Ch. 68: Tracking Wolves
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
Rachel~
I sat up in a sweat just after 3am. Flashes of a nightmare still etched into my eyelids. A large dark crow swallowed me whole. I fought and fought, but down its beak I went. I slithered down its throat and even though I tried to crawl back out but couldn’t make any progress. At last I was running out of air. That’s what forced me to wake up. The feeling that I wasn’t getting any air and was dying.
I sat for a bit before trying to lay back down, turning towards the window this time. I looked out at the reflection of the moonlight on the water far down below. And I wished for an end to these nightmares. Every time I thought they were going away they came back. I stared at the ceiling for some time until I felt my eyelids get heavy again. I dreamt of wolves this time.
The next day in class we were given a few options of novels to read for our next humanities project. For some reason I was immediately drawn to one with a wolf on the cover. It felt like an instinct, picking that one over the others. I wondered briefly if it had something to do with the dream I vaguely remembered from the night before.
At break I found myself sitting outside on my own for a bit, diving straight into it. And I felt like I was missing something. A wave of sadness crashed into me again. Grief. But I couldn’t place where it was coming from. I just closed the book and held it to my chest trying to calm my erratic breathing.
Jake~
The trackers arrived the day after their packs committed their help and I was so grateful I was having a hard time finding the right words. They were all setting off this morning in different directions. Each tracker had a different theory after visiting the abduction site. Elise from Dark Mountains had been making herself at home in the packhouse. I enjoyed watching her banter with Nick. They had such interesting chemistry that I was surprised they weren’t mates. But Elise was 19 and there was clearly no real mate bond between them. Mark from Blue Waters was a quiet, reserved type in comparison. With the older guy Lucien, from Eastern Hills somewhere in between.
Elise was heading out with two of our warriors, Mark was going solo, and Lucien was going to meet with some old warrior buddies out at a post near the abduction spot. In the meantime Nick and Mitchell, along with both of their sets of parents, and a few others spent time chasing other non-physical leads. I was outside the packhouse talking to Evan when we waved Lucien and Mark off. Elise was gathered by Nick and two warriors and they were all in a heated discussion about something.
“I keep wanting to ask you how you’re holding up but it feels like an empty thing to say,” Evan explained to me.
His hurt mirrored my own and I couldn’t say anything in response, I just placed my hand on his shoulder and gave a light squeeze. We stood like that for a moment. He sniffled and looked at me before walking off to the woods, presumably to shift in privacy.
I watched him walk off, glanced at the heated discussion over by Nick, and decided to head back inside. I walked into my dad’s office and shut the door, then turned to find Sophie there.
“Goddess above!” I yelled in surprise.
I hadn’t been expecting to find anyone here.
“Sohie, what are you doing here? No one is allowed on this floor but the Alpha and his family!” I whirled on her and she stepped back.
“I-,” she started, “I just wanted to check on you.”
She looked about as broken as I felt. It made me pause.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine. Please leave. I have work to do,” I told her softly, turning to my dad’s desk chair.
Instead of leaving I heard her walking towards the desk. I didn’t bother looking up.
“Sophie,” I said in warning.
“Alpha, I-” she began saying.
“OUT,” I raised my voice. “I am NOT Alpha. Get OUT.”
I was growling. Whatever it was that was waking up inside me was angry. Angry at her for not listening. Angry at her for being in here in the first place.
She stepped back then forward again and placed her hand on mine which had been spread on the desk in front of me.
I pulled my hand away and I felt my anger rising. I looked at her this time and whatever she saw scared her.
“I- I just wanted to let you know I’m here for you, and I know we can’t know if we’re mates yet, but I just know it. I know you’re my mate,” she stuttered while taking steps backwards until she hit the door.
“You’re NOT my mate. Get Out,” I seethed.
She broke eye contact with me and slipped out the door.
Yes, whatever it was inside me was raging. At her words, her touch, her boldness in coming in here. Objectively she hadn’t done anything terrible. Yet.
The ‘yet’ had me concerned. Somehow I knew she was up to no good.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
