Not everyone has a mate, and this is the reality of Alek Kuznetsov.
On his eighteenth birthday instead of feeling the pull and yearning for a mate, Alek's spirit felt dead. Confusion and depression drove him out of his Siberian wolf clan to seek so...
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AHOTE
There's been something off about Alek's behavior for the past few days. At first, I thought it was because I disappeared in the morning after he marked me, but we talked about that and that didn't seem to be the case at all. Though my anxieties about Alek feeling strange about me getting up and just going for a walk with my brother without even greeting him good morning were then addressed, I still couldn't shrug off the worry about the way he avoided my gaze or stared at me intently when he felt I wasn't looking.
It was like an itch, but I wasn't sure if it was best to scratch it or leave it alone.
A small smile touched my lips as the sound of Elan laughing filled the air. I was sitting at the stairs of the porch with my knees drawn up to my chest, and my head resting on them. Alek was a distance away with some other mid-ranking wolves, and children, like they often did, paced around them asking the be carried and swung around. Alek had picked Elan up a while ago and would occasionally give in to the young boy's demand that he hold his hands and swing him around.
Seeing Alek relax a bit made me happy. He's been so tense, so watching him loosen up and smile without worry was a nice change of pace. However, seeing him look unbothered and free without me in the picture told me that I was the one causing his anxiety.
Somehow.
A sigh left my lips as I rested one of my legs before scooting closer to the wooden railing that framed the stairs. I've been thinking long and hard about it, and I couldn't think of anything that would make Alek wary.
Maybe it's Aponi? The thought had popped into my mind a few times, and each time it left a bad taste in my mouth. She and Alek weren't the best of friends, and the exaggerated smiles she gave me even though we weren't in the best of terms told me that she had something up her sleeve. Aponi had the tendency to act in her own accordance if she felt like she was doing the best for you.
I licked my lips, using the end of my big toe to push down the stray blade of grass that had made its way on the stairs riding the wind as I tried to pinpoint what Aponi had planned. Did she tell Ale something odd? Something about bonding? Maybe something concerning Honon? The thoughts made my chest tighten a bit, but at the same time, they didn't seem strong enough to put that kind of impact on Alek. I told him everything, I doubt Aponi could shock him—
