The Wolf and His Queen

Chapter 11: Gotta Get Away

Derek's POV:

I honestly could not help myself as I was so full of my emotions that I could not see clearly. All I knew to do at that moment to help clear my head was run. My wolf ran and ran, faster and faster. My wolf huffed and huffed as he dodged trees and jumped over large rocks and massive boulders. I was so angry at myself for not knowing about all the events that had just come to pass and wished that there was something else that I could have done to change things. I was going over the details over and over in my mind and trying to think as to how it could have all happened.

How could I not know that my friend, the one who I have known for most of my life, could do such a thing to me? How could they do this to Rosalynn, the princess of the kingdom that we have lived in for our entire lives? He was like a brother to me. Rosalynn was like a sister to him. We all grew up together all those years ago before she moved away from him. In a way, how could he betray her like that, by covering the tracks of the ones who got away? The ones who were in on this no less just stood back and allowed all of this to happen. He was the Delta for God's sake. How could he go against everything that we stood for and believed in? I was just in shock, absolute and total shock.

After running for what seemed like hours, my wolf finally began to slow to a brisk jaunt which turned into a decent walk. I knew that he had to be getting tired a bit after the run that he just did. Then he finally stopped walking altogether. He looked around and that was when we both saw what appeared to be a gentle stream of water that was nearby. He turned to walk over to the little stream. Once he got there, my wolf started to lean down on the edge of the water and take a drink. I was glad that he finally seemed to be calming down a bit as I was feeling a bit better myself.

I was not sure where we were or how long we had been running exactly. I just knew that all of my emotions earlier were fueled by rage and frustration, which is what caused this little jaunt through the dark woods. I could not get over the feeling that I had somehow failed as Alpha of The Guard and that I let down our Princess Rosalynn somehow. How I seemed to fail everyone who ever meant anything truly to me. I was not sure what else I was good at and I began to put myself down mentally. If it was not for me, we would not be in this mess, I thought. I let my mind ponder that thought for a moment.

After my wolf had finished taking his drink, he stooped and looked at his own reflection in the water. He was a beautiful, dark red and brownish color. He was massive at the sight of anyone who did not know him. As I studied the water passing by, I could see as the water gently brushed past the rocks just beneath the surface, and yet we were still able to see the reflection on the surface of the water, despite it being as dark as it was outside. I noticed that there was a full moon outside and its reflection showed on the surface of the water just a little distance from our reflection. My wolf looked upwards at the sky as if sensing that I wanted to peer up at the moon. It was a very peaceful sight to see the full moon from the eyes of my wolf.

This particular night was amazing standing out here in the woods, other than the current circumstances, as there was a light and gentle breeze that blew by and I could feel it as it went through the fur on the back of my wolf at that time. My wolf then raised his nose high in the air as he pointed it upward toward the night sky and let out a loud howl. His howl was long and amazing, as I could tell that he was more relaxed than he was earlier. I was also glad to be at peace for the moment. The sound of his howl was like music to my own ears. I loved it when he was calm and the sound of his powerful howl somehow made me feel a bit better.

That was until I began to have thoughts of Rosalynn start to flood into my mind again. I could not help but think about her and how she looked the night before. She went into her room and shut and locked the door behind her. I knew that she was not my mate as I had still yet to get into the presence of my mate, but that did not change the fact that I cared for her deeply. I know that werewolves could fall in love with humans and that some other werewolves even had humans who turned out to be their mates. That was not the case between us but we shared a special connection, I thought to myself. Then I was then filled with this sudden feeling that I had let down the one person who meant so much to me. How could she ever forgive me for not finding her before now? I beat myself up in my mind for standing foolishly at the base of the stairs for so long and not going to check on her sooner.

It then dawned on me, I did not find and check out which servant took the breakfast tray into the room. The servant that I happened to find in her room as the door was opened up the door after it was locked from the inside and I could not get in. That servant was the one who claimed to be cleaning up and doing her duties. However, I am not so sure why she had a smirk on her face during my line of questioning either. I checked out her story and all was as it seemed to be true. She was indeed supposed to lock the door while doing her chores in the room. However, that did not answer a whole other line of questions that required answers about the same situation.

However, that was odd too. If Rosalynn did not get to eat her breakfast, then that would mean that she did not take a shower either, correct? I asked myself that question and I tried to figure out a variety of reasons and answers. And another thing, what chores was the servant actually doing at that time that she was in the room? I could not think of what could have taken so long for her to come over and answer the door. If I knew anything about Rosalynn, it was that she always showered after being served and ate her breakfast after her shower. She did that, especially when we were away from our own kingdom. She did not trust outsiders and ate in her room on these kinds of ventures, as she had recently received several yet simple threats made against her and the kingdom during previous visits.

Then my thoughts remembered the secret passageways in the castle as they were not supposed to be used during the time that we were staying there. Someone would have had to use these methods to come up and surprise Marcus as he was always cautious with his head on a swivel. I have never known anything to get past him and now knowing that someone did just that, made me wonder exactly it was who we were dealing with. I really hoped for their sake that my friend, the one who betrayed all of us, was not the one who hurt Marcus and put him in the closet behind the stairs. That would be way too much to handle right now considering the current state of things already involving this situation.

So many things were beginning to come out of these events along with my thoughts. I guess that I just needed to get away from it all to have an opportunity to think about these things and not be around the castle where it all took place. Something is to be said about getting a chance to run that does wonderful things for your mental well-being. We were just about to start to head back to the castle, however, that was until my wolf caught a strange scent that came along with the breeze as it blew through his nose at that very moment. There was something about this scent that I recognized. However, that did not make any sense to me. How could it be that I knew this familiar scent? And why was this scent ever so familiar to me? It was somehow very familiar and I was trying to place where I had remembered it before.

Then it just dawned on me. No, wait. It couldn't possibly be! It was the scent in the hallway right after I noticed Rosalynn had been taken and was indeed missing. There was no mistake that this was that very scent. I immediately sent a mind link to Denton. I wanted to let him know that I needed him and the entire pack to come to my exact location. I had information that I wanted to let them know about. And more importantly, I had indeed found something and I was not going to search this area out here all alone when I knew that I had help that could come to my very aid.

It also occurred to me that, if Marcus was taken by surprise and he was one of the best that I had in my company, I was in no way going to take any chances with this as it involved the well-being of not only myself but Rosalynn as well. Suddenly, the scent came by a whole lot stronger now, more than it was a few moments ago. I waited frantically as I was desperate for my pack to arrive. I knew that whoever this scent belonged to that they were not too far off. I just hoped that the wind would continue to blow gently in this direction so that I could find the source of its owner, once my pack arrived, of course.

When I thought about it all, I was still no closer to finding out who did this as I was in no shape to take on a whole wolf pack all on my own. I was strong and everyone that had heard of me knew it. However, I was not going to take any chances when I thought that I was this close to finding Rosalynn and bringing her back safely. It seemed like an hour had passed before they arrived, but it was not much longer before they got here. I sent them the information and we all traveled together silently through the woods closer to the source of the scent's location. We were spread out in a fan-like pattern and I made sure that we were able to catch whoever was behind this.

I did not want to be taken by surprise and was doing the best that I could to help ensure the safety of my pack. As we traveled closer, I saw what appeared to be a very dim light off in the distance. My pack froze at the sight of the light as well. My wolf let out a low growl in preparation for the fight that was to come very soon. As we neared the light, we were all surprised to soon find out where the source of light came from. It appeared to be coming from the ground itself and, with closer inspection, we found what looked like the entrance of a mine or cave of some kind.

It was not your traditional mine. This one was, however, on the ground and I mean the entrance was flush to the level of the ground. In other words, you would not know that it was there unless you were sure of its location as it was flush with the ground. One thing that was strange about this entrance is that it did not have the usual archway around the entrance either. It was just a hole dug out and it went deeper and deeper into the ground so as to not expose the entrance of this place. I do have to say that this place was well hidden by the appearance of its current surroundings. And that made it even more intriguing as to who we were up against. Was this here all along? I tried to think for myself. There did not appear to be fresh dirt that appeared to have been moved at the entrance, so that told me, this was not a fresh or new location. It had to have been here for some time as everything around it appeared old and overgrown.

The only way we were going to find answers was if we searched inside the mine. I had sent a mind link to a few members of the pack to encircle the entrance as a few others went off in different directions to check if they picked up any other scents nearby. Just then, a noise broke out behind where we were positioned as I was not expecting an ambush.