“We didn’t see her leave, are you sure, Cole?” Meadow interrupts as she strolls into the center of the group and stands by Colton’s side. Straight to command mode and all emotion pushed aside when she has a task. Colton nods and taps his head as if to tell her he had a vision and Meadow’s face pales out much the same way his did. I can tell he’s linking her with details and her expression says it all.
“Okay, I’ll take three of our sub packs and spread on the left and backside of the stead, you take the rest and spread right and front. Even if you know which direction she took, she might have veered….. or…” She doesn’t add ‘has been chased’ to the end, glancing at Carmen warily and then looking away fast as she waves her hand at the nearest wolves. They jump to attention and silently rally to whatever command her hand gesture gave.
Colton pats Meadow on the back as if in agreement and then turns and links the several packs he’s choosing for his own search party via the open pack link, so we all hear him. This is urgent and he’s wasting no time and no number of bodies. He’s rallying all who are capable, and I know it’s because he fears time is of the essence. They split almost instantly as half the crowd moves with Meds and the rest with Colton and they all fan out and head into the woods at hyper speed.
“Come on. Let’s stick with Colton and we’ll help. More eyes.” I brush Carmen’s hair back and release her from my hold, instead taking her hand and pull her with me out into the clearing. She lets me guide her like a vulnerable child needing a leader, and for a moment I wonder if this is the same girl from earlier, the same Carmen who doesn’t show weakness. I shove it out of my head, focus on being her rock and speed to catch up with Colton.
As I have no shoes on, I have to turn my feet to wolf to save myself from injury and ignore the fact I’m out here in a silk dress and a short towel robe, while everyone else is fully dressed. It doesn’t really matter I guess, given any hint of danger I’ll shred these with a turn so it’s probably a blessing I didn’t get dressed. We lose too many clothes that way.
We catch up with Colton just inside the permitter of the frequency border and he halts, sensing us behind him and turns to me. His eyes amber glowing, his claws already engaged in case we hit trouble. He looks wild, poised to fight, and yet I still can’t shake seeing that deep fear in the depths of his beautiful eyes under furrowed brows with stress lines etched on his face. He thinks we’re not going to get to her in time and I can feel it in his emotions.
“Stay right with me. No more than four feet away, okay? No matter what. We’re fanning out six feet apart and walking a wave around the whole stead… We’ll find her, we have to… Sun isn’t up for an hour yet, it’s not safe here.” Colton beckons us with hushed tones and turns to lead the way as we join the search. His head fully engaged in the task and taking control like the Alpha I love. I seem to be the only one who recognizes he’s not as confident and assured as he seems, that his aura is bleeding. He’s genuinely afraid of what we might find out here.
Even at speed, the pack moving as one swift line, checking every fallen log, cave, nook, and cranny, and heading further into the deep dark forest, we still see no sign of her, and I start to wonder if she’s really out here. Glancing from wolves in the trees around us, to the back of Colton’s strong body as we push on beyond our safety net of the frequency and shudder as another wave of revulsion overtakes me.
This is the third time since walking beyond the line, that a deep well of nausea and cringe consumes me wholly, and this time I gasp inwardly as I am sucker punched low down at a strange smell that makes me giddy with memories. The almost stinging, astringent whiff of something awful yet out with my grasp of memory as a familiar thing.
My eyes water with the intensity of its odor and I have to pull myself stiff to stop my body from crumbling as I stagger over a fallen log. It’s like the smell alone has hit some deep unwanted thought and made my body react like I’m in trauma. I’m weak instantly, my limbs loosening as dizziness moves in and I become aware that I have let go of Carmen fully.
Colton?…. I blanche and mind link via our mate bond only, the fear rippling over my spine as I figure out what the strong metallic and awful smell is that’s engorging my senses and leaving me hyper aware as one sickly vision clouds my sight. A dark terrifying night when I was clinging onto life by a thread and all the people, everyone I had known, were ripped to shreds around me. I vomit with the return of that scene in my mind’s eye, my body shuddering in revulsion and pain as my broken heart rips at old scars and tears well up in my eyes.
Wolf blood smells different to most other things in nature, and dead wolf is the most unique of all. It’s like the second our life essence drains it leaves the red fluid rancid and potent so no animals will come and try to feast on remains. It’s the smell of death, of repulsion and awful things, from the night of the courtyard when vampires almost killed me.
I smell it. Stay here. Keep Carmen back.
Colton doesn’t turn to look at me but acts like nothing is wrong and wades further forward increasing his speed, so he flips out of sight in a blink. I pause, grabbing at her arm and finding her palm with my own to bring us back together to lasso her to me. I yank her back to my side a little aggressively in a bid to shield her from what she’s about to find.
“Colton told us to stay.” I fix my gaze on her, tone commanding so she knows not to argue, aware of the movement around us and my body bristling with tension as I keep searching for hints of vamps in the forest. My senses are tuned in, but I feel nothing of close presence, which is weird for them. Given what smell lingers around us, I can’t understand why there’s no lingering scent of our enemy with it.
We’re really far from the stead, out in the densest area before it starts going uphill towards the mountain and yet not a single vampire has stuck around. They obviously did this to her recently, so why are they not still here?
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