Looking at the retreating form of Nihal, who went inside his room, Vivaan sighed in relief while wiping away the stray tears.

"I need to go to the Alpha's office. That big mouth Rahul must have already spread the news. It must have caused an uproar," Vivaan said.

Hritika looked at him with a knowing smile.

"What?" He asked, weirded out by her smile.

Hritika just shook her head, not responding.

"Just blurt it out. I don't have any mental capacity left to try and guess anything." Vivaan requested, though his tone was far away from requesting.

"I have noticed that you always call Uncle as Alpha," Hritika said.

Vivaan scowled, "It none of––"

Hritika interjected, completing his sentence, "My business, I know. That's why I wasn't saying anything. You were the one who probed so don't put it on me."

"She has lot of sass, for a girl who was screaming her ass off while travelling on my wolf," Vivaan mumbled.

Though he had mumbled, it was loud enough for Hritika to hear his taunt.

"You really underestimate your other half. You are an wolf, not a horse that I would enjoy riding on top of you," Hritika retorted, trying hard to keep her embarrassment at bay.

"So you are saying that you wouldn't have any problem in riding a horse, if I bring it here." Vivaan smirked with a raised eyebrow.

"I would have shown you but I don't think horses would come in the area where wolves reside," Hritika counter-backed fiercely.

Her fierceness went down the drain when Vivaan's smirk didn't falter.

"You don't really have horses, right?" Hritika asked hesitantly.

A loud laugh escaped from Vivaan.

"Jerk." Hritika made a bad face, knowing that he had fooled her.

A smile had perched upon Vivaan's face, totally opposite to his condition a few minutes ago.

"By the way, are you okay?" Vivaan questioned with a somber expression.

"Me? What has happened to me?" Hritika questioned back with confusion.

"Well, on the council meeting. You know...about your parents...," Vivaan answered with hesitation. Whatever issues they had, it didn't make him insensitive of that matter. Those were innocent humans who got killed for no fault of theirs.

"Ah! Don't worry about that. Just like that Alpha said, I just came to know the truth. It's not that they died recently." Hritika acted nonchalantly, but her dim eyes gave her away.

"Your eyes are saying something else," Vivaan remarked softly.

"Weren't you going to Alpha's office? I thought you needed to hurry," Hritika asked him with raised eyebrows.

Vivaan nodded with a chuckle and turned to leave but not before commenting,

"Nice way to change the topic."

                          ★★★★★

Just as Vivaan had interpreted, the news had travelled all over the pack. As he climbed the stairs, he could hear the pack members whispering about it and a few giving him pity looks.

Vivaan had just reached third floor when he heard loud sobbing noise from Yara's room. He changed his direction and moved towards her room instead. As the door was ajar, he could see everything inside her room.

Yara's mother was crying profusely while Luna Mahira was trying to comfort her. Beta was pacing around her room in a tensed position. Alpha and Gamma stood at a corner with worried looks on their faces.

"I have ordered everyone on the patrol to inform us as soon as they come across Yara," Gamma announced just before Vivaan entered the room.

Luna Mahira rushed towards him as soon as her eyes fell upon him.

"Vivaan, where were you? We were trying so hard to contact you. Where's Yara? I thought she must be with you." Luna blurted out the questions, not giving him chance to answer any one of them.

"What's going on? Why are you all so tensed? And my mind link was open right now," Vivaan queried with confusion.

"Not right now, we were trying to mind link you since an hour. How can you be so irresponsible?" Alpha Aarjav muttered with a scowl on his face.

Vivaan internally face palmed. He was so worried about Yara that he had accidentally shut off his mind link.

"Vivaan, have you seen Yara? We are not able to find her. We have searched almost every place of this pack. She is nowhere to be found and her mind link is also shut off. If that wasn't enough, a new rumor has spread about her and Nihal," Luna explained the situation, while side hugging Beta's mate, Juhi, to give her support.

"It's not a rumor," Vivaan whispered.

Gasps echoed throughout the room.

"No wonder Yara growled at me when I moved to hurt Nihal earlier," Gamma commented thoughtfully.

"And Yara was the only one who smelled an unique scent on Nihal." Alpha Aarjav added.

"If that was the case then why didn't they inform us. We just met at Alpha's office, at least then they should have told us." Luna pondered over thoughtfully.

Yara's mother looked at Vivaan frightfully.

"Did he reject her? Is that why my daughter was looking ill?" She questioned in a croaking voice.

"Where is she?" Beta asked, barely managing to get a hold of himself.

"She is in Nihal's room and no, he hasn't rejected her," Vivaan hurriedly answered so that they couldn't make any new assumptions.

"Then why was she sick?" Alpha Aarjav questioned looking curious and worried.

"She tried to hide the mate bond as the situation was tense between us and that affected her health," Vivaan replied, looking down at the floor.

"I knew from the start that the girl was foolish," Gamma cursed, earning a glare from every person present in the room.

"It's not her fault that her mate is a human," Vivaan said.

"Exactly, then why did the foolish girl try to hide it? Mates are the precious gifts bestowed to us by Moon Goddess. Their identity or flaws shouldn't matter. Of course, both the mates can work on getting better but they need to accept each other as they are."

Gamma's words shocked Vivaan. He had never expected something like this to ever come from the rigid Gamma. While Vivaan was shocked, the elders knew that Gamma's words stemmed from the pain of losing his mate in an untimely death. Gamma's nature may have infuriated many but his loyalty towards his Alpha and his love for his mate were something no one could ever compete against him.

"You are right Gamma, but let's not blame Yara as she only did what she thought was the best for the pack," Vivaan said, trying to protect Yara.

"I can understand Yara's plight but What about Nihal? Why did he hide it?" Luna questioned.

"He didn't actually hide it. We just told him about all this an hour ago. And right now they are discussing about this in his room," Vivaan answered, rubbing the back of his nape awkwardly.

Before anyone could come up with any response, Gamma halted the conversation.

"What's wrong?" Alpha Aarjav asked.

"Few stressed teenagers mind-linked me that Hritika had threatened them that she would inform the human authorities and put them in circus."

Gamma's words ignited anger in everyone's eyes. They all moved out of the room in anger to confront the human that dared to threaten their species.