(POV - Marcus)

Three days.

Aria had asked him for three days to sort through the mess in his head, and for her to sort out the mess in hers.

Three days had passed and he still hadn't heard anything from her.

He had told himself it was only because he'd been watching every second pass, the clock on his desk taunting him by moving slower. At least, that's what it felt like. Every minute passed slower than molasses, and Marcus had been close to the end of his tether by the time Jaden had returned.

"She's returned," Jaden told him, running a hand through his dirty blond curls. Marcus grunted, glancing up at his Beta before looking away again, his mind lost to memories of Aria.

"Is she safe?" he'd asked. It was all that mattered to him in that instant, and Jaden's resounding silence had bothered him. "Jaden, is she safe?"

"I can't confirm that," Jaden said sullenly, his hands clasped behind his back.

"What the hell does that mean?" Marcus snarled, his fingers squeezing the arms of his chair tight enough to make the metal whine in protest.

"I dropped her off a mile out, she asked me to," he explained. "And I stuck around until she'd crossed into her territory. But I heard a... scuffle, when she crossed the border. I'm guessing Aiden had sentries watching and waiting for her return, they were on her in a second."

Marcus stood up so fast that he sent his chair flying back and smashing into the wall, but he didn't care. "This was a bad idea. Get Mercucio, we're bringing her back. Right now."

"Wait!" Jaden insisted, holding his hands up to stop Marcus from doing something that was possibly, if not definitely, very stupid. "If Aria is what he wants, don't you think she'd be taken care of there?"

"I don't care," Marcus snapped, feeling his canines grow as his wolf fought for release. "I don't trust the little fucker or the rest of that pack, for that matter. I'm bringing her back."

"Don't, Marc," Jaden sighed, even though the strain in his voice was audible. "Let Aria handle this. You should know better than anyone that she's fully capable of going back there and doing exactly what she said she would."

Marcus deflated slightly, finally looking at his Beta.

She was capable. More than capable, but just because she was strong enough to handle anything that came her way didn't change the fact that Marcus wanted her to experience none of it. Just because she was strong did not mean she had to endure it.

Marcus would make sure of it.

"Marc," Jaden whined, his head flopping back in exhaustion. "It's like 2 am, man. Give it a rest? She's fine, she is going to be fine, and I already told her I'd be there to pick her up in three days, okay?"

Reluctantly, Marcus had let the fight drain from his veins, forcing his wolf into a restless slumber.

That had been the first night, mere hours after Jaden had dropped Aria off at home.

On the third day, Marcus had begun to feel the tug of senseless impatience, and his anxiety had soared higher than ever.

It was too overwhelming to think, and he knew he'd neglected quite a few of his duties these last few days but there was no room in his head for anything else. He'd lost so much sleep over it as well, finding it impossible to sleep soundly without Aria by his side. Her scent hadn't even disappeared from his pillows and sheets, but his wolf pawed at the front of his mind, agitated and restless, wanting him to shift so that he could race across their territories to bring her home.

He fought himself at every turn, trying so hard to give Aria what she'd asked him for and denying his wolf what he truly wanted. And yet, three days later, he sat at the head of the meeting, his nerves rubbed raw and his neck tired of whipping his head around every time he thought his phone made a sound.

"With the change in Alpha, it might be beneficial to reinforce the treaty with the southern pack," Mercucio said, addressing Jaden more than he was addressing Marcus. Which, to be fair, was probably the better option considering Marcus was barely paying attention to the new changes in the packs surrounding theirs, but he still frowned.

"How old is the new Alpha?" Jaden asked for him. After so many years of close friendship, he and Jaden had practically learned one another's minds, and it helped tremendously in these types of situations.

"In his early twenties," Mercucio reported, consulting the pack of info he'd been handed by the group of sentries directly under his control.

Those sentries had been trained by Mercucio himself for recon missions, to be able to gather information without breaking pack treaties and inciting a war. They'd always done exceptionally well, and had reported on every single change in the dynamics along their borders almost immediately after it happened.

Marcus was always proud of the information Mercucio gathered, and was happy to offer more wolves to his team whenever he asked.

It was why he felt terrible for sitting at a meeting where Mercucio was presenting his team's latest discoveries and wishing it would just end because he needed to get outside before his wolf combusted.

"Young, then," Jaden observed, a fist at his chin in thought. "Probably won't be very receptive to approaches from another pack's Alpha, but he might also be offended if the Alpha were not the one to make contact. It's a tricky situation. Marc, what do you think?"

Shaken from his thoughts by Jaden's call out, he blinked and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"If he's that young, it would be better for me to issue a meeting request, possibly at our borders," he suggested. "And it would be best if only Jaden accompanied me. Mercucio, I would rather you stay close to the packhouse and the rest of the pack in the event that it goes south. I would also keep the sentries at a minimum just for the duration of the meeting."

"May I ask why, Alpha?" Mercucio asked. Marcus nodded.

"If we keep the sentries to a minimum while both Jaden and I are at the border, they'll believe that those are our defences. I want them to think that we trust them enough to keep patrols low while their Alpha visits."

"Except we don't trust them at all," Jaden finished for him, a grin plastered on his face. Mercucio nodded in understanding.

"Very well," he agreed. "I will station patrols further inside our borders and run perimeter checks hourly. The rest of the pack will be asked to remain at the packhouse until the last patrol returns after the meeting ends."

"Excellent," Marcus praised. Mercucio had always been a great strategist, surprising Marcus time and again with his solutions to problems even Marcus himself had yet to foresee. He knew he was lucky to have Jaden and Mercucio as his Beta and Delta respectively, and owed his successes as an Alpha to their insight and incredible tactical skill.

Just then, however, he needed to get out. He could feel the aggravation turning violent in his veins the longer his phone remained silent on the table in front of him, and it drove him mad.

"I'm going on a run, don't follow me," he murmured to Jaden and Mercucio, who both nodded and stood when he left.

He stormed out into the woods, his mind spiraling into dark thoughts. What if Aria was tricking him, and had been the entire time they'd been together? Was she capable of doing something like that? If all of it had been a ruse, surely he would have noticed?

He hated second guessing himself. And he found that he hated second guessing Aria as well, whose presence had changed everything.

He made it past the first line of trees, the air suddenly cooler and his eyes quickly adjusting to see in the dark.

He should have known that they would join him soon after, even in their human forms.

He'd refrained from shifting no matter how much his body yearned for it, because he knew that if he shifted, he'd cross over into Aiden's territory and fetch Aria himself, phone call be damned. So he stayed in his human form, jogging along the forest floor with much less speed and grace than he was used to.

Jaden, for once, stayed silent on his right side. He ran alongside his Alpha, offering nothing more than his quiet support,

Mercucio, on the other hand, had a knack for knowing exactly what was wrong, even when Marcus wasn't sure himself.

"You're letting your thoughts get the best of you," Mercucio pointed out needlessly. "Are you worried that she's going to trick you?"

"If you're asking, it means there's some truth to it," Marcus grouched, earning a smile from the pair of them.

"I've talked to her," Jaden said. "And every single time, she's been completely distracted by you, Marc. There's no way she's tricking you. Trust your gut."

"I haven't spoken to her but if Jaden trusts her, so do I," Mercucio said. "How are you feeling about the whole situation? I know it can't be easy, especially with Helena looming in the back of your mind."

Mercucio, as usual, wasn't wrong. Marcus had still struggled to come to terms with the new feelings he'd developed for Aria while still dealing with the grief of losing his mate and their son.

It brought memories of that first night after Aria had left rushing to the surface.