Wayfarer

Chapter 5

Max

The moon was bright in the sky casting a perfect white glow on the woods and the lake. I started on a slow trot round the outskirts of the lake and where the bank rose steeply to an almost cliff like edge I stopped in my tracks. The silhouette of a little wolf sat on top with her back to me. The glow of the moon picked out the rich browns and reds of her thick fur and her buoyant tail flicked lazily at mosquitos drawn to the water’s edge. She was stunning and my heart burst with excitement that she had not run off after all. I took a cautious step forward not wanting to scare her off again my eyes never leaving her. Suddenly a loud mechanical noise cut across the peace of the clearing and when I turned to look back she had gone.

I woke in a cold sweat. This was the second time I had woken from the same dream of her. I threw my head under the pillow and realised the noise that had torn me from this dream was the gardeners cutting the grass outside my window in preparation for the ceremony. The thought filled me with dread. If she was not at the ceremony I would undoubtably be in a foul mood throughout wishing she were.

I got up and tried to wash away the anxiety in the pit of my stomach with a shower. As I threw my head under the stream of water I closed my eyes and recalled the events of last night.

I had laid on that lake side for hours. The others had desperately tried to get me to move but I was stubborn on the best of days. Ned had set the team out on patrol again in the hope that we would find some trace of her. My eyes scanned the banks of the lake desperate to see her get out of the water.

What if she didn’t get out of the water? Marrok’s thoughts were not helping me, now filling me with dread that she might be at the bottom of the lake. I shifted back into my human form and threw up at the mental images dancing through my mind. How was she affecting me like this? I knew the mate bond was supposed to be strong but I hadn’t even seen more of her than the odd flash of fur, but yet I knew there was nothing else in this World right now that I wanted more than her.

Ned came back first to report that there was no trace of her at the Forest Atlas clearing. He had brought me clothes and a beer from the provisions they had set up for my ‘party’. I downed my drink in one gulp and slid down the trunk of a tree. Ned looked at me with concern on his face. ‘We will find her. If she is your mate you will be drawn to each other.’

‘I don’t even know where to start?’

‘You have pack members from the most influential packs around the globe heading here for your ceremony over the next couple of days, surely she will be coming? And she can’t live far away in the first place if she is hanging round here.’

The thought brought me slight comfort. He was right if she was hanging round the Forest Atlas grounds she would belong to a neighbouring pack. Noone would have just come across it if they didn’t know it was there.

But why did she run from us? F you Marrok. His despair took me right back down again.

‘She ran though Ned, what am I supposed to take from that? I smelt her clearly, it was all around me, We called out Mate…and she still ran.’ I pulled a leaf from the floor and started rolling it between my fingers for something to do.

‘Maybe she was scared. There were 7 of us, very big, very loud wolves. And being chased, especially by the biggest one of us all, maybe she didn’t think and just let fear take over.’

I thought about this and as guilty as it made me feel for having possibly frightened her, I hoped he was right. I looked up to the full moon hoping that the Moon Goddess would give me a second chance at a first impression with her.

Before I could say anything the rest of the team were back, ‘No trace of her Alpha. Its all very confusing where she could have gone. It’s like she just vanished’ I nodded my head in thanks for their efforts.

‘I think we should head back Alpha?’ Tobias suggested.

I shook my head and crumpled the leaf I was holding on the ground as I stood up. ‘You go back, there is no point in us all being out here. I am going to wait for a bit, she might come back if there are less of us’ I said hopefully.

They looked at each other clearly debating over their mindlink as to whether this was a good idea.

‘Don’t be out here too long, we will go back to the Forest Atlas clearing and wait for you there’, Ned said. ‘Just come and get us when you’re ready.’

I patted him on the back. ‘Thank you’.

As they took off I walked over to the lakeside once more. I sat for a couple more hours and thought of nothing but my little brown wolf. Marrok whimpered and retreated to the back of my mind, leaving me with my thoughts.

When the sun began to peek through the base of the trees I resigned myself to the fact that I would need to head back home, although resolving that I would come back that evening on my own and wait for her in the hope she would return.  I convinced myself that this was a better option, I would rather meet my mate on my own and hopefully then she would feel more comfortable.

I didn’t bother shifting as I walked back to the others in the clearing. Marrok was still sulking and I was enjoying the early morning walk. When I reached them the others were not too keen on walking at human speed through the woods, it had taken us an hour running in wolf form to get here. I told them to go on and get some rest; I would not be shifting. They begrudgingly agreed with sleep calling them.

It took me a good 3 hours to get home and when I pulled myself through the front door of the packhouse, I walked straight into my mum in a panic. ‘Where have you been?’

‘I decided to take the scenic route back from patrol’.

‘The others were back hours ago, they said you were not feeling great and had wanted to walk, what happened.’

‘Its nothing really mum,’ I didn’t feel like explaining the ever-revolving circus in my head with my mum right now, ‘I just need some sleep’. I trudged up the stairs and I could feel her eyes watching my every step until I rounded the landing onto my floor.

I had fallen asleep instantly which I was surprised at, but my dreams had been plagued by her. The first time I woke up elated until I realised it had been a dream. I must have drifted off again until I had been woken by the gardeners this time round.

As I got out the shower I looked at the time 15:00. Good I had slept for most of the day that meant I had only a couple more hours to get through until I could go back alone. I just had to get Ned onboard with my plan so as not to arouse my parents’ suspicions.