It's been a long time without you my friend

While Saena had explicitly told Reek to take a much needed break from work, he didn't listen. Instead of taking the time off, his work around the pack (particularly tending the borders) increased tenfold in the hopes that he would catch the scent of his absentee mate. Never in the Rise's history had the borders been so well maintained, but it wasn't about the marking or how good of a job he did; work had become the only time that Reek felt normal. On patrol, he could simply pretend and live in denial, which was something he couldn't do within the interior of pack land. There he had to face the cold truth of reality.

Three weeks had passed. Reek had counted the days. After this long, he simply resigned himself to the fact that she was gone and he would have to move on. But moving on was hard and no matter how hard Reek tried to forget and just live, he couldn't. Simple as that. Her howl came as a complete and total surprise. Reek froze from his patrol, eyes wide in shock, before howling back to tell Wynter that he'd be there soon.

He shot off in her direction and finally saw her with his own eyes. She was fine. Safe. Although he felt an initial wave of relief, the bedraggled beta was still unequivocally pissed that she had left without a word. He gave her about 20 feet of space in front of him when he stopped. "You left," he droned in a tired deadpan. "Why?"