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 slowed down.

you doing?”

was back to where I was when I found her.

her track. I don’t know what direction she went from but I know this side leads nowhere.” I pointed at where we went. “Which means this is my

at the direction of our convoy then back at me,

worst timing in the world, but if I don’t give this a

know,” he said.

on quickly,” I said. “I just need to know if this leads

is still time until nightfall,” he said looking at

too. There was time,

Just in case it leads

“Wait…” he said. “You’re going on your own?” It just

tight here,” I told him.

moves alone. That’s

I looked in the direction

if it’s a trap?” he asked.

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

“You don’t make sense.”

frustration. “Go,” I told him.

he was about to argue.

go,” I insisted.

wanted to defy

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

smell got a little stronger and my heart did a backflip.

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

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

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

resonated in

if this is a trap?

me away from civilization, from my men, from any resources

feet didn’t seem to connect with

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

the orange glow slowly

out of time.

eyes, my vision was getting limited in the thick

I was close, I

suddenly

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,

As I got closer to the river, the forest cleared, the wind pick

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

of my vision, but I knew it was her.