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.

reached the clearing again I

you doing?”

I was back to where I was when I found her.

going from where we just came from to the opposite side. “This is her track. I don’t know what direction

of our convoy then back at me,

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

“I know,” he

said. “I just need to know if

nightfall,” he

time,

nodded. “Keep this quiet. Just in case it leads nowhere.”

“You’re going on your own?” It just dawned on him as I

things tight here,” I told

moves alone. That’s your own rule.”

direction

it’s a trap?” he asked.

“I—.” I hesitated. I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I

don’t make sense.”

in frustration. “Go,”

he was about to argue.

said go,”

to

took my phone out and waved it at him behind me. “We keep in touch.” And I disappeared through the brush.

a little stronger and my heart

running at the highest pace I could maintain in the wood. I covered a lot of ground and I was probably kilometers from my men

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

was not 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 were some paths

resonated

is

to get me away from civilization, from my men,

should slow down, think about this, but my feet didn’t seem

walked deliberately into the water to erase her tracks? The stream had been small, easy to cross, so why risk getting her feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same thing

the orange glow

I was running out of time.

wolf eyes, my vision was getting limited in the thick forest.

close, I knew it.

suddenly

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 me, no one would

cleared, the wind pick up speed, and I smelled her just before I

playing in the dead colourful maple leaf on the autumn ground as a child, of the feeling of strawberry juices running on your tongue, of a stormy night of April, of a warm blanket in

of my vision, but I knew