Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: DESOLATION
***** Zenith’s first life *****

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***Dawn’s POV***

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This was the first time Dawn met with the beta. Beta Axel had this stern look on his face when he saw Dawn approach him. She felt rejected by him even before she could say anything.

At this point, Dawn really needed to admit that her social skills really sucked. How could someone dislike you from the very first moment they saw you? That was really ridiculous, right?

Currently, Beta Axel was in the training ground, training a lot of scary warriors, which made Dawn halt in her tracks. She found them really scary. People from the north were really built differently.

“I told you, right? He is busy. You should have waited.”

“I will wait here,” Dawn said, she sat down on the top of the tribune, so the beta could see her. “Tell him, I want to talk to him once he is done with the training.”

Fern took a deep breath, she didn’t even hide that she was annoyed by Dawn’s order, but thankfully, she still had common sense and knew her place, as she did what Dawn told her to do. She left to approach Beta Axel, interrupting his training with the warriors.

“Beta, I am sorry for the interruption,” Fern said. She knew that these warriors hated it when their training was interrupted for something that was not urgent.

“What is it?” Axel frowned, thinking there was a message from the alpha or something.

“Dawn wanted to see you right now.” Fern nodded in Dawn’s direction, but because she was too far away, the latter couldn’t hear their conversation. Dawn nodded at Beta Axel politely when he looked in her direction. “She insisted that you meet her right away.”

“I will see her after the training,” Axel said, slightly annoyed by the demand.

“You can’t, Beta, please.” Fern held back the beta.

“No. I will see her after the training,” Axel said sternly.

“She will give us a hard time if you delay. She wanted to see you right away. She has been very upset because the Alpha left without saying anything to her and screamed at Pyllo and Kynes a lot.”

“She was the one who didn’t want to see Zenith, why would she be upset?”

Fern shook her head helplessly. “I don’t know. I have never met someone as flippant as her.” Fern begged the beta with her eyes. The old woman looked pitiful. “Apparently, even when she doesn’t want to see Alpha Zenith, he has to be always available for her.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

In the end, Axel left the training ground and asked another warrior to take over. He approached Dawn in a bad mood and it surprised her because he came right away.

However, Dawn didn’t seem to feel anything fishy about it, because she really needed to talk with him.

“Thank you for coming to see me right away,” Dawn said politely.

“Just tell me what you want.”

“Can I talk to you alone?” Dawn looked at Fern, who was still within earshot.

Axel looked impatient, but then told Fern to go somewhere else. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I want to know what my role is here.” Dawn could see that she needed to talk straight to the point with this man, thus she didn’t beat around the bush. “I assume I am here as a replacement for Emily. Am I… Alpha Zenith’s chosen mate now?”

“You can say so.”

“I only wanted to know my place in this pack.” Dawn nodded. “May I know when he will return?”

“He will come back in three months.”

“I see.” So, he would return in three months and she would be the luna of the pack once the ceremony was held.

“Anything else?”

Dawn shook her head, slightly taken aback by his cold demeanor. “Can I look for you again if I have something to ask?”

“Fine, but not in the training ground.”

Dawn assumed his coldness was because he was annoyed at her for interrupting the training. “Okay. I am sorry for the interruption.”

There was a flicker of surprise in Axel’s eyes, but he didn’t say anything and left immediately. He had something else to do.

After that, Dawn didn’t have any interaction with Axel anymore. But, Zenith didn’t return even after three months had passed.

Six months and then one year passed just like that.

Dawn waited for him in this dull life. This pack felt like a prison for her. She found it hard to even breathe in this pack. She was literally isolated. She didn’t know what was happening out there. She heard no news about what happened outside of the north, nor did she get any letters from anyone.

It felt like her existence had been forgotten. It took a toll on Dawn and after a year, she barely recognized herself.

She had no one and her dull life was the only thing she had.

She lived only because she didn’t die. After being isolated for so long, she didn’t know how to interact with people. Even meeting the members of the pack gave her anxiety now.

People in this pack didn’t even care about her existence and after spending so much time alone, Dawn only had herself. She spent her time in her room, staring at the changing seasons from her window.

She had long forgotten her desire to meet her father for some kind of explanation and closure.

Dawn didn’t even know what she wanted, or what she had to do with her life. She only waited for Zenith to return, in hopes she could have some kind of bond with him.

She still remembered how people said that a mate bond was the most beautiful thing that you could experience, as if having someone who knew you very well, until the silence between you turned into a solace.

Dawn craved such a connection. She was desperate to feel something, anything, because this numbness haunted her and she was afraid of it.

She even wrote a letter to Zenith every month and gave it to Fern. “Please, make sure Alpha Zenith receives it.”

“I will.”

That was what Fern said every time, but there was no reply from Zenith even after the twelfth letter, after that, Dawn stopped writing to him.

And then, after more than a year and half, finally Dawn heard some news about Zenith. He would return to the pack within a week or two.

This was the first time Dawn felt something, an anticipation.

The day came and Dawn went out of the bedroom, anxious, because she could feel a lot of eyes staring at her, full of judgment and she felt very small.

However, Dawn forced herself to endure it, because she wanted to be part of the people, who greeted Zenith when he returned to the pack house.

“You don’t need to come, Dawn,” Pyllo said.

“You will only make yourself uncomfortable,” Kynes chimed in.

“The Alpha will not even recognize you among these many people.”

“No. I want to be here.” Dawn was really desperate to be part of something. She bit her lips and picked on her nails, waiting for Zenith.

“Oh, the Alpha has returned with the luna!”