Chapter 40: Heartbroken

Benjamin’s POV

*‘She’s gone. The love of my life is gone.’* I couldn’t reel in my thoughts and feelings of betrayal as my mate’s disappearance slowly set in. None of the doctors and nurses I spoke with had seen her, let alone discharged her. I searched high and low, in and around the hospital, praying that she was merely hiding herself from me. As the hospital grounds turned out to be devoid of her presence, I broadened my search to the city. Still, there were no traces of her anywhere. I rushed home with one last hope that she’d be there waiting for me, but the only thing that I found waiting was the cruel realization that she had packed up all of her things. I turned the whole house inside out searching for her clothes, her bags and even her toothbrush. Everything she owned had just disappeared. She was simply gone. There were no doubts left in my mind. Mina had runaway from me.

I spent the rest of my night sitting in the dark of my living room, mourning the loss of my mate. Jumping back and forth between feeling sorry for me and furious with myself, the flood of emotions that I struggled with had made me completely empty. I had no more tears, no more anger and no more energy. There was nothing left in me but a pitiful hollow in which my heart had sank. Even my wolf had gone off the grid. He stopped crying out when we couldn’t sense Mina anymore and while our pain diminished, his absence only grew.

An entire night without my mate had come and gone and I wondered how I could survive all of the ones that would follow. I was still sitting there, in the middle of a trashed house, when my family appeared in front of me. They stood in complete silence, with no idea on how to react to the mess that was my house and myself. I could see the worry and angst that painted their faces, but I failed to care.

“Honey, what happened?” My mother spoke first in her softest voice.

She crouched down in front of me and laid a reassuring hand on mine like she had always done when trying to comfort me.

“We went by the hospital and Mina isn’t there. What happened, Benji?”

My gaze turned away from my mother’s eyes and landed on my best friend and my sister. Seeing them, side by side, triggered in me a burst of frantic laughter that stemmed from jealousy.

“What do you think happened?” I answered Ryan laughing like a lunatic. “She left me!”

“She wouldn’t.” My sister muttered under her breath.

“Oh, she wouldn’t?” I yelled back at her as I got up from my seat, practically knocking my mother over in the process. “Look around, Roxy! She’s gone. Her stuff is gone. Mina left me.”

“Benjamin!”

“No, Dad!” I whipped my head back towards my father who had moved closer to me. “I don’t want to hear anything from you. This is all your fault. How could you let me meet her?” I shouted while yanking him by the collar of his blue polo shirt.

Ryan rushed to our side and struggled to get me away from my father. They were left stunned by the level of hostility that I was displaying but I didn’t care if it hurt them. I was broken and, even though it wasn’t true, I convinced myself that not a single one of them could understand the extent of my pain. I wanted to shut all of them out, but more than anything, I wanted my misery to end.

“Just leave me alone. All of you.” I let out falling back into the couch.

“Honey, we can’t leave you like this.”

My mother’s small voice made its way to my ears, but even she couldn’t ease the guilt hovering in my mind.

“Why? It’s my fault, I pushed her away. She’s gone because of what I did to her.”

“Mina’s gone?”

We all jerked our heads towards the deep voice that had spoken from the entryway connecting to the living room. A few of the River Creek men were standing there, facing us. Travis moved forward and stared at me with hateful eyes. He repeated himself in a strained and worried voice which only propelled me back into the familiar embrace of anger. Without thinking, I lunged myself on the warrior and sent his body flying into the wall. Travis swiftly got up and threw himself back at me, connecting his right fist to my jaw.

I couldn’t see anybody else but the man that shared with my mate her last days in my pack. He tried to throw a second punch but I was a little faster than him. I leaned over and threw my body on his, grabbing him by the waist and sending us both back to the ground. Within moments, I was on top of him and landing a series of vicious blows on his face. Before I could bash his head in, his men pulled me off of him and flung my body across the room. As soon as I stood back up, my parents held me back and tried to reason with me. Their words ultimately fell on deaf ears and my focus remained on Travis for a ferocious hatred of him had completely devoured me.

He fought back against his friends and quickly freed himself from his brother’s restrains.

“Where’s Mina?” He asked me angered.

“You don’t get to ask me that.”

“And you don’t get to wallow in self-pity.” He spat out approaching me. “What did you do to make her leave?”

“What happens between her and I is none of your business, Delta. You would do well to remember that.” I hissed back, closing the distance between us.

“I’m a Delta by choice, but Beta of River Creek by blood, Alpha. You don’t scare me.”

He wasn't lying. Travis Reese was the only werewolf I knew who liked to openly challenge me every chance he had.

“You have an hour to get out of my territory.” I issued my final warning as I turned my back on him and walked away.

Travis wiped the blood dripping from his lips with the back of his hand before spitting more on my living room floor.

“You know, in the little time that I spent with her, she told me all about how she barely felt like herself around you. If the Moon Goddess is even just a little bit fair, you’ll never see Mina again.” He said to me gravely.

The River Creek men followed Travis out of my house and I was left alone with my bewildered family. Again, he wasn't lying. In the name of protecting her, I had forgotten to listen to Mina.

“Benji, we need them to find the rogue.” Ryan said in a low voice half expecting to set me off.

I was too exhausted to get mad again. My body was drained beyond words and it felt like it was just about to give up on me.

“Screw them and screw the rogue.” I said in an imperceptible voice.

I headed for the stairs to retrieve back into my room and left behind me the people who loved me the most. I laid on my bed and buried my face in the pillows and covers that I shared with Mina. Her light sweet scent was still embedded in the sheets and despite myself, I started to cry again. I’ve waited ten years for my mate and it took me less then two months to lose her. I couldn’t take the pain anymore and, as my eyes began to shut and I drifted off to sleep, I pronounced the only words that I thought could ease my heart.

“I, Alpha Benjamin Miller of the Blackwoods Pack, reject Amina Langley as my mate and Luna.”

Amina’s POV

*“Benji don’t go away, please.”*

*He was leaving me all alone in this dark and frightening forrest. His indifference brought me to my knees and as he walked away, he pulled our bond with him. I felt it grow weaker until there was almost nothing left.*

*“Benji, please…” I sobbed, pleading for him to return.*

*“Please, come back…”*

I woke up with a gasp and Benjamin’s name escaping my lips. There was a heaviness sitting on top of my chest, crushing my heart and knocking the wind out of my lungs. Immediate sorrow came over me and it felt like I was losing some important part of myself.

Shaken up by my nightmare and unable to recognize my surroundings, I fought against the tears that wanted to flood out as I tried to remember what had happened to me. A splitting headache forced me to press my fingers against the back of my head and moan from pain.

“This is bad.” I groaned looking at the bloodied fingers that I pulled away from my head and my other arm tucked in my sweater.

The entire room around me was dark and the air was cold and damp. I found myself laying on a thin worn-out mattress covered in what could only be my blood. There was nothing that could give me a clue as to where I was. I racked my brain until the events leading up to now became clearer. I had been kidnapped by the nurse and someone else. *‘I'll bring you to him.’* My mind reminded me. Fear rapidly crept back up for there was only one other *him* that I could think of.

“This is very bad.” My breath wavered in panic as I forced myself to stand up.

I started searching for an exit when, suddenly, a door on the other end of the room busted wide open. Left blinded by the strong fluorescent light seeping through, I could only make out a slender shadow entering the room.

“Finally, the princess is awake.” The shadow said in a shrill voice.