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.

When I reached the clearing again I slowed

“What are you doing?”

was back to where I was when I

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 went from but I know this

Sam looked back at the direction of our convoy

worst timing in the world, but if I don’t give this a chance—.” I didn’t dare finish the

“I know,” he said.

can catch on quickly,” I said. “I just need to know if

until nightfall,” he said

There was time, but not

quiet. Just in case

It just dawned on him as

tight here,”

“No one moves alone. That’s your own rule.”

looked in the direction I had

a trap?”

head. “I don’t know, but I

don’t make sense.”

frustration. “Go,” I

he was about to

“I said go,” I

wanted to defy me on this.

followed the scent. I took my phone out and waved it at him behind

the track. After a while, the smell got a little stronger and my

I covered a lot of ground and I was probably kilometers from my

which explained why I was catching on, the track being a few

was far in the woods and the mountain, it was hard to believe someone would travel here. A little further, there were some paths that would

of Sam resonated in

this is a trap?

away from civilization, from my men, from any resources or backup.

this, but my feet didn’t seem to connect with my mind. I kept

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

sun was not visible anymore, the orange glow slowly turning to

out

my wolf eyes, my vision was getting limited in

I knew it.

I suddenly stopped.

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

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

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 front of a fire in the dead of winter, of the silkiness of a woman’s skin on mine, and there she

barely visible at the edge of my vision, but I knew it was