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him. The reason he was avoiding the pack was because she had gone through with her marriage to Luke. If only Declan knew the reason Samara had gone through with it was partly because of him.
    She knew she couldn’t keep thinking that way. Samara couldn’t blame her decision on Declan forever. She had married Luke because she loved him. She’d said yes when Luke had asked her to marry him before she even knew that there was a possibility that she and Declan could have worked out. Even if she had never been re-mated to Declan, she would have married Luke. The only thing she could blame Declan for was second-guessing whether she was making the right decision or not.
    “Maybe you should try talking to him, Sam,” Colby suggested. “We all need to know if he’s okay. Since he’s not answering Emma, you should use your Alpha abilities to find out what’s going on.”
    “Okay,” Samara agreed, even though she felt sort of hesitant—and nervous—about it. She had wanted to reach out to Declan, to see if they were still able to mentally communicate with one another as though they were still mated or if marrying Luke had broken the bond between them. She’d been too afraid to find out the answer or to deal with what it would mean, though, so instead she’d avoided trying to communicate with him at all. But she had no other choice now, as her pack members stood ar ound and stared at her, waiting to see what would happen.
    Declan? Can you still hear me? Samara thought, glancing over at Luke. His facial expression didn’t change, so Samara knew that he hadn’t heard what she’d said to Declan. If he had, he would have wondered why Declan wouldn’t be able to hear her.
    Since she was Alpha, Declan technically should have been able to hear her, but she was trying to communicate with him the same way she did when they were mated to one another, rather than the way she mentally communicated with her other pack members. Not that it really mattered, though; Declan could have blocked her out as his pack Alpha, the same way Rain had blocked her out when she had disassociated herself from the pack.
    Declan? Samara asked again, just in case he hadn’t heard her the first time.
    She waited for a long moment to see if Declan would answer her. Her heart thumped against her chest the whole time, so strongly that she was afraid it would thump itself out of her chest. After a few minutes, it became clear to Samara that Declan hadn’t heard her—that their bond really had been broken—or that he was choosing not to answer her. 
    Either way, Samara knew that there was no way she was going to get a response from him. Not at that moment and probably never again.
    Declan wasn’t her mate, and he was no longer her best friend anymore, either. Whatever had been—and whatever could have been—between the m was lost, broken, destroyed.
    Glancing back up at her pack members and trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fill her eyes, Samara shook her head. “Declan isn’t going to come down here today, guys. He’s busy.”
    Somehow, lying to her pack members was easier than telling them the truth. If she didn’t lie, she was going to have to find a way to explain the truth—which was that Declan was mad at her for getting married, for choosing Luke over him. Samara wanted to keep that just between the two of them. She didn’t want anyone in her pack—or their pack, if Declan ever came back—to find out the truth about what had gone on between them.
    Emma’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What could he be so busy with that he doesn’t have time for his own pack?”
    “For serious. Sounds fishy to me,” Ste ve agreed. “I call tuna fish.”
    “Tuna fish? Seriously? You’re lame, dude,” Chris said, shaking his head sadly.
    “You ever taste tuna fish? It leaves a nasty ass taste in your mouth—just like this situation with Declan,” Steve explained.
    Samara sighed. The last thing she had wanted was for her pack