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.

I reached the clearing again I slowed down.

you doing?”

where I

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

at the direction of our

world, but if I don’t give this a chance—.” I didn’t

he said.

said. “I just need to know if this leads somewhere.”

nightfall,” he

I looked too. There was time, but not that much.

I nodded. “Keep this quiet. Just in case it

own?” It just dawned on

“Keep things tight here,” I told

That’s your

the direction I had to go.

if it’s a

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

don’t make

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

was about to

go,” I insisted.

to defy me on this.

the scent. I took my phone out and waved it at him behind me. “We keep

while, the smell got a little stronger and my heart did a backflip. This was the direction she went

at the highest pace I could maintain in the wood. I covered a lot of ground and I was probably

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

believe someone would travel here. A little further, there were some paths that would be far easier to

word of Sam resonated

is a trap?

trying to get me away from civilization, from my

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

had been small, easy to cross, so why risk getting her feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same

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

was running out of time.

was getting limited in

I knew it.

I suddenly stopped.

at this pace, I would have sounded like an

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

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 front of a fire in the dead of winter, of

visible at the edge of my