The Duty of an Alpha (Book 2)

Scent

Chapter 16

Arden POV*

I left Silver Creek Pack after a couple hours. There wasn’t much for me to do there, and I still had a responsibility to be there for my pack. It’s not like I could just call and expect my Beta and Gamma to pick up the slack because I want to spend time with Roman.

Knowing that there may be a simple solution to our distance problem has me I a better mood. Fae is both happy and frustrated over the fact.

If you would have just put any amount of effort into making things work, we could have been with our mate months ago. She harped at me. Over and over and over again.

No matter how many times she pointed it out, it seemed like she wasn’t happy enough and just continued on with her ‘I told you so’ game. Eventually I had to siphon energy off of people’s emotions just to be able to block her out and get some quiet. When I finally unblocked her, she got the hint and stopped harping on me about it. Instead she just focused on being happy that as soon as the rogue problem was dealt with, we would be able to be with our mate.

Over the next few days, I joined in with the group of pack members that Andrea had assembled to search the woods next to the river. No one found anything, and I was getting frustrated at the lack of results.

Even Roman’s pack hadn’t been able to track anything down, but we still kept searching.

Killian was doing his best to find any hints of a trail, or at least trying to pick up the scent from the previous attack, but he wasn’t having any luck. That worried me, because Killian is an excellent tracker, and if he wasn’t able to find anything then we were screwed.

The group of witches that were transferring from Roman’s pack to mine was due to arrive later in the day, and as happy as I was that they were ready to join my pack, I was worried about how they would be received. I had already briefed them on the changes that had gone on recently for Ash River, and that there was some resistance to change, so they should be prepared to handle it. But I worry that they don’t understand just how hard it will be for some of my pack members to get over having a non-wolf in the pack.

I had already informed the pack that there would be a pack meeting later in the day, and if nothing else, I knew that they would show up just out of curiosity.

To keep my mind off of the arrival of my new members and how the pack would react to them, I decided to patrol the pack grounds to make the time pass faster. I knew it was for the good of my pack to learn to accept other supernaturals, but after I lost so many pack members in the beginning, just for not wanting to follow a female alpha, it was hard not to worry about how many will rebel against even more changes.

I had circled the grounds a few times, and I was about to call it a day and head home when I caught an unfamiliar scent. It was so faint that any other time, I would have thought that it was old, but since I had just passed that area of the border not long before, I knew it was fresh.

I slowed to a stop and pushed my senses to try to pick up where the faint scent was coming from. No matter how hard I focused, I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

Something isn’t right. Fae said gently and pushed herself forward to take over. I didn’t fight it since I knew she was more capable of tracking than I was.

I don’t know what to think. We just passed by here and nothing was around. I responded, watching from the back of our mind as she stalked through the woods, sniffing the air and the ground intensely.

I know that. She snapped, but I knew she wasn’t angry with me, just at the confusing scent. This is pissing me off.

We need to get the patrols out here to help out. I said, trying to mind link Andrea or Ashton, but Fae was blocking me from doing so. What are you doing? Let me call for some backup!

We don’t need help. She said irritably, becoming even more frustrated by her lack of ability to track down the scent. I will figure this out.

Fae, this isn’t something against your ability to track. I tried to reason with her, but I could feel her stubborn side kicking into high gear. These rogues are different.

I know that! Fae snapped again, but she continued to make her way through the woods anyway.

I stopped arguing with her, knowing that she wouldn’t cave until she either lost the trail or found the cause of it. Instead, I focused on trying to catalogue the scent.

It was hard to differentiate what all was incorporated with the smell, but the scent of rogue was definitely part of it. Unfortunately, rogue scent is fairly overpowering, so getting much else wasn’t easy. Nothing was making sense. If the trail was fresh, and it had to be fresh, the rogue scent should be all over the area, not muted and mixed with other smells.

My thoughts were on the confusing scent, and Fae was busy trying to track where it was heading. Neither of us were paying close enough attention, and out of nowhere, a branch snapped. Before there was a chance to respond, a large mass of fur plowed into my side, knocking the wind out of me and sending my body flying into a nearby tree.

Fae was still in control and the frustration she was feeling over not being able to track the scent, bubbled over into fury at having been caught unaware by the large wolf. I couldn’t take back control if I had tried, so I didn’t bother. Fae has always had a blood thirsty side to her that rarely came out, but at the moment I was grateful for it.

While she focused on the rogue, I pushed out, trying to sense the attackers emotions and draw energy from it. Nothing was happening. At first, I was worried it was because I had never had to siphon energy when Fae was in control, but I quickly realized there was something off about him.

Not trying to interrupt, but he has no emotions. I cautioned Fae while she was lunging towards the rogue, intent on ripping his leg off.

Not now. She growled at me, getting even more angry as time passed.

I sat back, watching as this rogue managed to continually sidestep out of each of Fae’s attacks. He was ridiculously fast, and anytime he swiped a paw at us, we were unable to stop him. The strength behind his hits was more than I had ever gone against.

I managed to send a mind link to Ashton, letting him know where we were, since Fae was distracted enough with the fight to not be able to block me. She growled at me for not having faith in her, but I didn’t care.

Something was off, and I wasn’t ashamed to ask for help.

Blood was pouring from my side where he had managed to land a heavy hit, and even as Fae pushed through, I could feel us getting weaker from blood loss.

Finally, Fae was able to get a lucky hit, swiping her large paw across the rogue’s face. Her claws had dug deep into his eye socket on one side, and he let out a pained howl. With him mostly blinded, she was able to latch her jaw on the back of his neck.

Using the last bit of strength we had in us, she shook her head roughly. Hearing the snap of his neck, she released him and stepped back, swaying and dizzy.

I knew I could handle it. She gloated, slurring a little.

I wanted to respond, to say that she was foolish and almost got us killed, but everything was going dark, and I needed sleep more than anything. Fae had slipped into unconsciousness and I took control again.

I threw all of my focus into staying awake, but there was nothing left in me. My body automatically shifted back to human form, and I slumped to the ground.