Chapter 119

Ollie’s POV

I travel northward, most often as a wolf with my duffle bag draped across the back of my wolf body, but sometimes as a human when I feel like moving at a slower pace – which is often.

It seems the more distance I try to put between myself and my mates, the more I begin to doubt my actions.

While I have so many reasons for leaving them behind, and those reasons are valid, my heart still feels tied to them in ways that are not so easy to shake off. These ties make me question if I would truly be able to succeed in running and hiding from them.

If they chased me, would I really be able to pretend like I don’t want them, when my wolf and my heart want me to run back to them already when they haven’t yet moved to find me?

Stopping in my tracks for a moment, I release a deep sigh.

How did things come to this? Was there something I could have done to avoid this outcome, or were things always meant to be like this? Is my self-imposed exile the Moon Goddess’s true plan for my fate?

I only wish I knew what I had done to earn her ire, so I could try to make it up to her.

Other than traveling north, I have no real plan for my future. Abandoning my pack makes me a rogue, so I’m unlikely to be accepted by any other pack. It would be up the Alpha’s discretion. As an omega, I doubt I would be accepted.

I’m not totally sure what drives me northward out of every direction to travel. It just feels right though. Well, as right as any direction could feel that wasn’t heading straight back to the arms of my mates.

With another deep breath, I continued walking, forcing my feet forward in the dirt. One foot after the other, inch my inch, leaving my heart behind.

For another hour, I traveled as a human before shifting back to wolf form to move more efficiently. The moment I switched, my senses opened up, giving me a more vivid sense of hearing and smell.

Because of this, I froze in place, immediately sensing someone behind me.

Friend or foe?

Turning, however, I didn’t see anyone. No one made their presence known to me.

A friend would have spoken up, given themselves away. That means that whoever is lurking behind me, following me, is either someone curious about my strange path through the woods, or it’s a foe wishing to hurt me.

Although if they want to hurt me, what are they waiting for?

I have to be careful and pick up my pace. If they are waiting for some kind of opportunity, I can’t let them find it.

The sudden burst of fear has a positive effect, if only in giving me more motivation to push me away from my mates’ pack.

I’ve lingered too long already. This place, this pack and the brothers themselves are part of my past. My future is elsewhere, and I need to accept that.

Setting my sights north once more, I pushed myself forward.

Wes’s POV

Since Ollie decided to stay at the cabin, my brothers and I have been on edge. It’s only been a day, but already we have been taking the separation with some difficulty. Even within my own heart, I feel a deep ache, like my chest was being hollowed out from the inside.

It’s frustrating, and my brothers and I have been snapping at each other more than usual. Poor Sylvia doesn’t know what to think and has mostly been avoiding us or watching us from afar. I can’t blame her, with how short we’ve been lately.

I feel somewhat guilty though. I too haven’t been as kind as usual. It was difficult to be kind knowing that my mate was alone and thinking of rejecting us.

When I learned Ollie was indeed our mate, it came as something of a shock, though it did explain some of the ways I had felt drawn to Ollie, even after dismissing her and avoiding her. After thinking she had betrayed us purposefully, which I could acknowledge now made little sense.

As children, we had all been drawn to each other. At the time, we had mistakenly believed that she was our lost sister, but in fact, it had been echoes of our future bonds that had connected us.

Since discovering that she was not our sister, my brothers and I had treated her so coldly.

All I can do now was try to make it up to her and hope she would accept us eventually.

As I’m wallowing around, lost in my own misery, I startle when I hear the front doorbell ring.

I can sense that none of my brothers are moving with any urgency to the door, so I go myself, eager for the distraction. However, as soon as I open the door, my mood falls further and a small growl erupts from the back of my throat.

Though I haven’t yet met Professor Hunter, I know him from around campus. And I’ve heard what my brothers have said about him, and his relationship with Ollie.

“What are you doing here?” I demand.

“I need to speak with Ollie,” Professor Hunter said.

“About what?” I ask.

He’s quiet a moment, staring me down. “Ollie can tell you if she wants. After.”

I glare back at me. Then, I lean forward, grab Hunter by the arm and drag him into the house.

“What are you doing? What is this?”

“Ollie isn’t here,” I tell him. “But if this involves her, my brothers and I will hear it at once.”

“You don’t have the right.”

“We have every right!” I insist. “Ollie is our mate.”

Ten minutes later, Hunter stands in the living room with my brothers and me surrounding him. Sylvia is there too, messing with her phone while sitting on the couch.

He must know that he cannot escape the will of the pack Alphas, and after a short, annoyed huff of breath, shares with us, “I’ve been looking into Ollie’s genealogy for her. After seeing her wolf, I determined that she was special, and now I’ve been proven right.”

“How so?” Conrad asks, his arms crossed.

“The pack to the North. She is a member of the Alpha’s family. His little sister, actually,” Hunter says.

I startle, not having expected that. The looks on my brothers’ faces mirrors my own.

“Why was she at the orphanage?” Declan asks.

“She was taken as a baby,” Hunter says. “I’ve already spoken to the Alpha. Hearing about Ollie, he’s left at once to come down here.”

Another growl escapes my throat, causing Hunter to look at me strangely. I can’t take it back though. The Alpha would probably try to take Ollie from us.

She is ours now.

Hunter looks at me nervously but still continues, “It is up to Ollie what she does next, which is why it is so important that I speak with her.”

“She’s not here,” Conrad says.

“Where is she then?”

“None of your concern,” Declan says.

“I don’t know why anyone cares about this,” Sylvia snaps suddenly, her voice twisted with vile anger. “Soon it won’t matter anyway.”

Every eye in the room turns to her.

“And what do you mean by that, dear sister?” Hugh asks.