On the run

Chapter 3

Kai

I smell her scent. My mate is close. I sniff again, the smell of honey suckles, and citrus is faint, but it has my wolf howling in my head screaming “MATE!”. When I woke up this morning, I decided I would go for a run before I trained. Axel, my beta, was taking over training of the warriors and it gave me some unwanted free time to think about my mate. As soon as I broke the perimeter of the pack, I scented her. It was faint, but I knew it was her. I have been searching for my mate since I turned 17, that is when we are able to sense our mates. I took over the pack from my father without a mate, which is unheard of. Usually, we find our mate or take a chosen mate before the pack is passed down. My father thought I was ready and passed it down before under the condition that I would make finding my mate a priority. I have searched for her for years and came up empty handed. I am known as a ruthless alpha, one that kills first and asks questions later. My pack is the strongest pack since the Silvermoon pack crumbled. Their alpha abandoned them to run off with a witch. He shamed his people and put a target on their head. Every single one of that pack was slaughtered after he disappeared. I could never do that to my pack. I am ruthless and all other packs feared me, hell even the witch covens around don’t mess with us. We all had a common goal, find the cursed child and kill her. It has been our common goal for as long as I can remember and has brought peace to all the species. I sniff again following the scent to a cave. There is smoke coming out of it and it masks her scent even more. “Why was she out here in a cave? What pack did she belong to, and how did she enter my territory undetected?” I shake the questions out of my head as walked up to the cave. I glance inside. No one is there, the smoke is coming from a fire that looks like it had been put out a few hours ago. I sigh and link my beta.

“I scent my mate near the west border, she seems to have slept in a cave last night. I need your help finding her.”

“Are you sure it is her?”

Am I sure? I sniff again as my wolf pawed anxiously in my head as we pick up the scent of blood. Panic starts to rise in me as I realize she must be wounded. Strangely the blood doesn’t smell like a wolf per say. It was tainted, mixed with something else. I snap myself out of my thoughts and link Axel back.

“I’m sure it’s her...Axel, I think she is wounded, I smell blood. Get Travis to get soldiers ready, she may be being chased and I can’t risk losing her. I will meet you at the pack-house so we can go over the plan.”

“Yes alpha”

Travis is our head tracker. If I send him to the tunnel to pick up her scent- he will find her no matter where she has gone. He is the best tracker known to wolves. The only one ever immune to him is the cursed wolf. She always seemed to be a step ahead of him. We have followed leads all over the place searching her out. It has become even more important to find her as the years went on. She would now be of breeding age, and we couldn’t risk having another one of her kind. I am honestly shocked she was able to flee for this amount of time. Her infamous parents were killed years ago, she couldn’t have been older than 10. How did she do it? Sighing I turn and head toward the pack-house. First thing I have to do is find my mate and hope she is not too hurt. I approach the pack house to find a dozen soldiers, Axel and Travis waiting for me. “Look guys, I’m not exactly sure what is going on with her. I’m not sure if she is being chased, why or how she got into our territory, or where she is headed.” I take a deep breath and glance at Travis. “Travis, I need you to track her. There is a cave right outside the perimeter It looks as though she slept there last night. The fire was still smoking so she can't have more than a few hours head start.” Travis nods his head and bows lowly before running off in the direction I had just come from. I look to the others, “you guys, search the area, be on the lookout. She may not have been alone, and we can’t take any chances.” Axel nodded at me before leading everyone out. I take a deep breath. I needed to go out there and look for her myself. My wolf was pacing needing to be near his mate, to make sure she is okay. He is on edge. Something isn’t right, but he couldn’t figure out what. Needing to do something to find her, I shift and take off into the woods, hoping to pick up any kind of scent she may have left. With a few hours head start, I doubt I will find anything close, but I have to try, at least until Travis picks up her trail. Something tells me though, that I won’t find anything and will be stuck waiting for Travis.