[JEREMY]
The three weeks that followed were obviously different in Sicario. Sure, everyone had gone back to their normal lives, but there was one person who couldn't even breathe right. He was haunted by his choices.
At first, his friends thought he was just being affected by the mate bond, considering Awuor had without a doubt accepted Jer's rejection.
However, ten weeks later, everyone was living their lives, but Jer, he was not. If anything, he had refused to get out of his chambers and Alpha Sicario had to run the pack alongside Dom and Elodie, while Jeremy wallowed in pity.
"What is wrong with you? You have a pack to run," Elodie had approached Jer on the eighth week, but the man didn't even lift his head from his pillow. His room was littered with food and broken bowls.
He had made the place look like the apocalypse was happening right there in his room. He wasn't even bothered by the fact that he looked like a wallowing alpha, which he was, but damn, his people were trying to make excuses for him, however, Jer couldn't get up.
He was feeling like shit and just couldn't explain it. He wanted to understand what was wrong with him, but it seemed like each day was a mystery. All of this started when Awuor had last howled.
Of course, the warriors had gone out to see if the alpha was dead or still alive, but all they found was blood and broken bones that had her scent. Her scent was too potent in the ruins, and it broke their hearts. Maybe they were just being dramatic.
So much had happened and Jer was depressed about it all.
"Leave me alone," Jer had said to Elodie who just sighed. She knew she had to get her best friend justice, but this bastard here was determined to push Sicario into the ground, never to rise again, and that wasn't something Elodie wanted.
"Do as you wish. You're just proving to your people that you are useless to them without the alpha. You might as well go back to your pack, if you're going to be spending your nights and days sleeping worse than a cramping woman," Elodie had scolded bitterly.
However, instead of responding, Jer turned to face the wall, not even fazed by the fact that he was actually a nuisance to almost everyone in Sicario. He didn't care though.
Well, that was until today, when everyone was expecting him to be wallowing but instead, like a ghost coming from the dead, alpha Jer showed up for his people.
At the breakfast table, the warriors looked at him, wondering if he was okay. That was all they had been going through for the past ten weeks. They didn't know how to approach the alpha, so they had hoped that everything would be okay with the alpha
"Good morning," Jer greeted and they just nodded, while openly staring at him, like some ticking time bomb they needed to be ready for. It felt like some twisted reality, but that is what was happening right now.
"I see you decided to wake up for the dead," Dom said as he walked in. He was covered in blood and looked pissed. He had been torturing the rogues who had been at the Sicario border and who were determined to get into Sicario.
This was the fifth day he was torturing them, but the rogues hadn't said anything substantial. Instead, while they were being tortured, they were chatting like best friends who had found each other after so long.
Of course, Dom had thought it was a distraction technique and he exercised the worst of the torture methods and even then, there was nothing. And that made him furious, to the point that the warriors who were working with him were petrified.
"It's a good day—"
"Yeah right. Of course, it's a good day for you, finally waking up, and coming to a reality that you abandoned. How does it feel to mooch off people's efforts?" Dom asked angrily and everyone at the table instantly paused.
Even those who were hungry could tell that this wasn't the time for them to be passing bowls on the table.
"Dom, we're eating," Alpha Sicario said to his son, who shifted his eyes to his father.
He looked like he wanted to ask his father something, but he changed his mind. Instead, he walked out, slamming the door, seeing as no one wanted him around anyway. But was that the truth or was this some twisted reality for all of them?
"Please ignore him, let's continue," Alpha Sicario said to everyone at the breakfast table. It was a long table where warriors and elders were always at courtesy of Awuor's systems.
She had made sure that there was inclusivity in Sicario and that no matter what happened no one was to think of themselves better than the other. She valued unity and the long table was one of her ways of proving to everyone that they could exist peacefully.
"Alpha, are you alright?" Elodie asked Jer who just nodded. He knew he had slacked for a while and he had to make up for the lost time. He had almost closed three months since he rejected his mate and yet he had been acting like he was the one who had been rejected.
Even at this table, Jer wasn't feeling too well, but he had to wake up. He knew this was because of Awuor. He didn't know what it was about her yet, but he was determined to lead a life without her.
However, if he had been on good terms with the elders since he rejected his mate, then he would have known that this was just one of the countless side effects of rejecting the only royal-born white wolf in their time anyway.
Chaos was coming, and even alpha Sicario himself wouldn't be able to help Her. maybe they just had to hope that things went well, because otherwise, they would be running a dead pack.
"Yes I am, Elodie," Jer said right when a messenger ran into the dining room, painting like he had been having the longest morning of his life.
All eyes suddenly focused on him form the moment his feet made screeching noises on the floor and everyone was curious about what it was that had gotten the poor messenger startled.
At first glance, Sicario thought that this was just his son's doing, but the more he watched the messenger warrior who had just rushed in, he knew that shit was happening for real.
"Hello alphas, I have a message, from Rukiya Greyson," the messenger, Reynard said, when he had managed to calm down and relax. He had a sack in his hands, which no one had actually paid attention to, until Elodie questioned him.
"The Greyson pack?" Alpha Sicario asked and Reynard nodded, looking at the alpha with eyes that made Sicario feel like none of this was good news at all.
"Okay, what is it, Reynard?" Sicario asked not sure if he wanted to know what the strongest pack in the kingdom wanted with them.
As far as he was concerned, Sicario had never had a reason to go to interact much with the Greyson wolves, but seeing Reynard petrified, made even Jer curious as to what was happening.
"Alpha Rukiya Greyson has declared war on Sicario, alpha."