Chapter 40 - Home sweet home

LENA WAITED until they stopped looking for her nearby and then she slowly started to make her way into the forest. She was going to move in the opposite direction to the coven grounds first. Just in case they found her tracks and then she would, back track to the coven grounds where her house was already fixed and hidden by the spell.

Lena was moving slowly. Checking every now and again that she wasn’t being followed. Even though her plan was for them to follow her this way, she didn’t want them to. It was just her back-up plan just in case. If her spell worked, they wouldn’t be able to follow her at all. It would look as though she had just disappeared into thin air.

She heard the voices coming closer and she stopped to listen. She could hear Alaric’s voice so clearly, but they weren’t that close. In the cool night air, sound travelled pretty far. Deciding not to take any chances, she hid and her heart felt as if it was being torn to shreds when a couple of minutes later, she heard him coming closer and, finally, she watched as he walked right past her.

Lena fought the tears that were threatening to fall. She knew she loved him, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of the bond or because she actually fell in love with him. Besides, it didn’t matter. She couldn’t stay with the man that had killed her father so brutally and she was sure that one day, he would turn on her as well. He would blame her for what her parents did. It wasn’t something she had just made up along the way. She knew from experience how wolves thought after the war.

How would he ever really love a child from the same people that killed his parents? If their child was a blood witch and never showed any signs of being a wolf … How was he going to deal with that? She knew she hadn’t given him the chance to figure it out, and it wasn’t fair, but she also knew it was going to eventually turn into an impossible situation for both of them.

If there hadn’t been a war, things might have been different. If her father hadn’t killed his parents … There was no use in thinking about it, if only. Her eyes followed his body as he moved through the forest naked. The moonlight shining down on his skin, made him look even more ominous than before.

“Alpha, she must have done a spell to hide her scent and her tracks.” Max tried to get Alaric to accept that she was gone, but he turned on his best friend and Lena stifled a gasp at the sheer anger that was in his eyes.

“She wouldn’t do that to me!” He growled. “She wouldn’t do that to Rebecca! If she didn’t run, she was taken. She still has a lot of enemies in our world that she doesn’t even know about! Keep searching! I want to find her!” Alaric ordered and it sent a shiver down the back of Lena’s spine. Enemies? What enemies was Alaric talking about?

He hadn’t mentioned anything lately! Maybe she shouldn’t have left? Maybe she should have stayed at the pack house where it was safer. Her heart started to race and she closed her eyes to calm herself. She couldn’t lose it now. If they found her, Alaric would know that she had run away and he would never forgive her for that.

As soon as they moved away, she started to move further away from the pack house. Slowly following the route she planned out, she carefully took refuge every now and again to check if they were following her. The spell was working and she hadn’t heard them near in a while. Breathing a sigh of relief, she made her way all the way to the lake and then started to turn back.

She had just passed the easy part. Going back was going to be difficult, since she could imagine Alaric placing guards near her old home. She would have to go to her house in such a way that they didn’t see her entering the house. She also needed some fresh water which she grabbed from the lake. She had enough provisions to last her a day or two, but if Alaric or any of his guards stayed in her coven grounds for longer, she might have a problem.

Furious at herself for not thinking of that, she started to walk in the direction of her home. If only she had saved some provisions in her home, she wouldn’t be sitting with this problem. Sighing, she decided that what was done was done. She would just have to take it one day at a time now. She couldn’t worry about the future too much. It would make her nervous and then she would make mistakes.

The walk was long and arduous as she moved closer to her home. She was right about Alaric going there. As she came closer, she could hear him growling orders at his guards. The spell worked so well and they hadn’t followed her to the lake, but it sounded as though they were getting ready to leave her home. There would be no sign that she had been there, so there was no reason for them to stay.

She carefully watched as he made his way around the camp one last time before his wolf pushed off in the direction of the pack house. She had to admit that now that she knew him, his wolf really was an incredible beast, but she still saw the wolf that killed her father in him, which she reminded herself was the reason why she left. One of them at least.

It seemed as though he was satisfied that she hadn’t been there when no guards remained behind and Lena quickly rushed over to her house. She looked around to make sure nobody could see her and she disappeared into the safety of her home. Looking around she sighed as she realized that although she had fixed as much as she possibly could, her home still needed a lot of work.

From the outside it looked exactly the same as it did after the wolves burned down the town, but inside she had carefully started to fix it up. She had found some furniture all throughout the town and packed it into the house, but she didn’t have time to really move the furniture about and make a home for herself. She grabbed some bedding from the laundry room at the pack house and brought it here and now she had the clothes and food she brought with her.

Convinced she could make a life for herself here, she started to move the furniture about so she could at least move about in her kitchen. The roof was still a bit damaged but fixing that would have to wait. For now, she would have spots all around her home where you could see the night sky and, since it wasn’t the rainy season, her house shouldn’t be flooded.

Looking around at her handy work, she realized that it was morning already and she had been awake for probably a full twenty-four-hours! She could feel it in her body and although she wanted to stay awake to make sure none of the guards came back, she was incredibly tired. It was best if she got some rest so that if they did return, she was rested and could think straight.

ALARIC WAS PACING up and down in his office when Rebecca walked in. He could see she had been crying. She had convinced him the night before that Lena wouldn’t have run away and that someone had taken her and, if he was really honest with himself, he felt the same way.

Although they didn’t know her that well, he couldn’t imagine that she would leave them like that. What kind of person made a mate promise and then ran off into the night?

“I could try a tracking spell.” When she put the book down on the coffee table, it was the first time he realized she had it with her and he sighed.

“I don’t think doing magic is such a good idea, Rebecca. At least, not without Lena. She told me you were still learning and I don’t want you messing with that stuff without her guidance.” He frowned, wondering how many spells his little sister had done on her own without guidance. Which reminded him that he seriously needed to find out what the hell was in that library. Rebecca could be messing about with the kind of magic he waged a war against and the last thing he needed was for anybody to find out that she could do magic.

He needed Lena. They needed Lena. Where the hell was she?