The Prince’s Unwilling mate

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I barely slept last night, I kept having nightmares about Ayla. Nightmares where she is laughing at me. Telling me she meant every word she said in the letter. Other’s more realistic where David, was abusing her, hurting her. Trying to break her and accept him as her mate. Dreams where she doesn’t survive the abuse and dies. Every nightmare woke me up gasping, drenched in sweat.

It’s 7 AM now I know there is a pack breakfast available from six–thirty. Still not that hungry but I could do without Jessa being on my case. And somehow reminding myself I need to eat and take care of myself so Ayla won’t be mad at me is comforting. It’s like I am forcing myself to believe she is going to make it back to me in one piece. Despite what my nightmares are telling me.

I sit up, ready to get out of bed. Again my eyes dart down the room, there is not a single thing she had not packed. Knowing she was so excited about living together with me that she didn’t even need to pack on the last day, was both comforting and depressing. Knowing she loved me this much, that we were both as excited for the future was comforting. It reminded me of the Ayla I loved. The she–wolf that could be a bit shy and reserved at first, but who when she loved. Love whole- heartedly. To know despite all that happened to her I had become the man to deserve that love still made me fly high.

Only she was not here with me, we weren’t about to put the last boxes in

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our cars so we could drive home. Our home to our future. No, I had to sleep in the bed that once was hers because she was taken away from me. And I had no clue how to find her, MoonGoddess knows

I’ve been trying. It had only been three days since she had been kidnapped. On the one hand, it feels like an eternity without her. Without knowing how she is doing. Three days where waking up feels difficult because every time I do I realize she is not there breathing is difficult. The sense of missing her is wrapping around my chest like cold bands of steel. Squeezing tighter with every breath I take.

On the other hand, I realize he couldn’t have taken her that far yet. We ruled out the fact that they travel by a commercial airplane. There had. not been any suspicious private flights. Unless they flew without clearance but that would be impossible to track down. This leaves us with two options, he either hid her somewhere close until the excitement dies down. Or he is taking her home by car, but that would mean they would have had to stop somewhere overnight. Tonight we are going to spread out and go to as many hotels and motels as possible to show her picture there.

***

After my light breakfast which mostly consisted of coffee and some pastries. I spend more time plucking at them than actually eating them. I make my way to the training ring as Alpha Cedric requested, every available wolf that wants to help to try to see if Ayla stayed in a hotel or motel overnight would gather there. As I am getting closer I hear the low buzz of chatter. The kind of sad, quiet chatter that you hear during funerals. But it is loud like there are dozens of people gathered together.

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When I turn the corner I see that’s truly the case. There must be at least four dozen wolves ready to go out and try and find clues about Ayla’s whereabouts. I choke up, seeing how many wolves love her. Love her enough to go out and spend their entire day, some even two to find her. Or to find any trace of

her. When I reach Alpha Cedric, slowly because, my legs feel just as heavy as my heart is. He clasps my shoulder and faces me.

“Your mate, my niece, your Luna, and Queen, she is loved by all as you can see. And that is why we are bringing her back home. To the place. where she should be” He tells me and for the first time in three days I can share in his optimism a bit.

The permanent crease on his forehead, the bags under his eyes. There is no hiding his worries. Nor do I think he is trying to. But he has a bit of hope left in him. Hope I lost but as I listen to him divide the wolves into pairs. Seeing the abundance of hands raised when he asks who wants to spend a night away from the pack so they can reach the motels further down the road. It’s all so overwhelming and it makes me feel hopeful again too.

I want to save Ayla, but I am slowly understanding that I am not the only one. And that it means that I do not have to do it all on my own. All these wolves here are just as determined to get her back with us. The only risk of all of this is David finding out that my video announcement was just a ploy to get him off our backs.

“Prince Griffin, can I join you so that you are going with someone who can hear the pack’s mindlink?” I look at the shy elderly woman in front

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of me.

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She looks like she should be home, enjoying her well–earned rest. Yet she is here summoning her courage to ask me as her Crown Prince if she can join me because she thinks I am better off without someone from the White Oak pack as opposed to one of my friends or guards.

“Yes, I would love that under the condition that you just call me Griffin we’re a team today,” I tell her, because I know she is right I need someone with me who can mindlink others or hear a mindlink if something happens.

“My name is Dorothy, and I can see why Ayla loves you so much. You are just like her in a sense” Dorothy answers giving me a motherly pat

on the arm.

I want to know what she means, and why she thinks I am just like Ayla in a sense. But it is time to move to the cars. Cedric and I spent a few hours last night to come up with a list of motels and hotels between the White Oak and the Blood Moon pack. We made lists of three hotels each. Now with the almost fifty wolves present. We would need no more than two days to reach all of them. Most of the time would be spent on the road. Driving from one hotel to the other.

***

I had been right, we visited most of the hotels and motels on the list.

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Only the one further away. The ones close to the BloodMoon pack were not questioned yet. Everyone either came back to the White Oak pack or booked a room for the night to travel to the other places in

the morning. Because it was deemed wise for me to be on the pack ground in case there is any new information I returned.

Dorothy was a formidable old lady, I had found out she was a distant relative of Ayla. That determination and fierceness my beautiful mate has must be a family trait. Because Dorothy seemed to have it in abundance too. But it did not change the fact that we still didn’t find any clue. That we still weren’t any closer to finding Ayla. Leaving me so frustrated I was barely able to function anymore. So when my phone rang, and I saw it was my father for the first time in forever I wanted to decline the call and avoid talking to him.