“Lance, she is slowly waking up,” I hear Bolt say, and I open my eyes to see that our backpacks are all lined up while everyone is softly talking to one another.
She is stirring in my arms but not quite awake yet, and I see the tears slowly making their way down her cheeks.
“Has this been happening all night?” I ask Bolt; he confirms that she has been crying on and off during the night, and I slowly sit up straight, knowing it will wake her.
I look into her eyes to be met with a dull look; Bolt is whimpering in my head at the sight, and I pull her closer to my chest. The sparkle in her eyes is gone now, something even Jace wasn’t able to do with his rejection, and I have a feeling she will need the distraction of being an Alpha now more than ever.
We both slept through breakfast and lunch, so we both get a huge portion of food for dinner, and I have to keep telling her to take another bite.
“You and Lotus need to finish that food; we still have a long way to go, and you need this to keep up your strength,” I tell her through our mind-link.
She doesn’t answer me, but she continues eating, and slowly but steadily, the food disappears from her plate. Lynn takes our plates once we are both done. Kobal tries again to pick her up, but she just buries herself deeper into my arms, and we both realize she is not ready to let me go.
A few changes are made to who carries who; Cian is going to carry Lynn and Josh so Keir can carry Mylana and Rory, and Kobal is going to carry me and Lakota. I tried to object until Quinn pointed out that Lakota wouldn’t be able to hold on to me if I carried her on my back.
“Lance, this is my way of helping out. For some reason, she needs you more than she ever needed me in her life, and we all want her to get to our new territory in one piece,” Kobal says before I finally accept the fact that I will need to travel on the back of his Lycan.
Lakota doesn’t speak, but from time to time, I see tears running down her face, and I know it will take some time before she can come to terms with this.
Lakota
I still can’t believe what happened; I found my second chance Mate only to lose him within minutes. Lotus is whimpering in the back of my head; she has been like that ever since we found Jake, and I feel like giving up, but for some reason, Lotus won’t allow it.
Lance is holding me as we travel through the night, and I am grateful that he is willing to keep me calm. Lotus made me jump into his arms after Jake died, and she refused to leave him when Kobal approached us; not that she doesn’t trust him, but she feels better in Lance’s arms.
No one says a word out loud as we travel, and no one tries to reach out to me through the mind-link; something I am grateful for. I am not sure when I will be able to function again or when this pain in my heart will subside, but I know they will all give me the time that I need to deal with my grief.
Dad once told me that I was his reason for not giving up, and Lotus told me that our Pack is our reason for not giving up; they need me as much as I need them. For now, Lotus and I need to grieve, and I am grateful for the others for taking care of whatever needs to be done.
When Lotus had made me jump into Lance’s arms, I wanted to object, but she refused to let him go, and even though losing Jake still hurts like hell, being in his arms takes the sharp edges off the pain. Having Kobal and Lance nearby keeps me calm and comfortable; I need their presence for some reason, and I feel safe wrapped up in Lance’s arms on Kobal’s back.
Somehow, I managed to fall asleep as we traveled, and instead of the nightmare I feared that would come, I only saw Jake’s handsome face, the smile on his face he gave me as he thanked us for easing his pain. If this is how my nights will be from here on out, I might get to terms with his death a lot easier, but I am not counting on it.
The sun is starting to rise as I slowly open my eyes, and like last night, I am in the middle of our Pack, surrounded by every Wolf and Lycan that belongs to Crystal Blood Pack. Lance squeezes me tighter to his chest, and I realize we traveled all night without stopping for some rest.
Lakota
“Keir didn’t want to wake you, so he asked if everyone was comfortable with walking the entire night,” Lance answers my unspoken question. Why doesn’t it surprise me that Dad would put my needs first and ask the others how they felt about it without asking me for my opinion.
“Because you would have forced everyone to stop, because you would have put them first, and they all know that,” Lotus answers my thoughts, and I know that she is right; I would have made everyone stop for the night. I also know that a Pack will always look out for their Alpha, even a future Alpha.
Each of them in their own way knew I needed the rest, and they chose to put my needs before their own, even the Pups. When we finally stop, Lance glides down with me in his arms, and for some reason, he knows not to let go of me; he just sits down with his back against a tree.
Once we all have our breakfast, Dad shows everyone a picture of the markings we need to look for; even Josh and Lynn take a good look at them by tracing their fingers over them and memorizing how the markings run. It will take us another hour or so to get anywhere near the territory, but I know it will also take my mind off Jake.
With a century of decay, I doubt we will find any buildings, but we might find the foundation of some of them, and that will give us an indication of what the territory might have looked like in its glory days. It will also be completely overgrown as no one was there to look after the territory, and that will make the search for the markings more challenging.
I can feel the excitement in the air; each of them wanting to get to our new territory for their own reason, and I give Dad a small smile when he looks at me. We continue our journey in Human form and, like before, I am stuck in the middle with Lance, while the others surround us on all sides.
“Okay, we better start paying attention,” Dad calls out to all of us, and I take one final look at the map. If I am reading this correctly, the road should end in a Y soon, and the road leading right goes by the territory we are looking for, but there is no indication of how far from the fork the territory might be.
There is also no sign of a road leading towards the gate of the territory, if this territory ever had a gate that is, and I am glad we at least know what their markings look like, or we might be searching for the rest of our lives. I put the map away to concentrate on finding those markings, and Lance stays right beside me.
It is a slow progress with the entire area overgrown with vines and moss, but we are all determined to find this territory and to start a new life. I have no illusion whatsoever that Jace will give up his search for me, and our allies have only confirmed my suspicions.
After sending their Warriors out to search for me and Dad, Jace started calling surrounding Packs, but every single one of them told him that they hadn’t seen us, and some Alphas had even asked why their Gamma had left. Not that Jace or Alpha Geofry answered those questions; I doubt many of them would have liked to hear the truth.
Uncle Chris was the last one to inform me of his phone call, and Aunt Lucy had been the one answering; she had asked Jace about Keir as she had known a male with that name when she was a young Pup. For some reason, Jace had cut the call short and never received an answer from Aunt Lucy, meaning she didn’t have to lie to him.
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