault the pack doesn't have a Luna today." I said.
They could punish me in the worst possible ways. They could stone me. I deserved it all.
SLAP!
My face turned with the impact of her hand . She stood before me, her eyes flashing dangerously.
"Mom!!! I..." Stella said coming between us, but I just held up my hand to stop her. Like I said, I deserved the worst of the worse.
"How could you?" Mom began tears brimming up in her eyes once again. "How could you reject your own mate? What did she ever do to you? She bore with all your ill treatment without saying a word and is this what you give her in return?" She yelled, her voice cracking at the end.
I stood there ashamed even to look at her in the face. Every word she uttered had been true. I had -
"Diana, what Aden did was not unexpected." My Dad cut in. "Actually I'm glad he did what he did."
She stated at him in shock."You—? You're in on this?"
"It is not Aden's fault." He continued calmly, "Kiara is a weak girl, and Aden did nothing wrong by rejecting her. In fact he did the pack a favour."
"But Jason, she-" My mother protested, only to be cut off by Dad again.
"Kiara has been a coward. She was afraid to face difficulties and hence she ran away from it. That is not what a Luna should do. She has been the sole cause of our misery ever since the Rogue war and she certainly does not deserve to be the Luna of a reputed pack like ours. Even if she had the shamelessness to stay after such a humiliating rejection, I wouldn't have made her the Luna. She is pathetic, weak, and totally worthless."
My blood was boiling at the end of his speech and I was mere seconds away from shifting into my wolf and raking the skin off his face with my claws.
No one insults my mate. Not my family or the Moon Goddess herself, for that matter. NO ONE.
"Dad," I said with forced calm, "It would be better if the rest of the members quit the room. We have a lot to talk about."
He looked at me coolly. "Yes, of course. That wouldn't be a problem at all."
I turned my head towards the door where the pack stood huddled together as if sensing my wrath already and commanded them in my Alpha voice, "LEAVE."
They scampered away like a group of rabbits at my order and only my family remained.
"She stays too." My father said pointing at Nicole who was still dithering at the door.
I grit my teeth. Dad always had a soft corner for that bitch. He believed she was the perfect Luna for our pack.
"No she doesn't."
"She does." He replied.
"She's not family. She's not my mate, nor do I intend to marry her." I snapped. "So no, she doesn't get to stay."
"Lets not argue about this and get to the problem." Stella hastens, intervening our argument. "The longer we dawdle, the worse this gets. Kiara could be anywhere by now."
She had a point. I ignored Nicole's smug smile and turned my attention to my father again. "We must find Kiara, Dad." I said, "She is the true Luna and my mate. No one can replace her."
"I disagree," He said. My wolf growled again. "Kiara will never be capable of ruling our pack. She lacks the strength, the determination and the courage. She is a coward."
"She is not a coward, Dad!" I snarled, when he finally crossed all his limits.
"Oh really?" He asked me, unfazed, "What else do you call a person who runs away from her problems?"
"Had she really been a coward Dad, she would have accepted the rejection and put an end to the relationship." I retorted. "Instead, Kiara did a very sensible thing. She put distance between us, no doubt thinking that time would weaken the connection between us."
Besides, this is my fault. She left because of me." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "She thought I preferred Nicole over her."
"Oh, she is pretty sensible then," My father drawled, "Because Nicole is indeed a better choice. She'll make a good Luna."
"Over my dead body." I said through gritted teeth. Even imagining Nicole as my mate made me gag. She was nothing compared to my Kiara. Nothing.
I remember the way she used to come up to my room at night before I found my mate and try to convince me. When that didn't work, but the pack members began to gossip about her late night comings and goings, we came up with an alternate plan. We began to use realistic sound effects. When she came over, I slept on the couch while she took the bed. I wasn't completely on board with the plan, but I realised it kept Kiara safe in the process, because my father had a suspicion I harboured a secret crush on her. This way, I managed to convince him he didn't need to concern himself with her anymore.
In public though, we couldn't use sound effects, so we had to act it out instead. While a part of me hated it, I realised the girl I liked didn't like me anyway. Even before our tentative friendship broke, she had always seen me in a platonic light. This arrangement changed nothing.
It didn't stop Nicole from trying to make this fake arrangement real though. She even rejected her real mate just for this.
It made my dealings with her ex incredibly awkward because he was one of the reliable warriors of our pack.
I would rather join a monastery than accept Nicole as my mate and Luna...
"Really? Who then is fit to be Luna?" My father asked me coldly.
"I can manage the pack alone," I told him stubbornly, "I don't need anybody's help."
"Yes, of course you are!" My father said sarcastically, "Just look at the state you are in!!"
I opened my mouth to argue back, when Stella cut me off. "I will help him, Dad. She doesn't need to waste her time on petty matters as this." She said with a cold stare at Nicole.
Nicole however, simply sneered at my sister, "Do you even know the basics of ruling a pack?"
"I will learn." She shot back with conviction, "There's no rule that only the Alpha's mate is allowed to run the pack alongside him. In the absence of a mate, anyone who's proven themselves reliable can step in."
"I can prove myself," Nicole retorted airily, "You can ask anyone, even Aden. Isn't that so, darling?"
How thickheaded can she be? Didn't I make it clear she wouldn't be my Luna in this lifetime?
"Please Nicole," I said , "We all know you stick to me only for power. If I hadn't been an Alpha, you would have dumped me ages ago, like you did to your poor mate, Jayden."
Nicole opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. She just gaped at me in shock. She probably hadn't been expecting such a rude remark.
Hopefully, she would take it as an insult and leave this pack forever.
I turned to my father again ignoring her. "Stella is right Dad," I said, "She can act as the Luna until we find Kiara."
My father snorted, "Do you really think you will be able to find her? For all we know she has already been devoured by a pack of Rogues."
A loud growl escaped as I took a step forward.
My mother however, pulled me back hurriedly. "Don't Aden! He's your father!"
"He's no father of mine, if he can insult his own son's true mate like that!" I spat with all the contempt I could muster.
Something flashed through his eyes when I said that, but it was gone a second later. "Looks like all the power is getting into your head, Aden. It won't be long before you meet a pathetic end like your mate."
Now that did it. With a last vicious growl, I flung myself over him at his last words.
"Leave him, Aden! Let go, he'll die!!" Stella cried rushing over towards me.
But I was so mad with rage that I didn't. I wouldn't care even if it had been the Moon Goddess who had been the one to insult my mate. If anyone did that, they were basically begging for a slow and excruciatingly painful death.
Needless to say, it took all of Stella's and Mom's combined efforts to finally pull me off a person who regretfully was my father.
***
I jogged along the pack border thinking about Kiara again. She was always in my mind now. She might hate me for the way I treated her, but I could never hate her. She was my life and the very reason I never gave up hope.
It had been almost two months now, and we still couldn't trace her whereabouts. But I knew she was alive. She was somewhere in the world and I would find her one day.
It didn't matter if she didn't love me back, the fact is I always loved her and will continue to love her until I breathe my last. My love for her wasn't just because of the mate bond, I was in love with her ever since I first saw her.
I had been a jerk and I would set it right, all I needed was a single chance.
* * *
( Aden Carter ~ now )
A/N : Do tell me what you think of Aden's POV. What do you think, does he really deserve a second chance, or is it Ashton who is really worthy of Kiara?
Are you Team Aden
or
Team Ashton?