Chapter 4

“I’m not sure if Beta Dalton has mentioned it to you but we’re having a baby through surrogacy.” Justas smiled down at his mate and reached down to hold his hand, giving it a gentle, loving squeeze.

Marcellus ignored the pang that struck his heart, jealous of the couple and the beautiful, fulfilled relationship that they had with each other, wishing that he could have the same thing with a mate of his own.

“Yes. I briefly remember that conversation.” Marcellus nodded even though he didn’t as he wasn’t paying much attention in the first place, silently prompting them to continue.

“We were at the hospital today so that’s probably all the foreign scents that you smell on us.” Justas explained.

“And that’s at the pack hospital?” He asked casually, trying to feign indifference and cover it up with light curiosity.

“No.” Raphael continued to smile widely, excited about their impending parenthood. “It’s at the hospital a few towns over, in the neutral territory.”

Our mate works at the hospital! His wolf growled at him, already planning on trying to convince his human counterpart to drop everything and run over to the hospital where his mate worked, desperate to finally set his sights on her.

We need to keep things cool. He murmured back to his wolf, keeping a small smile on his face so neither of the mated couple would suspect anything. I’d much rather meet her first before alerting the pack that they’ve finally got a Luna.

“Well, congratulations are in order!” Marcellus rose to his feet and moved over to give a congratulatory hand shake to both of the males, genuinely happy for them as he knew that they had been considering adoption for a while, even going to consult him regarding the matter once last year, but it appeared their plans had now changed.

Either way, adoption or surrogacy, he looked forward to welcoming the new little pack member and was confident that the child would have a wonderful childhood growing up in a loving household with Raphael and Justas as his or her fathers.

“Thank you, Alpha.” They both took turns to return his handshake before he bid them both good night and heading out of the den and to his office, aware that the other pack members probably wanted back in the den.

Marcellus simultaneously nodded at the patient wolves as he made his way through the living and down the hallway where his office was located.

Unlike most other Alphas, Marcellus slept on the ground floor instead of the top floor, allowing the Dalton and his little family as well as a few of the warriors to occupy the top floor of the pack house, not really seeing it as a priority or necessity for himself. He was perfectly happy sleeping in the bedroom next to his office, giving him easy access to get some work done whenever he had trouble sleeping, which had been happening more often than not the past couple of years.

However, that all may change once his mate began living with him. Well, he would have to actually find her first.

“What was all that about?” Dalton asked as he slipped into the room not even a moment later, this time sans sleeping toddler.

“What was all what about?” Marcellus feigned innocence as he plugged in his laptop and turned it on, needing to get some work done before he could head to bed.

Either Dalton or one of the warriors must have brought it in.

Before Dalton could continue asking about something Marcellus wasn’t quite ready to talk about, he was quick to change the subject. “How’s Devon? Is he feeling better?”

Dalton frowned lightly and narrowed his eyes at his childhood friend, but once he noticed the look on his face, the Beta wolf sighed and nodded his head reluctantly.

“He’s doing much better.” Dalton sighed in relief, his lips curling up into a small smile. “Winnie and I think it was just a twenty-four-hour thing.”

“I’m glad he’s feeling better.”

Dalton hummed and they both fell into a comfortable silence as they got started on work, needing to tackle a good chunk of it today as otherwise, there would be too much to handle tomorrow. Essentially, they were trying to save their future selves some stress even though there was something new that was bound to pop up in the morning as it usually did.

Not even a minute in and Marcellus could feel himself unable to focus, both his mind and wolf choosing to dwell on the potential of meeting their mate tomorrow since it appeared that most likely, she worked at the hospital.

However, he refused to get his hopes up as it had already been ten years and the chance that she was only a short drive away the whole time was ridiculous, especially since he had travelled to packs all over the country when he first took over as Alpha in search of his mate.

Once he set eyes on her and had her safely in his arms where she belonged, only then would Marcellus allow himself to rejoice at the prospect of finally meeting his mate.

She works at the hospital. She must be smart.

She could be a cleaner or work at the reception or something.

Are you calling our mate dumb? His wolf barked at him, and Marcellus couldn’t help but laugh quietly at the irony of it all.

No. He denied. But it sounds like you think cleaners and receptionists are dumb. Imagine she does work one of those jobs, she isn’t going to be very happy to hear that.

Well, she isn’t going to find out, is she?

Marcellus smirked internally at his wolf. We’ll see about that.

Fuck you! His wolf swore at him but very quickly, both his mood and tone changed. Actually, there’s no need as soon enough, we’ll have our mate for that.

Marcellus must have pulled a face as Dalton felt the need to ask about it.

“Marcellus?” Dalton called out to him again as he walked further into the room and pulled out a chair to take a seat on the other side of the desk, helping himself to a stack of paperwork that desperately required attention. “What’s up with you? You’re acting very strange today. More strange than usual.”

Marcellus chuckled and ran a tired hand down his face, rubbing gently at his eyes, willing himself to stay awake long enough to get some work done.

“I’m just tired. It’s been a very long day.”

For the first time in a long time, Marcellus fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow with a small smile on his face. He was eager to head to the hospital first thing in the morning, determined to find his mysterious mate, refusing to allow her to evade him for a second time now.

The Next Day

His first thought that morning had been that he needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. His second thought had been how would he be able to be able to find her in the hospital, but then he very quickly reminded that he was a werewolf and would be able to scent his mate out from more than a couple of miles away.

“Marcellus? Where are you going?” A voice called out from behind him as he walked out of the pack house.

Marcellus paused and glanced over his shoulder, only to find that he wasn’t the first one to be awake at this early house as he previously thought and found his Beta to be watching him curiously.

“To the hospital.” He stated simply before jogging down the steps, an added prep in his step.

“What? Why? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No.” He shook his head as he rounded the side of the pack house where his car was parked in the Alpha’s spot, unobstructed by any of the other vehicles.

He didn’t usually drive as either Dalton or one of the warriors drove him around the few times that he did leave the pack nowadays, so he also had that to look forward to as well.

“Then why are you going to the hospital?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“If you’re going to the pack hospital then why are you taking your car?” Dalton asked as he followed him out of the pack house, standing off to the side as Marcellus rounded the car to adjust both the mirrors. “It’s just down the street, but you already know that.”

“I’m not going to the pack hospital.”

“Okay, buddy. I’m really lost here. I thought you just said you were going to the pack hospital.”

“No.” Marcellus denied with a small chuckle. Riling up Dalton had always been a favourite pastime of his growing up, and the habit hadn’t been lost now that they were adults and running the pack together. “I said I was going to the hospital. I never said I was going to the pack hospital.”

“Let me get this straight.” Dalton hummed aloud and braced his hands on his hips, a thoughtful expression on his face. “You’re going to a hospital but it’s not the pack hospital?”

“Yes.” Marcellus confirmed with a nod of his head, a small, humoured smile on his face.

“So, you’re going to the human hospital?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a human hospital. Werewolves go there, too.”

“Yes, but we’ve never had to go there before since we have a fully functional hospital right here on pack grounds. So, spill. What’s going on?”

Marcellus shook his head slightly. “Like I said, I’ll explain everything later but right now, I really need to go.”

“Okay, just give me a second and I’ll get Zion and Mohammed ready to go with you.” Dalton hummed as he turned around, but Marcellus was quick to stop him before he could get too far.

“No, there’s no need to call them.” Marcellus denied, shaking his head.

“Why not?” Dalton turned around with a questioning look on his face.

“This is something I need to do by myself.”

“You’re acting really strange, Mars.” Dalton hummed but didn’t bother asking for an explanation as he knew that he wouldn’t be getting one, no matter how much he asked.

“I know, buddy. Don’t worry too much about it, okay? Everything will make sense soon but right now, this is just something I need to do by myself, okay?”

Dalton pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but eventually, nodded his head reluctantly.

“I won’t be long.” He threw the promise over his shoulder before slipping into his car and starting up the engine, throwing his friend and Beta a smile in thanks before he peeled out of the parking spot and away from the pack house.

The drive over to the human hospital which wasn’t entirely made up of humans took a little over an hour, which definitely would have been much sooner if he had run in his wolf form but wolves were instructed to keep shifting in front of humans to an absolutely minimum even if wolves and humans lived mostly in harmony.

The moment he pulled up into the parking lot, he slid into closest empty spot to the double doors before rushing in, frantically searching for that heavenly honeysuckle scent which had tantalised him and his wolf since he had first stumbled upon it yesterday.

His lips pulled down into a deep frown as he was unable to sense his mate anywhere even though he was absolutely certain that she worked here as that was the only plausible explanation as to why he could smell the rich scent of his mate on Justas and Raphael yesterday.

Marcellus glanced up and down the hallway but he couldn’t sense or scent her anywhere, almost as if she had never been here in the first place.