Chapter 170: A Catch
Chapter 170: A Catch
Thorne’s POV
“I need you to repeat what you just said one more time.” I tell him for the umpteenth time.
I am trying not to tear off the head of the guard standing in front of me. The one who brought the news that my wife is currently nowhere to be found.
I pace the small space of my office, my hands running through my hair and pulling on the roots.
Now is really not the time to fuck with me.
“I have committed a grave offense, Alpha. It is all my fault. It seems… it seems it was a scheme. To get us all distracted for a while so they could run away.”
“A what?”
“We heard this from the maiden that we were sent to rescue. That the Luna told her to simply go into the woods and scream, so we could go after her and buy them some time.”
“And all ten of you did?! This was the exact same thing that happened the last time and you have the guts to let it repeat itself.”
The guard falls to his knees almost immediately, humbled at the sight of the extent of my rage. I had sent Carlos and some other guards in search of her already and I know she would be found soon. But it is getting increasingly hard to stay still not knowing if she is safe.
“Spare my life, Alpha”. He cries out from the floor “She had ordered that we all went after the maiden and made sure that she was brought back safe and sound. We couldn’t go against her.”
I pull harder on my roots as I pace back and forth because it’s even more frustrating knowing he is right. Ruelle is letting out her stubbornness more and more and I am certain she is capable of doing something like that.
“Where is she headed? At least tell me you have the slightest idea why she did this”.
He looks up at me with wary and terrified eyes. “Alpha… I don’t—”
“Do not lie to me if you want to keep your head.” I cut him off with my face in his, my fist clutching his shirt and pulling him up. “I already know about the undercover stunt she pulled for the last brawl so tell me. Where is she going?”
“I’m not sure, Alpha. I swear. But I heard she was heading towards the North. She had seemed pretty shaken after hearing the news of what her father did in the last brawl”
It all comes crashing down on me like a ton of bricks. She KNOWS.
Ruelle knows that it was her father that sent the new set of warriors into the brawl and is trying to do something about it. I already knew she sent a guard to the brawl but I had no idea she had figured it out.
And now, with my baby in her womb and her own life at stake, she has decided to go to the North blindly, with no purpose or direction other than to speak to her father.
I don’t wait for another second to pass before storming out of my office. My feet starts out in a light jog towards the woods before breaking into a full sprint. My bones readjust mid run as I shift into my wolf, gaining more ground as my body flies past the trees.
I do not know how long I run for. Seconds turn to minutes and minutes to hours, but all I can think about is getting Ruelle back safe and sound.
I had stayed back to get as much information that I could on her whereabouts but now, I am wishing I had just went along with Carlos the first time. Knowing him, he must have successfully traced her exact location by now.
I should have known better than to expect Ruelle to just sit still in the wooden cabin throughout the brawl without at least attempting to make it out. I had assumed since I had intended to keep her in the dark about the brawl, then I didn’t have to worry about her doing anything funny.
I admit I may have underestimated her. It occurred to me the moment Vander brought it up and stunned me, only for me to confirm that it was in fact true and Ruelle had been monitoring the brawl through a guard she sent undercover.
I have to admit I had been quite moved by her immediate response which was to do something about the situation. But what Ruelle doesn’t know is that she is doing more harm than good by going to see her father. There is no guarantee at all that she is safe with him. Not after everything that has happened.
I do not stop for a single second until I can feel myself getting closer to Carlos and the other guards. Their scent carries in the wind, making it easier to locate them. But even when we reunite, I am disappointed to find that they still haven’t found her.
“She is gone to her father’s keep.” Carlos tells me immediately he sees me. I simply manage the chuck of my nuzzle to acknowledge his words.
My response is in form of telepathy.
“We need to make sure she doesn’t get there. Get her back here, now”. I tell him and immediately find my own path, sniffing the weeds to try to locate her scent. The one that I would literally recognize any and every where.
Ruelle was smart enough to not use the conventional route to the south, as it would have made it easier for people who are not us but still want to capture her, to do just that. Hence the difficulty in finding her. There is no telling where exactly she could be.
I must have been loping through the woods with my nuzzle sniffing the plants as I pass by for hours on end, because by the time I stop to take note of my surroundings again, I am nearly out of the woods already.
I am still yet to pick up on her scent, so I change route and repeat my routine of sniffing as I walk. It must have been an hour into the new route, because my nuzzle suddenly twitches as it picks up the familiar scent.
I am sprinting in the direction of the scent immediately, my heart pounding out of my chest.
I run and run till my legs start to give out beneath me, but even then I keep running. My ears are trained, body, mind and soul alert as I all but fly in the direction of the scent I picked. The scent only gets stronger as I run, which tells me I’m on the right track and makes me go faster.
I am almost at the edge of the woods when a piercing scream rings from behind the trees. So shrill that it sent birds flying from the trees. I skidded to a halt, my heart falling into my stomach and as I looked up, it seemed to be coming from the exact direction I am headed.