Unscentable
Chapter 26

Eddie POV

Hearing that Bradley had a son with Piper Harper, made his heart ache. That little bit more, for the lost Luna to his pack, he'd known she'd suffered greatly, had just never been able to do anything about it at all, and he had tried too. He searched the pack, hunted all over the place, gotten turned around so many times inside his own pack, looking for Piper, he'd nearly ripped his own hair out.

Had been able to feel it when she was in pain, and desperately needed to comfort her for a very long time, but he'd just never been able to find her. Had not known who she was, what she looked like, where she lived in the pack, knew nothing of her, only her distress over what was happening to her.

He'd tried desperately to hunt her down the day she'd actually rejected Bradley, he'd known she was somewhere inside the pack-house, likely had to be looking right at Bradley to make that rejection, but still he'd not been able to find her. His fruitless search of the pack-house that night had made him loose her altogether.

Because why he was searching the pack-house for her she had been running for the border, by the time he realised this, was headed for the border himself, he had felt her sever from him completely, their connection just vanished. He'd known instantly that what he had feared for years, had actually happened.

She had left the pack entirely, severed all ties with it, unable to cope any longer with the pain their Alpha. Her Mate was unwittingly causing her. He'd had no idea and trying to tell a wolf they had a Mate somewhere and his going off to have s*x with another was killing her, would not work. There was no way any wolf would believe that without scenting his Mate, and that she was within his own pack, not a hope in hell of believing it.

Only scenting out your Mate could convince you, and your wolf you had a Mate.

Bradley was all about Goddess-Gifted Mates, wanted to find that one, that belonged to him and his wolf. If he had scented out his Mate, they would have been together, there would have been a Luna Ceremony and a massive celebration, for sure.

So Eddie knew that the man had not scented her out, had not come across his Mate, and he'd been home for full moon balls during the course of those 3 years. Hell, he'd been home on a full moon when there was no mating ball as well. That night she had not just rejected him, but the entire pack.

Their western border was not that far from the city limits and once she severed ties to the pack, Eddie was unable to track her at all, and not actually knowing what she had looked like at the time, meant he could very well have come across her on the outskirts of the human city of Helena and not even known it was her at all.

Now he knew why he couldn't ever detect her, that pendant she wore made her unscentable. It was a logistical nightmare. No wonder he and Timber had been turned around constantly, couldn't scent her, couldn't recognise her in his human form or his wolf form and he had been using all of Timber's senses to try and hunt her, couldn't it seemed, and not his fault, not that that matter. Had just made them feel inadequate in their ability as a Gamma. Thought they were broken, that their Gamma instincts were off and he couldn't fulfil his duty.

He knew Bradley had given up dating and sleeping around after that night, when the next day, between Doc Samuel and Eddies' telling him what they thought was going on. But the damage to his Mate was already done and she'd finally had enough and fled. Now as they flew across the pacific ocean, he was worried about her once again. Not even Eddie had thought there would be a child, between the two of them, it was just one night together. Bradley had told him he'd not knotted the girl. But to know just how much she had suffered inside the pack and then to become pregnant to her Mate, who never knew who she was, to have that constant reminder for the rest of her life.

Was the moon goddess so cruel to one she-wolf, to put her through so much and then to give her a constant reminder of what she could never have, it must have hurt her even more. Eddie had finally seen a picture of the boy, Brandon, he'd been told was his name. He actually looked more like Piper than Bradley, had her hair and skin tone, but had his father's very unique eyes. Made Eddie wonder how she'd handled seeing him stare up at her when he'd first been born. Had it caused her more pain?

To see in the photos that the boy already has his wolf, had seen it on Cooper's phone, had the same white wolf eyes of Pipers wolf Harper. Was definitely a Whitlock more so than a Drake. He could only hope that had helped her with raising the boy. Cooper actually had quite a few photos of the boy, of Piper herself, and of Piper and the boy together. He'd spent the evening and morning watching them apparently, snapped a butt a*ss load of pictures, had even followed them as stealthily as he could on their morning run.

Told Eddie she and Brandon had a really good bond, and that was a giant relief to him, seeing the two of them together, laughing and smiling before going on that run eased some of his own pain, his own guilt at not being there for her.

He knew they were flying to help Bradley bring Piper in, that he was going to be needed with all his Gamma abilities in full swing in all likelihood. Bradley had already explained to him what he'd sensed on that first encounter with her, it was what Eddie was expecting, it was what they were all expecting, even Bradley.

Though Eddie didn't know if they were going to bring her back in to the pack, she had experienced a lot of pain, tremendous amounts of pain, suffered so much that she had left and now lived as a human, with a very public human life.

Eddie was hoping, knowing who she was now, would kick his instincts in properly. Already knew he could not scent her, had stared hard at the photos of her trying to commit her to his memory, so that he wouldn't need his sense of smell to know who she was. That day, outside of her store, while he'd been trying to console a very upset Hadley over Piper Harper tearing up the picture of the dress she dreamed of wearing one day. Piper had stepped out of her store and looked right at them, each one of them in turn, all of them there for Hadley, had rolled her eyes and walked away. He could only imagine her pain that day too.

He'd seen the way she'd actually looked at them, knowingly, she knew who Cooper was the Pack Beta, had looked at him and then Harry, had looked to see how many of her former Alpha's unit were there, and seen all of them. That roll of her eyes he wasn't sure if that had been at Hadley needing comfort, or if it was because all of her former Packs Alpha Unit were standing across the road from her.

All of them looking right at her, and had no idea, even now. Years later, after she had left, what she was, who she had been, should have been to them. But he had felt more than annoyance roll off of her, and that something had itched at him, she'd felt kind of familiar to him. But he didn't recall her at all, and so other than watching her walk away down the street and putting a hand on Cooper to stay him.

He'd let it go. Perhaps now he should have let Cooper go after her, might have seen the boy sooner.

Perhaps she had been off to pick him up from school that day, it had been around the right time. He'd known something was off, but it had been years since he'd felt her, since he'd sensed anything about the Alpha's missing Mate.

Eddie had to admit, he had forgotten what it felt like to feel her, as the years had passed the memory of what she felt like to him or lack of what she felt like to him, had faded, dulled and eventually passed altogether. He'd had the feeling that day, that Piper Harper was not human, was something else, but that had been all he'd known.

Now he had to pull himself together, he was going to be needed, all his Gamma instincts which had failed him at every turn where she was concerned, was going to have to pull on everything in him, to help ease her pain, get her to calm down and stay calm. From what he knew of her, what he'd researched and was doing on this very flight, gathering intel to help him to help her. Piper Harper was very much more human than a werewolf nowadays. And to his knowledge, none of them had ever seen her wolf at all, a description only from her file of a grey and white wolf. Eddie doubted she had shifted in a very long time. He'd not sensed her wolf at the time and he should have been able to, even from across the street, his instincts should have picked up on that much about her, but they had not.

Perhaps her wolf was too weak after all the years of their Mate not recognising them, mating with others that she could no longer shift at all. Though both Bradley and Hadley had seen her wolf's eyes, and Harper push forward and be fully on the surface, it had only been brief. So he knew she was not gone altogether.

Cooper had also reported that it was her wolf, Harper and the boys wolf out on that morning run together, so maybe Harper was there but only inside Pipers mind. If that was the case, then getting her and Bradley back together could resolve that and bring her wolf back out fully, given time.

Though how he was going to concentrate on Piper, when in all likelihood his own Mate Izzy, would be right next to her, he had no idea. She'd run away from him too.

Though he knew that was because she, as a human, had no idea what they were to each other. Even though he'd gotten her to state she was his and he had claimed her right back, the woman had no understanding at all and so had left.

Eddie knew it was because she felt like she'd betrayed Piper to him, knew he worked for Bradley and that Piper had warned the woman she'd be seduced by him and end up in his bed, before she knew it and Piper had not been wrong about that. But for very different reasons.

He'd not seduced Izzy to get Piper's information out of her. That thought had gone out the window, the moment his mouth had touched hers, from that moment he'd only wanted to claim Izzy, make her his as had Timber. They'd waited a very long time for their Mate and had become impulsive and demanding, all of his wolf's needs to claim, own and dominate the situation, to take complete control of her had surfaced and that was what they had done.

Only to have her sneak out and run away from them, drive away and tell them she didn't belong to them, when in fact she did belong to him, as he now belonged to her.

Now Eddie had to find a way to help his Alpha with his Luna, all the while not claiming his own Mate, when she was going to be right in front of him.

Both Eddie and Timber knew that they had screwed up everything, needed to get Izzy alone and apologise, ask her out, was the right thing to do. She was human and would need to date him as she would any man in the human world.

A long, slow road to becoming his and Timbers, and they wanted her now, right next to them, wondered if Bradley would consider helping him first, so he could better focus on Piper in return. They were both currently in a situation where they actually needed each others help, literally.

Eddie needed his Alpha to sit down and talk with his runaway human Mate and explain to her about what Eddie was to her, not all of it at once, just to convince her it was very important for her to give him a chance, to get to know him.

Did not know how this was going to work at all.

Didn't even know if they would be able to sort this mess out. It was likely that if Izzy told Piper all that had happened at her sister's wedding with Eddie, Piper would be dead certain Izzy was his Mate. She would also know that Eddie, would be hunting Izzy to get her back right at this very minute.

Might have warned Izzy, if Piper did cling completely to the human world, to her human life that she had created for herself, she might actively warn Izzy away from him and those two women were very close. Izzy was loyal to Piper.

Which was a good thing for them to have considering, if Piper could be brought in, and Brad could win her over, meant that the Luna and Gamma's Mate bond was already there in full swing.

It did make him wonder if they had been drawn to each other because of who they should have been to each other. He'd already found out that Izzy had been with Piper for most of the time she'd been away from the pack. Perhaps the goddess had pulled them together, both of them seemed to need each other.

Izzy had that stupid human who wouldn't let go of her, and she'd left him years ago, yet he was still trying to coherence her into a marriage with him. One that from what he could tell her father wanted as well.

But his Izzy was good and strong willed, had said no and meant it. Did not want anything to do with that stupid human man, had run away from him and her family, just like Piper had in fact.

Wondered if that was what had bonded the women together, he also wondered if Izzy had ever seen Harper on the surface at all. It was a possibility. They had worked together for years. He had no idea how much control Piper had or what type of temperament Harper had either, for that matter.

Though Harper had pushed forward and growled at Bradley that day in her studio, and he was very curious about that. As not many Mate's would growl at each other with full on aggression, so he didn't know if the rejection she had uttered was valid or not. No-one did at this point, they still had to figure that out, and likely first before anything else happened.

Landing in Sydney, neither he nor Bradley had gotten a wink of sleep. Cooper and Harry on the other hand, slept quite well, though Eddie knew he and Bradley had their own concerns. There wasn't even a plan of action at this point. Locate Piper in her hotel and then go from there. That was it so far.

They already knew which hotel Piper was in had tracked Piper Whitlock's credit card, booked themselves right into the very same hotel, a penthouse suite that would house all four of them. Both he and Bradley needed to sleep before going anywhere near either of their Mates or their tired, agitated wolves would likely shove forward and take what they thought was theirs without a thought to the actual consequences.

Eddie could not let Timber out near Izzy at this point, he'd already ripped out of Eddie in a ticked off rage, that she'd run away from him. Had been going to Mark her in his wolf form that day, not something that would have gone down well at all.

Timber was still unhappy that she had run away, and was not at all happy she'd gone halfway around the bloody world to get away from them. Was not about to let her get away again. She might be human, but she was his human as far as he was concerned, and he was not giving her up, period.

Even if she never turned, and remained human after they Marked her, and it did happen, Timber was still of the opinion she was his Mate, and he wanted her. It had only been Eddie that night with her. Timber had mostly been in control but had not pushed forward to Mate her.

His wolf, he knew, was very aggressive and could likely hurt her. Things would be different once they Marked her though, if she accepted them fully, her body would also accept Timber and his wolfs needs, regardless of how rough he got with her, she would enjoy it. He was not one to be interested in humans, they were not his thing, not his wolf's thing either, but Izzy drove them completely crazy, the minute he'd kissed her, they had just craved her like the air they breathed to keep them alive.

He looked at himself in the hotel bathroom mirror, he was showered and clean from their long journey, but he actually did look tired, not something he'd ever recalled looking like before, already being away from her, was starting to take its toll on him. He needed his Mate back in his arms.