Chapter 15: Chapter 15

[Tyler’s POV]

“For the last time, Maynard, where is the Omega slave?” I thundered.

With tears in his eyes, he looked up to me as blood dripped from his forehead to the floor. “I promise, your highness, I don’t know where she is. I was guarding the entire place throughout and she never left her cell. I don’t know how she suddenly disappeared,” he said.

Maynard was the person who guarded Nivera’s cell, and he had been the first to raise an alarm that she had gone missing. It all didn’t make sense to me, and that was why I had insisted that he be tortured. Someone had to pay the price for her disappearance, and he seemed like the appropriate person to do that.

The guards I had sent a few hours ago to search the whole town for her came back, and as much as I looked at them, I couldn’t see Nivera among them.

“Where is she?” I fired at them before they even got the chance to come closer to me.

“I am sorry, your highness,” the chief guard, Larry, said, hanging his head low.

“So, what you’re trying to tell me is that a tiny girl like her escaped from this palace and the entire town as a whole, and not even a single person saw her leave? Make it make sense, Larry. Make it make sense!” I yelled at him, frustrated and tired.

“Your highness, perhaps, the cell she was in has a secret escape room that no one knows about,” Jerry, who had been present the whole time and had been trying to calm me down, said.

“Even if that were so, how did she manage to find such when no previous prisoner has ever done that? Someone must have helped her. I have a hunch about that, but I don’t know who the person is or how they were able to escape,” I said.

“We will find her, your highness, I promise. Just give us a little more time,” one of the guards pleaded.

“Of course, you will find her. If not, you all will be beheaded…” they gasped and trembled in shock, then I continued. “..:and that, my dear friends, is a promise,” I concluded.

“Yes, your highness,” they said in unison.

“I want you all to search the palace again. All the prison cells, the garden, every room we have and the servant’s quarters must also be thoroughly searched. Also, Jerry, gather all the trackers and some hunting dogs. Instruct them to track her scent to wherever she might be. She might still be in this palace or she might have already left town. Just find her and bring her to me,” I commanded.

“We will do as you have said, your highness,” Jerry said.

I didn’t say any other word and just walked away angrily.

I was furious, tired and a million and one questions kept flooding through my mind. Where was she? How had she managed to leave the palace unnoticed? Who was helping her?

I tried to wrap my head around it, but it just didn’t make sense. I stepped into my chamber, and once I got there, I groaned aloud in frustration.

“Hey,” I heard Malia’s voice say as she tapped me suddenly from behind, jarring me from my thoughts.

I turned around immediately. “Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.

She seemed a bit disappointed as soon as I asked her that question. “You asked me to wait here for you, don’t you remember?”

Honestly, I didn’t remember ever telling her that, but I pretended to have remembered. “I am so sorry, I forgot for a moment. I’m just too occupied with this Omega slave being missing. I mean, where could she be? And how did she leave without anyone seeing her?” I asked, with an exasperated sigh.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I know that you shouldn’t give it too much thought. She has worked in the palace since she was a child. She might know of several ways to leave the palace that we might not know of,” Malia said.

“You’re right… but what if something bad happens to her? She doesn’t know anyone out there and…”

Malia pressed her index finger to my lips. “Shush. Are you honestly being worried about her now?” she searched my eyes, apparently trying to figure out what was going on in my head.

I quickly shook my head. “No, of course not. If she should get kidnapped or something, it will mean I’m still tied to her. I need them to find her, so I can get her to accept my rejection. Only then will I be able to make you my Luna,” I said, cupping her face in my hands.

She smiled. “You’ll find her, don’t worry. However, when you do, just kill her and be free from her once and for all. If we keep waiting for the next full moon in order for you to do that, she might escape again and cause another trouble. It is clear that she won’t accept your rejection, unless it is over her dead body,” Malia said.

She was right, and I knew that she was, but I didn’t have any intention of killing her.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, wearing a sullen expression on my face.

“What’s wrong? Something tells me this is beyond the missing slave,” Malia said, sitting beside me.

“Malia, do you think it’s normal if I feel guilty about her running away?” I asked.

“And why would you feel guilty?” she retorted.

I shrugged. “I humiliated her in front of a lot of people and the look on her face when she was running away… it just really disturbed me and I feel kind of terrible about it,” I explained.

Malia’s calm expression turned into one of fury, and she stood up almost immediately and began pacing around the room in long strides.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her.

“It’s the mate pull, Tee. I warned you that nobody can fight it, didn’t I?” she said at almost the top of her voice.

“I don’t think that’s…”

She cut in. “If that isn’t it, what is it? Tyler, you are the Alpha King of the Crescent Pack. You’ve set people’s homes ablaze, destroyed families and nations and done much worse things than humiliating a lowly Omega, and not once have you felt guilty about it. The problem is the mate pull. You are beginning to feel things you shouldn’t feel,” she explained.

I reasoned with her. She was right. This wasn’t me. I couldn’t be worried about someone like Nivera. It was the charm the moon goddess had placed on me called the godforsaken mate pull.

I stood up and pushed all the books and documents on my desk and they all fell to the floor. “Dammit! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I yelled, then with all the strength I possessed, I picked up the small statue of the Moon Goddess from my bedside table and proceeded to split it into two halves.

Just then, Malia held my hand and stopped me from making that mistake.

“My love, you mustn’t!” she screamed.

“No, Malia. I have had enough. The Moon Goddess is just showing off right now that she can do as she pleases, and I need to ensure that she knows very well that I refuse to be a pawn in whatever game she is playing. She has no control over me or my feelings. I am my own person, and I am done with anything that concerns her. In fact, I will forbid anyone from ever paying homage to the Moon Goddess. No one will pray or bow to her ever again!” I thundered angrily.

“Calm down, Tyler. Calm down! This isn’t the way out. You destroyed the Moon Goddess’s temple just a week ago and that is probably why she is doing this to you out of spite. You can not make her angrier than she already is,” Malia said.

“So, what should I do? Accept my fate and make that thing my Luna? Then, what about you? What about the love we share? What about the plans we’ve made? Am I to just forget all about you?” I asked, looking deep into her eyes.

“No, that’s not the solution. Listen to your heart, Tee. Who does it beat for? Be honest with me,” she said, placing her right hand on my chest.

I stuttered. “I don’t know. I’m confused. Malia, I love you. You know I do, but there’s just something… I can’t explain it,” I said.

“That’s because it’s inexplainable. Have you forgotten? I’ve also felt it in the past and I couldn’t stop how I felt, but it gradually went away when Derek died,” Malia said.

Derek. That was a name we both didn’t say for reasons that would be probably revealed soon.

“What are you suggesting, Malia?” I inquired.

“The trackers are useless, your highness. Only you has the ability to find her, and it’s not because you’re the Alpha and your tracking ability tops every other person’s ability. It’s because whether you like it or not, she is your mate and if you allow the magnetic force of the mate pull draw you, you’ll find her in no time,” she said.

“But that would just be me giving in to how I feel.”

“I am not telling you to find her and bring her back. I’m telling you to find her and kill her. That’s the only way you can be free of her since she won’t just say no to you willingly,” she explained.

“Wow, Malia. You are right! How did I not think of this all this time? I didn’t want to kill her, but

I guess my hands are tied now. I’ll find her and get rid of her before the pull gets any worse, then come back for you, I promise,” I vowed.

She smiled at me and touched my cheek lovingly. “I know you will. I believe in you, and I’ll be right here waiting for you to return,” she said.

I drew her into my arms and embraced her.

It felt right; nothing could beat what we shared, no one could come in between the love we had for each other. Mate pull or not, Malia was my soulmate and with determination set in my heart, I plotted on how to get rid of the slave once and for all.

No one… not even the Moon Goddess could save her from the impending doom that awaited her.