Alpha Wyler
I had decided that it was easiest to train them while shifted. So they each got a turn trying to challenge me, each one came out failing but it wasn't about that – it was about breaking down their techniques and teaching them a better way to do things.
As the three hours neared a close in the morning session, Johnathan came jogging up, looking nervous to say the least. I turned my head toward him, still shifted as he stopped next to me.
“Caleb...” His laboured breathing made him hard to understand. “I need to speak with you.”
I couldn't communicate with him but I walked away from the group of males to a more private area.
“Liv... she's not in the Pack House. They don't know where she is.”
I shifted instantly. “What the fuck...” My lungs adjusted the sudden loss of air but I showed little affect, “...do you mean?”
Johnathan looked terrified to inform me with the next bit of information. “Silvermoon's territory has been searched for the past two hours, they've come up with nothing.”
“There was extra patrol out!” I barked. “And my brother is still missing. So you better get a fucking good search party out before I lose my shit!”
Johnathan stepped back and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Go!” I shouted at him. I glanced over my shoulder to the young males watching in silence, right before I shifted back into my wolf and bound into the woods. I wouldn't be depending on Silvermoon to find Olivia, I'd do it myself.
I got back on the territory two hours later and headed to my house to find Lara and question her. When I stepped in the back door, she was in the kitchen. The towels hadn't been restocked, likely because the patrol had been in and out of the house since Olivia's disappearance. I had several ways to handle this, none of which involved me freaking out and running around like an idiot. I had to figure out who had seen her last.
“Caleb...”
I looked up from reaching to grab a small blanket off a near couch as Lara walked over, her step faint and delicate.
“Lara, when did you last see Olivia?” I wrapped the blanket around my waist to get her eyes back up on me. When they did return to my face, I saw the guilt in her expression. She wasn't capable of hiding much from me, especially when I wanted a certain piece of information.
“Last night.” She turned to leave but I grabbed her wrist.
“When?”
“It was late. I made you brownies.” She stayed close, paralyzed from my touch.
I shifted closer to gain her full attention. “She's missing, Lara. I need to know everything, what did she last say to you?”
Lara's eyes wandered off me to the back door with a shake of her head. “We... talked about mint ice cream.”
My brow creased as I processed what the fuck that meant.
I almost shook her when I realized. “Did you tell her about us, Lara!”
She stared up at me wide eyed. “I thought she already knew.”
I growled, knowing Olivia's disappearance had nothing to do with my brother and that she'd just gotten so upset, she'd ran from me – again.
“Don't you leave here.” I let Lara go and stormed back toward the door.
“Caleb!” She ran after me and I paused to look back to her. “Be careful.” She reached for me but I stepped back, in no mood to be touched.
“Wait here. Do you understand?”
Lara nodded.
“Good. The other males will protect you while I'm gone.”
“Will you be back soon?”
That pissed me off. Any amount of questioning generally pissed me off but that really did. “I don't know, I'm going to look for my mate, Lara.” I walked out the backdoor, telling her to stay at the house as I dropped the blanket to shift. Lara had watched the whole thing and stayed in the window as I bound into the woods, searching for a scent or disturbed bush. I soon found a patch of pulled out hair and a broken tree limb. It was Olivia. Without a doubt.
I set out after the trail. How none of the patrol had seen it, baffled me but I didn't have time to sit and dwell. Knowing Olivia, she'd run- unprepared for any condition. I came to the lake's edge and it was a dead end, even for my nose. The lake was surrounded by cliff face and worse, rough waters at times. It wasn't an easy swim but the cliff's were a worse option to get off the territory. If she'd swam, there was so way she'd have made it, or maybe I doubted her stamina, but she didn't carry a lot of muscle to begin with. I didn't want to think about her swimming it, because it hurt and churned my insides so bad I may throw up.
I needed to search any and all beaches. So I started. Following no scent as I moved off Silvermoon territory, onto mountain cliff side edges and finally, back onto a rock beach, where a soft scent caught my attention. Followed by the shallow breaths of my mate.
Her crumpled up figure on the beach about half a mile away had me sprinting. I came to a stop, throwing debris over her shivering and basically, lifeless body.
There wasn't a word to describe what I felt, but most of it was just panic. I fell out of the shift and grabbed her off the cold log. She was freezing, naked, blue around the lips, and her skin pale and sickly. Pulling her into my arms, she shivered into a slightly awakened state, her eyes only slits as she breathed my name. I had no fucking options but an old fishing cabin not far from where we were. At least there I could get her warm. A perk of being Alpha, knowing where every building the pack owned was located. I walked for over two miles in bare feet, while Olivia whimpered in my arms. Thank God it was early summer. we had the mild temperatures working on our side but she was cold, on every inch of her body.
When I got her inside the old cabin, I put her down in the flannel and down filled comforters. The cleaning staff regularly took care of this cabin, so I trusted my mate wouldn't be laying on mice or whatever else might be living in the woods. There was a night’s worth of pine to burn and some coffee in the humble kitchenette. I got to heating the cabin and covered Olivia on the nearby bed with quilts, but I knew nothing would warm her unless I got into the bed with her.
The fire crackled across the room as I cuddled in around her. “Olivia?”
She opened her eyes as I took her cheek. “Caleb...”
“Jesus.” I kissed her cold, tender lips. She moved closer to me, her body succumbing to a tired state again. I woke her again, she needed fluids, water or warm water... I got out of the bed.
“Olivia, why did you run off?”
She couldn't hold a conversation though. It would prove to be a long night, I got some fluids into her but overall, she'd stayed sleeping but warm next to me in the sheets.
I wondered why Silvermoon hadn't located us yet, but obviously my pack was more incompetent then I could have imagined.
She woke in the middle of the night, fumbling out of bed in a fright and landing on her side.
“Olivia.” I mumbled out of my sleep as she laid on the floor of the cabin, the flames from the fire casting the only light.
She swallowed, getting off the ground. “What happened?” She was in tears and I got out of bed quickly to console her.
“You swam across the lake and almost killed yourself.”
She stared up at me in shock, blinking and backing away as she collided with a chair at the two person table. Though she steadied herself, she looked to be about to buckle over once again.
I walked to her but she scurried back again. “What are you doing? Get back in bed. You're weak.”
She shook her head, and I saw the fire building in her eyes. “Don't touch me.”
“Olivia, you're not in your right mind, lie down on the bed.” I approached her and she came out of nowhere to defend herself, sending a slap across the side of my face. I wished the sting hurt more than the anger that she'd erupted within me and she shouted, like a cherry on top, “You should have left me to die... I'm rejecting you!”