Absconded Knight

*Chapter 78*

"Beta Novalie!"

"Lady Novalie!"

"Unhand me this instant!" I shouted angrily as I struggled from the hold of the people around me.

But they paid heed to my order. They didn't let me go. My blood boiled more as seconds passed by. At the same time, I could feel my heart was in jeopardy while my wolf was howling in longing.

"Where is Frederick?! Where the hell is he?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Novalie! What the hell is happening?"

I turned around and saw Father and Alpha Denzil who had just arrived and saw my miserable state. I didn't know what to do as I felt like I was caught red-handed and was rendered speechless.

Father creased his forehead and glanced at one of the servants that came forth to them. "What happened? Tell me," he ordered.

The servant bowed her head and glanced in my direction, asking for my permission. I looked away. "Beta Novalie is looking for Sir Frederick. But this morning, when she woke up, we did not notice Sir Frederick. It was already too late that our pack warriors informed us that Sir Frederick had fled away by using an excuse that Beta Novalie ordered him to do some short errands. However, he fought back with our other warriors when his excuse was found to be a fraud."

"What?!" Father said, surprised.

My knees betrayed me as I almost collapsed if they hadn't caught me, panicking. I lost my energy from wreaking havoc as I saw Reginald who had a smile on his lips seeing my miserable fate.

I averted my gaze as I could feel myself shattering.

It had been a week since I was staying here at the Argerich's manor and Reginald was already here with me along with Frederick. Even though I had to endure being with Reginald, he has his own chamber while I did the same.

Frederick... Frederick had been given a sleeping quarter here at the mansion with my approval, not my father's.

And now... Just this morning, I woke up... and yes, Frederick had absconded from the Wall Burgundy pack.

As soon as I found that out, I could have sworn I felt myself getting drained and tried to look for my darling. But to no avail... No matter if I kept calling his name, Frederick never responded.

Or more likely, Frederick was out of my reach.

My wolf was howling inside me as she suddenly felt lonely and frightened. With her downcasted feeling, it made me feel stressed as I kept lashing out at everyone.

Frederick had absconded for no reason. The fact that this was so sudden.

Did already have this thought beforehand that he would decide to flee from me? Does this mean... Wait.

Which reminds me... he asked me a foolish question last week.

*"If someday I will be gone, will you be worried and look for me?"*

*"If one day I disappear before you, will you be worried for me just like the time your husband hurt me?"*

"He betrayed me..." I said in a dejected tone.

Those words I uttered instantly shattered me. How dare he asked me those stupid questions like that? How could I fail to notice that he was already making a mixed signal back then? How foolish was I back then to think that Frederick was making a silly question which I found entertaining back then?

"Leave now. Allow me to handle this." I could feel my father's presence approaching me and knelt in front of me. "Novalie..."

Upon hearing Father calling me my name with his soothing words, I couldn't help shedding tears before I looked at him. "F-Father..." My voice croaked. I saw the sympathy in Father's eyes when he saw me crying.

He sat beside me and gathered me in his arms when I started sobbing. "Sshh... It is alright, my daughter," he said softly. "He is just a knight. We can have another if you want, my dearest marchioness."

I only wanted Frederick...

I wanted to utter but there were no words coming out to say it.

"What if... he only runs some errands? What if he is coming back?"

I stayed positive. Frederick wouldn't just leave me like that, right? He made such promises that he wouldn't allow me to break our mate bond yet he had done something foolish that was close to breaking a bond.

"What if he is not?" Father asked.

I distanced myself a little. "Frederick and I are alright. He is serving just as he always does as my knight and visiting me in my bed." I saw how he became uncomfortable when I mentioned the last part but I ignored it. "He wouldn't just leave his master like that!" I exclaimed angrily.

Father flinched at my sudden outburst. Instead of that, he would get impatient just like in the old times, he immediately gathered me inside his arms again. "Alright. Let us wait until the dusk breaks. If your knight doesn't come back, let's accept the fact—"

"I will dispatch a search party," I chimed in as I clutched my left chest, feeling in pain right now. My wolf was making my feelings worse because she demanded that she wanted to see Frederick.

He creased his forehead before he nodded. "Alright. Search party it is."

Just like that, Father agreed.

We waited and waited until the day was over. However, there was no Frederick that returned home. I already announced a search party and even commanded my watchers to look for him since they knew what he looked like.

In distress, I kept thinking why on earth Frederick decided to do this action. Why now? What could have been the reason Frederick did this?

My plans... How about my plans now that everything was settled? How am I supposed to execute as he was part of this game I concocted?

I walked to the hallway and met Reginald who had a gentle smile on his face. "Have you found your knight, Novalie?" His tone sounded arrogant.

My face darkened. "Not now, Reginald. I have no time to play with you," I said coldly.

He scoffed. "You were happy this week and now, you look miserable that your knight fled from our pack. Is he that important to you as to why you looked devastated right now? You looked like you have been rejected by your real mate." He drew out a smirk.

I clenched my hands at his words. Though what he said hit me rock bottom, thinking if he was right or not. But even so, I shook my head because I knew that Reginald was trying to mess up my head.

"Bastard..." I growled, furious upon realizing that Reginald wanted to lose my cool right now and was taking this opportunity to ruin me.

Reginald chuckled as he passed by me. "This is quite sudden that this happens, my dear wife. I wonder what could have happened to him. Perhaps, he might be in... danger?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, being cautious and alarmed at his words. Reginald didn't say anything but only smiled annoyingly at me. "Have you done something to my darling?!"

In an instant, I slammed Reginald to the wall causing him to cough blood. He grunted but grinned. "What am I going to do with that man? You heard your pack member, Novalie. Your knight fought the pack warriors and fled from here," he pointed out.

I was about to retort back but what he said was the truth. I stepped backward and released him. I clenched my hands when I saw the smirk smearing on his lips which made me want to erase that right at this moment.

But I decided to turn my back and went directly to my chamber where I could feel how heavy my heart was right now.

My lips were quivering because I knew that Frederick and I's relationship was in a prosperous state. I did not even order him to run any errands right now.

I went to the balcony after changing into different clothing. The usual clothing when I dressed up as a man before I went to the gates.

"Beta, greetings," the pack warriors greeted me.

I nodded my head. "Open the gates," I commanded. "If Alpha looks for me, tell him that I go to look for my knight," I said.

"Yes, Beta. Your wish is our command."

I transformed into my wolf form and immediately used my sense of smell to look for the distinctive smell coming from Frederick. I couldn't stay in the pack while waiting for the result coming from the search party.

I must do it myself since I knew what Frederick smelled like since he was my fated mate. It was impossible that he couldn't just get away from this area.

But I came to halt and immediately transformed back to my human form when I was led to the road. My heart dropped when his scent disappeared. I tried to sniff in the air, looking for any clue but to no avail, Frederick's scent was nowhere to be found which made me horrified.

"That is impossible..." I said as I roamed my eyes around, keeping on looking for any clues. I might have overlooked it. "Frederick..." Just by mentioning his name was enough to make me feel the tightening of my chest. "Where have you been, darling?" I asked as I knelt on the ground.

I knew that I had a plan of rejecting our mate bond but I still have doubts about doing that before I could flee from the Sowinski Kingdom. Now I only realize that losing Frederick was something I must be afraid of but I didn't know that this would be enough to give me pain in my heart right now.

Closing my eyes, I silently prayed to the Moon Goddess hoping that Frederick was safe. If he would be playing antics on me, I would easily forgive him for that.

I just wanted him to come back to me. "Frederick, return to me, darling..." Your goddess is looking for you, I wanted to add.

Little did I know, this event that I experienced right now would put me more to my demise as things started to get worse than before.