The Search

In shock, I stare at the supervisor.
The second person to bring me the news of Rain's death. My heart threatens to stop beating, my brain shuts down. I reach out to Jax for strength but he still ignores me. This is too much.
Beside me, I hear a muffled cry of pain. Kenston.
If it feels this terrible for a mate to hear that your other half is gone, then I can imagine the pain a father must endure knowing his child died. Kenston passes out, Jace is just barely able to catch him. I push my pain away and turn to the former Beta. "Kenston, get yourself together. This is not the time to show weakness. We need to find Rain," I urge. I hold him by the throat and release some of my Alpha energy for his wolf. A few seconds later, his eyes slowly open.
"We have to find her. She can't be dead, Kenston," I emphasize.
"Jace, rent a speedboat and check the coordinates where the ship capsized with the Coast Guard. We'll leave right away," I instruct my Beta as I take care of my father-in-law. He is clearly getting stronger, thanks to his wolf. I help him to his feet but still support him. "Jasper, how can we go on without Rain? The guilt that we shortchanged her gnaws on us. My mate has nightmares every night," Kenston declares with his throat squeezed together. "We haven't been able to tell her how much we love her. This is the most horrible thing we have experienced in our lives".
I feel his pain, perhaps not to the same degree.
"Kenston, don't give up. As long as we don't have a body, she's still alive. Rain is a fighter. If she ended up somewhere, she's expecting us. Don't give up, please," I beg him. The tears threaten to overwhelm me, I don't know when I last felt so helpless. As an Alpha, anything is possible in my life, I was denied nothing. And now I want my mate back, she is destined to stay by my side. Jax still refuses to communicate with me, he is furious that Rain could slip out of our hands and blames me for that.
I can already see Jace sailing by.
Kenston and I walk to the pier and jump in the boat. Jace showed me the coordinates where the yacht was last located. The three of us study the map and then know what to do. Looking around, I notice that my Beta has also provided Gatorade and other energy drinks and bottled water. "We need to get to the north side, looking at the route, it looks like the yacht was on track to Canada," Kenston notes thoughtfully. "What would Rain be looking for in Canada? And she was in the company of a human. That's strange". I, too, have to think about this. Of course, there are plenty of cities in Canada where humans live. But for a werewolf who's used to tropical weather, to move to the colder regions is unusual.
That region is the territory of the Lycans.
Their metabolism works differently; they can handle the cold effortlessly. But Rain is used to the pack's permanently warm climate. "No, it's very unlikely they went to Canada. Maybe they were just vacationing and sailed too far," Kenston thinks out loud. Behind me, Jace glances along at the map. "We need to keep all options open. There are also some islets on the route. Some are on the map, others are not. We should look there too," he muses.
Having agreed on the route to sail, we set off at full speed.
About three hours out to sea, we begin to see the first debris. Although the vast majority has been collected for the police investigation, many pieces of wreckage are still floating around. We pass a number of small rock formations protruding into the sea, some of them overgrown. There is no sign of Rain on them. It is already starting to dusk, and looking up at the sky I see that it is still full moon.
"Full Moon," I whisper, my eyes fixed upward.
"Rain is terrified of the Full Moon. Ooohhh Moon Goddess, where is my mate? She must be in misery right now, not knowing what to do," I cry heartbreakingly over the now dark sea. "If we don't find her, please, someone, please, keep her safe. My mate, my woman!" Just the idea of her floating somewhere in the ocean or trapped on an island while the Full Moon shines above her drives me to the brink of insanity. In the pack, I made sure to always be with her at this tide and keep her warm. We then watched a movie as a distraction.
We sailed on for about another kilometer, peering across the water with big flashlights.
In vain, not a single soul is to be seen. "Jasper, we have to go back. We have to sail for more than three hours to the pier. We don't actually have permission to sail at night," Jace remarks as he turns the boat around. I run my light over the water one last time and now, in the distance, it's like a campfire is on there. "Look! There is a fire up there", I call out. "I see an island and if there's fire, it means people live there. Maybe they have seen Rain or someone from the crew," I point my finger to where I saw the flames.
Jace tries to turn the boat around again, but a big wave shows up.
All the past hours, the sea was calm but now it suddenly started to get turbulent. The wave picks up the boat like it weighs nothing and knocks it a long way. When Jace has it under control again, we sail in the direction where I saw the campfire. We peer into the distance but see nothing now. "Jasper, I don't see the island anymore. Do you remember which direction you saw it?" asks Kenston desperately. We sail for another five minutes, but the island seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. "I think it was a reflection of the moon on the water. That can make for optical deception. There's nothing here," Jace points out.
I scour the area one more time, my were-sight helping me tremendously.
There is nothing to see, the sea is now pitch black. "We have to leave. A storm is approaching and we can't find the campfire anymore". Jace turns to the boat and at high speed, we begin the return journey. I make a mental note to come back here. If people live on this island I saw, I'm sure Rain is safe there....