His Stolen Mate

Chapter 19: Off the Grid

~Nathaniel's P.O. V~

        s**t, s**t, s**t, s**t. "Anika!" I was half flying in the lower parts of the forest. She is definitely in her wolf form, she couldn't be seen as easily. I have told the boys to look for her too, so far, they can't seem to find her. If I don't, then Bastian will, how can I call myself her father if I can't protect her from him? I was too angry with her, she only did what she thought was right. At the time, I thought the same, maybe I should have just left it as it was. The Dragon God already had her backed down, I just made it worse. A howl came from the east, I went towards him and landed. "Anything?" Adam quickly shifted.

"No, but look, someone else was here." He pointed to a shoe print. Based on the width and length, this was not a woman's shoe. Someone has been in my territory. I looked around and it was a campsite.

"Wolf?" I asked.

"Yeah. I recognize his smell. We fought once." He growled. "Second hand man to Soon-to be Alpha Killian of Mount Hood. Cassidy Lancaster." I knew that name. He wasn't just this Killian's right hand, he's well known for being a spy in the supernatural world.

"You think he's tracking her too?" Quinton had followed the sound.

"No. These tracks are at least 4 hours old. Meaning, he went back to report." Adam was skilled. I had to give him that. 

"Hello?! King Nathaniel?!" That Alyssa girl was out here, finally! Someone who knows my daughter's mind.

"Over here!" I called out.

She came through the trees with another woman. "Sir? Why is everyone out here? And where's Anika? I don't smell her."

"She ran away. Maybe you can help track her down. Where would she like to go?"

"That's a hard one, sir. She loved reading in our library back home, but she also loved Oregon. It was after all her home. I cannot imagine her going back to the Idaho castle." She answered.

"Unless she went to her happiest times. Remember, she was named our queen before all of this." The other woman chimed in.

"That's true, but she wouldn't be that stupid, Jackie. Not with Bastian hanging around or The Crawler. They would kidnap her in a heartbeat."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Her happiest times? Shouldn't that be in Oregon?! With her family?!" Quinn was getting furious.

"You don't know, do you?" Jackie looked at him sadly.

"Know what?!" He shouted.

"Ana wasn't happy there. Her boyfriend broke up with her, you tried to push the mutt to her, even before then, she traveled with martial arts masters to get away from Corporate life, she felt trapped there." No one knew, not even me, about this. I felt like such a deadbeat dad.

"Not to mention, she didn't have many friends there. She could never talk to anyone about her problems, but everyone unleashed theirs on her. Sure, she had 3 and you. This Klein never admitted his feelings to her and Gene was her best friend who honestly? I think Gene used her." Alyssa crossed her arms as she stared at Quinn. "To think, I thought for a moment, that you were my mate. I'm glad I dodged that bullet." Wait, what?!

"I'm sorry, what?!" I didn't know Vampyres could sense their mate the same way.

"Oh, that Destiny girl we ran into when we were relocating? She was just a peach."

"Y-" He took a moment to think, "You're the ones that broke into my sisters home?!"

"Yeah, to get her things while she slept in the car. She hadn't had a good night sleep. Matthew would often times wake her up from a nightmare. You really don't know anything about your sister do you?"

"Hold on and back up!" He shouted. "First off, I know more about my sister than you realize, secondly, I would never accept a leech for a mate. Thirdly-" She came up to him and slapped him.

"We are not leeches. Do you know what we did in a war hundreds of years ago?! King Matthew did everything he could to stop the damn flea bags from killing humans just because they existed! You think we don't feel remorse for taking human lives?! We f*****g do! We were once human ourselves! We have tried to eat off of animals instead! That killed our young ones! And if you knew Queen Anika as well as you think you do, what is the title of her favorite book?! What does she like to do when she gets so stressed out she has to be by herself?!" Alyssa was screaming at Quinn. He looked like he saw a ghost. Women have that effect on us all. "More importantly, Quinton, how do you think she would feel if she heard you say the word 'Leech' when addressing Vampyre kind?" Damn, this girl had balls and wasn't afraid of Quinn. "Go ahead and ask yourself this while you're thinking of answers, why would Matthew want a truce with the Werewolves after they were the ones killing for absolutely no reason." She looked over to Adam. "Go ahead and tell him, mutt! Tell him that the reason your kind killed humans was because they lived on lands that you thought you claimed! They didn't even know we were a thing! They were scared! They were fleeing from their homes, I fled as I saw a wolf bite down on my dad!" She backed away and gave a death glare to Adam. "Your great grandfather killed my dad in cold blood. I was holding on to my sister as we were running from him. She didn't make it either, his Beta killed her and left me to die. If it wasn't for Matthew, I would have died all those years ago."

"Aly..." Jackie took her hand and held it to her chest. "It's true. I was there when another pack killed my family. Matthew saved us all. He went to the places that were attacked and made us Vampyres so we could live with the memories of our families." Jackie began to cry as she thought about her own past. "I saw my mother, father and younger brothers killed. My oldest brother got away. Werewolves hold nothing but anger in our minds. We don't hate them, but we are very pissed off at them. So, when Anika came and we learned she could have been part wolf, we were excited. We all thought, 'Finally. A way to coexist with them, a treaty could be made.' Please, Mr. Quinton, do not call us what we are not." I had to admit, hearing the hardships of these two with Werewolves made me remember Vladimir and our treaty. I looked up to the sky and closed my eyes. 'I'm sorry, Vlad. I tried to keep to it'

"Don't worry yourself too much, Nate. I never expected that to stay." I opened my eyes and time was still. Everyone was frozen like statues. "I am a bit angry that my son left your daughter." I had to blink a few times. "What? Oh, this? You can thank the many years of magic I had saved up. I wanted to wait until you apologized to come to you in spirit form."

"Vlad? You're-" He rose his hand.

"I am dead. As I said, this is my spirit. Nate. We both failed as fathers, especially me. I don't want you to hold to the treaty, but I am happy that our children love each other. I know where she went." 

~Bastian's P.O. V~

        It has been too long now, I can't keep up the lunatic act forever with these damn flea infested dogs. My enemy is still out there, Matthew is finally ours, but it wasn't enough. He didn't salsify my hate. No matter how much I torture him. The fact that he came willingly was a surprise enough, but now I have to deal with her not being in the castle? At least, I knew where she was at all times, now? I have no f*****g clue. The Crawler hasn't been able to find her either which only pisses me off more. I punched Matthew in the face as hard as I could.

"Something," he spat our blood, "troubling you?" He grinned to me.

"She fled her castle. You know where she went, don't you, Gabriel? Oh, wait! You go by Matthew now, don't you?" I laughed hard and as maniacally as I could. I hated playing this stupid role, but for reasons I had to keep it up.

"Ha... No, I actually don't. It's been a while since I saw my love." 'Love.' That word always made me pissed off. I kicked him in his stomach several times. "I'm glad she is out of your reach now." He said weakly. I wanted to kill this bastard, but I had to have him alive as bait for her. She was my main concern.

"Master. The young Alpha wishes to see you." The Crawler informed me.

"Fine. We are not done here, however. I will get my hands on that abomination, Matthew. And I will kill her like last time." I gave him one more hard kick before leaving his cage.