In Reach?

Mira’s POV

I wake up in the warm arms of Liam, engulfed in his scent. I love being here with him, I don’t question it one bit, especially knowing what I know now. But I have to get up. My wolf is still angry with him, I am too. And there is something I must do.

I never thought that the sassy voice I thought was my subconscious this whole time, was in fact my wolf. She’s talking more often to me now and I feel way better knowing that I indeed don’t have borderline split personality issues as I feared I might have. She’s the one that’s been making me braver and angrier. She feels so opposite to me, yet I feel like she is me.

I need to go down to Charlotte. There are things I need to ask her.

I get out of bed, trying to slip out of Liam’s tight hold, making my way to my room. I need to shower and get dressed. It’s still early in the morning, but I’ll get some breakfast before I go to Charlotte.

After an hour, I find myself knocking on her bedroom door. I’m just thankful that she’s awake and quite pleased to see me.

“Morning Sweety. You're up early. Please, come in.” She stands aside to let me in.

Her room is similar to mine, and I make my way to one of the couches.

“Morning Charlotte. I’m sorry to bother you so early. I just, have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

She sits on the couch opposite me with a smile on her face. “Not at all. What can I help you with? Is everything alright?” She looks worried. “I heard you shifted yesterday.”

“Yeah, apparently I have an awoken wolf now. But that’s also one of the things I wanted to ask you.”

“Oh. Okay. What do you want to know?” She looks interested now.

“Can a person have more than one mate?”

I know Mikail said no, but with Liam's confession, I' having too many doubts and concerns about everything around me. I need something to start making sense.

She raises her brow. “Well I’ve never heard of it. Why?”

“My wolf calls Liam our mate. Is that just because of the mark he gave me, or,……” I don’t want to wish.

“Your wolf calls Liam your mate?” She looks a bit shocked, but she’s shaking her head now, as if contemplating something. “A wolf doesn’t call someone their mate unless they are their fated mate, or their chosen mate. And the fact that Liam forced his mark on you should mean that your wolf should rather be angry at him, than call him your mate.”

“Oh she’s definitely angry at him.” But I sit forward to try and understand better. “But what does this mean then?”

She sighs. “It could be that Liam was your fated mate this whole time.” She looks hesitant now, “and that Ashton wasn’t your mate to begin with.” But I already knew that since the moment my wolf told me.

“But how can I be Liam’s fated mate when he already found his?”

She looks a bit caught off guard. “You know about her?”

I sigh. “Yes. Liam said he already found her a long time ago. But that Dahlia killed her. But if he already found his mate, how can he be someone else’s fated mate, how can someone else be his mate?”

She’s scrunching her brows, clearly in deep thought. “So even you think you might be his second chance mate?”

Even me? His what?

“What?”

“Liam said his wolf recognized you as his mate. But he was hesitant because second chance mates are very rare, too rare in fact. It’s practically myth to us.” She sighs. “It’s a very long and confusing story, but this is making me wonder, maybe you two might just be fated mates.”

So he knew? If my wolf saw him as our mate, our fated, then his wolf should have too, and he did. But he didn’t take me as his mate, instead he tried to kill me.

This is why, this is why my wolf is angry at him. I can feel her anger rising again. She feels rejected by him, for what he did. Regardless of what he says now. Our mate wasn’t there for us when we were lost and needed him most.

“But one can never be too sure.” I look back up at Charlotte speaking. “Maybe Liam just grew on you and now your wolf recognizes him as your chosen mate.”

But this still makes me think about my other question.

“What is going to happen, now that everyone thinks he stole someone else’s mate?”

“Well, that all depends on what happens. If Ashton makes an official complaint to the council, they will then handle this with appropriate punishment. Given that Liam is an Alpha, just makes it more troublesome. It could be that they would try and take his pack from him, but with the pending war with Dahlia, I doubt they would do that now. So I’m not too sure.”

Oh goodness. The council gets involved in this? There’s a ‘Pending war’? Liam could lose his pack?

“Thank you, Charlotte. This helped a lot.” I get up and make my way out to the door after giving her a quick smile.

I can’t let that happen. As much as my wolf and I are angry with Liam, we can’t let this happen. We can’t let him lose his pack, for taking something that was his.

I need to find Ashton.

Liam’s POV

I wake up to that sweet scent, but it’s faint, too faint. I open my eyes and notice that she’s not there, next to me, in my arms, where I left her. I sit up looking around the room, but she isn’t here. She’s not here. Where is she? I don’t like not waking up to her. And I’m not even angry at this point, I’m worried. Where could she have gone? Did something happen? She was still so weak last night.

I get up and try to mind-link her, but she’s blocking me. What the hell. How does she even know how to do that yet? I mind-link Char to ask her. Maybe Mira wasn’t feeling well and she went to see her. But Char says she went out, probably for a walk in the woods.

I quickly go to the bathroom to freshen up and get dressed. I want to know why she’s blocking me.

When I get downstairs I see Noah slowly pacing in the foyer with a worried look on his face.

“Liam. You’re up.”

“What’s wrong Noah?”

“Well, it’s Mira. She,…..”

“Where is she?”

“She went out with Theo. But they went to,…….”

“What Noah. Spit it out.”

“She went to see Ashton.”

What!? Him? Why!?

I rush past him out the door, on my way to the cabin.

Why would she go to him? I was supposed to wake up to her in my arms, and instead find my bed empty and hear about her going to Ashton first thing in the morning. What is going on? Does she really have feelings for him?

I can hear Noah also rushing behind me. When we reach the cabin, I notice that Theo is waiting outside. Why is he outside? Why is she alone in there with him?

I run closer to the cabin, to Theo at the front door.

“Theo. What is going on here? Why is she here?”

I try to rush past him, not even waiting for an answer, but he stops me from going in.

“What the fuck, Theo. Let me pass now.”

“I can’t do that Liam.” He's serious in his stance, but I can hear the contention in his voice.

What the fuck? Is he disobeying my order?

He sighs. “She asked me to bring her here. Said she had to sort things out. But she also said that I am to make sure that no one interrupts them.”

“What!?” Interrupt? “Theo. I am your Alpha. You do not take orders against me.”

I try to rush past him again, but he pushes me away. It seems he’s very determined to not let me through. This is getting me and my wolf angry. Gggrrrhh!

“Theo.” I can hear Noah trying to be firm with him too, but he’s not even paying him any mind.

But even Theo looks a bit frustrated now. “This is all she asked me to do. Do you really think I would leave her alone with that ass-hat if I thought she was in danger? I won’t let anything happen to her.”

I don’t understand their relationship, but I know he wants to protect her. But why is he going against me?

“Theo, you expect me to just stand here and wait? That fucker isn’t just going to stand by and watch. Do you really think he just wants to have a conversation with her?”

“Liam?” I turn my head to Mira, as she walks out, with Ashton following behind. “What are you doing here?”

“I can ask you the same thing?” I rush to her side, and this time Theo doesn’t bother keeping me back. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?” I try to look her over, to make sure that asshole didn’t try anything.

“I’m fine. But why are you here?”

“I came looking for you.” I look at Ashton and he almost seems depressed looking at me holding Mira. “What did he want?”

“We have to talk.” This gets me to snap my gaze back at her. “I think it best we all go to your office to discuss this properly.”

What? What’s going on? What’s with her serious aura?

“Okay.” I put my arm over her shoulder and walk back with her. Everybody else is walking behind us, in silence.

When we get to the office, I sit behind my desk, but pull one of the chairs next to me so Mira can sit there. I don’t want her sitting near him. He notices my actions, and smirks at it. So annoying. Noah and Theo take a seat on one of the couches and Ashton takes a seat on the one opposite them.

“So, what is it that we need to talk about?” I look back at Mira, but she’s looking at Ashton. Why?

That’s when Ashton speaks up. “I have decided to not file an official complaint to the council about this.”

I look at him, and see that so are the others, and they look quite surprised. Why would he agree to that? Knowing him, he would do it gladly if it meant going against me. What did Mira say to him? What agreement did they make?

“Why?”

He snorts. “What do you mean ‘why’? Shouldn’t you be happy about this?”

“Ashton.” I hear her soft voice as she’s seems to be reprimanding him now.

He sighs. “I won’t do it, on the grounds that you maintain your alliance with my pack.”

He looks serious. But why is he worried that I would break our alliance, from something I did? Does he care about something else other than himself for once?

“Okay. Agreed.” Seems like a good enough deal.

“And there is one more thing you should know.” He looks hesitant and nervous the way his knee is jumping. He’s looking at Mira, almost desperate and sad. But he sighs defeatedly. “Mira,…….she isn’t my mate.”

“What did you just say?” I say through a clenched jaw.

Did he just say what I think he said? This whole time I kept telling myself that it can’t be true but he kept insisting. He actually made me think that I was going crazy chasing after her, after his so-called mate.

“She was never my mate.”

Theo and I growl at hearing this, even Noah looks infuriated.

“That’s about all I have to say. I already discussed this with her.” He gets up and makes his way to me. “I have no reason to go to the council, and you and your pack have nothing to worry about. But we’re still in agreement for peace right?” He stretches out is hand for me to shake.

But my entire body is shaking right now, from anger. But I feel a hand on my wrist, calming me from jumping this fucker right here. I look next to me already knowing that it’s Mira. But she’s looking at me with a serious face of her own. She wants me to agree with this!?

“You can’t possibly-,…..” I look at her hoping she isn’t agreeing to this. But she just gives me a stern look, and I can see a glimpse of her wolf’s seriousness too. But I can't really complain about this. This has just saved me and my pack from a lot of unnecessary issues.

I sigh. “Agreed.” I refuse to shake his hand though. If I touch him now, I will just rip him apart.

He pulls his hand back with a nervous smile. “Good. I will take my leave then. I think it’s time I head back to my pack anyways.” He gives Mira a sad look before he turns around and walks out.

Just as I look at her again, I see her getting up. “Where are you going?”

“I’m heading out.” She says so monotonous.

“Why?” I still wanted to talk to her about this. She must be hurt knowing that he lied to her about it.

But she just snorts at me standing in front of my desk now. “You know, you were right. He did it because of you. He made me believe that I was his mate all because he wanted to piss you off.”

Just as I want to get up to go to her, she turns around and says. “Don’t. I’m not in the mood for ‘I told you so’. I just want to be alone.” And she walks out.

I’m sitting in my office, dumbfounded like the other two, wondering what just happened. I never wanted to be right about this, about him. If anything, I was convinced that he was lying mainly because I wanted it not to be true, I wanted her to be mine.

And now that it’s official that I was right, that he was lying, that she isn’t in fact his, I feel like I’ve lost rather than won. Why does it feel like I’m losing her?