21

Tawna, if you can hear me, then come back, come home to your pack. It’s not safe out there.

I home in on Tawna’s image in the hopes it reaches her mind link but it’s not something I do often as Colton is so much better at pack linking. Colton stares at me for a second, obviously he heard me, as my mate he can sometimes tap into my mind links involuntarily when we’re this close in contact.

Tawna, I command you to turn around and head back to the homestead and safety. Right now. Colton alpha tones her, cutting into my head and taking over himself, sending out the link and I cross my fingers in hopes that she hears this. No wolf can deny or resist the alpha tone. It’s the whole point. To command unruly or defiant in your pack against their will so you can regain order and control. She can’t disobey him if she hears him.

“Do you think it will work? What if she closed her link off so nothing gets in?” my questions are quieted by the shrill voice that comes at us from the open homestead door. A familiar haughty tone only it’s pitched in terror and higher than normal and I flinch at his appearance.

“Where is she?….. I couldn’t find her…. She’s not in her room, or in the house. Colton why did you tell me to come down here?... Do you know where she is?” Carmen is already in a state of hysteria, tears streaming down her face, not seeming to care who sees them and we are blinded by the sudden illumination of the whole front sweeping drive and tree line as guards switch on our floodlighting. The patrols are streaming in from the village, the homestead, and every nook and cranny around as they gather together as a thrown together chaotic search party.

I move to Carmen at the door in a flash, instinctively going to her, and pull her into my arms, wiping her face and shooshing her as I cradle her in a hug. She doesn’t fight me, her body is trembling, her attention fully on the void of her mother’s presence and she let’s me hold her up without any kind f resistance. Her body is cold, her posture is weak, and her eyes are fixed on Colton as though begging him for answers that she knows he doesn’t have.

“We’re going to find her…. Try and be calm. Let us get out there and look. She can’t have gotten far.” I soothe with a gentle tone holding her as best I can even though she doesn’t hug me back. Carmen sags in my hold and seems to crumble completely, turning to a whimper as the tears fall freely.

“I knew…. deep down, I knew she would try this.”

Assembled are all of our strongest males, and a few femmes, the sub pack too as they come in from the forest where they had been out walking the perimeter before dawn.

“We didn’t see her leave, are you sure, Cole?” Meadow interrupts as she strolls into the center of the group and stands by Colton’s side. Straight to command mode and all emotion pushed aside when she has a task. Colton nods and taps his head as if to tell her he had a vision and Meadows face pales out much the same way his did. I can tell he’s linking her with details and her expression says it all.

“Okay, I’ll take three of our sub packs and spread on the left and backside of the stead, you take the rest and spread right and front. Even if you know which direction she took, she might have veered….. or…” She doesn’t add ‘has been chased’ to the end, glancing at Carmen warily and then looking away fast as she waves her hand at the nearest wolves. They jump to attention and silently rally to whatever command her hand gesture gave.

Colton pats Meadow on the back as if in agreement and then turns and links the several packs he’s choosing for his own search party via the open pack link, so we all hear him. This is urgent and he’s wasting no time and no number of bodies. He’s rallying all who are capable, and I know it’s because he fears time is of the essence. They split almost instantly as half the crowd moves with Meds and the rest with Colton and they all fan out and head into the woods at hyper speed.

“Come on. Let’s stick with Colton and we’ll help. More eyes.” I brush Carmen’s hair back and release her from my hold, instead taking her hand and pull her with me out into the clearing. She lets me guide her like a vulnerable child needing guidance, and for a moment I wonder if this is the same girl from earlier, the same Carmen who doesn’t show weakness. I shove it out of my head, focus on being her rock and speed to catch up with Colton.

As I have no shoes on I have to turn my feet to wolf to save myself from injury and ignore the fact I’m out here in a silk dress and a short towel robe, while everyone else is fully dressed. It doesn’t really matter I guess, given any hint of danger I’ll shred these with a turn so it’s probably a blessing I didn’t get dressed. We lose too many clothes that way.

We catch up with Colton just inside the permitter of the frequency border and he halts, sensing us behind him and turns to me. His eyes amber glowing, his claws already engaged in case we hit trouble. He looks wild, poised to fight, and yet I still can’t shake seeing that deep fear in the depths of his beautiful eyes under furrowed brows and stress lines etched on his face. He thinks we’re not going to get to her in time and I can feel it in his emotions.

“Stay right with me. No more than four feet away, okay? No matter what. We’re fanning out six feet apart and walking a wave around the whole stead… We’ll find her, we have to… Sun isn’t up for an hour yet, it’s not safe here.” Colton beckons us with hushed tones and turns to lead the way as we join the search. His head fully engaged in the task and taking control like the Alpha I love. I seem to be the only one who recognizes he’s not as confident and assured as he seems, that his aura is bleeding, and he’s genuinely is afraid of what we might find out here.

Even at speed, the pack moving as one swift line, checking every fallen log, cave, nook and cranny, and heading further into the deep dark forest, we still see no sign of her, and I start to wonder if she’s really out here. Glancing from wolves in the trees around us, to the back of Colton’s strong body as we push on beyond our safety net of the frequency and shudder as another wave of revulsion overtakes me.

This is the third time since walking beyond the line, that a deep well of nausea and cringe consumes me wholly, and this time I gasp inwardly as I am sucker punched low down at a strange smell that makes me giddy with memories. The almost stinging, astringent whiff of something awful yet outwith my grasp of memory as a familiar thing. My eyes water with the intensity of it’s odor and I have to pull myself stiff to stop my body from crumbling as I stagger over a fallen log. It’s like the smell alone has hit some deep unwanted thought and made my body react like I’m in trauma. I feel weak instantly, my limbs loosening as dizziness moves in and I become aware that I have let go of Carmen fully.

Colton? …. I blanche and mind link via our mate bond only, the fear rippling over my spine as I figure out what the strong metallic and awful smell is that’s engorging my senses and leaving me hyper aware as one sickly vision clouds my sight. A dark terrifying night when I was clinging onto life by a thread and all the people, everyone I had known, were ripped to shreds around me. I almost vomit with the return of that scene in my mind’s eye, my body shuddering in revulsion and pain as my broken heart rips at old scars and tears well up in my eyes.

Wolf blood smells different to most other things in nature, and dead wolf is the most unique of all. It’s like the second our life essence drains it leaves the red fluid rancid and potent so no animals will come and try to feast on remains. It’s the smell of death, of repulsion and awful things, from the night of the courtyard when vampires almost killed me.