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 was when I found her.

opposite side. “This is her track. I don’t know what direction she

at the direction of our

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

know,” he

“I just need to know if this leads

still time until nightfall,” he said looking at the sky.

looked too. There was time, but not that

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

going on your own?” It

tight here,” I

“No one moves alone. That’s

direction I had

it’s a trap?” he asked.

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

make sense.”

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

like he was about to argue.

go,” I

to defy me on this.

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

the smell got a little stronger and my heart

maintain in the wood. I covered a lot of ground and I was probably kilometers from

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

the mountain, it was hard to believe someone would travel here. A little further,

The word of Sam resonated in my head.

if this is a trap?

me away from civilization, from my

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

her feet wet far in the woods, otherwise? Then was she doing the same thing

anymore, the orange

running out of time.

my vision was getting limited in the thick forest.

was close, I knew it.

I suddenly

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 me,

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

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

at the edge of