The more time he spent with her, the less logical she became. His feelings were more intimidating, his body reacted more heavily by merely being around her.

In the weeks after that, I barely saw Vir. He came by very seldom, making a short conversation with Betty, nodding at me with a slight smile, and then he was off again. Each time I saw Betty look at me with a pitiful smile. She could see on my face that it killed me not to be able to hug him, or even kiss him. I had known him for almost two months now, and we hadn't even kissed yet.

Ever since the gala at the end of the first week of my stay, we never had any alone time. I tried somewhat forcing him to make an appointment with me so we could have lunch together, but it never worked. The other time I forced him to see me – I just barged into his office, after which he made me confess my secret – I apparently had been given special clearance by Vir to go up to his quarters. He'd already suspected I would come running to him that day.

Now, I didn't have that special clearance anymore, making it impossible for me to just walk up to his room and see him. I had to wait for him to come to me, which he didn't really do.

By now, I hadn't spoken to him in five days. Yet I was so eager to show him my progress with reading. At first, Beta Daniel had given me assignments each day, which included reading about the delicate relationships between different packs in this continent. It was mostly diplomacy, trading routes and historical revolutions.

It was boring.

Betty had seen it, and shushed Daniel on the fourth day he came to me with a new boring text to read. "You can't teach someone how to read better if they don't first love doing it, Daniel," she had said. "Come back in two months, I'll make sure she will be able to read every word perfectly and quickly, no matter how difficult."

I had gulped then, thinking she would never be able to make me do that, but I was wrong. Betty was an excellent teacher, and her methods did really help me. Sure, the two months were almost over, and I wasn't exactly that proficient in reading yet, but I had progressed so much that I was proud of myself. My disability didn't bother me anymore. I was still a slow reader, but I didn't back down when I saw words with more than five syllables.

How did she do it? Well, she sat me on one of those extremely comfortable leather chairs, and she gave me a book. Just a normal romance story. There was nothing special to it, except that it was extremely cheesy and kind of cliché.

When I finished the book, she gave me another one. And another one, and another one. From Monday till Saturday I read books. On Sunday, she let me help her with her job. I had to rearrange files, copy documents, and digitalise notes that Betty had made in meetings. I sent around emails about appointments with the Alpha to council members, to the Head of Sapientiae University, to ambassadors of different packs.

All in all, the tasks weren't that challenging, but it made me feel somewhat useful in the office. I wanted to share my joy on that usefulness with Vir, but I never got the chance, and that bothered me more than I liked to admit.

"You should call him, dear," Betty said on one afternoon.

"What?"

"According to the schedule I have up here," she pointed to her head. "He has no meetings in the upcoming few hours. You should call him and demand to see him. You can say what you want about him, but I suspect he is a pushover when his mate asks him something."

I smiled at her, and she winked, the wrinkles on her face moving around funnily. "Go get him," she said as she gave me the phone.

I breathed in and out deeply a couple of times before dialling Vir's office phone.

"What is it Betty?" He answered right away when he picked up.

"It's Livia, actually," I said softly. "I eh, was wonde-"

"I'm actually quite busy, Livia, I don't have time for this. I've got to-" He interrupted me before I knew what was going on.

"Wait, Vir!" I said quickly. "Betty actually asked me to tell you that you have a meeting in ten minutes with ehm..." With a helpless look I turned to Betty, who wrote down something on a piece of paper immediately before showing it to me.

"With mister Everange from the Tempus pack. It's urgent. His chip is not working at the moment, but he was cleared by security, so I will escort him to your office, alright?"

I heard nothing but a deep sigh on the other end of the line. "Sure, ten minutes."

That was how I was walking over to Vir's floor a few minutes later, my steps somewhat nervous. He never explicitly gave me permission to come up here, just to escort some mister Everange, who may or may not even exist. He most definitely didn't have an appointment with Vir right now.

I had to stand still for a while to stop doubting myself. Maybe I sounded like an attention whore, but truth was that I hadn't seen my mate for almost a week, and I started feeling the consequences. I was annoyed by the fact that we almost never saw each other, and that he was plainly ignoring me. It needed to change if he didn't want me to go back home. At least there I had my mom and Allison.

I knocked on the door two times confidently.

"Come in."

Vir sat behind his desk, his fingers nervously tapping the wood, the hair on his head a mess. When he examined me quickly, I saw the pupils in his eyes dilate and his breathing slow down a little. He seemed to notice immediately that I didn't bring who I said I'd bring.

"Where is mister Everange, Livia?"

"Not here," I said bluntly. "You wouldn't let me see you any other way, so I had to make something up." Right after I said that, I could see the muscle in his jaw starting to tremble. Vir was not amused. "I'm busy, Livia, I don't have time for this."

"How many times do I need to tell you this, Vir?" I said angrily, my hands balled to fists. "We are mates. Soulmates. It is not healthy for us to keep away from each other for this long. For the record, I haven't seen you for five days straight. That is enough for some mates to develop the Mateloss Syndrome. Do you want that?"

He kept quiet, not answering me at all.

"I thought so." I was still fuming, but at least I wasn't at the verge of exploding in anger anymore. I sighed. "I know you are busy," I said then, coming a bit closer to sit on the leather chair on the opposite side of the desk. Putting my hands on the wood, I softly grabbed one of his hands, which he pulled away when his face turned red immediately. "And I also know that I confuse you sometimes. I understand that, really. But you must take my needs into account too. I have been learning to read better for the past few weeks in order to help you, but you won't even look my way. Don't you see how that hurts? I'm a person too, Vir. Maybe you don't, but I actually need to see my soulmate sometimes. I need to know that you at least care a bit."

Vir just sat quietly, seemingly thinking about what I just said. I took this time to look at him – really look at him. His normally messy hair was a different kind of mess today. His eyes were open wide, yet there were bags visible under his eyes if you looked carefully. He seemed tired, yet he made no move at all to get some rest. "Are you okay?" I asked, worried for his wellbeing.

He just sighed and looked at me, his hands slightly shaking. "Yes," he answered.

I didn't believe him for a second.

I stood up and walked over to him. "I will give you a hug now, then I'll be on my way again, okay?" I said softly, not wanting to push him.

He just nodded and stood up. I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested by head on his chest. He stiffened slightly, but relaxed as I felt his head lean on mine, his arms around my shoulders. We then just stood there, breathing softly, enjoying each others company in silence. I could hear his strong heartbeat against my ears, and smell his scent. It was incredibly calming.

It were probably minutes, yet it felt like only seconds after he pulled away. Keeping to my word, I walked back to the door of his office. "I will be back tomorrow."