Her Unknown Wolf

Missing: Day 3

~Carolyn

It's been two days since I heard from Savia. I can't do anything. I can't sleep, I barely eat. My coworker and best friend of ten years, Dana, has been over every day making sure I eat and helping me do things around the house. I've always heard that the first 24 hours after someone goes missing are the most important ones. I just don't know if that only applies to kidnapped people or if it's everyone.

"Care, hon, do you have any more dish soap?" Dana says exiting the kitchen, water running. "Care? Carolyn."

I come back to reality and startle a little. "Hmm?"

Dana sighs. "I was asking if you have more dish soap."

"Oh. Did you look under the sink?"

"I did. And on top of the fridge and in your spare closet."

I shook my head. "If there isn't any in those locations then no, I need more."

"Okay." Dana walks into the kitchen and turns off the water before returning to me. "Get your shoes on and brush your hair. We're going to the store. I have a small list made already."

I do as she says because it's never been any use trying to fight her on things, and it doesn't take long before we arrive at the local grocery store. We go up and down the aisles, grabbing what we have on the list and a few extras before going to checkout.

I can hear everyone whispering when they see me. Whispering about how my daughter disappeared in the woods, clothes found shredded, but no blood. How animals were considered the culprit but I know it couldn't have been animals. There was no blood. Not being able to take the whispers anymore I run out of the store towards the car, ignoring Dana's calls for me. I feel sick.

Sitting in the car, head hanging between my legs in attempt to feel a little better I hear footsteps approaching.

"I'm sorry Dana, they were whispering about me, about her." I say without looking up, choking on the word.

"Not Dana, Ms. Reed." I hear a male voice say and I look up to see the last person I wanted to speak to.

"Drake Mitchell." My voice drips with as much venom as I can put into his name. He looks puzzled at my hostility but I can't hold back anymore. I let him have it all. "You terrorized my baby, made my sweet girl so scared she wouldn't even leave the house! 18 years she was sweet, innocent, strong, and independent. Then she sees you at the mall and the way she described how looked at her, the way it haunted her dreams. And then you're together? What did you do to her? Where is she?" I am just completely dumbfounded and suddenly can't stop the tears from falling.

"Ms. Reed, what do you mean? I haven't talked to her since before she went to the party a few nights ago." He says, looking just as concerned as everyone else close to her.

~Drake

"I haven't talked to her since before she went to the party a few nights ago."

That was what? Three nights ago? Sage inquires. As in the last full moon?

Oh God she must have shifted.

My heart plummets as I think about how she went through her first shift alone. She could be anywhere.

The other territories. She is, in all aspects, a rogue. She had her first shift and run with no idea of the pack lines in the area.

We should have shown her. We should have been with her. We should have told her to sit this party out.

She wouldn't have listened. She's strong willed and anyway, how was she to know what would happen? I don't recall her being told about her shifting at all or when it would occur.

Sage is right and I hate to admit it. I was far too caught up in her beauty and having finally found my destined mate, learning about her, drinking in every dazzling inch of her. I was lost in her voice, her laugh, her smile, the way she blushed towards me. I didn't think about anything other than getting to know her that night and just getting her to want to be one with me at my home. I didn't think about telling her about what happens on your 18th years first full moon. I forget sometimes that she's human minded.

"You're one to act like you don't know what happened, suspect number 1." Ms. Reed jeers at me.

That's fine that she blames me right now. She needs a release. I'll hopefully be the one with the better luck of finding her daughter now anyway, and then she can clear it all up, as long as she's in a pack somewhere at least.

"I swear on my life Ms. Reed, I don't know where she is right now."

"What's going on here?" I see a woman I faintly recognize coming over to the vehicle with a cart full of groceries.

"This is him, Dana. This is that Drake guy she was so terrified of and then began dating." Caroline heavily sighs, frowning, and looking like she is about to cry. Dana looks me up and down then tilts her head to the side.

"Get out of here and get away from my car." She says and I raise my hands and back away from them, not willing to even say another word right now.

We have to find her. Sage says with purpose and I can feel his determination flowing through me.

I know.

~Savia

Lee and I talked all day yesterday when the guards weren't around. They came back a few hours after they left, right before lunch, to try and interrogate Lee again. All day long he acted like he still couldn't talk and so, even more frustrated every time, they left angry and without answers.

This morning was no different. Lee still didn't talk to them and instead of believing he couldn't speak, they just beat him and made sure it was enough that he really couldn't talk for the time being. They haven't been back since even though it's someone in the evening now.

However, watching the healing process was fascinating. I can't believe how quickly it goes. The bruises faded a lot faster than I ever saw one go away before. It was the same with any cuts and scrapes he had, watching the skin stitch itself back together, leaving nothing more than the faintest scar. Mesmerizing, honestly.

"Lee, can you talk again now?"

He looks over an groans before smirking at me. "Yes, thankfully. One of these times I think he's just going to to my throat out and claim it was an accident."

I remember how absolutely gleeful Reyno looked when he was given the green light to attack Lee. They busted his arms then gave him a shot of aconite before Reyno shifted and tore his chest to shreds. It terrified me. Lee said he was also here by mistake. If they could do this to him, what would they do to me? Unless Lee was here for another reason and they know.

"Are you sure you also came here by accident?" I ask and catch a very subtle look and glint in his eyes as if he was keeping something from me. "Lee, I need to know. They think I'm with you and I just want to go home. Why are you here?"

He look away from me and sighs deeply before looking back at me again.

"I'm sorry, Savia, but you're just not allowed to know that information."

"Is that why you just keep letting them literally shred into you and beat you? Because I 'can't know' what's going on?" I say with a mocking tone. It must have struck a nerve because he rounded on me instantly.

"You really want to know? This was basically a suicide mission and I didn't plan to make it out alive and I didn't expect to see a girl here either. This pack, myself and some other rogues, think is being taken over by a coven of witches."

I interrupt him and just start laughing. "Witches? F*cking seriously? What else? Vampires? Mermaids?" I just keep laughing until I see. his face is completely serious, and so I get serious too. "Wait. Really?"

"Plenty more things than you raised to know. You're a wolf. Werewolves exist. What is so hard to believe about the rest?"

He's right. Vex's voice slides into my head as if she whispered it into my ear. The moon goddess has sisters who also are goddesses in their own respects, to their own creatures.

Of course they all exist.

"Anyway," Lee continues, "we believe they being overpowered and controlled by witches. Do you remember Reyno's eyes going red? We believe that the witches are forcing this pack into violence among themselves and others, like neighboring packs or rogues. My job is to get information and relay what I can to those I have a mind link with. I fully expect for my life to be taken researching this but at least I know the people I care about will know more too."

"What's a mind link?" I ask. Everything he just told me sounds horrifying but I don't feel it really has anything to do with me.

"That's the only thing you're commenting on? A mind link is basically a life line between you and wolves you share a high connection with. It's usually only formed in packs between all members. When you're cast out of a pack the link is severed to the rest of them unless they go with you. After that they can form between others who have ran as wolves together. It allows you to speak to them, like your wolf does with you, without being near them."

"Would it be possible anyone you have a connection to knows my mate, Drake?"

"It's possible someone may know him or of him. I'll ask around. I need to mention that you are here anyway. We really weren't expecting to find another outsider here."