Ch. 38

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT:

~Drake:

‘We need to rest,’ Dane grumbled again. Annoyed with me.

We’d been driving for hours. I’d filled up twice since we’d left the motel but outside of that we haven’t stopped.

‘We’re nearly there,’ I sent him back.

‘No, we’re not. And if we don’t stop we won’t have the energy to defeat them all,’ he pointed out - again.

I growled aloud, smacking the steering wheel. I didn’t want to stop but the dan wolf did have a good point. I haven’t been here in what felt like a lifetime. Alpha Rafael was a grade A ahole but he wasn’t stupid. He likely changed patrols since I left. I wouldn’t be able to use any knowledge on the packlands other than where the buildings were.

I had to slow down, build a strategy - figure out how to get in touch with Archer before blowing the element of surprise. If I even had that.

Blowing out more agitated breaths I pulled over, bringing the car to a full stop. I’d lost track of where I even was. I was just heading home. All wolves have an innate sense of where home is. Was that even my home, though?

I rolled my shoulders, not having the energy to think more about that right now.

“Fine,” I seceded aloud.

Pulling back onto the highway I refocused my gaze onto where I was, looking for a good spot to rest for a few hours.

I watched the lines on the highway go on and on until I felt like what I was seeing ahead would be good enough. I pulled off, got off on the exit and followed a few roads until I found a more deserted area of the town. I pulled over onto a dirt road blocked by some bushes before leaning my seat all the way back. This will have to do.

I woke up a few hours later, disappointed.

A small part of me had hoped she’d reach for me in our sleep. But I didn’t so much as have a dream. Just darkness. That really unsettled me.

‘Nothing,’ Dane chimed in, shaken.

I’ve never heard him so scared before. It rattled me more. He wasn’t saying more, which really wasn’t a good sign.

‘We’d feel it though, right? If she were hurt?’ I asked him.

The long pause before his answer had my heart thundering in worry.

‘In theory…’ He finally exhaled.

I could feel him pacing in my mind. Worry of his own adding to the incredible worry already in my every cell.

I shook it off as best as I could, physically shaking my head and loosening all my limbs. I had to reset. I couldn’t afford to lose focus. I had to get to her.

I huffed out a breath and looked around at the changing landscape around me. The trees are made up of more and more pine, and less of other kinds. The familiar scent brought back feelings of home, of my parents, and of first meeting Avery. I decided to hold onto that. Thinking of all of them would pull me through this. My parents had to be up there somewhere watching over me. They would guide me to her.

I walked over to the car and started to get in when my stomach grumbled.

‘Sit back, I’ll get us something,’ Dane pushed.

No problem with me. I undressed, leaving my clothes on the driver seat before shifting. He immediately took off picking up a few scents while I sat comfortably in the back of our head, thinking about what my next moves could be.

Hours later we were nearing Black Mountain territory, belly full of rabbit and deer. We traded cars two other times. All stolen - since I didn’t have my mate around with her oh-so-convenient ability to wipe people’s memories. I pulled this beater over to a narrow dirt road off the beaten path. I did what I could to hide it and to hide my scent.

With nothing but Avery’s bag and the clothes on my back, I walked deep into a wooded area to find a safe space to bury her things.

It was about an hour later that I identified a place memorable enough for me but far enough away from the abandoned car that no one should connect the two. We ran for some time in wolf form before digging and burying her bag. I found plenty of download branches and foliage to hide the fresh earth dug up from the ground. I held in my aura far more than I had ever before in hopes of containing some of my scent as well. I used all the other techniques I knew to increase its chances.

It was nightfall again sooner than I’d have liked but I was able to get around to a few areas surrounding Black Mountain territory. While Blue Moon was bordering the packlands on the east side, there was a bit of a buffer between the two due to some issues a few generations back so I was careful to stay between the two. I wasn’t confident enough to enter Black Mountain yet. So I studied what I could. I looked at a few main sentry points and while one was exactly where it has always been, the other had been moved. I’d found it about six miles from the original. So I was right. They had changed a few things since I left. Likely expecting me to return and trying to catch me off guard.

I rounded the entire eastern territory by the early morning hours. No Avery scent anywhere. Several sentries I did know I could distinguish them without getting too close. I couldn’t risk these guys coming back at some odd hour and picking up my scent.

‘Keep going,’ Dane says right before I turn back.

I figured I would backtrack a bit, see if I could go some other way to get to the other side, a cliffside making it challenging to keep going north to get to the western line.

‘You sure?’ I asked him.

He nodded, huffing out a very dog-like sound. Very certain.

I hesitated for just a second before continuing on. I came to a point where I’d really be pushing it, right alongside the Black Mountain territory line, and I paused again.

‘Are you sure about this? We can go back and get up around-’

‘Do it. Right now,’ he urged.

Trusting him we moved forward, our side closely following the rock face of the cliff. I felt the uneven texture of the harsh rock, small bits of it protruding and prodding at me as we walked carefully, adjoined to the rock. Finally, the space separated out a bit and we were able to walk forward with some space between us and the rock face. I breathed out then, thankful we hadn’t messed up our footing somehow and trespassed onto the Black Mountain territory.

‘Hurry,’ Dane barked, pushing forward to take over just a tad.

We picked up our pace. Pushing my confusion and questions aside for a minute, we kept on going. I kept searching for something out of place, for some reason why Dane had urged us to keep going this way. But as we moved quickly among the trees, and across a creaking log stretched out over a creek - there was nothing.

Just when I was about to question him, I picked up something. Blood. Lots of it. The fur on our body stiffened. There was something foul accompanying it.

I followed it for some time, slowly identifying more about it. Deer. But more than one. A buck. A female doe as well. And - and a human. Alongside - a faint… rot. I knew that rot. Vampires. The very soft rot scent was like something that had just barely started to turn - that was a scent I had become familiar with. And it reminded me of-

We rounded the corner of a large tree only to come face to face with someone familiar.

His lanky stature, his face, his red eyes.

I froze, surprised to see him.

“Hey there Wolfie,” he smiled broadly, his movements fluid as he dropped the deer he’d been holding with one hand.

“Love, who is that?” a blond wisp of a girl asked from his side a moment later.

She wiped her blood-covered hand on her red flowing blouse.

“Beth, my heart, this is Amy’s soulmate. Or - just ‘mate.’ I think that’s their preferred term,” he said, resting his shoulders into a casual stance.

“Amy?” Beth said excitedly, looking around.

The vamp studied me for a moment. “I don’t think she’s here, Dove.” He turned from her to me. “Did you not find her?” His question laced with what I picked up as genuine concern.

I shifted then, dropping my clothing to the ground in front of me before doing so.

“Oh god!” Beth giggled, turning away.

The male vampire with her didn’t so much as blink. I rose, putting my legs through my boxers and jeans together. They were covered with dirt and blood themselves (blood due to the few encounters I’d had on the way here that funded my journey out).

“Dove, it’s all good now,” the male grinned. He walked towards me, adding, “Humans. SO modest.”

Beth turned back to face me.

“Oh! The guy from the bar!” she giddily pointed at me. “I thought she was looking at you in a special way,” she sing-songed the rest like a grade school kid teasing another on the playground.

I kept my face serious.

“What happened?” the male vampire crossed his arms, digging into my gaze. “Forgive Beth, the newly turned are always a little… removed from humanity.”

I looked between them both.

‘This is why we came,’ Dane assured.

So this was what the rush was. To catch up to these two. I had to trust my wolf. He was all about finding our mate. I had to believe this was all part of that. He must trust these two.

I cleared my throat. “I found her, but she was taken.”

Beth’s face drained of the slight pink she’d been sporting just a moment before. Her eyes narrowed and became a deeper, darker hue.

Her mate was next to her in a blink.

“Big breaths Elizabeth,” he soothed her, urging her to keep looking into his eyes.

She gulped air as I narrowed my own gaze, trying to figure these two out. Wolves and vampires didn’t normally consort like this.

“You don’t even need to say it,” he whispered, brushing a thumb across her cheek. He spun on his heel then to look back at me, one hand still holding onto his mate.

“We will help you,” he said confidently.

I unconsciously took a step back. Surprised. Confused. Uncertain.

“I understand your… hesitancy. But my soulmate cares deeply for Amy. And anything she cares about, I care about. I don’t know much about wolves, but I know you rarely work alone. Yet, here you are. Alone. I’m sure you could use the help,” he said, squeezing Beth’s hand firmly.

‘I don’t know about this…’ I linked Dane.

‘I do,’ he sent back.

And that was it. Nothing else. I exhaled, fighting every bodily instinct to just take off and rampage.

“Come. Let’s head to my Brood. I think we have someone with us who can really help. Plus, you can fill us in on the way,” he says, leading Beth northwest, not even looking back at me.

‘Go,’ Dane says.

Fine.