faded colour

After the Luna ceremony, Archer and I were buried in work again to the point that we rarely had time to spend together.

Archer came home late and left the house early and we rarely ate together anymore because either he or I would be in a meeting with other Alphas or the Council.

But I tried my best to keep an understanding mind and I knew he did towards me too.

I had been much more involved with the internal affairs of the pack, I have also been taking care of the training of the young female warriors and that took up a lot of my time.

And that's how everyday went.

But then we were shook with news that Panselinos had been attacked, although there were no casualties, it still came as a great shock to everyone because they were the strongest pack of the north.

I remembered that their Luna is also the first warrior and I knew that it for sure had to do something with her being the warrior.

Speaking on warriors, on a rare occasion that Archer and I went for a run during the night, he noticed how different my wolf was.

My eyes that had a lying down crescent moon and it glowing in the dark, the colour of my wolf that changed and the same size as the Alpha's wolf, I knew he was going to ask me questions.

"Your wolf..." he started as he handed me a shirt after our run.

Here it goes.

"Effyía." I said in one word and that came as a shock to him because he immediately turned to me with eyes wide open.

With the confirmation of Luna Hannah being a moon warrior, many speculations have arisen about the other warriors.

I sighed sitting down on a chair.

"But promise me you won't report me to the Council or something, I just... I'm still confused about so many things and I--"

Archer knelt in front of me and held my hands, placing sweet kisses on them.

"I won't do that. You can take your time to tell me, you don't have to force yourself if it's a hard thing to explain." he said and I simply looked back at him.

What the heck? How is he so understanding?

There's no doubt he made hearts break when he was younger.

But I wanted to get the load off my chest and so I told him. I told him about the casual dreams I've had ever since I was young, the reason why I had a powerful command tone, what happened to me when I jumped at the Luna Flumine and who I met.

I kept searching Archer's face for a sign that he didn't believe me, that he thought that I was probably lying, but I didn't find any.

He took my every word and believed it and asked questions when he didn't understand something and that made me feel glad.

Thank goodness he doesn't think I'm a weirdo.

I looked up from my book when the bedroom door opened and there came Archer. Seeing me, he straightway came and gave me an embrace, but I pushed him away quickly. I instantly felt bad for doing so because I knew he was tired.

"Ugh, yuck, Archer! Go take a shower before embracing me!" I scold him and lightly hit him with my book.

He got up and let out a huge sigh, a sign that today must've been more tiring than usual.

"I just wanted to hug you, sheesh." he mumbled under his breath as a complaint as he got up and headed to the shower.

I continued with the book I was reading until he came out of the bathroom. This time, he was wearing his night shorts and was in the process of wearing his shirt.

I put the book away and took the brush as I waited for him to get on the bed.

It was a little past midnight now and I knew that he still had to get up early for tomorrow morning.

He put his arms around me again as soon as he was on the bed.

"Tiring day?" I asked and turned the lamplights off.

"Heck, yeah. One of the ports were attacked and so we need to quickly send our warriors before the humans get too alarmed." he said.

I nodded and lied down fully beside him.

I didn't talk anymore because I wanted him to rest, he had a troublesome day, I didn't want to bother him with the little issues I had.

Lately, I've been feeling different.

I can't put my finger on it, but I felt like lately, I've been waking up feeling weaker and more lethargic.

"Hazel..." Archer called. The tone of his voice slightly alarmed me so I turned to him, but he had his eyes closed.

"Hmm?" I questioned.

"I'm leaving the day after tomorrow for a while, I'm sorry for telling you so late." he said.

I immediately sat up and turned to him, my face scrunching. For some reason, the thought that he was going to be away from me for a more than a few days was awful.

And I instantly hated myself for being clingy.

Sensing my reaction, he put his hand over his forehead and opened his eyes to look at me.

"Wh-why so soon?"

"Well, I have to firstly visit the port and... It's for Jessica."

Oh.

"Did something happen to her? Is it something I can help with?" I ask, my voice filling with concern.

He smiled at me and shook his head.

"She's meeting her mate. We've actually been trying to reach him for a while now because we know that despite all, Jess still wants to get back with him. It was only recently that we were able to get a hold of him and he finally agreed to meet with her again." he explained.

Well... I guess that's good for her?

"Oh-- uh, okay. Who else is going with you? Do you really need to go?"

"Derek and Suzy will be with me, don't worry. It's just that she wanted me to be there with her... but if you don't want me to go, I can just--"

"No! No, don't do that. She's finally trying to do something with her situation, I don't want to be the reason that she doesn't push through." I say and it was truly how I felt, but deep inside, I couldn't shake the ominous feeling.

I hoped that Archer would see past my words and feel that I didn't want him to go, but then I felt bad for even thinking so.

No matter what, Jessica is still someone who he grew up with and so of course he would want to help her and it would be natural for her to ask her closest friend to be there with her.

Be more understanding, Hazel, was what I told myself. If I was in Jessica's place I would probably have done the same.

"Thank you."

❀

When I felt a kiss on my forehead, it woke me up.

It was none other than Archer.

He smiled at me, but unlike the other mornings, today his smile was somewhat more sad. After all, it was the day that they were leaving.

I could already feel the emptiness, I could already feel my loneliness and just thinking about the coming days was giving me a headache.

My head was spinning, but I tried my best to get up for him.

However, when I got off the bed, my legs gave up on me and I almost fell had it not been for Archer who caught me just in time.

"Easy there, are you okay?" he asks, his voice filled with concern.

Oh please, not today. I need to see Archer off at least, don't give up on me now, body.

I held onto his arms to pull myself up. "I'm fine." I said and forced myself up.

These past few days, everything I felt was just terrible. I went to see Frances yesterday to see if there was anything wrong with me, but even she couldn't tell. She was quite worried and was about to tell Archer, but I told her not to because I didn't want to worry him as he was leaving

She told me simply to rest up for now, but how could I? Starting today, Allan and I will be dealing with the work that will be left behind along with the work that we already had on our hands.

Archer told me that I didn't have to take the work on, but how was that possible when everyone is looking towards us for help?

Even I didn't want Allan to die from overworking.

The morning went on as normal, Archer cooked for me, his cuisine skills have greatly improved.

"You better call me through Voca Orb everyday or if not, I'm gonna get mad you." I warn him and stabbed a sausage for dramatic purposes.

Archer laughed and handed me a glass of coffee.

"I feel like I'll be worrying more if you'll answer or not, don't overwork yourself. Especially you haven't been feeling well these days." he says.

I bit my lip, so he did notice that I haven't been in my best form.

"Don't worry about me and just return quickly. Two weeks is already too much."

And then he sighed.

"Well, let's hope everything goes well. I heard that Jessica's mate have been... everywhere ever since she rejected him, you know, the usual."

I wasn't surprised to hear that.

Whenever one gets rejected, they feel so hurt that they usually try to find comfort in others.

As much as I wanted to finish my food, I couldn't I felt like taking one more bite would make me throw up. I found the food too salty.

"It's not good?" Archer noticed and asked. I quickly shook my head no and smiled, forcing myself to take a bite.

"No, it's really good. I just feel sad that you're leaving and taking Suzy with you. I won't have an excuse to loaf off now." I lie and laughed.

The house echoed with our conversations, with his usual silent poke of teasing at me and me getting mad at him and then laughters. And then us going over our schedule of the day, if we could meet up for lunch or dinner and estimating what time we would be back, but of course that was different today so I just told him about what I was going to be up to.

When it was time, Archer went up to take his duffer bag with the clothes that I helped him pack for.

As we were walking to the pack house where we were meeting everyone, I was giving him reminders.

"You have to wear your jacket because it's called at the eastern coast now, it's the middle of their fall. It might even be raining a lot."

"Yeah I know you told me a lot of times, Hazel."

"And don't forget to eat your meals! I know you have a bad habit of forgetting when you get too caught up with things you need to do."

"Yes, I will. Goodness, I'm not a kid." Archer said and pinched my cheek.

"Aw!" I exclaimed and it was honestly just an over exaggeration so he quickly let go.

The cars were ready, I saw a few people that were already there, ready to send the group off.

We greeted them as we arrived and put Archer's bag in the car.

"I will miss you, Hazel!" Suzy said to me and hugged me. When she was about to let me go, she stopped and smelled me. "There's something different about you." she said.

I smiled at her, Suzy really never changes. "Yeah, yeah. Just go, Suzy. You take care of my mate for me." I told her and pushed her.

"But I'm serious! Are you s--"

"Stop bothering people so early in the morning." Derek told his mate as he wrapped his arms around her neck.

Seeing the scene made me laugh and I hadn't noticed that Jessica was already in front of me.

She looked nervous, she looked rather anxious.

I tried my best to smile at her. "Take care, Jessica. I'm wishing all the best for you." I started.

She nodded and kept her eyes on the ground for a few moments before looking back at me.

"Th-thank you... uh..." she stammered, she looked like she wanted to tell me more things, "and I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, I really am... even now... I know I'm bothering Archer, but I just really need--" she spoke quickly and anxiously.

"Make it work this time around, Jessica." I cut her off and told her. She looked back at me, biting her bottom lip.

"I hope I can..." she said and put her hair behind her ears. "The-then, we'll be going now. I'll try my best to send Archer back home quickly."

Those words made me smile and I nodded. She turned around to go in the car before turning back and walking back to me.

"I'm glad it's you," she said again and I didn't understand, but then she smiled at me, the first ever genuine and pure smile I received from her, "I'm so glad you're his mate."

With that, she turned around fully and walked inside the car.

Before I could process her words, Archer stood in front of me.

He had just finished speaking with the others and now he was the only one being awaited for before they can leave.

Feeling the loneliness already, I wrapped my arms around him tightly and buried my face on his chest.

"Come back quickly, please and stay safe." I said.

"I'll be back before you know it, I will miss you." he said. I looked up to him and he bended for a kiss.

As we parted, he gave me another kiss.

"Take care of yourself, I love you."