Alpha's Torn Heart

New friends

SEAN'S POV

Thank the goddess for werewolf healing, I thought, opening the window and breathing in the fresh night air. My hangover had finally passed, leaving me in the physical conditions of a sad pancake and terribly hungry.

I really just wanted to sleep, but my rumbling stomach had other plans: groaning, I put on a pair of basketball shorts and went down to the ground floor, making my way towards the kitchens: in the pack house there was total silence, everyone had gone to bed. Clearly the party had wrecked them all: in their defense, however, it had been an absolutely wild party.

I grabbed the door handle and went on opening the door, but I suddenly stopped. From the other side of the door I could hear small, heartbreaking sobs. I immediately felt my chest tighten in empathy and, after a few seconds, I decided to walk in and see who was crying so much and if there was anything I could do to help.

"Hey, it's all ... oh!" I exclaimed, realizing who was in it. 's**t, s**t, s**t! Murtagh is totally gonna kill me!'

“Miss Evers” I greeted her and, seeing that I still didn't know her and she was an important member of the pack, I made a little bow.

She was wearing a pair of leggings and a Guns N 'Roses T-shirt, which left her right shoulder bare in a cute, sexy way (well, I would have found it sexy if I hadn't been gay): her hair, a mass of brown waves, was loose and tousled. She was sitting on the counter, eating fingerfood leftovers from a large tray between a sob and an attempt to dry up her swollen, red eyes.

“Oh, excuse me” she muttered as she sniffed. "I didn't meant to disturb. I'll leave immediately ... "

"Not at all" I replied shocked. Why was she so… kind, given her heritage? People like her, basically royalty among us werewolves, were usually quite haughty. "You were here first, Katherine. I can call you Katherine, right? " I asked, since she didn't seem much in the mood for formalities: at the moment I didn't see my best friend's mate, who also was my future Luna, but a terribly sad girl. And that girl's name was Katherine.

She nodded quickly. "Of course. Do you want one?" she whispered handing me a canapé.

"I'd never say no to some treats" I said, shrugging and pulling myself up on the counter to sit next to her. I knew Murtagh was going to be mad at me when he’d eventually find out I'd been sitting a couple inches from his mate (his outburst about her v****a was unforgettable), but hey! He wasn't there. He wasn't here to comfort his crying mate, where he should have been. Someone had to help that girl.

"You are Sean Warren, aren't you?" she asked after a few minutes. “I guess we should have met during the reception, but I didn't… I didn't feel very well. I'm sorry".

“You have nothing to apologize for… and be aware that, by the way, I'm not buying this, this sickness thing. I mean, that tart has an anchovy on it, and you said you couldn't eat them" I pointed out, pointing to the bruschetta she was holding. "It actually looks like you're loving them".

The corners of her mouth rose slightly in a guilty smile. "True" she shrugged her shoulders and sniffed. "Please don't tell anyone ..."

"You can bet on it, girl" I said and traced an X on my chest with my index finger. “Cross on my heart. Your secret is safe with me. Please, do consider me as your deepest secrets' caveau”.

She smiled another smile, a little wider this time, and she curled up on herself, slowly munching on her snack.

"You know, I usually don't snack in the middle of the night" she murmured, as if she felt the need to give me some explanations. "It's just that ... I didn't eat much for dinner, so ..."

“Hey, I already told you to take it easy, Evers. I know you haven't eaten anything, anyone who has paid a little attention noticed it ... some may have thought you were too excited for your new mate, but ... someone else saw your face too ".

She looked down immediately, the smile completely gone from her lips. I had taken it: I had seen how, during dinner, both she and Murtagh, my best friend, were incredibly distant from each other. They didn't even look at each other, and they both had the hollowest faces I'd ever seen: strange, I had thought.

For all the last year I’d been hoping that finding his mate could be the very thing that would finally succeed in pulling my friend out of the depression the disappearance of his girlfriend, Grace Mason, had thrown him in: even though they weren't mates he loved her with all his heart, but one day, one damned day, she had disappeared during a battle against rogues. We had received a call a few hours later from one of the rogues that had managed to escape us: Murtagh had defeated his son in a challenge, and now he had taken his revenge: Grace's life.

There had been no way of relieving him from that loss: blinded by pain and anger, he had killed all the rogues by himself, within half an hour, and seeing that not even that had quenched his fury he had spent the next five months busy hunting and kill whoever crossed his path. When he had come back to the pack house, he didn't even look like himself. I knew I couldn’t forget the haunted and wild look he had on his face; he looked like a Rogue of the worst kind himself.

Clearly, though, my assumptions were wrong: if Katherine, his own claimed mate, was here, all alone, crying without him, it was obvious that Murtagh didn't care very much about her.

I understood why he behaved like this: I knew him, in his mind the simple act of accepting Kate as his true mate and all the feelings that would come along with it was just like spitting Grace's memory. But that poor girl didn't deserve to be left alone crying in a kitchen in the middle of the night, her damn wedding night. He should have been here with her. 

The situation seems to be serious, I reflected. Katherine Evers is known for being a she-wolf of the tough ones. If she is reduced to a such a mess ... Murtagh, what the f**k have you done?

I decided that the next morning I would talk to Luna Susan and Alpha Raynard about it: they seemed to have taken their son's mate to heart, and unlike other pack leading pairs they had always been the first people involved in their son’s education. I knew that they both were a very strong-willed parents, and I trusted them to be able to put that whiny b***h of their son on the right path again.

Yeah, but in the meantime …

"Ehy, Kate. You know what I think?" I said to Katherine, who looked at me with those brown doe eyes wide open, shaking her head. "I think you need to relax" I explained. “And to have some well-deserved fun. Hell, you didn't have a good time at your wedding party! Nobody deserves such a horrible thing”.

I got off the counter and opened the large freezer, taking out two boxes of ice cream, one with strawberries and one with chocolate.

“Ice cream and conspiracy theories. What do you say? They have a show on TV at this time that is real fun" I suggested, and she brightened up.

"Proven Conspiracy?" she said with a smile. "I always watch it! It's my favourite!"

Okay. I was definitely a genius.

"Strawberry or chocolate?"

"Strawberry" she decided, taking the ice cream and a spoon.

"Great, because I would have had the chocolate anyway" I laughed and we went to the home theater room: we could watch that trashy program even on the big TV in the living room, but hey! Kate had had a s**t night, probably the shittiest night ever. She deserved to be pampered, at least for a while.

We both grabbed a blanket and, while she snuggled into her chair, I zapped until I found Proven Conspiracy.

"Sean?" she mumbled a few minutes later as the presenter started shooting random facts that he would then connect back into some odd theory.

"Tell me" I replied, trying to make her go on.

Her eyes glistened with tears, and she wiped away some that had escaped her control. "You're friends with ... with Murtagh, aren't you?"

I nodded quickly as I felt an unpleasant squeeze tighten my stomach.

"Then you'll know," she sighed. "He ... he rejected me."

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Hello everyone! I'm glad to tell you all that I've just signed this story! I'm so happy right now! 

Let me know your thoughts about the chapter! 

Kisses and, see you soon :)