Alex

After I mind-linked Kyan, we met at his place. I told him what the girl had told me and he frowned.

"The borders? Why would she want to go there? Why would she leave the clinic at all?"

I shrugged, "I'm as confused as you are. She liked to go on walks to clear her head, so something was bothering her. But what? I had just seen her that morning and she seemed fine."

I paused, "Or maybe..."

I had left things rather awkwardly when I had left after telling her I was very happy to see her awake. Maybe she hadn't liked that I said that and that was what was bothering her. Is it possible that this was my fault?

"Maybe what?" he asked.

"Nothing. Let's get some guys and head to the borders. Maybe we'll find something."

So, Kyan got some of the guards and we headed to the borders. Of course, the borders extended round the whole pack so we had some work ahead of us.

Kyan took one end with some guards and I took the other.

It was hard work. There were a lot of scents and it had been a few days so even if Anaya had been at the very spot, her scent wouldn't be strong anymore.

After searching for a while, I decided to head home to change. I had been wearing the same clothes for almost three days now.
I mind-linked Kyan to let him know I would be back soon and went home.

When I got home, I saw my mother in the living room but I ignored her and went upstairs to do what I had come to do. At least, Selene and her parents were nowhere to be found.

When I came back downstairs, freshly showered and in clean clothes, she was still there.

I ignored her and headed to the door.

"Alexander," her voice was as hard as steel.

I sighed, "Yes, mother."

She stood up and walked towards me, "I have never been more embarrassed in my entire life than I was yesterday."

"New times for everything, I guess," I shrugged.

"I'm not joking with you, Alexander. Do you know how long that arrangement had been in place for? Do you know the good it would have done to both our packs? And you couldn't even show the slightest courtesy. Instead, you're running around looking for that rogue."

"She's my mate."

"You know I thought there was something special about her. Perhaps, there was something you could see but I couldn't. Then I went to see her at the clinic and find out she's the most boring girl alive. Wh-"

"You went to see her at the clinic?" my voice was deathly quiet and my mother started backing away.

"Very briefly," she stuttered.

"What did you say to her?"

"Alex, y-"

"What did you say to her?" I roared.

"I just told her about the wedding. Told her to stay away from you."

I looked at the woman in front of me with disgust. I was disgusted that this was the creature who had birthed me, whose blood I shared.

I shook my head and turned to leave.

"Alexander, she's destroying you, don't you see that? She's always in some trouble or the other and then you abandon the pack you're supposed to be leading for her. She's going to end you!"

"Let her," I said, before slamming the door shut behind me.

So, now we knew what was bothering Anaya. I knew my mother well enough to know that wasn't all she had said. Had Anaya really believed I would marry Selene? I was a bit disappointed at that. I thought we knew each other better than that by now.

I went back to searching the borders from where I had stopped. We searched into the late evening before deciding to stop and continue the next day. The guards were tired and needed to eat and rest.

I decided to stop by the clinic to see Tim. He was lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Hey."

He started a bit and I realised he hadn't heard me approaching.

"Alex, hey. Any news?"

I shook my head. There was never any news and we were all getting frustrated. It wasn't as if the girl had disappeared into thin air.

"It was all so preventable, you know?" he said, "If there was guard assigned to her, or if I hadn't been asleep. That's what bugs me, we could have prevented this."

I kept quiet. I had berated myself a thousand times too. Truth was, we could have prevented it. But we didn't and it's happened. So, instead of thinking about what we could have done. We had to find a way forward. To fix what had happened.

"Somebody said they ran into her that afternoon, she was taking a walk. Said she was heading to the borders. So Kyan and I and a few guards have been searching the borders all day. No luck."

Tim sat up straight, "The borders? And you have been searching everywhere?"

"Yeah."

"There's only one part of the borders that Anaya would be interested in. There's only one place she would go."

My eyes widened, "Well, let's go. Show us."

"We have to wait until morning. It's too dark, we might miss important evidence."

It was hard, but I had to admit he was right. The wait until morning was tedious for me, I didn't sleep a wink.

The sun had barely risen over the horizon before I was mind-linking Kyan and the guards and heading to the clinic to get Tim.

Tim led and we followed.

"This was where we had surveyed your pack from before raiding it. Also where Anaya had been captured when she came back to look for me."

When we got to the spot, it was obvious that he was right. Anaya had been there, her scent was strong. We walked around the area a bit, looking for more clues.

"Alpha!" one of the guards yelled, holding up a piece of plastic.

I took it from him and examined it, "It's a needle cap. This is definitely where she was taken."

My heart was pounding in my chest, this was more information than we had gotten since we started this search.

"Tim?"

Tim wasn't paying attention to us and was instead sniffing furiously. He walked away from us and we followed him until we got to another clearing. In the middle of which were some empty beer bottles. Tim picked up a bottle and sniffed it.

"Bolik," he said finally, "Bolik took my sister."