Alpha's One Night Bride
Alpha’s One Night Bride – Chapter 50

“You can’t just leave again!” I cried to Jonathan as he was getting ready to run out the door.

“I can’t just let him die, Arina,” Jonathan yelled.

He was panicking and wasn’t thinking straight. We were all panicking. Erick, who had just gotten back from getting coffees, was blocking the doorway so Jonathan couldn’t get through.

“Graham said if any more outsiders enter Blackcrest, they would be killed on the spot,” Jonathan told us. Fear was rising in his tone as he tried to get through Erick.

“He left last night; he would be there by now,” Erick told him. “I’ll try linking him again.”

“His link hasn’t been going through. Which means something is wrong,” Jonathan argued.

I was out of bed and grabbing onto his arm; tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t let him leave again. I couldn’t lose him again. I had just gotten him back.

“Maybe he never went. Maybe he went home to Marian,” I suggested, trying to keep the fear out of my own voice.

“Try linking her,” Jonathan ordered me.

I nodded and channeled Marian.

“Marian?” I called to her.

After a few moments of hearing a soft buzzing through my ears, I heard her voice coming through my mind.

“This better be good; I have a ton of work to do, Arina,” she huffed.

“I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen Anderson?” I told her.

She was quiet for a minute.

“He told me he was spending a few days with you guys,” she told me. “To keep you safe while Jonathan was away.”

She didn’t have an ounce of worry in her voice, but now she sounded perplexed.

“He was,” I told her. “But he’s not here this morning. We were just wondering if he went home at any point between last night and this morning.”

“I haven’t seen him. I was home last night and came to work early this morning though. So, I’m not entirely sure. If he’s home, we just missed each other,” Marian answered.

I stayed quiet for a second.

“Arina, is everything okay?” Marian asked. Now she was starting to sound worried. “Is Anderson okay?”

“Yeah, of course, he is. I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” I told her. Still trying to keep the worry out of my voice as I disconnected the link.

I noticed the others were staring at me; Jonathan had a wary expression on his face. Ronnie’s breath was shaky, and Erick’s face looked ghost white.

“He didn’t return home?” Jonathan asked, reading my face.

I shook my head slowly.

“Try linking him again,” I told Erick, my voice barely audible.

“I just did,” Erick informed me. “Still nothing.”

“Try again!” I yelled, my voice cracking as I tried to maintain myself.

“Erick, move! I need to go,” Jonathan hissed.

Erick still stood his ground at the doorway.

“Don’t make me punch you, Erick,” Jonathan warned, his voice growing deep as his Alpha tone began rising.

His Alpha tone always gave me chills down my spine because I knew he meant business. If Erick wasn’t going to move, Jonathan was going to make him move.

“We need to think rationally,” Erick told him.

Jonathan’s Alpha voice didn’t seem to faze him; maybe because Erick was an Alpha as well and had his own voice and his own strengths. It also didn’t hurt that Erick was a bit bigger than Jonathan and could probably take him in a fight. It would definitely be a close match, but I’d put my money on Erick over Jonathan.

Plus, according to Ronnie, Erick doesn’t back down from any kind of fight and he can pack a punch.

“Think, you guys,” I said, interrupting them. “Is there any other place that Anderson would go?”

They both fell silent for a moment, thinking hard about it.

“If he says he was going to Blackcrest to help me, there’s no doubt in my mind that that’s where he was heading. He wouldn’t bail on something like that,” Jonathan said.

He sounded utterly broken.

Erick’s shoulders slumped as he silently agreed with Jonathan.

“How about his cellphone? Try calling him,” I ordered them.

I watched them both scramble for their phones.

“If we can’t get a hold of him via the link, I doubt we can get a hold of him from his cellphone,” Ronnie said.

“We have to try,” I told her.

“Went straight to voicemail,” Jonathan said, pressing his phone to his ear.

“Same…” Erick breathed as his phone was also pressed against his ear.

Jonathan slammed his phone onto the bed in an aggravated fit, walking away from the doorway. He was giving up on trying to get past Erick. It was right of Erick to block the doorway; even if Jonathan did get through, we weren’t sure what his plan would have been. It’s not like he could make it to Blackcrest in time to save Anderson. Anderson left last night and would have arrived long ago if he took off in his wolf-form.

Jonathan going back to Blackcrest would only be a suicide mission.

It worried us that we couldn’t get through to Anderson through the wolf’s link; it was very rare a wolf couldn’t be contacted via the link. Usually when the connection doesn’t go through, or in this case, just ceases to exist, it means something terrible had happened. We could unlink our minds to keep others from entering at random, but it was very rare and very difficult to actually do that.

With Anderson on his way to help Jonathan and leaving his friends and luna behind, it would be very unlikely for him to disconnect himself entirely. The fact that his phone was going straight to voicemail was also worrisome, but I supposed there was a possibility of it dying or even breaking in his travels.

“We can’t just sit here and wait…” Jonathan g*****d.

The tension in the room lay thick; Jonathan sat on the bed with his face looking utterly defeated. Ronnie had tears streaming down her face and Erick was now pacing back and forth in front of the door.

Ronnie didn’t even know Anderson that well, but she knew how important he was to the rest of us, especially Erick. Anderson and Erick grew up together and have been friends for a very long time. Once Jonathan became the Alpha of Sabrebite, he started expanding his friend circle and it included Erick and Anderson, considering they were also Alpha’s. They’ve been friends for a long time while I was studying art at the college with Jessica.

Because of Rock, I knew of Anderson and Erick, but I didn’t know them well. I didn’t get to know them until Jonathan, and I married, and I became his luna. That’s when Anderson and Erick became my friends as well. They have become such great friends, that I couldn’t even imagine losing one of them.

I would be crushed if anything happened to Jonathan. I know Ronnie would be crushed if anything happened to Erick. Marian would be broken if anything happened to Anderson.

I hoped I hadn’t worried her when I spoke to her a bit ago. I’m sure I put a small bug in her ear and now she’s probably trying to connect with Anderson.

“What are we supposed to do if we can’t get a hold of him?” Erick asked. “Just assume he’s dead?”

“No,” Jonathan barked. “Somebody needs to go after him.”

“And then what?” Erick shot back. “Jonathan, there’s nothing we are going to be able to do. If he went to Blackcrest, he either just got there, or he’s already dead.”

Jonathan stayed quiet for a moment; he was lost in thought for a second before shooting to his feet.

“Graham?” He asked, his eyes widening.

Graham must have been linking him; Jonathan opened the link up to the rest of us so we could all hear what was going on. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, and it wasn’t just the baby.

We could all hear Graham’s voice in our minds moments later; he kept his tone low, and it was filled with such darkness that it made my skin crawl.

“I thought I told you any more outsiders that come to Blackcrest will get killed on the spot?” Graham hissed through the link.

He must have been talking about Anderson.

“Graham, if you touch him…” Jonathan began, but he was interrupted by Graham’s laughter.

“So, you did send him,” Graham laughed.

I could feel the anger building in Jonathan.

“Graham…” Jonathan hissed out loud, through his gritted teeth.

“Relax,” Graham said back. “I didn’t have to touch him.”

We stayed quiet for a long while as Graham let those words lay thick in the air.

“By the time I saw him, he was already dead,” he laughed.

I felt my heart shattering and falling apart around my stomach. Ronnie gasped out and covered her mouth with her hands to keep from sobbing. Erick stood frozen where he was at the doorway and Jonathan stared blankly at nothing.

All of us tried to process what was just said.

“My guards killed him before he even entered. Called me to assess the situation. We are burning his body as we speak.” After a breath of silence, he added. “It’s a shame…I kind of liked Anderson.”