A Blood-Like Rain

— Kaden —

I began to panic.

We were heading to battle, but I smelled my mate. I smelled my mate!

I tried to track the direction the smell came from but it was so faint I could hardly notice it. I moved in circles half in a daze. I found a line, a line she must have been traveling, but I couldn’t tell which way she came from and which way she was going. And I tried to sniff both ways to see which seemed the strongest, the freshest.

Sam noticed my change in behaviour and got closer. When I noticed him, I raised my hand to make him stop. I was afraid his sheer presence would make me lose her scent.

It wasn’t completely irrational either as my own scent on her tracks was enough to nearly destroy what little clue I had.

I went in further.

I followed one side of the track all the way to a small stream, then I lost her. I checked all over, on the other side, everywhere. The track ended here. My best guess was she walked in the stream for a while, the water masking her scent.

I didn’t realize I had bolted in that direction, until I heard Sam running to catch up.

We were far now. The noise of my men, faint in the distance.

“What is it?” asked Sam worried.

“I found her,” I said in desperation. “I lost her.”

“Who?” he asked confused.

“My bloody mate.”

“Fuck! Now?”

“Yeah.”

“This is not a good time for this.”

“I know,” I growled in frustration.

I walked for a while, following the stream. I still couldn’t pick up her scent, so I stop.

“What now?” asked Sam.

“I go the other way,” I said.

I went back on my track. It was easier to go by the scent I just left than try and pick hers again. I went at a dead run, Sam could barely keep up.

the clearing again I slowed down.

are you doing?”

was back to where I was when I found her.

I said, drawing an imaginary line in the air with my finger, going from where we just came from to the opposite side. “This is her track. I don’t know what direction she

looked back at the direction of our convoy

I said. “It’s the worst timing in the world, but if

know,” he said.

said. “I just need to know if this

nodded. “There is still time until nightfall,”

There was time, but not that

quiet. Just in case it leads nowhere.”

on your own?” It just dawned on him

“Keep things tight here,” I told

moves alone. That’s your

looked in the direction I had to

it’s a

head. “I don’t know, but I think I need to do this on my

don’t make sense.”

“I know,” I said in frustration. “Go,” I told him.

like he was about

go,” I insisted.

looked like he wanted to defy me on this.

waved it at him behind me. “We keep in touch.” And I

gained pace as I followed the track. After a while, the smell got a little

at the highest pace I could maintain in the wood. I covered a lot of

her smell and my pace, she was probably walking, which explained why I was catching on, the track

a well-traveled path. I was far in the woods and the mountain, it was hard to believe someone would travel here. A little further, there

Sam resonated in

if this is a trap?

Was someone trying to get me away from civilization, from my men, from

didn’t

so why risk getting her feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same thing here? Would I lose her smell again? The tracks were probably minutes old at best now. Would I lose her now

anymore, the orange glow

running out of

wolf eyes, my vision was getting limited in the thick

I knew

I suddenly

scent, she didn’t expect to meet someone so far in the forest. I had run relatively silently, but at this pace, I would have sounded like an elephant to anyone with heightened senses. I slowed my trek to a walk, silent, undetectable. The wind was coming from behind

the wind pick up speed, and I smelled her

a child, of the feeling of strawberry juices running on your tongue, of a stormy night of April, of a warm blanket in front of a fire in the dead of winter, of the silkiness of a woman’s skin

of my vision, but I knew