Chapter 130: Emptiness
Mike’s POV
Something was wrong with me. At first I didn’t notice it, or maybe I just refused to acknowledge it.
However, as days went by, I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.
The pack was running as usual and I went to the company more often than before.
Leaving the pack and going to the human world where the headquarters of our company was located had always felt like a hustle to me. So I preferred working from my office in the pack house.
However, these few days, staying in the pack house felt empty. As if something important was missing.
So, I would leave early in the morning and go to the office in the city then come back late at night.
Even so, it didn’t change the emptiness I felt inside.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I went to the training grounds in the pack and fought with other wolves.
The pain somehow made me feel more alive and real.
But as the alpha, the other wolves were no match for me and my training didn’t help that much.
Even though everything in the pack looked the same as before, nothing felt right.
At first, I pretended not to feel it, but as time went, the strange silence in the corridors, like something was missing grew like cracks in a glass.
When I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, I finally went looking for something to remind me of her.
I stood in front of her door for a long time before I could gather the courage to push it open.
The room was empty, just like how I felt.
There was nothing personal left behind.
There were expensive dresses, bags, and shoes in the closet, yet none of them felt like they belonged to her.
Even her lingering scent had been cleaned off.
I felt my chest tighten in pain and I had to grab the back of her office chair to stabilize myself.
It felt as if someone was squeezing something out of me, yet I was powerless to resist.
Looking around the room that didn’t have even the smallest of her personal touch and resembled a high-end hotel room, I stumbled and nearly fell.
"How could she? How could she erase herself so completely as if she didn’t exist?" I muttered to myself.
"Did she not care about me at all?" The pain and anger inside me almost spilled over.
"This was all your doing? What did you expect?" Jerry asked sarcastically, but I could feel the pain he was trying to hide.
He was a part of me after all and we share more than just the body.
"Is this the time to shift blame?" I asked angrily.
But I knew I had no right to be angry at Jerry. It had warned me about treating Valerie better, but I was blinded by my pride.
I left her room and went back to prepare to go to work.
Just like every day now, everything felt like a blur in my life.
I trained, gave orders, made decisions, yet none of it made sense.
I didn’t even remember any of it at the end of the day because my mind was filled with her.
Her delicate face and clear eyes.
Her beautifully developing curves.
The stubborn look in her eyes.
Everything reminded me of her.
She was like a ghost haunting me and lingering in every corner I turned.
Yet, I was still conflicted.
Because there were too many eyes on me.
The council was watching me, the pack members were whispering about me, and even other packs who had gotten wind of what was happening were secretly plotting against me.
"Focus Mike. You are the alpha..." I kept repeating this to myself.
I couldn’t let others see me as weak.
So, what if she left, I still had Innocent and I could get more women if I wanted.
Even so, I was just lying to myself.
So, I did what I had found to be a bit useful, overwhelming myself with responsibility.
I buried myself in endless work to suppress the noise in my mind and the longing in my heart.
Files piled up on my desk and I worked on them without rest.
Meetings extended for hours and I sat through them without complaint.
Even when night fell, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop because once I stopped, I would start thinking and there was nothing else in my mind except her.
I thought that if I didn’t think, I wouldn’t feel. And if I didn’t feel, then this emptiness in my chest wouldn’t exist either.
However, no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t shake it.
The emptiness persisted and kept growing like a sapling perfectly fertilized and watered.
"Mike..." A voice that I was starting to find annoying in its persistence came from outside the door.
"Not now." I nearly growled when I said that.
The door was pushed open and soft footsteps followed, before it closed softly behind her.
The footsteps came closer and my annoyance just went up.
"I said not now, Innocent."
This woman was starting to get on my nerves.
Sometimes I regret ever associating myself with her.
She doesn’t have any boundaries and her persistence made me annoyed.
How could I ever have thought she was graceful and fit to be the Luna?
"Is this about her again?" She asked.
The pen in my hand snapped, the sound violent and sharp.
I slowly lifted my head and looked straight at her. My eyes were so cold they could freeze hell fire.
"Watch your words." I was trying so hard to forget, and she just had to come here to remind me of her.
But she didn’t back down. What did I expect from her anyway?
Innocent had never known when to stop. She has some kind of self-important syndrome that I don’t know where she caught it.
"She left." She said sharply. Her voice filled with what I could have mistaken for venom.
"Now you are acting like this? What do you take me for, Mike?" She continued with her questioning.