Chapter 2

Leo's pov

I woke up to an empty house.

I can't remember much about last night due to my drunken stupor,other than getting home and sleeping beside my mate.

My mate, Seb.

Seb looked fast asleep when I got home last night, which is kind of weird , as he always waited for me before going to bed no matter how late I was. He always waited for me in the living room until I got home and we would eat together and talk about how our day went and go to bed together.

Last night I got home really late, after the dinner with some friends from academy I met at the council  meeting,I should have informed him about it beforehand but I forgot my phone in the office and then my friends dragged me to the dinner place and we started drinking, it's all blank after that.

Honestly I don't have much memory of it .

I wanted to tell Seb all about it but he was already sleeping when I got home , he looked really tired so I didn't wake him , I thought I would tell him about it this morning but he's already gone when I woke up.

He normally left for his uni pretty early some days so I thought today might be one of those days.

This is one thing about my mate I never understood, he went to university like humans,only humans took higher education. Were wolves don't take higher education, we normally stopped with basic schooling and then trained for the role we were assigned in our packs. But seb went to uni, besides dealing with everything.

After taking the role of Luna and every responsibility that came with the title, he also helped me dealing with the pack stuff even when he doesn't have to, I know how tiring dealing with everything at once must have been for him but he never complained about it. He actually seemed happy about it.

It makes me respect him more.

It's only been three months since we became mates and he became Luna of the pack. He already excelled at it, he can fight really well, can handle pack related affairs really well, also great at strategising things. All those qualities making him one of the best Lunas the pack have seen so far. Everyone respected him for it.

My phone buzzed interrupting my thoughts,the name Glen flashing on the screen.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

I totally forgot about informing Glen about the dinner. He must have been worried about me. I quickly picked up the phone.

"Um! Hi" I started awkwardly expecting him to be mad.

"Leo! are you alright?" He sounded surprisingly calm.Last time something similar happened, he yelled at me for three hours about how it is primary for an alpha to inform his beta about his whereabouts before going anywhere.

"Yeah, I'm fine, perfectly alright, I'm really sorry I haven't told you about going out with-"

"Leo!" He interrupted my rumble.        "You are the alpha, you don't really have to be sorry about anything."

Okay!

What?

Is he serious or is this his passive aggressive way of calling me an entitled bastard.

"Glen I know you must be really mad but I didn't really mean to- "

"Leo, I'm serious, I know you would have informed if you could. I heard that your friends are in town, so I guessed you must have went out with them. It's okay. I get it."

He doesn't sound mad but something still seemed really off but I don't want to push it further.

" Thanks Glen.I'll be at the training grounds today if you want to see me."

"I have some school work, so I'll get there once I finish. Gotta go man."  Glen is in final year of school making him busy both school and beta stuff.

"Glen! wait a minute "

"Yeah"

"Did..Seb,Did Seb ask about me yesterday "

"Seb?"

"Yeah" I answered hurriedly in anticipation.

"No man, I haven't seen him yesterday, he didn't stop by the office so I thought he was busy with his stuff. " His answer makes me relieved and worried at the same time. Relieved that he didn't come looking for me when I was away so probably he isn't gonna be mad about it, the same fact also making me worrisome.

"Why?" He asked bringing me back from my thoughts.

"Oh, It's nothing, I was just asking to check if he was at the pack office yesterday. " I lied.

"No, he didn't come at all, honestly the poor guy must have been tired dealing with our crazy pack everyday, so let him take a break for one or two. "

"I know, yeah " I tried to laugh along with him despite my dissapointment at not getting the expected answers.

"I'll get going then" He said in a hurry.

"Yeah, man." I cut the call immediately.

I sat on our bed,my thoughts still lingering on the same thing.

Is Seb mad at me?

Turning my gaze to our bed, Seb's side is neatly made like always, his blanket neatly folded, sheets without any crinkles and pillows arranged in a row. My side looked the opposite of it as I sucked at the job as always. Normally Seb made my side of bed too after we woke up, he somehow guessed I can't even fold a blanket properly in just three days of us moving in.

I smiled at the memory of him dissaprovingly looking at my folded blanket when I did it on the first day and him picking it up to redo it as soon as I left the room.

Seb is only three months older than me but still acted like years older than me, he is a lot more mature in everything he does. When we first moved in , I was terrified of the fact that I should manage a home along with a whole pack, but Seb seemed as prepared as ever. He set up the whole furniture on his own, bought all groceries, cooked, cleaned and managed everything like he has been doing it his whole life.

I'll always be grateful for it,I can't imagine what i would have done without him beside me through all of that.

I'm still very much aghast with the fact that I'm alpha of this pack. I knew it ever since I could imagine and trained my whole life for it but no matter how hard I worked, it never seemed to be enough.

I never felt worthy of that title.

I sighed helplessly looking blankly into distance. For falling into the same cycle of depressing thoughts, but it's the least I could do, at least think to myself about it. Admitting my own fears atleast to myself. I can never tell anyone, because I'm not supposed to.

It would be really absurd if I complain about getting such a prestigious position handed to me when others could only wish for it.

Ofcourse you can, you have every right to feel the way you're feeling  - Rex appears like always whenever I start sabotaging my self worth.

Now let's not do this - I replied trying to coax him to not start this conversation at all, when it will only make me feel worse.

I know he meant only to make me feel better but I'd rather not talk about it at all.

Finally deciding to get up and get ready for the day,I made my way to the kitchen and opened the fridge in hopes of finding some juice but I didn't find any, so I settled with water and some hash browns I found near the microwave.

I finished eating quickly and headed upstairs to get ready.

After dressing up, I didn't even bother to check once in the mirror and quickly got out of the house.

I feel restless in the house for some reason.

Upon reaching the pack house, I was instantly greeted with some pack members. I greeted them trying to come up with the best smile I could.

I entered the office to a mess of files scattered everywhere on the desk, the disarray making me mad until I realised I was the one rummaged through them to  find one particular file yesterday in hurry for the meeting.

I did that quite often than not but they would be in order the next morning everytime. Seb made sure to arrange them in an order because he knows how much I struggle with finding the ones I want. Even going as far as arranging them in different sections according to their category.

Maybe going to university does make you have your shit together.

Thinking about Seb my mind drifts back to the same question again.

Would he be mad at me for getting home really late considering I haven't told him about doing so at all.

Should I text him about it now or is it better to apologise in person.

I decided on doing the latter, just a text would be really rude since he always called if he's going to be late.

After arranging the files in an order , I sat there going through some of them.

Time seemed to be going really slow today, I glanced at the clock again, it showed half past twelve.

Seb should be done with his classes by now. He should be here in an hour.So I decided to do some more stalling while I waited for him.

I can't help but to check my watch every two minutes.

One more hour passed but no sign of him.

Two hours passed.

Three hours passed.

Still no sign of him.

My anxiety raising with every passing minute, thinking about all of the possibilities as to why he isn't here yet.

What if he got home and decided to stay there?

I got up wasting no time, making my way towards the door thinking that might be the case, I went straight to my car fishing for keys in my pocket.

"Leo!"

I heard someone calling me from behind, I turned around already recognising that voice as Fred,the former beta and a close friend of my dad and beside him is alpha Caleb, my dad.

Both walking towards me, Fred with a cheerful expression as always and my dad with his usual indifferent expression.

The universe is really against me seeing my mate.

"Looks like you are going somewhere"

Fred comments looking at keys in my hand.

" Yeah" I nod my head looking at my dad expecting him to tell me what are they here for. My dad turns to his friend signalling something, as if understanding it, Fred nods.

"I'm here to check the new weapons in armoury, I'll be back once I'm done" making up an excuse, he left leaving both of us alone.

Something is definitely up.

I turned to my dad genuinely confused, his usual stoic expression turned into a pitiful one.

I don't have a good feeling about this.

" Come! we'll talk in the office" he started walking expecting me to follow behind, which I did.

Once we both got seated, I raised my eyes meeting his. He's stressed.

" Is everything okay, Dad ?"

"Yeah, yeah! everything's alright" he answers looking everywhere else to avoid looking at me. Definitely something is not right.

" How are you doing these days?" He tries going for a small talk making my fears worse.My dad and I are never one for small talks, we'd rather sit in silence unless there's something that's groundbreaking to talk about that have the potential to change our lives, It's our thing.

So him trying to start one now isn't a good sign because it always followed by a groundbreaking topic like I mentioned earlier.

"I'm good! just.. busy." I tried to go along with him to ease him into whatever he's going to say next.

"Oh! Good" He replies his voice faltering a bit, he looks deep in thought. Before I could comment on it . He starts talking again.

" How are things at home?"

"At home?" I question in return looking at him trying to decipher what could he possibly meant by 'home'.

I'm getting genuinely confused at this point. As if sensing it. " How are things going on with Seb?" he asks again, providing me with more context this time.

Alarms started blaring in my head at the mention of my mate, I've seen this conversation going many directions but Seb isn't one of it.

"He's doing great!" I answered wasting no time as it involved my mate. " Dad!" I called him making him look up at me. I can't let him drag this more. I met his eyes looking pleadingly. He understood it.

He let out a sigh straightening up in his chair as if we preparing me for what's about to come next.

"Seb visited me this morning." He said, his voice going quiet at the end.

"He said he wanted to go home to visit his family and stay there for few days."

There's a mix of feelings I felt at that moment.

There's dissapointment, that I won't be able to see him today.

Sadness, about having to be apart from my mate.

Confusion, as to why I'm hearing this from my dad instead of my mate.

Fear, that if it's something I did, that made him take that decision.

"Leo!" my dad calls me softly, I didn't dare to look up."I didn't knew, He didn't- tell me about it." I reply making it my turn to avoid his eyes now.

"He looked moody, not like his usual self, so I thought something must have happened at home" my dad says with a fond smile on his face like he always did while taking about Seb.

Dad liked him so much, which is rare occurrence, he normally despised most, but as an alpha it's his job to deal with people all the time, so he just tolerated them, he only trusted few people only after knowing them from inside out, but with Seb it's different.

He liked him from the first meet itself and after observing him only for few days, he declared him to be the best mate I could ever get. Honestly that's the truth.

"Did you guys have a fight?" He asks making me freeze for a moment, Did we fight? We haven't even talked in past twenty four hours, how could we possibly fight.

I quickly nodded no.

Seb is not the one to blow things out of proportion, yeah he might be mad at disappearing on him without a warning but he would rather sit and talk to me about it, if worse lecture me. But he wouldn't leave the house just for that.

Meaning it might be something serious than that and probably something I did. It must be serious, serious enough to hurt him.

"Whatever it is, it's totally normal for mates to have misunderstandings, little arguments and fights especially in the first few months. Goddess knows how much your mom and I fought in first few months" Dad spoke in a more amiable way to comfort me, mentioning of mom making both of us smile.

I never thought he would be one for  the 'mate' talk. But I was wrong apparently.

"From what it seemed, he needs some time for himself and it's also better for both of you to spend some time apart" He said nodding to himself.

I nodded along with him as if agreeing with him but honestly, I couldn't come up with one reason as to what good that does.

I don't want to be apart from him, even for a day.

"You should think about taking some time for yourself too and maybe talk to him about it in the meanwhile." Dad adviced, getting up from the chair ready to leave. He gently patted my shoulder for encouragement and

left the room leaving me to wonder.

What the hell could I have possibly done to hurt my mate?