Chapter 66 - Reset and Regroup

"Who's gone? Ady?" Arrow asked confused.

Kai rose to his feet suddenly, startling Arrow who was knelt down beside him. He looked around in a panic for his mate. There was nothing, not even a hint of which direction they might have gone in.

He took a few paces barefoot in front of him. He sniffed the air as he looked left to right haphazardly for any clues. Just a hint of her scent would be helpful, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. He turned back to Arrow.

"Can you scent her? Can you scent Adalyn?" Kai wasn't sure if he was still under the influence of Gabriel's gift that shut of his sense of vision and smell.

Arrow stood up to stand alongside him. "Kai, when I found you, I was already in wolf form. I couldn't scent anyone else but you nearby."

"But they were here, Adalyn and her family were just here! Check again!" Kai demanded.

Arrow seemed unsure as to why he was unable to do the same, but dismissed it for now. "Kai, I have been trying to wake you for the past hour, I already looked around, there was nothing. If they were here earlier, then they've managed to cover their tracks really well."

"An hour?" Kai echoed back. Sure enough, the sun was already setting. Had that much time already passed? With Blue Moon pack territory being in the centre of Galas, and not knowing which direction Mya and Gabriel had gone, they could have headed in to any of the other seven pack lands by now. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Did they even know that Colton was already on to them? He couldn't even warn them.

"What the hell happened?" Arrow asked "After I couldn't communicate to you through our pack link, I suddenly felt this shockwave through forest. I don't know how, but I recognised it as you. It was like your dominant energy was in the wave. It's what led me to you."

"A shockwave?" Kai replied back equally confused. He remembered shattering Mya's barrier and some kind of pulse, but everything else was a bit of a frenzied blur after he shifted in to Pax.

"Yeah, when I found you, your eyes were white and all clouded over. Nothing would snap you out of it" Arrow continued.

*'It must have been when Tara used her gift'* Kai thought. It happened the first time when Tara first brought him to that space. He had passed out on the ground until he came back.

"Was that shockwave you?" Arrow asked again. He was desperate to know what was going on.

Kai turned his hands over and stared in to his palms. "I...I dunno" he replied honestly. Something within him felt different. He slowly opened and closed his hands, almost to check if they were still his. Something felt off.

Kai tried to invoke Pax. His eyes turned red as he felt Pax's energy flow in to his human form. In this invoked state, his senses were usually heightened, but it now felt amplified. The quiet forest was now as loud as the city. The wind blowing through the leaves on the trees was almost deafening, the light from the setting sun was now blinding and the smell of the wild flowers lining the forest floor was now burning his nose. Kai's brain went in to sensory overload as his brain struggled to process all of the information. Feeling overwhelmed Kai screwed his eyes and then held on to his head.

"Kai? What's wrong?" Arrow asked alarmed.

Even hearing Arrow talk was was like cymbal being crashed in his head. Everything was too loud, too bright, too sensitive. Kai turned off his invocation of Pax and his eyes went back to blue. The relief was instant. He had experienced something like this before when Arya, his former master, had drilled this wolf invocation technique in to him when he was younger, but something had heightened it even further. It was like something inside of him had been unlocked and was now frying his head.

"Kai?" Arrow asked again.

Kai slowly lifted his head back up. "I'm okay. I can't really describe it, but something within me feels different and I can't help but feel like it’s her doing."

"Ady's doing?" Arrow asked confused. "Will you please tell me what the hell happened? I'm dying here."

Kai gave Arrow a quick recap of what had happened with his fight with Mya and Gabriel, the fact that Adalyn was Rae and how Colton was after her.

"So our princess is actually a princess?" Arrow questioned "This sounds like something from a fairy tale."

Kai frowned. "I just wish I knew which direction they went in. I can't mind link her via our mate bond either so she's either still unconscious, or too far away for me to pick up."

The sun was quickly setting and it wouldn't be too long till it got dark. "Kai, I don't think there is much more that we can do here right now."

"She's my mate Arrow! I can't lose her again!"

Arrow frowned as he felt his friend's distress. "Believe me, I hear you, but we're not going to get anywhere by just standing here. We have to be smart about this. Think about it this way, if both Mya and Gabriel are gifted and they managed to get past you, I'd say she's in pretty good hands for now."

Kai tutted. He wasn't in the mood for logic.

"If Colton is looking for them, I can't imagine they'd be silly enough to head back to Sirran. They have to still be in Galas. If Colton has people in Galas working for him, we have to try and figure that out. No matter how you look at it, it's treason on a grand scale. If we can find proof of it and weed them out, then Ady and her family will have no reason to remain in hiding. We have to give her safe place to come back home to."

Kai sighed. Everything that Arrow had said made sense but he really didn't want to hear it. He just wanted Adalyn here next to him. He mentally corrected himself. *'Or should I say Rae'*. Even thinking of her name made his chest hurt. He still couldn't fully believe it. His chosen mate was also his fated mate. He had grieved for her and as soon as he rediscovered her, she was taken from him again.

Kai looked sullen and lost in his thoughts. This was not an image that Arrow was used to seeing. Arrow nudged him in the side. "Come on, lets shift and had back to the car. It's starting to get dark."

"Okay..." Kai reluctantly agreed. She wasn't magically going to reappear even if he just stood there.

With the sensory overload of invocation not being an option, Kai tried to shift. He closed his eyes as he waited for the shift to start happening, but there was nothing.

Arrow was already started to get undressed. He cocked a head at Kai, just seeing him standing there. "Are you not going to shift?"

Kai concentrated a bit harder and tried to shift again, but again nothing. He could feel Pax within him but he didn't seem to be able to shift. It was almost as if someone had done a factory reset on his wolf and Pax didn't seem to know what to do. Pax just sat there in his mind like he was waiting for an instruction that never came.

"Kai?" Arrow asked again.

"Something's wrong. I...I don't think I can shift. Whatever the hell happened, it's fucking up my connection with Pax."

"Are you for real?" Arrow laughed, thinking that he was joking.

Kai just looked at him puzzled.

Arrow's eyes widened as he realised that Kai was being serious. "Great! Lets just add that to the list of our problems." Arrow balled up his long t-shirt that he had just taken off, then launched it at Kai. "Heads up!" Kai swiftly caught it. "Put that on for now. I have more clothes back in the car. The last thing I need to see is his royal highnesses’ equipment on show on a long walk back to the car"

Kai started pulling the t-shirt over his head. "You're a real dick sometimes you know that!"

"Yeah yeah... the ladies tell me all the time." Arrow laughed and started walking.

Kai sighed again then started following him. No matter where he went or what he did Arrow always seemed to have his back. He felt like he had treated him like shit lately, but here he was helping him out again.

"You know..." Kai started.

"Uh oh" Arrow piped up, interrupting him. "Nothing good ever comes out of a conversation that starts with 'you know'. This isn't where we start having a bro moment is it?"

"Will you listen to me for one second without clowning around!"

Arrow smiled. "Fine, go on."

"I was saying... with me being suspended from any royal duties, you technically don't work for me at the moment."

"Okay? And your point is?"

"What I'm saying is, there's no reason for you to even be here. So why are you?"

Arrow huffed "Is that a real question?"

"Of course it is!"

Arrow stopped walking and turned to face him. "Kai, do you seriously think I work for you for the pay, or the free dental care? The free dental care is shit by the way, you might want to speak to management about that."

Kai rolled his eyes.

"How long have we known each other?" Arrow continued.

"Too long" Kai huffed.

"Ha ha, true. Whilst your charismatic charm and magnetism can be lacking at times, you're my friend first. I'm not here out of duty, I'm here because you needed my help. We're partners, aren't we? You’re like a brother to me and we both know you’re currently lacking in good quality ones. Besides, if I don't have your back who will?"

Kai's body sagged as he took in Arrow's words. He was definitely one a very few people that he could call a friend. He could read between the lines and see what Arrow had meant.

"Well for what it's worth, thank you. I appreciate it" Kai replied softly.

Arrow was slightly taken aback by Kai's words, but even more so the softness in his facial expression. Whilst he was never usually rude, he wasn't usually the type to show this side of himself, especially to another guy. Getting slightly uncomfortable with the serious nature of the conversation, Arrow started walking again.

"Okay, enough with the mush. This is wildly out of character for both of us, and having you say shit like this to me whilst your dick is practically hanging out is both awkward and confusing." Arrow concluded. He smiled to himself out of view of Kai.

"Annnnnd you're right back to being an ass again!" Kai rolled his eyes again and then proceeded to follow him.

"Speaking of asses..." Arrow said apprehensively, knowing in advance how the rest of this conversation was going to go. "Dylan was looking for you. I hope you don't mind that I gave him your details."

"You did what?! Well I do mind! In fact, I one hundred percent mind!" Kai shouted behind him.

Arrow sighed as he felt the negative energy radiating off Kai behind him. All three of them had been good friends at one point, but they hadn't spoken to Dylan in a few years. "It relates to Ady. Or Raeliana? What exactly are we calling her now? Anyway, he said he had details on the guy that was on the CCTV. This could be a good lead."

"Are you trying to tell me that you trust him too? Both the guy on the CCTV and the guy you interrogated from the palace are from his pack! How exactly is he trustworthy?!"

"Come on Kai, we don't exactly have a long list of people that we do trust. We have to start somewhere. We've both known Dylan for a long time. We were all friends once. Part of me doesn't think he's involved in this either. It feels too much like a setup. And even if he is, we can just trip him up and use him for information."

"Friends?!" Kai snorted "That sly bastard doesn't even know the meaning of the word. Did you know that he kissed Adalyn?! Knowing him, I bet he scented me on her then did it on purpose just to piss me off! I swear, if I even get a hint of deception from him, I'm going to rip his head off and mail it to his father!"

"Fair enough. Let’s just talk to him first" Arrow settled as they finally reached his car.